Terms of Sale (International)

8. Returns and refunds

1. Change of mind. We do not accept returns for change of mind on international orders. However, if you are a consumer and the law of your country gives you a right of withdrawal (for example, 14 days from delivery in the EU and the UK), you may exercise that right by sending us a clear statement within that period (for example by email; you may use the model withdrawal form at the end of these terms). Please return the items within 14 days of telling us, at your own cost. You are liable only for any loss in value caused by handling the items beyond what is necessary to establish their nature, characteristics and functioning. Business customers cannot cancel for change of mind.
2. Business customers (buying for production, resale or other business purposes) must inspect items promptly on receipt and report shortages, visible faults or wrong items within 7 days of receipt; faults that could not be found on inspection must be reported promptly after discovery and within 6 months of receipt. Refunds to business customers are made within 5 business days of receiving the returned items.
3. Faulty, damaged or wrong items. Please contact us as soon as possible with photos; this does not shorten any period under your local law. Please check items on arrival and report any problem within 7 days where possible. We test development tools and other working products before dispatch and keep the records. Components are not finished products: problems that appear after they are built into your circuit or product are not faults unless the component itself is shown to be defective. Damage caused after delivery by handling, electrostatic discharge, over-voltage or over-current, incorrect wiring or soldering, moisture or physical impact is not a fault. We test returned items and tell you the result; if the damage was caused in this way, we return the item to you, do not replace or refund it, and you pay the shipping both ways. We will pay the return shipping and send a replacement or a refund, as you prefer.
4. Refunds are made within 3 business days after we receive the items back or you give us proof of sending them, whichever is earlier (for orders not yet shipped, within 3 business days of cancellation), to the original payment method (PayPal refunds in USD; bank transfers to the account you give us). When you withdraw under the law of your country, we refund the price of the items and, where that law requires it (for example in the EU), the standard outbound shipping cost. Import duties and taxes are collected by your country, not by us, so we cannot refund them; you may be able to reclaim them from your customs authority.
5. Items that cannot be returned. Unlike general-purpose goods, five kinds of our products cannot be returned or refunded for change of mind:
   • Downloads — a downloadable product is delivered once the download is complete. Files cannot be taken back and can be copied, so at checkout we ask you to expressly agree that you lose the right to cancel once the download is complete.
   • Programmed (written) items — chips or devices that we program with the firmware, voice data or other content you ask for can only be used by you and cannot be resold to anyone else. They cannot be returned once programming has started. Programming is treated as starting on the business day after we receive your data, or, for a repeat order of data we have already programmed, on the business day after we receive the order; until then you may cancel. We tell you this and ask for your agreement before we start.
   • Made-to-order items — products we build individually to your order, such as PCB assemblies, are made to your own design files (concept documents, schematics, Gerber files, bill of materials) and cannot be resold to anyone else. They cannot be returned once production has started. We tell you this and ask for your agreement before we start. Whether an item is faulty is judged against the design files agreed with you; errors in the design files or concept documents you supplied are not faults.
   • Paid work services — amounts charged for work we do rather than for goods, such as voice editing fees (charged per voice) and firmware development fees for implementing MCU functions, voice actor and studio fees for outsourced recording, and outsourced services such as parts sourcing, assembly and testing, are not returnable items. Subject to the last sentence of this paragraph, they cannot be cancelled or refunded once the work has started, and they are not refunded if you return parts (such as chips) bought with them. Before the work starts you may cancel for a full refund; for voice editing, we refund the voices we have not started. Whether firmware is faulty is judged against the function specification agreed with us; functions not in that specification are not faults. Outsourced work starts when, at your request, we confirm the booking with the voice actor or studio, or place the order for parts, assembly or testing with our supplier. We tell you this and ask for your agreement before we start. Where the law of your country gives consumers a right to withdraw from a service contract, we start only at your express request, you lose that right once the work is complete, and if you withdraw after we have started you pay for the work done up to that point.
   • Software donations — a donation you make to support our software development is a voluntary gift, not payment for goods or services, so it is not refundable. Payments made in error (for example, a duplicate payment or a wrong amount) are refunded.
   This does not affect your rights if an item is faulty or not as described, including if we write data different from what you asked for or build or implement an item differently from the agreed design files or specification. Where we think there is a risk of faults, we may first supply a sample (which may be charged) for you to check; items made to the same specification as a sample you approved are not faulty or not as described in respect of that specification, except for hidden faults you could not have found by checking the sample. Whether an item was programmed correctly is decided by code checksum. If the checksum of the data read back from the chip or device differs from the checksum of the data you sent, or the data cannot be read, it is a writing error and we will replace or refund the item. If the checksums match, the item is presumed to have been programmed as you asked; problems caused by errors in your own data, or by functions you did not check before ordering, are not faults or writing errors. We tell you the checksum of the data we receive and keep it with our work records. A fault in the component itself is still treated as a fault, whatever the checksum.