Refund & Cancellation Policy

This policy sets out when fees are refundable, how to cancel, and how billing disputes are handled. It forms part of our Terms of Service. Where a signed statement of work says something different, that document takes precedence.

1. The Principle

We charge for work performed. If we have not done the work, you should not pay for it — and if you have already paid, you get it back. If we have done the work and delivered it to the agreed specification, it is payable. Everything below follows from that.

2. Fixed-Price Entry Engagements

Discovery sprints, scoping sprints, audits, pilots, and per-style apparel work.

• Before work begins: cancel at any time before the kick-off session for a full refund, no questions asked.
• After work begins: you may stop at any point. We invoice for work completed to that date and refund the balance. You keep everything produced up to that point.
• On completion: if the delivered work does not match what was agreed in writing, tell us within 14 days. We will correct it at our cost. If we cannot bring it to the agreed specification, we refund the fee for the deficient portion.

3. Fixed-Scope Builds

• Billed at milestones. Each milestone is payable when its deliverables are accepted.
• Termination for convenience: you may terminate on 14 days' written notice. You pay for work completed and accepted, for work in progress in the current milestone on a pro-rata basis, and for any non-cancellable third-party commitments we made on your behalf with your approval. Any remaining prepaid balance is refunded within 30 days.
• Acceptance: you have 10 business days from delivery of a milestone to raise a written non-conformity. We fix conformity defects at our cost. Milestones not disputed within that window are treated as accepted.
• Deposits: where a deposit secures a start date, it is credited in full against the first milestone. It is refundable up to 14 days before the agreed start date, after which it is non-refundable because we have reserved and turned away other work.

4. Retainers and Monthly Team Engagements

• Billed monthly in advance, running for the minimum term stated in the order and then on a rolling basis.
• Cancel with 30 days' written notice, expiring at the end of a billing month. The final month is payable in full and is not pro-rated, because the capacity was reserved for you.
• Unused retainer hours do not roll over beyond one month, and are not refundable in cash. We will tell you before the end of a month if your allocation is going unused so you can make use of it.
• Terminating within a minimum term requires payment of the remaining months of that term, unless we have materially breached the agreement.

5. Recruitment Fees

• Contingent search: no fee is payable unless a candidate we introduced accepts an offer and starts. Invoiced on the start date, payable within 14 days.
• Replacement guarantee: if a permanent placement leaves voluntarily or is terminated for performance within the guarantee period stated in your terms of business, we run the search again at no additional fee. This applies once per placement and requires your account to be settled.
• Refund alternative: where you do not want a replacement, we refund on a sliding scale by reference to when the placement ended within the guarantee period, as set out in your terms of business.
• Retained search: billed in three stages. The engagement stage is non-refundable once search work has commenced. Later stages are refundable if we fail to deliver the agreed shortlist.

6. Apparel and Production Work

• Design and tech pack fees follow the entry engagement rules in section 2.
• Additional revision rounds beyond those included are quoted and approved before work starts, and are payable once delivered.
• Sampling, fabric, trim, and production costs are non-refundable once committed to a supplier, because those funds leave our hands. We will always tell you the point of no return before we place an order.
• Where a sample does not match an approved tech pack because of our specification error, we correct the specification and cover the cost of the corrected sample.

7. What Is Not Refundable

• Work correctly delivered to an agreed written specification.
• Third-party costs already incurred with your approval — licences, cloud usage, AI model usage, advertising spend, fabric, sampling, or manufacturing.
• Fees for a phase you chose to stop after, where the deliverables for that phase were provided.
• Delays or costs caused by your own dependencies — late approvals, unavailable data, or unavailable decision-makers.
• Dissatisfaction with a commercial outcome we did not warrant. We warrant the quality of our work, not that a market will respond to it.

8. How to Cancel or Request a Refund

Email hello@etradersgroup.online with your engagement reference and what you would like to happen. We acknowledge within 2 business days and give a substantive decision within 10 business days. Approved refunds are returned by the original payment method within 30 days — card refunds via Stripe usually clear in 5 to 10 business days depending on your bank.

9. Billing Disputes and Chargebacks

If you think an invoice is wrong, tell us within 30 days and we will investigate and respond within 10 business days. Please talk to us before raising a chargeback with your bank — it is faster for you and lets us fix genuine errors directly. Where a chargeback is raised for an amount properly due, you remain liable for that amount plus any fees the payment processor charges us.

10. If We Are at Fault

If we materially breach our agreement and do not fix it within 14 days of your written notice, you may terminate immediately and we will refund all prepaid fees for work not yet performed, with no notice period and no deduction. We would rather resolve it, but the option is yours.