Refund Policy

Overview

This policy explains when you can get a refund on a custom software project payment, the small-business website setup fee, the monthly hosting fee, or add-ons, and how to ask for one.

This is separate from cancelling an engagement, cancelling stops future billing or future work; a refund returns money you've already paid. See Cancelling vs. refunding below.

Custom software projects

Before work begins: a full refund of any initial commitment or deposit, no questions asked, if you change your mind before we've begun discovery or development work.

Once work has begun: the initial commitment becomes non-refundable, since it covers the time and work already committed to your project. If a project is cancelled partway through, you remain responsible for milestones already delivered and accepted, and for work genuinely in progress at the time of cancellation. Any amount paid in advance beyond that will be reconciled with you in good faith.

Milestone payments are billed for work completed and reviewed at that stage, and are non-refundable once that milestone has been delivered and accepted. If you believe a delivered milestone genuinely didn't meet what was agreed in the proposal, talk to us first, see How to request a refund.

Standalone discovery or prototyping phases follow the same principle: refundable in full before the engagement begins, non-refundable once underway, since the agreed findings, workflow maps or prototype are delivered as their own body of work regardless of whether a further project follows.

Small-business website setup fee

• Before we start building: full refund, no questions asked, if you change your mind before we've begun work on your site.
• Once we've started building: the setup fee becomes non-refundable, since it covers the time and work already put into your site. We'll always tell you before we begin, and if something's wrong with the build itself, talk to us first, see How to request a refund.

Small-business monthly fee

The monthly fee covers hosting, domain, email, and support for that billing period, so it isn't refunded once it's been charged, even if you cancel partway through the month. Your site and email will simply stay live until the end of the period you've already paid for.

If you're charged in error, for example, billed after you'd already cancelled, we'll refund that charge in full.

Add-ons

One-off add-ons (like a booking/calendar module or analytics setup) follow the same rule as the relevant setup fee: refundable if we haven't started the work yet, non-refundable once we have. Recurring add-ons (like an extra mailbox) follow the same rule as the monthly fee.

How to request a refund

Message us on WhatsApp or email hello@cybernaut.studio, tell us what you'd like refunded and why, and we'll take it from there. If something about the project or the service genuinely didn't meet what was promised, we'll always try to make it right first, whether that's a fix or a refund.

Processing time

Approved refunds for small-business subscriptions are processed back to your original payment method through PayFast, typically within 5–10 business days, depending on your bank. Refunds relating to custom project invoices are processed by EFT to the account the original payment was made from, within the same timeframe.

Cancelling vs. refunding

Cancelling is free and available at any time, see our Terms & Conditions. A refund is different: it's money back for a charge that's already gone through, and it's handled case by case as described above.

Contact

Cybernaut Studio (Pty) Ltd
Email: hello@cybernaut.studio
WhatsApp: +27 68 631 2178(opens in a new tab)
Johannesburg, South Africa