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Billing & invoices

This page covers how purchases work, who you're actually paying, where to find your invoices, and our refund policy.

Who you're paying

We process payments through Lemon Squeezy, which is the merchant of record for every TEC purchase. In practice:

  • On your credit card or bank statement, the charge will appear as LEMONSQUEEZY*TEC or similar (the exact wording varies by card issuer). It will not say "TEC" or "tec.design" on its own.
  • Lemon Squeezy handles tax collection on our behalf — VAT, GST, US sales tax, depending on your country.
  • Lemon Squeezy issues the tax invoice. The invoice has both Lemon Squeezy's company details (as the seller of record) and your details (as the buyer), and lists the TEC product you purchased.

This is a normal and well-established model for software companies — Paddle and FastSpring work the same way. We use it because it lets us sell into 100+ countries without each of us individually registering for tax in each one.

Buying

Each app has its own buy page:

  • Moonshine — [Buy at moonshine.software/buy]
  • Starlight — [Buy at starlight.tec.design/buy]
  • Owlette — [Buy at owlette.tec.design/buy]

Checkout is a Lemon Squeezy page. You'll enter your email, your card details, and your billing address. After payment, you'll get two emails:

  1. A receipt from Lemon Squeezy with your tax invoice attached.
  2. A welcome email from TEC with your magic link and license key.

If you only see one, check spam — they sometimes arrive a minute or two apart.

Where your invoices live

Inside your TEC ID dashboard, the Billing tab shows every purchase you've made. Each row has:

  • The date
  • The product
  • The amount (in the currency you paid in)
  • A Download invoice button

That button takes you straight to the Lemon Squeezy-hosted invoice PDF, ready for your accountant or your records.

[Screenshot: Billing tab showing purchase history]

You'll also always have the original receipt email — invoices don't change, so the copy in your inbox is just as valid as the dashboard copy.

Updating your payment method

For subscription licenses (Owlette), you'll occasionally need to update the card we charge — when it expires, when you switch banks, etc.

In your dashboard, open Billing, find the subscription, and click Update payment method. That opens a secure Lemon Squeezy page where you can enter the new card. We never see or store your card number — Lemon Squeezy handles it.

The change takes effect on the next billing cycle. If you're updating because of a failed payment, it'll retry within an hour.

What if a payment fails

For subscriptions: if a card payment fails (expired card, insufficient funds, fraud-block), we'll:

  1. Email you immediately and mark the subscription as past due in your dashboard.
  2. The app will show a small banner inside it: "There's a problem with your payment. [Update payment method]". The app keeps working.
  3. We'll retry the charge automatically over the next several days.
  4. If we still can't collect after about a week, the subscription becomes expired and the app stops working until you update payment.

You can fix this at any time by updating your payment method from the dashboard. Once we successfully charge, the app comes back to life immediately.

Refunds

Perpetual licenses (Moonshine, Starlight)

We offer a 14-day money-back guarantee. If you decide the app isn't for you within 14 days of purchase, email support@tec.design with your order number (in the receipt email) and we'll process the refund — no need to explain yourself.

The refund typically lands back on your card within 5–10 business days, depending on your bank.

After 14 days, we generally can't refund a perpetual purchase. Exceptions: if the app has a serious defect that prevents you from using it and we can't fix it, we'll refund regardless of how long it's been.

Subscriptions (Owlette)

You can cancel any time. When you cancel:

  • The subscription stays active until the end of the period you've already paid for.
  • We don't charge you again.
  • After the period ends, the app stops working.

We don't refund the current period when you cancel. This is standard practice for subscription software — you've already had access to the service for the period, and prorated refunds would multiply our support workload significantly. (If we charged you yesterday and you've never opened the app, that's a different story — just email support.)

Refund exceptions we have to honor

A handful of cases override our normal policy:

  • Statutory right of withdrawal in the EU/UK — if you bought as a consumer (not a business) and you withdraw within 14 days, you have a right to a refund. We honor this for subscriptions too, in the EU/UK, even though our standard policy is no current-period refund. Just email us.
  • Fraudulent charge on your card — if you genuinely didn't buy from us, your bank's chargeback process is the right path. We won't dispute it.

VAT, GST, and tax IDs

If you're a registered business with a valid VAT/GST number, you may be able to make the purchase tax-free (a "reverse-charge" purchase). On the Lemon Squeezy checkout, look for the "I'm buying as a business" option and enter your number. The system validates it in real time.

If you forgot to enter your VAT number at checkout, contact us within 30 days and we can usually reissue the invoice. After 30 days, the tax has already been remitted and reissuance gets complicated — we'll do our best, but no promises.

Pricing summary

For convenience, here's what each app costs:

App Standard Founders (first 200 waitlist) Billing
Moonshine $549 $399 One-time
Starlight $799 $599 One-time
Owlette Core $10/month — Monthly per machine
Owlette Pro $50/month — Monthly, 3-machine minimum ($150/mo)

All prices in USD, exclusive of any local taxes. Tax is added at checkout based on your billing country.