Fees and refunds

How fees are set

A fee is named in a signed engagement letter after we have seen enough of the sample to know whether the work is a desk review, an on-site week, or both. Figures on this site, if any, are illustrations. They are not a cart.

Deposits

For work that needs travel outside Sibu, or that reserves a named week in our calendar, we may ask for a deposit before that week is held. The letter will state the amount and the date it is due. A deposit is part of the fee, not a separate product.

When a full refund applies

If we cancel an engagement for our own staffing reasons, and you do not want a new date, we refund fees you have paid for work not delivered, including the deposit, within fourteen working days to the same account that paid us.

If you cancel in writing more than ten working days before the agreed start of reading, and we have not yet opened the sample, we refund the deposit and any other fees paid, minus any non-refundable travel we had already bought at your written request.

Partial refunds

If you cancel after we have started reading packs, interviewing staff, or travelling, we invoice for time already spent at the daily rate in the letter, plus irrecoverable travel. Any unused remainder of the fee or deposit is returned within fourteen working days. “Started” means we have opened files or left Sibu for your site, whichever comes first.

Non-refundable items

Once a findings letter has been issued, the fee for that letter is earned. We do not refund because you dislike a finding. We also do not refund the cost of travel already taken, lodgings already used, or printing and secure-storage costs already incurred for your sample.

Work already started

Opening a mailbox export, sitting with a walk-in book, or holding the first interview counts as work started. At that point a full refund is no longer available, even if you later decide not to take a letter.

Purchased materials

We rarely buy materials for an audit. If a letter asks us to obtain a locked courier pouch, extra copies, or a meeting room near your site, those outlays are billed at cost. They are refundable only if we cancelled before buying them.

Cancellation and rescheduling

You may ask once to move a field week, with at least seven working days’ notice, at no extra fee if we can place the week elsewhere. A second move, or a move with shorter notice, may be charged as a wasted-day fee named in the letter. We will not shuffle dates indefinitely to hold a deposit.

No-shows

If we arrive at the agreed site and the sample or the named contacts are not available, that day is billable. We will wait a reasonable time and then treat the day as a no-show. A new date is a new scheduling conversation, not an automatic free repeat.

How to ask

Refund and cancellation requests go in writing to briefings@kernelportal-hub.digital or to 728, Bangunan Mula Jaya, Jalan Methodist, 96400 Sibu, Sarawak, with the engagement reference. Telephone +60 84-871273 if you need to flag urgency; the written note still governs.

How money is returned

Refunds are paid by bank transfer to the account that paid us, in ringgit unless the letter used another currency. Processing time is up to fourteen working days after we agree the amount. We do not send cash or third-party wallets.

Exceptions

If Malaysian law requires a different outcome in a particular case, that law wins. If an engagement letter sets a clearer refund table for that job, the letter wins over this page for that job only.