Terms of Engagement.

1. Acceptance of Terms

By using the Drassine ecosystem — including drassine.com, shop.drassine.com, and any subdomains — you acknowledge and accept these Terms of Engagement. Together with our Privacy Directive and Quality Policy, they form a legally binding contract between you (the Client or User) and Drassine Digital Engineering.

If you do not accept any portion of these terms, you must discontinue use of our services immediately. Continued use after a version update constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.

2. Software Development & Intellectual Property

Custom code, UI designs, database schemas, and backend architecture created by Drassine remain our intellectual property until payment is received in full. Upon final settlement, the Client receives a non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide license to use the delivered work for the specified use case.

Source code is transferred to the Client's repository upon handover. We retain the right to reuse generic, non-proprietary patterns, utilities, and libraries across engagements, but never your specific business logic or data models.

Reverse engineering our proprietary core modules, redistributing internal scripts, or sublicensing our work without written consent is a material breach and will be pursued legally.

3. Project Lifecycle & Client Obligations

All projects follow our 8-stage Digital Project Lifecycle SOP: Discovery, Research, Architecture, Design, Development, Testing, Deployment, and Optimisation.

The Client agrees to:

• Provide timely feedback at each milestone, particularly during User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
• Nominate a single decision-maker for approvals to prevent scope drift.
• Supply required credentials, brand assets, and access to third-party systems within 5 business days of request.
• Review sprint demos weekly and raise concerns early rather than at final delivery.

If the Client fails to respond for more than 10 business days, the project enters "Paused" status. A re-activation fee equivalent to 5% of the remaining contract value applies to cover the cost of reshuffling engineering resources.

4. Change Requests & Scope Management

Every project ships with a written scope. When new requirements emerge mid-project, they are handled as formal Change Requests.

Each Change Request is documented with a description, estimated hours, cost impact, and adjusted timeline. The Client approves in writing before work begins. Small adjustments (under 4 hours of work) are absorbed at our discretion to avoid administrative overhead — larger changes are always billed transparently.

This process exists to protect both parties: you get accurate forecasting, and we get to plan resources without committing to invisible work.

5. Hardware Sales & "7-Day Check" Warranty

Physical goods sold on shop.drassine.com are governed by our Logistics SOP. Every device ships with a 7-day engineering check warranty — a full week to verify performance in your own environment.

The warranty covers manufacturing defects and performance shortfalls against our advertised specifications. It is voided when:

• The device shows signs of physical impact, drops, or liquid damage.
• Internal security seals have been tampered with.
• Unauthorized software modifications are present (BIOS flashing, OS rooting, hardware overclocking).
• Damage results from power surges, incompatible accessories, or misuse.

Approved warranty claims are resolved via repair, replacement, or refund — the choice is ours based on parts availability and turnaround impact.

6. Payment & Financial Milestones

For software engagements we operate on a 50 / 25 / 25 milestone structure:

• 50% on contract signing (kick-off and resource allocation).
• 25% at UAT sign-off (development complete).
• 25% on deployment and handover.

Hardware orders require 100% payment before dispatch. Custom-configured builds require 50% deposit before component procurement and 50% before shipping.

All invoices are final. Chargebacks filed without a documented technical merit will result in a permanent ban from all Drassine services, and legal recovery will be pursued in Lahore jurisdiction under Pakistani contract law.

Late payments beyond 15 days accrue a 2% monthly service charge.

7. Refund Policy

Software deposits are non-refundable once discovery and architecture phases are complete — those hours cannot be recovered.

Hardware refunds are honoured within the 7-day warranty window if the device fails to meet advertised specifications and cannot be repaired or replaced within 5 business days.

Custom-configured hardware builds (components ordered to Client specification) are non-refundable once procurement has begun, unless the delivered device materially deviates from the agreed specification.

8. Liability Limitations

Drassine Digital Engineering delivers high-performance systems, but our liability is bounded. We are not liable for:

• Indirect, incidental, or consequential damages — including lost profits, lost data, or business interruption.
• Data breaches resulting from Client-managed infrastructure, credentials, or third-party services.
• Service outages caused by cloud providers (AWS, DigitalOcean, Cloudflare), ISPs, or other external dependencies.
• Losses arising from Client modifications made after handover without our involvement.

In every case, our aggregate liability is limited to the amount paid by the Client for the specific service or product in question.

9. Support, Maintenance & SLA Tiers

Standard delivery includes 30 days of post-launch support covering defects, deployment issues, and minor adjustments within the original scope.

Extended maintenance is offered as a separate Service Level Agreement with three tiers:

• Standard: Business hours support, 48-hour response, monthly health report.
• Priority: Extended hours, 12-hour response, weekly monitoring and reporting.
• Critical: 24/7 response, 2-hour SLA on production incidents, dedicated engineering contact.

Support is restricted to the original scope. New features and enhancements are billed as separate engineering sprints at our published rates.

10. Force Majeure

Neither party is liable for delays caused by events beyond reasonable control — including natural disasters, government actions, prolonged utility failures, cyber-attacks on national infrastructure, or global supply chain disruptions. Both parties agree to negotiate in good faith on timeline adjustments when such events occur.

11. Client Data & Portability on Termination

The Client owns all data uploaded to systems we build. Upon termination for any reason, we export the Client's data in standard formats (SQL dumps, CSV, JSON) within 10 business days and delete our copies within 30 days.

Source code repositories, infrastructure credentials, and documentation are transferred as part of the standard handover process. You are never locked into our stack.

12. Jurisdiction & Dispute Resolution

These terms are governed by the laws of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Disputes are resolved through a three-tier escalation ladder:

• Tier 1: Direct discussion between project leads (5 business days).
• Tier 2: Formal Discovery Session with senior management (10 business days).
• Tier 3: Binding arbitration in Lahore under Pakistani arbitration law.

Both parties waive the right to class-action litigation. We strongly prefer data-driven dialogue over legal escalation — nearly all disputes are resolved at Tier 1.

13. Termination

Either party may terminate an engagement with 30 days' written notice. Drassine reserves the right to terminate immediately — without refund of paid deposits — if these terms are violated, if the Client engages in abusive behaviour toward our team, or if continuing the engagement would compromise our professional integrity. In such cases, deposits cover work-in-progress and are non-refundable.

14. Acknowledgment

By engaging our services or purchasing our hardware, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to the Drassine Quality Policy, Manifesto, Privacy Directive, and these Terms of Engagement. These documents together form the complete agreement between you and Drassine Digital Engineering.