Subscription & Billing Terms
Kit cadence, ship windows, renewal dates, the cancel-before-the-20th rule, pauses, gifts, prepaid plans and school invoicing.
These Subscription and Billing Terms explain exactly how a MazeCrafts monthly kit plan works: when boxes are built, when cards are charged, how to pause or cancel, and how schools pay on a purchase order. They sit alongside our Terms of Service and form part of the same agreement with MazeCrafts Labs, Inc.
1. What a subscription includes
Every monthly plan delivers one physical maze-construction kit graded for the age band you choose, the printable companion pack for that build, portal access to the build video and solution walkthrough, and free replacement of any missing or broken part. School plans add lesson plans mapped to common science and engineering practices, a classroom risk-assessment sheet, and extra copies of the printable pack for the licensed group.
2. Box cadence and ship windows
Kits are produced in monthly batches. We cut, sand and pack in the first half of the month, then hand parcels to carriers in a predictable window so families and teachers can plan around them.
| Stage | When it happens | What you receive |
|---|---|---|
| Cut-off for changes | Twentieth of the month, 11:59 pm Pacific | Last chance to skip, pause, cancel or change age band |
| Renewal charge | First of the following month | Payment receipt by email |
| Production and packing | Second to seventh of the month | Preparation notice with the build theme |
| Ship window | Eighth to twelfth of the month | Tracking number by email |
| Typical arrival | Tenth to twentieth of the month | Kit, printable pack and portal unlock |
School term plans follow the same cadence but hold September and January deliveries to the first teaching week where a district asks us to. Transit times and carrier detail are in our Shipping and Returns policy.
3. Renewal date logic and the cancel-before-the-20th rule
Subscriptions renew automatically. Whatever day you first subscribe, your billing date is normalised to the first of the month so that everyone in a batch receives the same build in the same window. Your first charge is taken at checkout, and each subsequent charge is taken on the first of the month.
The single date that matters is the twentieth. Any change you want reflected in next month’s box must be saved before 11:59 pm Pacific on the twentieth of the current month. That includes cancelling, pausing, skipping, moving to a different age band, switching between home and classroom quantities, and changing your delivery address.
- Cancel on or before the twentieth: no further charge, and the box you already paid for still ships.
- Cancel on the twenty-first or later: the first-of-month charge has already been committed to the production batch, so that box ships and your subscription then ends. There is no further renewal.
We send a reminder email seven days before each cut-off, and the account area always shows your next cut-off date, next charge date and next ship window in plain language. If a cut-off falls on a public holiday it does not move; the twentieth is the twentieth.
4. Pausing and skipping a month
You can skip a single month or pause for two, three or six months from the account area, at no charge and without losing your build sequence. A skipped month simply is not billed, and your next box resumes the sequence where you left off rather than jumping ahead. Pauses longer than six months are treated as a cancellation, and we will email before that happens. Pausing does not extend a prepaid plan’s coverage beyond twenty-four months from purchase.
5. Changing plan or age band
Children grow faster than product roadmaps. Move between the 5+, 8+ and 11+ tracks at any time before a cut-off, and the next box arrives in the new band. Where a build depends on parts from an earlier kit, the portal flags it and we include the bridging parts free with your first box in the new band. Upgrades to a higher-priced band take effect at the next renewal; downgrades take effect at the next renewal and are never back-credited.
6. Gift subscriptions
Gift plans are prepaid for three, six or twelve boxes and never auto-renew, so the giver is never surprised by a charge. The recipient receives a redemption email on the date you choose and enters their own delivery address, which means you do not need it at checkout. Gifts start with the next production batch after redemption. Unredeemed gifts stay valid for twelve months and are refundable to the giver in full within that period. A recipient may add their own card to continue as a normal monthly plan once the gift boxes are delivered, and that choice is theirs alone.
7. Prepaid six and twelve month plans
| Plan | Billing | Saving versus monthly | Renewal behaviour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | Charged on the first of each month | None | Renews monthly until cancelled |
| Six month prepaid | One charge at checkout | Ten percent | Renews as a new six month term unless cancelled |
| Twelve month prepaid | One charge at checkout | Eighteen percent | Renews as a new twelve month term unless cancelled |
| School term plan | Invoiced per term or annually | Quoted per tier | Renews on written confirmation only |
Prepaid terms renew at the end of the prepaid period, and we email a renewal notice thirty days beforehand showing the price and the date. Cancel a prepaid renewal before the twentieth of the month preceding the renewal date and nothing is charged. If you cancel mid-term, we refund the unshipped boxes at the price you actually paid per box, less any promotional discount that was conditional on completing the term.
8. School purchase orders and net-30 invoicing
Schools, districts, libraries and non-profits may buy on a purchase order instead of a card. Send your purchase order to [email protected] with the billing contact, remittance address, tax exemption certificate where applicable, and the sites to be served. We return a signed quote, a W-9 and our vendor details, and we can complete most district vendor-onboarding portals within five business days.
- Invoices are issued on despatch of the first box in the term and are payable net thirty days from the invoice date.
- Minimum purchase order value for invoicing is five hundred United States dollars; smaller school orders can be paid by card or school procurement card.
- We do not charge interest on a first late invoice. Invoices more than sixty days overdue may pause future despatches until the balance clears, and we will always telephone the billing contact before pausing a classroom.
- Termly plans can be aligned to your academic calendar, including a summer hold at no cost.
9. Taxes
Prices exclude sales tax. We calculate and collect state and local sales tax where we have an obligation to do so, based on your delivery address, and we show the amount before you confirm payment. Canadian orders are shipped on delivered-duty-unpaid terms, so goods and services tax, provincial tax and any duty are collected by the carrier or border agency at import; see Shipping and Returns for detail. Tax-exempt institutions must send a valid exemption certificate before invoicing; we cannot retroactively remove tax from a settled invoice.
10. Payment methods, failed payments and dunning
We accept major credit and debit cards and, for schools, purchase orders and bank transfer. Card details are held by our payment processor, not by us. Keep your card current; the account area shows the expiry month and warns you sixty days ahead.
If a renewal charge fails, we follow a fixed and gentle schedule:
| Attempt | Timing | What we send |
|---|---|---|
| First | Day of the failure | Email with a one-click card update link |
| Second | Three days later | Email reminder, box held in production queue |
| Third | Seven days later | Final notice with pause offer |
| Suspension | Fourteen days after the failure | Subscription paused, portal access retained for sixty days |
A paused subscription can be restarted at any time within sixty days with your build sequence intact. We never add a failed-payment fee. If a bank reports a card as lost or stolen we stop retrying immediately and wait for you.
11. Chargebacks
If something is wrong, contact [email protected] before disputing a charge; we can almost always fix it faster than a bank can. Where a chargeback is raised on a delivered and undisputed order, we may suspend the account until the dispute resolves and may decline future card orders from that account.
12. Refunds and returns
Subscription refunds follow the thirty-day satisfaction guarantee, the missing-parts replacement process and the return steps set out in our Shipping and Returns policy. In short: unopened boxes can be returned within thirty days of delivery for a full refund, opened boxes qualify for a refund or credit if the build was not what we promised, and printable downloads are not refundable once accessed. Digital licence terms are in the Terms of Service.
13. Changes to these terms
We may change these billing terms with at least thirty days’ notice by email to affected subscribers. Notices state what is changing, when, and how to cancel before the change applies. Changes never affect a period you have already paid for. The effective date at the top of this page reflects the current version, and prior versions are available from [email protected] on request.
14. Contact
Billing and subscription questions: [email protected]. Schools and invoicing: [email protected]. Telephone +1 (503) 555-0142, Monday to Friday. Post: MazeCrafts Labs, Inc., 214 Birchwood Ave, Suite 3, Portland, OR 97214, USA.