Refund & satisfaction policy.

We sell finished work, not hours. If a project doesn't land the way you wanted, our first answer is always the same: we keep working. If we still can't land it inside the agreed scope, our second answer is the alternative-work guarantee — we'll re-deliver equivalent work on a different project, site, or venture you own. Cash refunds are reserved for the specific scenarios in §5 below.

For all one-time project packages (Starter Garage Site, Growth Garage Site, Authority Garage Site, and Hyperlocal Website builds), you have a 14-day cooling-off period that starts the day your payment clears. During this window you can cancel for any reason — or no reason at all — and we'll refund 100% of what you've paid us, including the deposit.

The one condition

The cooling-off period ends the moment you submit the kickoff brief. As soon as that lands in our inbox, we begin discovery, sitemap planning, and design work — and the deposit becomes earned (see §3). This is a deliberate, transparent line: we don't want you locked into a slot you didn't want, and we don't want to be working at a loss on cancelled briefs.

The 50% deposit on a one-time project pays for: reserving your slot in our schedule, running discovery, drafting a sitemap and strategy, opening a project workspace, assigning a designer and a writer, and committing the studio's time to your launch window.

Once you submit the kickoff brief, all of that has either happened or has been scheduled to happen in the days that follow. From this point on, your deposit covers real, irrevocable work. We do not refund earned deposits as cash — but the alternative-work guarantee still applies.

This is the part most agencies don't offer, and we think it's the part that matters most. If you've paid for a project, work has begun, and for whatever reason the project stalls on your end — you've changed direction, the business has pivoted, you've decided not to launch — you don't lose the work you've paid for.

Instead, here's what you can do with it:

• Re-point it to a different domain — same business, new brand, no problem.
• Re-deliver it for a sister business — a different LLC, a partner's business, a venture you own under a different name.
• Carry the credit forward up to 12 months — pause the project today, cash it in for an equivalent package any time in the next year.
• Swap into a different service— convert the unused scope into SEO Growth, AI Optimization, CRM & Automations, or other retainer months at the published rate.

We honour the alternative-work guarantee in good faith. The only constraint is that the alternative cannot be larger in scope than what you originally bought, and we'll need you to give us a reasonable launch window (typically two to four weeks of clear runway).

Cash refunds are available in the specific scenarios below. We don't make you fight for these — if you're in one of these cases, just email us.

Always refundable

• Within 14 days of payment, before kickoff is submitted — full refund, no questions.
• Duplicate or accidental charges — full refund of the duplicate amount.
• We're unable to start work within 30 days of payment through our own fault (capacity overrun, internal disruption) — full refund of the deposit.
• Material breach by us that we don't cure within 14 days of your written notice — pro-rata refund of work not yet delivered.
• We tell you partway through that we can't deliver — pro-rata refund of work not yet delivered, plus a 10% inconvenience credit on your next order if you ever come back.

Retainer-specific refunds

• First-month cancellation due to onboarding mismatch — if within the first 7 days of a new retainer it becomes clear we and you are a bad fit (rare but real), we'll refund the first month's fee in full.
• Duplicate retainer billing — full refund of duplicate.

To be clear about the edges of the policy, the following are not refundable:

• Change of mind after kickoff is submitted. The alternative-work guarantee covers you here.
• Inability or unwillingness to provide content/feedback/access within reasonable time windows (we'll send polite reminders for 90 days; after that the project closes — see Terms §8).
• Specific business outcomes not being achieved — lead volume, revenue, rankings, AI citations. We work hard on outcomes but we don't sell guarantees on them.
• Third-party platform changes — algorithm updates, ad-platform policy changes, API deprecations, hosting outages. We'll adapt; we won't refund.
• Used portions of a retainer — we don't pro-rate the current month when you cancel.
• Ad spend paid directly to Google, Meta, or any other platform — that's between you and them.
• Third-party licences (premium fonts, premium stock, paid integrations) we purchased on your behalf at your request.
• Add-ons consumed (e.g., a logo kit already delivered, copywriting already shipped).
• Bundle discounts are conditional on the full bundle being completed; cancelling part of a bundle may forfeit the discount on the remainder.

Retainers (SEO Growth, AI Optimization, Ads Management, Link Building, CRM & Automations, Reviews & GBP, Virtual Receptionist, AI Chatbot) bill on the anniversary of your sign-up each month, in advance for the month ahead. Because we schedule the entire month's work — content calendars, ad rotations, audits, edits — at the start of the cycle, we don't pro-rate the current month when you cancel.

What that means in practice:

• Cancel before the next billing date — the next month won't run; you won't be charged again.
• Cancel inside an active month — work continues through the end of that month at no extra cost; no refund of the month's fee.
• Minimum term retainers(SEO Growth, AI Optimization, Link Building, CRM & Automations, Reviews & GBP, AI Chatbot — all 3-month minimum) — cancellation inside the minimum term ends the retainer at the end of the minimum period. Earlier exit is not refunded except under §5 above.

One email. That's it.

Send hello@garagegrowthlab.com with the subject "Refund request" and include:

1. Your project or invoice number;
2. The reason you're asking (be honest — it helps us help you);
3. Whether you'd prefer a cash refund, alternative work, or a service credit.

We'll reply within 2 business days with: a confirmation that you qualify under §5, a proposal for alternative work under §4, or a clear explanation of where the policy applies if your case falls outside both. We don't ghost. We don't stonewall. If we say no, we'll tell you why, in writing, and we'll point you to the relevant section of this policy.

Approved refunds are issued back to the original payment method via Stripe and typically land within 5–10 business days, depending on your card issuer or bank.

We don't refund to a different account or person than the original payer. If the original payment method is no longer active, we'll issue a service credit instead and honour it for 24 months.

If something feels off, please talk to us first. We almost always work it out without anyone reaching for a chargeback. Filing a chargeback before contacting us means we have to spend time and money defending a transaction that we'd probably have refunded or worked through anyway — and that's a worse outcome for both sides.

If we receive a chargeback, we will (a) immediately pause any active service while it's adjudicated and (b) submit our standard evidence package (signed scope, deliverables, correspondence, IP logs) to the card network. If the chargeback is decided in our favor, we may add a chargeback handling fee equal to what the card network charges us, plus a flat administrative fee.

Nothing in this policy limits any non-excludable statutory rights you have as a consumer:

• United Kingdom — Consumer Rights Act 2015, Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.
• Australia — Australian Consumer Law (Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010). Our goods and services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded.
• Canada — provincial consumer protection legislation (e.g., Ontario's Consumer Protection Act, 2002).
• United States — state consumer protection laws.

Where our services are supplied to a business (B2B), those consumer rights generally do not apply. If you're unsure whether you're protected as a consumer, ask us — or talk to a qualified adviser in your jurisdiction.