Refund Policy

Read this first. Before booking, understand that this policy is built on the following governing clauses, each of which independently narrows your path to a refund:

• Clause A — Work begins at confirmation, not at delivery. The moment your Order is confirmed, staff time, calendar capacity and planning work are committed on your behalf, whether or not you ever see a visible file.
• Clause B — Every stage you pass through closes a door behind you. Onboarding, scheduling, drafting, review, revision and delivery each independently and permanently forfeit the refund eligibility of the fee attached to that stage, per Sections 4–7.
• Clause C — Eligibility is the exception, not the rule. A refund is available only where you can satisfy every condition of a specific, narrowly-drafted exception in this policy — not wherever this policy is silent.
• Clause D — Silence and ambiguity resolve against you. Where this policy does not expressly say a payment is refundable, it is not; where a provision is unclear, it is read in the manner most protective of Pen & Laurel.
• Clause E — Process is mandatory, not optional. Revisions (Section 8) and the internal dispute process (Section 21) must be fully exhausted, on our timeline, before any refund request of any kind will even be opened for review.
• Clause F — Remedies are revisions and credit, not cash. Where something genuinely goes wrong, we fix it, reassign it, or issue a Service Credit (Section 21A). A cash refund is issued only where the law requires one despite this policy.
• Clause G — A refund ends your rights in the work. Any refund or credit is conditional on the release, return and non-use terms in Section 21A; you cannot keep, publish or use work you have been refunded for.

Booking a project, submitting a deposit, or continuing an engagement past the cooling-off window in Section 6 constitutes your acknowledgment and acceptance of Clauses A through E in full.

1. Overview & Philosophy

Pen & Laurel provides bespoke, labor-intensive creative and editorial services performed by real people — writers, editors, designers and production staff — whose time is committed to your project the moment it is booked. This policy is deliberately, intentionally strict, and it is built on the following governing principles:

• Unlike a retailer selling a finished, off-the-shelf product that can be returned unopened, our work begins as research, planning, drafting and design almost immediately after a deposit clears, often well before you see a visible deliverable;
• Time and resource committed to your project are not recoverable once spent, and our pricing, staffing and production calendar are built around that reality — a refund request does not un-spend our staff’s time;
• Refunds exist as a narrow exception, never as a default outcome of a change of mind, a shift in priorities, or a subjective creative disagreement that has not first been resolved through the revision process you have already paid for;
• This Refund Policy operates alongside our Terms and Conditions, which govern your broader engagement with us; in the event of any conflict specifically about refunds, this policy controls, and every clause in this policy is to be read in whichever manner most preserves our right to retain fees already paid.

2. Definitions

For purposes of this policy: “Order” means the written quote, proposal, invoice or statement of work you accepted. “Deposit” or “Retainer” means any upfront payment required before work begins. “Milestone Payment” means any payment tied to a specific phase of your Order (outline, draft, revision round, design concept, final delivery, etc.). “Work Product” means any manuscript, outline, note, draft, design file, formatted file, audio file, or other material we prepare in connection with your project, whether or not it has been sent to you. “Business Day” means Monday through Friday, excluding U.S. federal holidays. “Written Notice” means an email sent to the address in Section 27 from the email address on file for your account; verbal statements, social-media messages, and third-party communications do not constitute Written Notice.

3. General Presumption: No Refunds

Every payment you make to Pen & Laurel is presumed non-refundable from the moment it is received. That presumption governs your entire engagement, subject only to the following clauses:

• Clause 3.1 — Reason is irrelevant. The presumption applies regardless of the reason for your request, including scheduling conflicts, budget changes, personal circumstances, a change of publishing strategy, or dissatisfaction with pacing, tone, or any other subjective element.
• Clause 3.2 — Exceptions must be earned, not assumed. The presumption is displaced only where you affirmatively satisfy every condition of a specific, narrowly-drafted exception expressly set out elsewhere in this policy; a circumstance not listed as an exception remains governed by the presumption.
• Clause 3.3 — Ambiguity resolves against the request. Where this policy is silent, unclear, or open to more than one reading, it is interpreted in the manner that preserves the no-refund presumption, not in the manner most favorable to the person requesting a refund.
• Clause 3.4 — The burden of proof is yours alone. You bear the full and exclusive burden of demonstrating, with specific written evidence meeting the standard in Section 9, that a listed exception applies to your circumstances; Pen & Laurel bears no burden to disprove an unsupported claim.
• Clause 3.5 — Partial performance does not create partial rights. Even where only a fraction of a phase has been performed, the presumption applies to the payment for that phase in full, not merely to the fraction performed.
• Clause 3.6 — Outstanding balances bar every request. No refund or credit request is considered while any invoice on your account is unpaid, overdue, or subject to a payment dispute or chargeback.
• Clause 3.7 — One request per project, and it is final. Each project is entitled to a single refund or credit request under Section 27. A request that is denied, closed as incomplete, or withdrawn cannot be resubmitted on the same or substantially similar grounds.
• Clause 3.8 — Only the named client may ask. Requests are accepted only from the client named on the Order, from the email address on file, and are decided solely on the written record.
• Clause 3.9 — Approval of any stage is final acceptance. Every written approval (including by email, chat or project-tool comment), every instruction to proceed to the next phase, and every payment of the next invoice is your final and irrevocable acceptance of all work delivered before it.

4. Deposits & Retainers Are Strictly Non-Refundable

Deposits and retainers secure your project slot, block out staff time on our production calendar, and compensate us for the immediate planning, onboarding, intake review, scheduling and research work that begins as soon as your Order is confirmed. The following clauses govern:

• Clause 4.1. This work is performed, and the fee earned, regardless of whether you later decide to proceed with the project;
• Clause 4.2. Deposits and retainers are non-refundable in full from the moment they are paid, subject only to the narrow 24-hour cooling-off window in Section 6, and except where refund is strictly and unavoidably required by applicable law;
• Clause 4.3. No partial deposit refund is issued for any reason once the cooling-off window has closed, including where zero hours of visible work have been shared with you;
• Clause 4.4. This clause overrides any contrary expectation formed from a sales conversation, marketing material, or verbal assurance not reflected in your written Order.

5. Milestone & Phase-Based Payments

For projects billed in phases or milestones (for example, outline, first draft, revision round, design concept, final delivery), each payment covers the work performed in, and reserved for, that phase. “In progress” is interpreted broadly: a phase is considered in progress, and its payment non-refundable, from the moment we begin any research, outlining, drafting, correspondence, scheduling, or preparatory work connected to it — not only once a visible deliverable is produced.

• Amounts already paid for completed or in-progress phases, as defined above, are non-refundable in full, without exception, reflecting time, staffing and resources already committed on your behalf.
• Amounts paid strictly in advance for a future phase that has not yet begun in any respect may, at our sole discretion, be converted into a Service Credit (Section 21A) — not a cash refund — less: (a) any non-recoverable third-party costs already incurred on your behalf (licensed stock assets, ISBNs already registered, printing already ordered, advertising already spent, software or subscription costs); (b) a 15% administrative and re-scheduling fee to cover calendar and staffing disruption; and (c) any payment-processing fees already incurred and not returned to us by our processor.
• No refund is available for a milestone payment once the corresponding deliverable has been sent to you for review, even if you have not yet opened, read, or responded to it.

6. The Limited 24-Hour Cooling-Off Window

A deposit may be refunded in full, less payment-processing fees, but only where every one of the following conditions is met:

• Condition (a). You submit Written Notice within 24 hours of the deposit being charged — not 24 hours from when you read the charge notification, but from when it was charged;
• Condition (b). No onboarding call, intake questionnaire, kickoff meeting, or project brief has yet been completed or even scheduled;
• Condition (c). No research, outlining, drafting, design, or other Work Product of any kind has begun on our side.

If any single one of these conditions is not met, the window does not apply at all, and Section 4 governs in full instead — there is no partial credit for partially meeting these conditions. This window never applies to milestone payments, rush fees, third-party costs, or any payment made after the initial deposit.

7. Refund Eligibility by Project Stage

8. Mandatory Revision Process Before Any Refund Claim

No refund request relating to the quality, tone, style, structure, pacing, accuracy, or creative direction of a deliverable will be considered, reviewed, or approved unless every one of the following conditions is first satisfied:

• You have requested, and we have delivered a response to, every revision round included in your Order — not a subset of them;
• You have provided specific, itemized written feedback for each round, submitted through our designated channel;
• You have allowed us a reasonable opportunity, of no less than 10 business days per round, to address that feedback before raising any further concern;
• You have done all of the above in good faith and in the sequence set out in your Order, not out of order and not in parallel with a refund request.

A refund request submitted before every condition above is satisfied will be closed without further review and without a substantive response, and you will be redirected to the revision process. Requesting a refund is never a substitute for, and never a way to skip, shortcut, or run in parallel with, the revision process you have already paid for.

9. Documentation & Burden of Proof

Any refund request based on an alleged failure to deliver the Services must be submitted in writing and must satisfy every one of the following requirements before it will be treated as complete:

• It cites the specific section(s) of your written Order that were allegedly not met, by section number or exact quoted language;
• It contains specific, itemized examples of the alleged failure — general statements such as “I don’t like it” or “it’s not what I expected” are insufficient on their own and will be denied without further review;
• It confirms, with dates, that the mandatory revision process in Section 8 was exhausted, and attaches the written feedback given at each round;
• It attaches any supporting materials referenced in your original brief that bear on the claim, in the format they were originally provided;
• It is submitted within the deadline set by Section 7 or Section 10, whichever applies — a request that is otherwise complete but late is still denied.

A request missing any one of the above is closed as incomplete, not merely delayed, and does not toll or extend any deadline elsewhere in this policy. The burden of proof rests entirely and exclusively on you as the requesting party; Pen & Laurel bears no obligation to investigate, corroborate, or disprove a vague, incomplete, or undocumented claim.

10. Circumstances That Are Never Refundable

The following are never eligible for a refund, partial refund, or credit, under any circumstance, except where a refund is strictly and unavoidably required by applicable law:

• Change of mind after work has begun, for any reason, including a decision to self-publish differently, pause or shelve the project indefinitely, pursue traditional publishing instead, change genre or direction, or simply no longer wish to continue;
• Dissatisfaction with subjective creative choices (voice, tone, pacing, structure, cover concept, color palette, typography) that were approved, selected, or directed by you at any earlier stage, including via an approved outline, mood board, sample chapter, or design concept;
• Personal, financial, health, family, business, or scheduling circumstances that make it difficult or undesirable for you to continue, on your side, regardless of hardship;
• Delays, gaps, or lapses in the project timeline caused by your late delivery of Client Materials, feedback, approvals, or payments;
• Third-party costs already paid or committed on your behalf, including ISBNs, licensed stock imagery, fonts, printing runs, paid advertising spend, platform or subscription fees, and freelance subcontractor fees;
• Ghostwriting, editorial, design, or production time already invested once work on a phase has commenced, regardless of whether you ultimately use, publish, or are pleased with the delivered material;
• Promotional, discounted, bundled, sale-priced, or package-rate engagements, which are final and non-refundable once work has begun, regardless of the discount applied;
• Dissatisfaction with the commercial or critical performance of a published book, including sales, reviews, ranking, or algorithmic visibility, none of which Pen & Laurel guarantees (see our Terms and Conditions);
• Requests made more than 5 business days after delivery of the relevant phase, regardless of the underlying reason;
• Requests where the mandatory revision process (Section 8) or the mandatory internal dispute process (Section 21) has not been fully completed first;
• Rush, expedite, or priority fees paid to accelerate a timeline, which compensate for calendar disruption regardless of the project’s later status;
• Any amount already disbursed to a subcontracted writer, editor, designer, narrator, or other third-party contractor for work performed on your project.
• Abandoned projects. Any project where you do not respond to a request for materials, feedback, approval or payment for 30 consecutive days is deemed abandoned by you; all fees paid to that point are forfeited in full, and restarting the project may require a new Order and a new deposit;
• Paused projects. A project paused at your request for more than 60 days loses its reserved production slot; fees paid for work already performed or reserved remain non-refundable, and resuming is subject to our availability and current pricing;
• Missed calls and interviews. Scheduled interviews, strategy calls or review sessions that you miss, cancel with less than 24 hours’ notice, or fail to attend are treated as delivered, and the time reserved for them is not refunded or credited;
• Rejection by third parties. Rejection, non-response or a pass by any literary agent, publisher, editor, contest, award body, bookstore, library, distributor, reviewer or media outlet — our Services improve your submission, but no one can guarantee another party’s decision;
• Platform or account actions caused by your content or account. Rejection, removal, suspension or delay of a listing, advertisement or account by any platform because of Client Materials, rights you did not hold, metadata you supplied or approved, or the platform’s own policies;
• Third-party opinions. Feedback from friends, family, beta readers, online communities, other editors or other agencies that contradicts work you already reviewed or approved, or a preference for another provider’s style or pricing;
• AI-detection scores. Results from any automated “AI-detection,” plagiarism-probability or originality-scoring tool, which are unreliable and are not evidence of how a work was produced; our deliverables are written, edited and reviewed by people (see Section 23 of our Terms and Conditions);
• Errors in material you supplied or approved. Mistakes in names, facts, dates, quotations, spellings, references, captions or data that were contained in Client Materials, or that appeared in a proof or file you approved;
• Legal or rights problems arising from Client Materials. Any copyright, trademark, defamation, privacy, or permission issue arising from content, images, stories or claims you supplied or instructed us to include;
• Printing and fulfilment by third parties. Print quality, trim, colour shift, binding, shipping damage, delivery delays or stock levels of copies produced or shipped by a print-on-demand provider, printer, distributor or courier, which must be raised with that provider;
• Third-party timelines. Delays caused by publishing platforms, printers, ISBN agencies, copyright offices, narrators’ studios, app stores or any other outside party;
• Delivered but unused work. Work product that was delivered but that you chose not to use, publish, deploy, approve or download — including marketing assets, ad creative, social content, website pages and press materials;
• Lost files after delivery. Files you lost, deleted or failed to download after delivery; re-delivery after our retention period may be quoted as new work;
• Word-count variance. Final word or page counts within 10% (above or below) of any estimate in your Order;
• Royalties, taxes and platform payouts. Royalties, sales proceeds, tax withholdings, platform fees or payout timing, which are governed solely by your agreement with the relevant platform;
• Add-ons and upgrades. Any add-on, upgrade, upsell or additional service once it has been delivered or has begun, and any discount already applied to a bundle, which is forfeited if any part of the bundle is cancelled;
• Financed or instalment payments. Financing charges, interest, instalment fees or buy-now-pay-later fees charged by a third-party lender, and any amount whose refund is governed by that lender’s own terms;
• Requests from someone other than the client. Requests by a spouse, relative, business partner, employer or estate who is not the named client on the Order, unless supported by documented legal authority;
• Pressure does not create eligibility. Eligibility is decided solely under this policy; a threatened chargeback, complaint or legal action does not create, restore or accelerate a right to a refund.

11. What Does Not Qualify as a Material Failure

None of the following — individually or in any combination — constitutes a “material failure to deliver” capable of supporting a partial refund under Section 21:

• A preference for a different writing voice, pacing, or sentence-level style than what was delivered, where the delivered work is reasonably consistent with your written brief;
• A late-arriving change in your own creative vision, however sincerely held;
• Disagreement with an editorial or design judgment call that falls within reasonable industry practice;
• The book not achieving a particular sales, review, or ranking outcome after publication;
• A subcontractor’s reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous or incomplete brief that you supplied;
• Typographical or minor errors correctable through the included revision or proofreading process;
• Dissatisfaction discovered only after final approval and sign-off was already given in writing.

12. Ghostwriting & Co-Writing — Service-Specific Terms

• Once drafting of any chapter, section, or outline has commenced, the fees allocated to that unit of work are permanently non-refundable;
• This applies regardless of whether you ultimately use, credit, publish, or discard the material, and regardless of how many words have been produced at the time of your request;
• A partially written chapter is treated identically to a completed one for refund purposes — work has begun, and the corresponding fee is earned in full, not pro-rated by word count.

13. Editing & Proofreading — Service-Specific Terms

• Editorial and proofreading fees are earned as our editors read, mark up, and return your manuscript, regardless of whether you agree with, accept, or implement any individual suggested change;
• Disagreement with specific edits is addressed exclusively through the revision process in Section 8, never through a refund;
• An editor declining to make a change that conflicts with grammatical, structural, or house-style standards is not, and will never be treated as, a basis for a refund claim.

14. Cover Design & Formatting — Service-Specific Terms

• Design fees are earned upon delivery of each design concept, regardless of whether that concept is ultimately selected;
• Once you have approved a final cover or interior layout in writing (including via email or a project-management tool), that approval is final and irreversible, and no refund is available for a later change of preference;
• Formatting fees for interior layout are non-refundable once the formatted file has been generated, whether or not you have reviewed it.

15. Publishing & Platform Submission — Service-Specific Terms

• Once your book has been submitted to, uploaded to, or published on any third-party platform (including Amazon KDP, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble Press, Kobo, IngramSpark, or Draft2Digital) at your direction, all fees for that publishing service are irrevocably non-refundable;
• This applies regardless of whether you subsequently unpublish, withdraw, or revise the listing;
• We are not responsible for, and will not refund fees in connection with, any platform’s independent decision to reject, delay, remove, or reprice your listing.

16. Marketing, Advertising & Promotion — Service-Specific Terms

• Marketing and advertising service fees, and any advertising spend paid to a third-party platform on your behalf, are non-refundable once a campaign has been created, scheduled, or launched;
• Ad spend already disbursed to a platform is never refundable under any circumstance;
• Dissatisfaction with campaign performance, reach, click-through rate, or return on spend is never a basis for a refund, as advertising outcomes depend on factors outside our control.

17. Audiobook Production — Service-Specific Terms

• Narration, engineering, and production fees are earned as each is performed;
• Once a narrator has been booked and studio time reserved, the associated fee is non-refundable regardless of subsequent cancellation;
• Once a chapter has been recorded, fees for that chapter are non-refundable, even if a different narrator voice is later requested.

18. Cancellation by You

You may cancel an active project at any time by Written Notice, subject to every one of the following clauses:

• Clause 18.1. You will be invoiced in full for all work completed and in progress through the effective date of cancellation, as determined under Sections 5 and 10, and no amount already paid for that work will be refunded;
• Clause 18.2. Amounts paid strictly in advance for phases that have not begun in any respect may be considered for conversion to a Service Credit only as described in Section 5, less every applicable deduction listed there; no cash refund is issued on cancellation by you;
• Clause 18.3. A cancellation fee equal to 15% of the total remaining contracted project value applies on top of the above, to compensate for lost calendar capacity, as stated in your Order;
• Clause 18.4. None of the above is waived by your stated reason for cancelling, however reasonable.

19. Cancellation or Termination by Pen & Laurel

• Clause 19.1 — Termination for our own operational reasons. If we are unable to complete your project for reasons within our reasonable control (for example, an inability to staff the engagement), we will provide a pro-rata refund limited strictly to amounts paid for phases not yet begun in any respect, calculated at our sole discretion;
• Clause 19.2 — Termination for your breach. If we suspend or terminate your engagement for breach of our Terms and Conditions — including non-payment, late payment, abusive or threatening conduct toward our team, misrepresentation, or a request to produce prohibited content — no refund is owed for any amount already paid;
• Clause 19.3. Work already completed at the time of a Clause 19.2 termination is invoiced and due in full regardless of the termination;
• Clause 19.4. Any deposit or retainer on file at the time of a Clause 19.2 termination is forfeited in its entirety, with no exception.

20. Chargebacks, Payment Disputes & Fraud Claims

If you have a concern about a charge, you must contact us first, in writing, so we can work toward resolution under Section 21 before contacting your bank or card issuer — this is a condition of your Order, not a suggestion.

Chargebacks are treated as a serious breach. Initiating a chargeback, payment reversal, or “stop payment” for work that has been performed or delivered in accordance with your Order — without first completing the process in Section 21 — is treated as a material breach of these Terms and as an attempt to obtain services without payment. In that event, we reserve the right, to the fullest extent permitted by law, to:

• Immediately suspend all Services and withhold all Work Product and files;
• Pursue collection of the disputed amount plus reasonable attorneys’ fees, collection costs, and any fees imposed on us by our payment processor as a result of the dispute;
• Report the account to collections or credit-reporting agencies where applicable;
• Permanently decline future engagements from you or any associated account;
• Contest the chargeback with our full project records, correspondence, and delivery logs as evidence that Services were rendered.
• Share with your bank, card issuer or payment processor your signed or electronically accepted Order, invoices, payment authorizations, IP and device records, email and chat correspondence, call notes, file-delivery and file-access logs, approvals and revision history — you consent to that disclosure for the purpose of contesting the dispute;
• Recover from you any chargeback, dispute or reversal fee charged to us, together with the disputed amount, if the dispute is decided in our favour or withdrawn.

20A. Your Acknowledgements About Payment

By paying any invoice, deposit or instalment to Pen & Laurel, you confirm each of the following, and you agree that this confirmation may be provided to any payment processor, card issuer, bank, arbitrator or court:

• Authorized payment. You personally authorized the payment, or were authorized by the cardholder or account holder to make it; a payment you authorized is not an “unauthorized” or “fraudulent” transaction, and describing it as one to your card issuer is a misrepresentation;
• Custom, intangible services. You are purchasing custom, made-to-order professional services and digital work product, not physical goods; services are “received” as they are performed, and digital deliverables are “delivered” when sent by email, shared-drive link, project-management tool or download link to the contact details on file, whether or not you open them;
• Terms were available. These policies were available to you before payment, and your electronic acceptance of an Order, your payment, or your instruction to begin work is your signature and agreement to them;
• Contact first. You will raise any billing concern with us in writing and complete Section 21 before contacting your bank or card issuer, and you will not file a dispute while a revision, review or Section 21 step is still open;
• No double recovery. You will not seek the same money through both a refund request and a chargeback, and any amount recovered through a chargeback is credited against, not added to, anything we might otherwise agree to refund;
• Reinstatement. If a chargeback is decided in our favour, the charge is reinstated, the balance remains due, and access to files and ownership of deliverables transfers only once it is paid in full (see Section 7 of our Terms and Conditions).

Nothing in this policy limits your right to post an honest review, to contact a government or consumer-protection agency, or to exercise any right that cannot be waived under applicable law.

21. Mandatory Internal Dispute Resolution Process

Before any refund request, chargeback, payment dispute, arbitration demand or legal claim relating to fees paid, you must complete every step of this process, in order:

1. Step 1 — Written Notice. Submit Written Notice with the full documentation required by Section 9, within 5 business days of the relevant delivery. Missing this window closes the matter permanently under Section 10.
2. Step 2 — Acknowledgment. We will acknowledge your request within 5 business days and may request additional information; you must supply it within 5 business days or the request is closed as incomplete.
3. Step 3 — Review. We will review the claim and respond within 15 business days with a determination, made at our sole discretion based on the documentation you submitted.
4. Step 4 — One escalation, and only one. If you disagree, you may request a single internal escalation review by a senior team member within 5 business days of our response. That review is final and may not be appealed further within Pen & Laurel.

Only after every step above is exhausted, and only where the determination confirms a clear, documented, material failure to deliver the scope defined in your written Order, will we consider — at our sole discretion, and never as of right — one or more of the following, in this order of preference: a further corrective revision at no charge; reassignment to a different writer, editor, narrator, or designer; or a Service Credit toward future Services under Section 21A. Cash refunds are not a remedy under this process. A cash refund is issued only where a court, arbitrator or applicable law requires it despite this policy, and then only for a discrete, clearly-defined component that was never delivered — never for a phase in which any deliverable has been sent to you.

21A. Service Credits & Conditions Attached to Any Refund

Service Credits. Where this policy provides for a Service Credit, the credit is issued in your name, may be applied only to future Pen & Laurel Services at our then-current pricing, is non-transferable, has no cash value, cannot be exchanged for a refund, and expires 12 months after it is issued.

Any refund or Service Credit — however it arises, including one required by law or agreed as a goodwill gesture — is issued only once every one of the following conditions is met:

• Release. You sign our standard written release confirming the refund or credit is in full and final settlement of all claims relating to the project, and waiving any further claim, chargeback, or dispute about it;
• Return of the work. You permanently delete, return and stop using every draft, file, design, recording and other Work Product relating to the refunded portion, and confirm this in writing; all rights in that Work Product remain with, or revert to, Pen & Laurel and no licence of any kind survives;
• No publication. You confirm that no refunded Work Product has been, or will be, published, submitted, sold, distributed or used in any form; if it later is, the full refunded amount becomes immediately due back to us together with our costs of recovery;
• Account settled. Every other invoice on your account is paid in full, and no chargeback, reversal or payment dispute is open on any payment to us;
• No prior dispute. You have not filed a chargeback or payment dispute relating to the project; filing one forfeits any refund or credit under this policy, whether pending or already approved;
• Goodwill is not precedent. A refund, credit or concession made as a courtesy is at our sole discretion, does not admit fault or liability, and creates no entitlement to the same outcome in any other project or for any other client.

Nothing in this section limits your right to post an honest review or to contact a government or consumer-protection agency.

22. Maximum Refund Cap

• Cap 1. No refund, credit, or combination of remedies under this policy will ever exceed the amount you actually paid for the specific undelivered phase or component giving rise to the claim;
• Cap 2. No refund will ever exceed the total fees paid to Pen & Laurel in the 12 months preceding the claim, regardless of how many engagements that total spans;
• Cap 3. Pen & Laurel is never liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages, lost profits, lost royalties, or lost opportunity in connection with any refund request, consistent with the Limitation of Liability section of our Terms and Conditions.

23. Refund Method, Fees & Processing Time

• Any refund approved under this policy is issued solely to the original payment method used, within 15 business days of final written approval, unless a different method is expressly agreed in writing;
• Every approved refund is reduced by non-recoverable payment-processing fees, a 15% administrative fee on the amount refunded (in addition to any fee described in Section 5), the value of any work performed, and any third-party costs already incurred on your behalf, before the remaining balance is returned to you;
• No refund is ever issued as cash, gift card, store credit substitute, or to a third-party account.

24. Circumstances Beyond Our Control

• Events beyond our reasonable control (see the Force Majeure section of our Terms and Conditions) do not, by themselves, entitle you to any refund;
• We will work with you toward a resolution at our discretion, which may include rescheduling or partial delivery, but a refund is never automatic or guaranteed in these circumstances;
• Any refund arising from such an event, if granted at all, is limited strictly to amounts paid for phases genuinely not performed, and remains fully subject to the caps in Section 22.

25. Rush, Expedite & Priority Fees

• Any fee paid to expedite, rush, or prioritize your project ahead of our standard production calendar compensates us for calendar disruption and reallocation of staff at the moment it is paid;
• Rush fees are non-refundable immediately upon payment, in full, with no cooling-off window and no proration;
• This applies regardless of whether the project is later slowed, paused, or cancelled for any reason, including reasons attributable to us.

26. Changes to This Policy

• We may update this Refund Policy at any time; the “Last updated” date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision;
• Changes apply prospectively to Orders placed after the change takes effect;
• Changes do not retroactively expand refund rights you had under an earlier version of this policy, though we may apply a stricter later version to a later dispute where permitted by law;
• Continued engagement with us after a change is posted constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy.

27. How to Request a Refund

To request a refund, you must email connect@penandlaurel.com with the subject line “Refund Request,” and include: your full name, project name, invoice or order number, the specific phase or payment at issue, the specific section of this policy or your Order you believe entitles you to a refund, and the documentation required by Section 9. Incomplete requests will not be reviewed and will be returned to you for completion; the applicable deadline in Section 8, 10, or 21 is not extended while a request is incomplete. We aim to acknowledge complete requests within 5 business days, subject to the process and timelines in Section 21.

• Pen & Laurel, a Desverso LLC company
• Email: connect@penandlaurel.com
• Address: 2135 112th Ave NE Ste 201, Bellevue, WA 98004
• Attn: Billing / Client Services