Refund & Cancellation Policy

1. Scope

This policy applies to all services supplied by YAKAMI GLOBAL ("we", "us") to business clients ("you") and forms part of our Terms of Service. Where a signed Statement of Work (SOW) contains different cancellation or refund terms, the SOW prevails for that engagement.

Our services are provided exclusively to businesses. The statutory 14-day cooling-off period under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 does not apply to business-to-business contracts.

All cancellation notices must be sent in writing to contact@yakamiglobal.com by an authorised representative of your organisation. Notice takes effect on the Business Day it is received (or the next Business Day if received after 18:00 UK time).

2. Hourly technical consulting (£75 – £120 / hour)

• Scheduled sessions may be cancelled or rescheduled free of charge with at least 24 hours' notice.
• Sessions cancelled with less than 24 hours' notice, or missed without notice, may be charged at one hour at the agreed rate.
• Hours are billed monthly in arrears against timesheets, so there is nothing to refund for undelivered time.
• Where you have pre-purchased a block of hours, any unused hours are refunded in full on request, at the rate paid, within 14 days of your written request.

3. Dedicated sprint / project delivery (from £2,500 / milestone)

• You may cancel a project SOW, or any future milestone, at any time by written notice.
• On cancellation you pay only for: (a) milestones already accepted; (b) work performed on the milestone in progress, calculated on a time-and-materials basis at the hourly rate stated in the SOW, capped at that milestone's fee; and (c) third-party costs you approved that cannot be cancelled.
• Any mobilisation fee or prepayment exceeding these amounts is refunded within 14 days.
• All work in progress that you have paid for is handed over to you, together with the related intellectual property, in accordance with section 8 of our Terms of Service.

4. Monthly DevOps & maintenance retainers (£1,200 – £3,500 / month)

• Retainers run on a rolling monthly basis with a 30-day written notice period, unless the SOW specifies a minimum term.
• Retainer fees are invoiced monthly in advance. Fees for the month in which notice expires are payable in full and services continue until the end of the notice period.
• Where you have paid for a service month that falls wholly after the notice period ends, that payment is refunded in full.
• If we materially fail to provide retainer services in a month, for reasons within our control, you are entitled to a pro-rata refund for the affected period in addition to any SLA service credits.
• At the end of a retainer, we provide a handover pack including credentials, infrastructure documentation and runbooks.

5. Milestone acceptance criteria

Every milestone in a project SOW includes objective, testable acceptance criteria agreed before work begins, for example: specified features working as described in the agreed specification; automated test suites passing; deployment to an agreed environment; and delivery of technical documentation.

1. Submission: we notify you in writing when a milestone is ready for review, with release notes and access to a test environment.
2. Review period: you have 5 Business Days to test the milestone against its acceptance criteria.
3. Acceptance: you confirm acceptance in writing (email is sufficient), and the milestone is invoiced.
4. Rejection: if the milestone does not meet its criteria, you send a written list of the specific criteria not met. We correct these at no additional cost and resubmit, normally within 10 Business Days.
5. Deemed acceptance: a milestone is deemed accepted if no response is received within the review period, or if it is used in live production other than for testing.
6. Warranty: accepted milestones carry a 30-day defect warranty, during which non-conformities are fixed free of charge.

Requests for features or changes outside the agreed criteria are handled as change requests under our change control process and do not constitute grounds for rejection.

6. Refund eligibility

You are entitled to a refund in the following circumstances:

• Failed milestone: if a milestone still does not meet its acceptance criteria after two correction rounds, you may cancel that milestone and receive a full refund of any amount paid for it.
• Unused prepayments: any prepaid hours, mobilisation fees or retainer months that have not been used or earned at the date of cancellation.
• Our cancellation: where we cancel an engagement for reasons other than your breach (see section 9).
• Billing errors: any overpayment or duplicate payment is refunded in full as soon as it is identified.

7. Non-refundable items

• Milestones that have been accepted or deemed accepted.
• Consulting hours already delivered.
• Retainer fees for service months already provided.
• Approved third-party costs such as software licences, cloud hosting, domains or certificates purchased on your behalf, unless the third party itself issues a refund, which we pass on in full.

8. How refunds are paid

• Approved refunds are paid within 14 days of written confirmation.
• Refunds are returned using the original payment method: bank transfers are refunded to the originating corporate bank account, and card payments are refunded through the original merchant gateway.
• Refunds are made in the currency of the original invoice (GBP, EUR or USD). We do not cover exchange-rate differences or charges imposed by your bank.
• A credit note is issued for every refund, with VAT adjusted where applicable.

If you have a concern about a payment, please contact billing@yakamiglobal.com before raising a chargeback or payment dispute with your bank or card issuer. We aim to resolve all billing queries within 5 Business Days.

9. Cancellation by YAKAMI GLOBAL

We may suspend or cancel an engagement if invoices remain unpaid seven days after a written overdue notice, if you materially breach our Terms of Service, or if continuing would breach the law or applicable sanctions. If we cancel for any other reason, we will give at least 30 days' written notice, refund all amounts paid for work not yet delivered, and provide reasonable handover assistance free of charge.

10. Dispute resolution

We aim to resolve any disagreement quickly and fairly through the following stages:

1. Raise the issue: email contact@yakamiglobal.com with the subject "Dispute Notice", describing the issue, the affected invoice or milestone and the outcome you are seeking. We acknowledge within 2 Business Days.
2. Project-level review: your project contact and our engagement lead meet within 5 Business Days to resolve the matter.
3. Director escalation: if unresolved, the matter is escalated to a director of YAKAMI GLOBAL and a senior representative of your organisation, who will meet within 10 Business Days.
4. Mediation: if still unresolved, either party may refer the dispute to mediation through the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR), with costs shared equally.
5. Courts: if mediation fails, the dispute is resolved by the courts of England and Wales under English law.

Undisputed amounts remain payable on their due dates while a dispute is being resolved. Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking urgent injunctive relief.

11. Contact

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