Refund and Cancellation Policy

Effective: [[POLICY_EFFECTIVE_DATE]] · Version: 2.0 · Owner: Finance & Compliance · Approval to depart from this policy: Director only

This policy is drafted to protect Akontec's position. It is reproduced in every proposal and incorporated by reference into every SOW and MSA. Where a signed SOW states different terms, the SOW governs — which is why nothing in a SOW should be softer than this page without Director approval.

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1. The governing rule

Fees paid to Akontec are non-refundable once the engagement has commenced.

Refund is available in one situation only: Akontec fails to commence the engagement at all. Nothing else creates a refund entitlement.

Once an engagement is live — meaning any of the commencement events in clause 3 has occurred — no refund arises under any circumstance, including cancellation by the Client, change of the Client's business plans, change of the Client's management or ownership, loss of the Client's own funding or customer, dissatisfaction with commercial outcomes, or a decision to move the work elsewhere.

2. Why this is the rule

Akontec commits cost before a client sees output: seats reserved, agents recruited and trained, telephony and systems provisioned, partner capacity blocked, engineering time allocated, campaign infrastructure built. That cost is irrecoverable and is incurred on the strength of the Client's commitment. A client who cancels after commencement has consumed capacity that was withheld from other clients. The fee reflects that reservation, not merely the hours visible to the Client.

(This clause exists to be read out. A policy a client understands the reason for is disputed far less often than one that simply says no.)

3. Commencement — when the no-refund position takes effect

The engagement is commenced, and all fees become non-refundable, on the earliest of:

#	Commencement event
1	Akontec allocates or reserves seats, capacity or a delivery partner to the Client's campaign
2	Recruitment, sourcing or hiring begins against the Client's requirement
3	Training, script writing or process documentation begins
4	Telephony, systems, licences, environments or infrastructure are provisioned or ordered
5	Discovery, requirement-gathering or specification work begins
6	Design, development or configuration work begins
7	Any third-party cost is incurred or committed on the Client's behalf
8	Any deliverable, draft, plan, wireframe, specification or report is issued to the Client
9	Any campaign, deployment, subscription or account is activated
10	10 working days elapse from the SOW effective date, whichever of the above has occurred

Commencement is not the go-live date. It is the point at which Akontec starts spending on the Client's engagement, which is substantially earlier. Clients are told this at proposal stage and it is stated in the SOW.

Akontec's internal records — allocation notes, requisitions, provisioning records, timesheets, partner instructions, third-party invoices — are conclusive evidence of commencement.

4. The single refund case: failure to commence

A refund arises only where all of the following are true:

1. The Client has paid in full or in part;
2. Akontec has not commenced under any limb of clause 3;
3. The failure to commence is attributable solely to Akontec, and not in any part to the Client, the Client's inputs, approvals, access, information, dependencies, or delays; and
4. The Client has given Akontec 30 days' written notice of the failure and Akontec has not commenced within that period.

Where all four are met, Akontec refunds the amount paid less:

• any third-party, statutory, government or licence cost incurred or committed;
• documented out-of-pocket expenditure;
• a mobilisation and administration retention of [[REFUND_ADMIN_RETENTION]] of the amount paid; and
• applicable taxes already remitted to the authorities, which are not recoverable by Akontec.

There is no other route to a refund under this policy.

5. Non-refundable in every case

The following are non-refundable from the moment of receipt, irrespective of commencement, cancellation or outcome:

Category	Includes
Mobilisation and onboarding fee	Charged as an earned fee for securing and reserving capacity. Earned on receipt, not on delivery
Setup, implementation and configuration fees	Platform setup, AI deployment configuration, CRM implementation, campaign build
Recruitment and training cost	Sourcing, screening, assessment, training and certification against the Client's requirement
Third-party pass-through	Ad spend placed, software licences, telephony, domains, hosting, data, tools
Government and statutory fees	Registration fees, filing fees, licence fees paid on the Client's behalf
Taxes already remitted	GST and other taxes paid to the authorities
Delivered work	Any deliverable issued, whether or not the Client used it
Accepted milestones	Including those accepted by deemed acceptance under clause 7
Notice-period charges	Seats and services billed through the notice period
Discounts already given	Any discount granted for a term commitment is reversed and becomes payable if the term is not served

6. Cancellation by the Client

Cancellation does not create a refund. It terminates future obligations only.

Engagement	Notice required	Client remains liable for
BPO staffed operations	60 days written	All seats and charges to the end of the notice period, in full, whether or not the Client uses the capacity · all mobilisation, recruitment and training cost incurred · partner ramp cost committed
Digital marketing retainer	30 days written	The current month in full and the notice period in full · ad spend placed · any minimum-term balance
Software and CRM development	30 days written	All milestones delivered or in progress in full · all committed third-party cost · the balance of the current sprint or milestone
AI deployment	30 days written	Setup and configuration in full · the notice period · committed platform and usage cost
SaaS subscription — monthly	Before the next renewal date	The current month in full. No pro-rata
SaaS subscription — annual	Any time	The full annual fee. No pro-rata refund of unused months
AMC and support contracts	30 days written	The full contract period. AMC is an availability commitment, not a usage-based charge
Professional services and consulting	30 days written	All work performed and the notice period
Recruitment	On withdrawal of the requisition	Work performed to date at the standard rate. Where a candidate has been offered, the fee is payable in full

Minimum terms are enforceable. Where an engagement carries a minimum term, cancellation before the end of that term makes the balance of the term immediately due as a debt, not as a penalty.

7. Deemed acceptance

A deliverable is deemed accepted, and becomes non-refundable, if the Client does not issue a written defect list within 7 working days of delivery. Use of a deliverable in the Client's business constitutes acceptance regardless of the period elapsed.

8. Outcomes are not a refund ground

Akontec sells defined scope, defined activity and defined deliverables. It does not sell business outcomes, and no proposal, contract or communication states otherwise (27_Guardrails/02_Allowed_Promises.md).

Accordingly, no refund arises because:

• leads, conversions, sales, revenue or ROI fell below the Client's expectation;
• rankings, traffic, reach or engagement did not reach a level the Client hoped for;
• the Client's own market, funding, product or customer situation changed;
• the Client's internal team did not act on leads, outputs or recommendations delivered;
• the Client changed strategy, priorities, management or ownership;
• a third party engaged by the Client produced a conflicting result;
• the Client is dissatisfied with a result that nonetheless meets the SOW.

9. Client-caused delay and non-performance

Where delay or non-performance arises wholly or partly from the Client — inputs, approvals, access, credentials, content, data, decisions, payment, or the availability of the Client's people — no refund, credit or fee reduction arises, charges continue to accrue, and any timeline commitment by Akontec is suspended for the duration of the delay plus a reasonable remobilisation period.

10. Suspension and termination for non-payment or breach

Where Akontec suspends or terminates for the Client's non-payment or breach, no refund of any kind arises, all accrued and committed charges become immediately payable, and any discount granted for a term commitment is reversed and becomes payable.

11. SLA remedies are credits, not refunds

Where an SLA is missed and the SOW provides a remedy, the sole and exclusive remedy is a service credit against the next invoice, capped as stated in the SOW. Service credits:

• are not payable in cash under any circumstance;
• do not accrue after the engagement ends and expire on termination;
• are not transferable;
• must be claimed in writing within 30 days of the period in which the SLA was missed, after which the claim lapses;
• are the Client's only remedy for a missed SLA, in place of any claim for damages, loss of profit or refund.

12. Force majeure

No refund arises where performance is prevented or delayed by an event outside Akontec's reasonable control, including power or telecom failure, internet or platform outage, government or regulatory action, epidemic, natural disaster, civil disruption, strike, or the failure of a third-party supplier. Charges continue for the duration.

13. Investment and franchise participation

This policy does not apply to investment or franchise participation. Those are governed exclusively by the executed agreement for that specific opportunity, which states its own cooling-off position, if any. Nothing in this policy creates a refund, buy-back or exit right in respect of any investment. See 15_Investment/04_Investor_Disclosures.md.

14. Requesting a refund

1. Written request to [[ACCOUNTS_EMAIL]] and the Account Manager, within 15 days of the event relied on, stating the invoice number, the amount, and which limb of clause 4 is claimed.
2. Requests outside that window are not considered.
3. Acknowledgement within 1 working day; written decision within 10 working days.
4. Decisions are made by Finance & Compliance. Appeals go to the Director, whose decision is final under this policy.
5. Where a refund is approved, it is paid within [[REFUND_PROCESSING_DAYS]] working days of approval, only to the original paying account, in the original payment method, and never to a third party (24_Compliance/04_KYC_And_AML.md).

15. Chargebacks

The Client must raise any dispute with Akontec before initiating a chargeback or payment reversal. A chargeback raised without first exhausting clause 14:

• is a material breach of the agreement;
• entitles Akontec to suspend all services immediately without notice;
• makes all accrued and committed charges immediately due; and
• makes the Client liable for all chargeback fees, bank charges and recovery costs incurred by Akontec.

16. Set-off

Akontec may set off any refund or credit due to the Client against any amount owed by the Client to Akontec under any engagement. The Client may not withhold or set off any amount against a disputed sum; the undisputed portion falls due on its original date (23_Finance/03_Credit_Collections_And_Late_Payment.md).

17. Discretionary goodwill

Akontec may, entirely at its discretion, offer a goodwill credit in a situation where no refund is due. Any such credit:

• is made without admission of liability or breach;
• is a one-off and creates no precedent, entitlement or course of dealing;
• requires approval per 09_Pricing/06_Discounts_And_Commissions.md; and
• is offered as a credit against future services, not as cash.

18. Precedence

Order	Document
1	The executed SOW for the engagement
2	The executed MSA
3	This policy
4	Any other Akontec document

No statement in a proposal, presentation, email, call, WhatsApp message or AI-agent conversation varies this policy. Only a written amendment signed by the Director does.

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Internal notes — not part of the published policy

Where this policy is deliberately firm, and where the firmness is real:

Clauses 1–3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 15 are commercially strong and standard in B2B services contracting in India. Between two businesses with legal representation, freedom of contract is wide and these terms hold.

Four points where the policy needs care to actually hold up — flagged so nobody is surprised in a dispute:

1. "Advance" versus "earned fee". Under Indian law an advance is generally refundable if the contract fails, whereas an earned, non-refundable mobilisation fee is not. The wording in clause 5 is deliberate. Every SOW must use the same words — "non-refundable mobilisation fee, earned on receipt" — and must never describe the same money as an "advance", a "deposit", a "token" or "security". Mixing the terms in one document is the single most common way a no-refund clause fails.

1. Minimum-term balances must be a debt, not a penalty. Clause 6 says the balance becomes "immediately due as a debt, not as a penalty" for exactly this reason. A sum that looks punitive rather than compensatory can be reduced by a court to reasonable compensation. Keeping the figure tied to real committed cost — seats reserved, partner commitments, training already delivered — is what makes it enforceable. Inflating it weakens it.

1. Individual and small-value clients sit under consumer protection law. Where the buyer is an individual or a very small purchaser rather than a business — a franchise enquirer, a single-seat SaaS user, a one-off website buyer — statutory consumer rights apply and cannot be contracted away. A blanket "no refund ever" against such a buyer is at risk of being read as an unfair term. For those categories, keep the clause 4 route visible and honour it. This does not weaken the B2B position at all.

1. Online payment collection. If fees are collected through a payment gateway, the gateway's own rules and RBI requirements on refunds and chargebacks apply on top of this policy, and the gateway will act on a chargeback regardless of clause 15. Clause 15 gives Akontec a contractual claim against the Client; it does not stop the reversal happening.

The commercial argument for keeping clause 4 alive rather than removing it: a policy with exactly one narrow, clearly stated refund route reads as considered and is negotiated far less than one that says "no refunds under any circumstances". Enterprise procurement teams strike absolutes on sight and then open the whole schedule. Clause 4 costs Akontec almost nothing — it applies only where Akontec took money and did literally nothing — and it makes the remaining seventeen clauses much likelier to survive review intact.

Two new tokens introduced by this version, to be added when filled: [[REFUND_ADMIN_RETENTION]] (suggested 15–25%) and [[REFUND_PROCESSING_DAYS]] (suggested 15–21 working days).