| Terms and Conditions |
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| Thursday, 27 December 2007 | |
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Please ensure that you read and understand these conditions.) 1. Contract: The client’s approval either verbally or in writing for work to commence shall be deemed a contractual agreement between the client and Athena Design. Important: Approval for the work to commence indicates that the client accepts the terms and conditions outlined in this document. 2. Intellectual Copyright: Athena Design will hold intellectual copyright of any material, including any source code and original images created for the client until full payment has been received. At this time we will transfer this intellectual copyright to the client. Any scripts, cgi applications, php scripts, or software (unless specifically agreed) written by Athena Design remain the copyright of Athena Design and may only be commercially reproduced or resold with the permission of Athena Design 3. Clients Responsibilities with Regard to Copyright: In situations where the client provides images, text, animations or any other content for their website they are legally responsible for ensuring that this material does not infringe any copyright. Certain images provided by Athena Design in the construction of the website may have been purchased under licence from stock image suppliers. These images are generally only licensed for use on a single website and may not be used in publicity material. The website owner is legally responsible for ensuring that this does not happen. If you wish to use any images from the site for other purposes please contact us for clarification. We reserve the right to refuse any material of a copyrighted nature unless adequate proof is given of permission to use such material 4. Registration Charges: Unless explicitly stated otherwise, all third party costs arising from the registration of a domain name shall be met by the Client. Athena Design recommend that clients register their own domain names so that they have full ownership of these but where we have registered a domain name on the client’s behalf we agree to transfer this domain name to the client immediately upon request and without charge. 5. Search Engine Promotion: Monthly we submit clients sites to the top major search engines however unless explicitly stated otherwise, Athena Design are not responsible for the client’s on-going web site promotion. Should the client require the site to be promoted on an ongoing basis a separate contract must be agreed. The order in which websites are ranked in the natural search results is controlled by the search engines. While we can optimise your site for this we are unable to make any guarantees about the success of any search engine promotion activity. Athena Design will submit a client's website to several of the major search engines as part of the design commission. If a client wishes Athena Design to promote a web site as a separate commission, we will make every reasonable effort to promote the website effectively but cannot guarantee high placing in search engine results. Athena Design can accept no responsibility or liability if any search engine, online directory or search site, submitted to as part of a web site promotion commission, chooses not to list a client's web site. 6. Cancellation: Should the client wish to cancel at any point during the web design process they shall remain liable for the work that has taken place and shall be invoiced for the amount Athena Design judges to be proportional to the amount of work completed on the commission. Customers wishing to cancel a hosting, support or updating package must inform us before the invoice date otherwise full annual payment will be required. No partial refunds will be given for hosting, servicing or updating packages cancelled during the current agreements time period. 7. IMPORTANT! Failure to Provide Required Website Content: If, during the Website Development Cycle, the client does not supply the content required in order to complete the commission within a reasonable amount of time, Athena Design will consider that the client wishes to cancel the commission, and reserve the right to close the project (see Cancellation above). On any occasion where we cannot progress your website because you have not provided the required information/feedback when you have agreed to do so, and we are delayed as a result, Athena Design reserve the right to impose a surcharge of up to 25%. do not give us the go ahead to start until you are ready to do so. 8. Conceptualising: Concepts can include site mock ups, graphics and design proposals. For higher cost websites this will be included but for smaller sites (below £500) only one concept is possible. You should therefore ensure that you let us have your preferred colour scheme and design requirements beforehand. If you don’t do this we will design the website appropriately but if it is not to your taste we may not be able to rework the website without additional charges. This is why it is often best to show us another website that you like as an example of what you require. 9. Travel Time and Expenses: Travelling time to and from customer premises is not generally included in our estimate. Athena Design reserve the right to make a charge for travelling time at our normal consultancy rates. Likewise Athena Design reserve the right to charge for travelling expenses based on 45p per mile. (NOTE: There will be no charges for travelling time or expenses incurred before you give your approval for work to commence.) 10. Pricing & Quotations: The price quoted to the client is for the work agreed on the quotation only. Should the client decide that changes are required after work on the website commences, then we will accept these changes with the provision that additional charges may have to be negotiated. Athena Design reserves the right to alter prices at any time without notice. If a client has commissioned any services from Athena Design prior to a change in prices, that commission will not be subject to any increase, but any subsequent commission may be subject to an increase. 11. Payment terms: Payment is currently accepted by cheque or bankers draft in UK Pounds Sterling made payable to Pyramid IT Services Ltd, unless otherwise agreed. If your cheque is returned by the bank as unpaid for any reason, you will be liable for a "returned cheque" charge of £25. 12. Credit Card Payments: Credit card payments can also be accepted via our Paypal electronic invoice system. These are subject to a 4% surcharge. 13. Payment: Once a website has been designed and agreed ready for launch by the client, the balance of payment is then due in accordance with our payment terms. There are no exceptions to this, e.g. If the client decides they no longer want the site, Approval for the work to commence indicates that the client accepts the terms and conditions outlined in this document, therefore the client is still obliged to pay for the work that has been done. Non payment will result in legal action being taken if necessary. Full publication of the Web Pages may take place only after full payment has been received. Any material previously published may be removed if payment is not received. When this occurs a minimum charge of £50 will be required to have the site restored. 14. Late Payment: If accounts are not settled or Athena Design have not been contacted regarding the delay, access to the related website may be denied and web pages removed, we will then pass such cases to the Small Claims Court to pursue payment, non payment can result in county court judgements (ccj's) being added to the clients credit rating. Following consistent non payment of an invoice our Solicitors will contact the client in question, with a view to taking the matter further and if need be to seek payment through legal procedures, and if necessary court summons. 15. Website Design: Whilst every endeavour will be made to ensure that the website and any scripts or programs are free of errors, Athena Design cannot accept responsibility for any losses incurred due to malfunction, the website or any part of it. The client agrees to make available as soon as is reasonably possible to Athena Design all materials required to complete the site to the agreed standard and within the set deadline. Athena Design cannot always guarantee to start work immediately on a commission but will arrange a date with the client as to when work can commence. Athena Design will not be liable for costs incurred, compensation or loss of earnings due to the failure to meet agreed deadlines. Athena Design will not be liable or become involved in any disputes between the site owner and their clients and cannot be held responsible for any wrongdoing on the part of a site owner. Athena Design will not be liable for any costs incurred, compensation or loss of earnings due to the work carried out on behalf of the client or any of the clients appointed agents. Athena Design will initially place the client's website on one of Athena Design's demonstration servers/domain in order that the client may view and comment upon the website's progress. When both Athena Design and the client agree that the website meets the criteria agreed during the commissioning process, Athena Design will invoice the client for the full amount due for the commission. On receipt of full payment, Athena Design will publish the website to the client's server/domain, or provide the source code for the site via a download (or cd-rom disc) for the client to upload. The client is ultimately responsible for checking the correctness of the site before they give Athena Design the go ahead to make the site publicly available. When a client agrees that a site can be made publicly available they are agreeing that the design and development of the site has satisfied all their requirements. It is the clients responsibility to ensure that any web site is lawful, does not infringe any copyright or any other laws. It is also the clients responsibility to carry out any market research as to the viability and profitability of any project before accepting any quote. Athena Design reserve the right to refuse to construct a web site which we may judge as unfit due to content or otherwise. This includes, but is not limited by, sites containing adult oriented material such as pornography, sites which promote hatred towards persons belonging to any ethnic group, religion or sexual orientation and sites which infringe copyright or are contrary to UK laws. 16. Future Site Problems: Unfortunately malicious software, spyware, viruses and website hacking are facts of life on today’s Internet. It is highly unlikely that these will affect your website, and Athena Design will endeavour to protect it from this as much as we can during its creation, and any ongoing hosting with us. We cannot be held responsible for problems that develop on completed sites as a result of illegal activity. Athena Design cannot take responsibility for any losses incurred by the use of any software created for the client. Whilst every care has been taken to ensure products are problem free and accurate, the ultimate responsibility lies with the client in ensuring that all software is functioning correctly before use. The client is expected to test fully any application or programming relating to a site developed by Athena Design either before being made generally available for use, or within the 30 day ‘unlimited change’ period. Where "bugs", errors or other issues are found after this time, Athena Design will endeavour (but is not obliged to) to correct these issues to meet the standards of function outlined in the brief 17. Future Support: The website is provided to and accepted by the client as a fully functioning, completed work. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, by means of an ongoing support contract with us, Athena Design is not responsible for future support. Where no support contract exists, support can normally be provided upon request and for an agreed fee. No guarantee of future support is given unless an ongoing support package is negotiated. Athena Design offer annually renewable packages of hosting and support service agreements which can be purchased as part of a package or separately. These include hosting, content updating and search engine submissions. These packages are quoted for either on application or at time of quoting for a full project. Our content update service refers to any content, photographs or text which replaces any current content. It does not extend to producing new sections or pages unless otherwise explicitly stated. Hosting, support and updating services are annually renewable, package start dates are based on when the package or domain name is first registered and or when the web project goes live. Athena Design will not be liable for any costs incurred, compensation or loss of earnings due to the unavailability of the site, its servers, software or any material provided by its agents. 18. Hosting: Athena Design reserve the right to refuse to handle in any way, material which may be deemed offensive, illegal or in any way controversial, and also to terminate the hosting service should the necessity arise. Athena Design cannot accept liability for losses caused by the unavailability, malfunction or interruption of our hosting service, or for loss of turnover, sales, revenue, profits or indirect, consequential or special loss. Athena Design offer annually renewable packages of hosting and updating service agreements which can be purchased as part of a package or separately. These include hosting, content updating and search engine submissions. These packages are quoted for either on application or at time of quoting for a full project. Hosting, support and updating services are annually renewable, package start dates are based on when the package or domain name is first registered and or when the web project goes live. 19. Compatibility: Athena Design will endeavour to ensure that any developed / designed site or application will function correctly on the server it is initially installed in and that it will function correctly when viewed with the web browsing software Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 6 and to an acceptable level with Mozilla browsers. Athena Design can offer no guarantees of correct function with all browser software, or in new versions of browsers released after pages have been designed. 20. Compliance with Ecommerce, Accessibility or Other Regulations: We design websites in accordance with the client’s specifications. It is the client’s responsibility to ensure that the website and its content comply with standing regulations. We cannot accept responsibility for any failure to comply with regulations related to accessibility, selling online or those related to a specific business or trade. We can research this on the client’s behalf upon request, but in any business where complex compliance issues exist we recommend that the client takes legal advice from their company lawyer. Notes: Should Athena Design waive any of these terms on an individual basis, this shall not affect the validity of remaining clauses or commit Athena Design to waive the same clause on any other occasion. By agreeing to these terms and conditions your statutory rights are not affected. Athena Design reserves the right to change or modify any of these terms or conditions at any time. Should clarification of any of the above be required please contact us. Steve Clifford Athena Design This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it www.athenadesign.co.uk Mobile: 07817 956646 Complaints Procedure We take customer satisfaction very seriously and will investigate your complaint promptly and thoroughly. Informal procedure Anyone who experiences a problem with their web service provided by Athena Design should raise the matter directly by email, giving sufficient information to locate the material (such as an url) and clearly outlining the grounds for complaint. Athena Design will approach the individual responsible for the material in question with a view to resolving the matter to the satisfaction of the complainant. Formal complaints procedure The formal complaints procedure should only be used where the complainant feels that the nature of the complaint is too serious to be dealt with informally, or where a satisfactory conclusion has not been reached after following the informal procedure. A formal complaint should be made in writing to Athena Design , who will acknowledge receipt and ensure that the matter is looked into as soon as possible. An initial response to any complaint can be expected within seven days of its receipt; a full and considered response to the complaint should be completed within 30 days and any subsequent remedy implemented with the minimum of delay. |