Anti-lock-in pledge · ADR-0268 I-2
The four pledges. Read before you sign anything.
The single most common reason businesses regret hiring an agency is that they cannot leave. Twelve-month contracts. Ad accounts under the agency's MCC. Auto-renewal traps. The old agency refuses to hand back the negative-keyword list — the new agency spends £13,000 in five days relearning what the old one already knew.
We refuse to be that agency. Every engagement carries these four pledges, on the public record, in plain English. If we ever fail to honour one, you have written grounds to walk with the engagement balance refunded.
Pledge 1
30-day rolling contract by default.
Every tier ships month-to-month. No 12-month lock-ins. Annual prepay is available with a published discount; it is never required. You cancel any month, for any reason, in writing. We honour the cancellation; we don't argue.
Why this matters: 67% of agency clients are dissatisfied inside the first year. Locking them in for the full twelve only makes the dissatisfaction visible at month thirteen.
Pledge 2
You own everything. The accounts are yours from day one.
Ad accounts in your name on your billing. Analytics on your domain. Pixels in your Tag Manager. Creative assets delivered as source files. Audience lists, conversion data, and campaign history exported on request, any time. We work inside your containers; we never hold them.
Why this matters: Walking away from an agency that owns your data is not walking away — it is starting over with the meter at zero. We refuse to be that agency.
Pledge 3
Seven-day exit pack. Plus a thirty-day support window. Knox signs it off.
When you announce cancellation, we ship within seven calendar days: every artefact handed over, every credential reset, every account-ownership transfer completed. Knox audits each category — ad accounts, analytics, pixels, creative, audience lists, conversion data, campaign history, credentials, brand voice artefacts, CRM data. Then for thirty days after the pack lands, your next agency or in-house team can ask any question and we answer in writing, from a named owner, free. One final clean hand-off, not a silent door close.
Why this matters: Most exits are the moment trust collapses. We treat the exit pack with more discipline than the onboarding pack, because if we have to part ways, the parting is the last thing you remember. The thirty-day support window is the World Class extension above the seven-day standard — the next team should never start cold.
Pledge 4
Auto-renewal is forbidden in our contracts.
After the first month, the engagement continues month-to-month. There is no rolling 12-month renewal. There is no 60-day cancel window. There is no chargeback to the bank to make the billing stop. You stay because the monthly outcome report card stays green; you leave because it does not. That is the whole arrangement.
Why this matters: Auto-renewal traps are the industry's worst-loved practice. We do not need them — if the report cards are green, you stay anyway.
The exit pack categories. All ten.
When you cancel, Knox audits every category in the list below. Each one either gets transferred to you (with a signed timestamp) or marked "not applicable" (engagement never touched that surface). Nothing can be silently omitted. The typed pack record is archived for audit.
- Ad account ownership
- Analytics access
- Pixel tracking
- Creative assets
- Audience lists
- Conversion data
- Campaign history
- Credentials reset
- Brand voice artefacts
- CRM data export
Schema reference: atelier.agents.EngagementExitPack in the public repo. Operator-side, every artefact carries a timestamp and an owner; client-side, you receive the typed handover record alongside the assets themselves.
What happens if we break a pledge.
Each pledge is contractually binding. If we miss the seven-day exit-pack SLA, you receive the most recent month's fee refunded automatically. If an ad account turns out to be in our name rather than yours, the next month's fee is refunded automatically. The pledges are not slogans; they have financial teeth.
The reason these pledges have teeth is that they have to. Brand-promise discipline without financial consequence is just marketing. We didn't want the discipline without the consequence.
Start with a free profile.
Read the four pledges. Read the monthly report shape on /proof. If both look honest, take us up on the free profile — no contract, no card, no commitment until you sign the engagement.