Payments & Support Policy

This policy defines the financial relationship between PDFTEQ and its users. It governs voluntary contributions, donations, and support payments in compliance with international consumer protection and fair trading laws.

1. The Voluntary Support Model

PDFTEQ operates on a "Donationware" / Voluntary Support basis. This is distinct from a traditional subscription service.

• Optionality: All payments are 100% optional. You are never obligated to pay to access the website or use its tools.
• No Paywalls: We do not block users who cannot or choose not to pay. A student in India receives the same technological capability as a professional in New York.
• Motivation: Payments are treated as contributions to support server costs, bandwidth, and engineering development.

2. No Feature Locking (Feature Parity)

Unlike "Freemium" competitors that limit file sizes or task counts:

• Full Functionality: Non-paying users access the full "Sigma-Engine" algorithm.
• No Speed Caps: We do not artificially throttle processing speeds for free users.
• No Watermarks: We do not add watermarks to documents processed by free users.

3. Financial Transparency

We believe users have the right to know what their support funds:

• Infrastructure: Paying for high-speed CDN endpoints and hosting bandwidth.
• Development: Funding hours for engineers to fix bugs and build new tools (like OCR).
• Maintenance: Security audits, domain renewals, and SSL certificates.

4. Refund Policy

Because payments to PDFTEQ are voluntary contributions that do not unlock restricted goods or services:

• General Rule: Contributions are generally non-refundable. Since the service was already provided free of charge, the payment is a retrospective gesture of support.
• Exceptions: We review refund requests on a case-by-case basis (e.g., accidental double billing or technical errors).
• Global Rights: We respect mandatory statutory refund rights where applicable under local law (e.g., UK Consumer Rights Act, EU Directive on Consumer Rights).

5. Payment Security (PCI-DSS)

We take financial security seriously. PDFTEQ utilizes Third-Party Payment Processors (such as Stripe, PayPal, or Razorpay).

• No Storage: PDFTEQ never stores your credit card number, CVV, or bank account details on our servers.
• Encryption: All payment transactions are encrypted via SSL/TLS by the payment processor.

6. Taxes & VAT

Depending on your location, your payment may be subject to Value Added Tax (VAT), GST, or other local taxes.

• Automatic Calculation: Our payment processor automatically calculates and adds applicable taxes at checkout based on your IP address/billing address.
• Invoicing: A receipt/invoice will be provided via email for record-keeping.

7. Billing Support

If you have issues with a donation or transaction:

Email: support@pdfteq.com