Buying and delivery
What happens when you buy a dataset - the price, the VAT, the invoice, how the file reaches you and what to do if something is wrong with it.
Everything on DataSteak is bought outright. There is no plan to join and nothing recurring on a dataset purchase.
What you are buying
A dataset as it stands when you buy it. Datasets are published in editions, and you are buying the current one, prepared and delivered as a file.
The data standards page describes what that file looks like when it lands: the format, the column conventions, and what the quality figures on the product page mean.
Price and VAT
The price on the product page is the price you pay. It includes VAT at the UK standard rate of 20%, and the VAT is worked out of that figure rather than added to it.
So a £49 product is £40.83 plus £8.17 of VAT. It is not £49 plus VAT.
We display it that way because the site sells to individuals as well as businesses, and a consumer is entitled to see what they will actually be charged rather than a number that grows at the last step.
Your invoice
A VAT invoice is produced for every purchase and emailed to you. It carries our registered company details, our company number and our VAT number, so it is the document your accountant needs rather than a payment confirmation you then have to chase.
Card payments are handled by Stripe. We never see or store your card details.
How the file reaches you
The file does not exist until you ask for it. Each download runs the dataset's query and streams the result to you, which is why a large one starts arriving before it has finished being built.
There are two routes to it.
The link in your receipt email. Valid for 30 days and 5 downloads. It works without signing in, which is what makes it convenient and also why it is limited: anyone holding that link can use it, so it is treated as something that could be passed on.
Your account. Sign in and download from Purchase history, or from Datasets under Work, which is the page listing what this account owns. Up to 15 downloads. This route needs a live session rather than a link, so it cannot be forwarded to anyone.
A download counts from the moment it starts. If one fails partway, it has still used one. That is deliberate, because otherwise a script could pull the same file repeatedly by aborting each time. If a download fails on you, get in touch with your order reference and we will put it back.
The same applies if you genuinely need more than the limit allows. Ask, and say what you are doing. These are fair-use numbers, not a meter.
If you bought as a guest, the emailed link is your only route, because there is no account for the file to belong to. Creating an account with the same email before you buy is worth the thirty seconds.
Who on your team can get it
If you buy through an account with more than one person on it, Members can reach the datasets the account owns without being shown the purchases. Purchase history, prices and invoices are Owner and Admin only.
That split is deliberate. The person who needs the data is usually not the person who pays for it, and neither of them should have to go through the other. Your DataSteak account explains how the roles work.
Cancelling, if you are a consumer
This applies to consumers only. Business buyers have no cancellation right.
You normally have 14 days to cancel a purchase of digital content. Because our files are delivered immediately, that right ends as soon as you download.
At checkout you are asked to confirm two things: that you want the file straight away, and that you understand you give up the right to cancel once you download it. If you do not confirm it, we cannot deliver immediately. If you confirm it and then download, the 14 days no longer apply.
If you confirmed it but have not downloaded yet, you keep the right. Email us within 14 days and we will refund in full.
If something is wrong with the file
Separately from any cancellation right, and for consumers and businesses alike:
You get a full refund where the file does not match what the product page promised. Wrong data, the wrong filter applied, or a file that fails entirely.
Once you have downloaded a file that does match its description, we do not refund it. A file cannot be returned, and the work of preparing it has been done.
Email us with your order reference and what is wrong with it. A person reads every claim and replies. There is no automated refund button, because these need looking at rather than processing.
The terms are the authoritative version of all of this, and the pricing and licensing page covers what you may do with the data once you have it.
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Every dataset says where it came from, what is in it and how often it refreshes.