Legal

The terms Coldstill works on, how refunds and cancellation work, how to make a complaint, and who Coldstill is. Every paid engagement also has written terms, sent before any work starts; where this page and those terms ever differ, the signed terms apply.

Terms of business
Refunds and cancellation
Complaints
Privacy and cookies
Company information

Terms of business

Coldstill works with businesses only and does not contract with consumers.
Every paid engagement runs on written terms agreed before any work starts: audit terms for the distillability audit, a statement of work for a migration, and a hosted operation agreement for hosting. Where personal data is involved, a UK GDPR data-processing agreement is signed before any of it moves.
Fees are fixed and never hourly. Each invoice carries its own payment link, and a bank transfer works just as well.
A copy of any of the standard terms is available from hello@coldstill.org before you commit to anything.
The terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.

Refunds and cancellation

The free read

The written read on one task is free. There is nothing to pay, nothing to refund, and no obligation follows it.

The distillability audit

The $650 fee is paid in full by the payment link before the audit starts. It works as a deposit: it is either credited or refunded, never both.
Credited: if a migration starts within 90 days of the audit report, the whole fee comes off the migration fee.
Refunded in full within 14 days of the report if the audit concludes that Coldstill cannot take the task on. That means one of four things: the data cannot lawfully or practically reach Coldstill in a usable form; the task has no field-level right answer to score against; there is no usable history of correct answers; or delivering it needs capability, capacity or a licence Coldstill does not have. The report is still delivered.
Not refunded when the audit concludes that the task could move but is not worth moving, because the volume is too low, the current setup already does the job, or the payback is too long. That verdict is the audit doing its job, and the report is yours to keep.
Cancelling: either side may cancel in writing before the audit starts, and the fee is refunded in full within 14 days. The audit starts when the fee has cleared and the agreed inputs have arrived. If the inputs have still not arrived 60 days after payment, either side may cancel on the same basis. Once the audit has started it runs to completion and the fee is kept.

The migration

Nothing is paid up front: the paid audit stands as the deposit. The $4,000 fee, less the audit credit, is invoiced once, on delivery, and is due within 14 days of the invoice.
Delivery means the model has been shown to meet the acceptance measure set in the audit, on your own held-out data. Nothing switches until it does.
Cancelling: you may stop a migration at any point before delivery by written notice. No invoice is issued and nothing further is owed. The audit fee is not refunded at that point, because the audit was delivered.

Hosted operation

The first month is free. It is the proving month: the model runs on your live traffic for a full month before hosting bills anything, and if quality does not hold, you can end the agreement having paid nothing for hosting.
After that it runs month to month with no minimum term. Either side may end it with 30 days' notice.
The weights, serving configuration, evaluation harness and handover document are yours from day one, so ending hosting means pointing your calls somewhere else. On exit you receive the current model, the last evaluation report, and written confirmation that your data has been deleted.

How refunds are paid

To the card or bank account the payment came from, in the currency it was paid in. Because Coldstill contracts with businesses only, the statutory cancellation rights that protect consumers buying at a distance do not apply; the rights on this page are the ones Coldstill gives every client.

Complaints

A complaint about any part of Coldstill's work, an email you received from Coldstill, or the way your data has been handled goes through the same route.

How to complain: email hello@coldstill.org with "Complaint" in the subject line, or write to the registered office below. Say what happened, when, and what you would like done about it.
Acknowledgement within two working days of the complaint arriving.
A full written response within 14 days, setting out what was found and what will be done about it. If a complaint needs longer, you are told why and given a date.
Who deals with it: Coldstill is run by its director, who handles every complaint personally, so the response is Coldstill's final position.
Data protection: you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk) at any time, whether or not you have complained to Coldstill first.
Unwanted email: reply "no thanks", or write to hello@coldstill.org, and contact stops the same day. You never need to give a reason.
Nothing in this process limits the rights your written terms give you.

Privacy and cookies

How Coldstill handles personal data, including what the enquiry form collects and what is held if Coldstill has emailed you, is set out in the privacy notice. The site sets no cookies and runs no analytics or trackers; the one choice it can save on your device is described under cookies and this website.