Terms & Conditions

Updated 20th April 2013

Definition of our terminology as used within this document:

  1. A ‘Project’ is any work undertaken or service provided by THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY for the client on their request and as described in our confirmation order email to that Client.
  2. ‘You’ or ‘Client,’ is a person, persons, business or organisation using any of the services provided by THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY.
  3. ‘We’ or ‘us’, means THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY
  4. ‘Live Mode’ means the date the website is available on the client’s chosen domain.
  5. ‘Domain’ is the website address as specified by the client.
  6. ‘Hosting’ is the method by which we keep a clients website and email services activated online.
  7. ‘Content’ is both text and images that the client requires on the website.

General

  1. The contract between THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY and the client will be on these conditions, to the exclusion of all other terms and conditions. Any variations to these conditions shall have no effect unless agreed in writing.
  2. The works to be carried out shall be as set out in THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY invoice which can be found attached to the confirmation order email.

Legalities, Copyright and Intellectual Property

  1. THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY shall expect the client to carry out sufficient research before proceeding with a website. This will include checking that the website/idea/business will operate legally. It is important that the website is not in any way illegal. Please ensure that any images or content you supply or use on your website, is legally available for you to use. We cannot be held responsible for the illegal use of images, content or format of material supplied by the client. THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY reserve the right to remove any website from its servers if it has reason to believe that it is operating illegally.
  2. Where images used on the website have been purchased by THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY on behalf of the client, these images are restricted by license for use on the website only. THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY are not liable for misuse of these images by the client or any other person’s copying, altering or distributing the images to individuals or other organisations.
  3. THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY makes no claims that the contents of this website may be lawfully viewed or downloaded outside of The European Union. Access to this website may not be legal by certain persons or in certain countries. If this website is accessed from outside of the European Union, it is done at own risk and the visitor is responsible for compliance with the relevant laws of the visitor’s jurisdiction. The terms and conditions of this website are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Jurisdiction for any claims arising in respect of this website’s content shall lie exclusively with the courts of England. If any provision of these terms and conditions is found to be invalid by any Court having competent jurisdiction, the invalidity of such provision shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions of these terms and conditions, which shall remain in full force and effect.
  4. THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY cannot be held responsible for anything adversely affecting the Client’s business operation, sales, or profitability that might be claimed is a result of a service offered by THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY.

Paying for your project

  1. We charge for the design and development of websites at various stages. Before we start work, a 50% deposit of the total sum due is payable (the deposit). The final 50% is payable when the website is complete and ready to ‘go-live’ (final payment) Your website will only be switched to ‘live’ mode when it has been paid for, in full. The initial deposit payment is non-refundable after THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY has committed resource or completed research and/or design work on the client’s behalf.
  2. THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY own all design and code of the website until final payment has been received in full.

Communication

  1. Email is our primary method of contact with regard to all communication for your websites design and development. We have designers and developers working for us in various parts of the world as well as here in the UK. Email is obviously the most efficient and cost-effective form of contact. If you have any problems with the design or development of your website that your developer is unable to resolve by email, you can contact our support service. For geographical reasons, direct telephone contact with your assigned designer/developer maybe impractical.
  2. It is the client’s responsibility to inform us of any change in email address so we always have valid contact details. We cannot be held liable in any way for problems relating to communication issues if we are not supplied with a valid email address.
  3. It is important for the client to keep in contact with THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY throughout the entire project. If a client does not make contact for more than 2 weeks, we will make up to 5 attempts to contact the client by email using the email address for the client held on file. If we do not receive a response to these attempts of contact the project may be terminated, and the deposit will not be refunded. If the client wishes to postpone the project for a period of longer than 2 weeks, please contact us. Otherwise the project may be archived. We reserve the right to levy a £100 administration fee if the client returns after an unapproved postponement where the time since last contact is less than 6 months and wishes to continue work on their project.
  4. If a client returns from an unapproved postponement and the last contact is more than 6 months, we shall need to provide a new quotation for the project and your original deposit will be non refundable or transferable.

Website Design and Development

  1. Design is subjective, and for this reason we offer ‘unlimited design revisions’. This means that we will continue to work with you on your design concept until you are happy with our proposal. The unlimited design revision period ends when the client accepts the design proposal. Design changes beyond this point are subject to additional charges.
  2. THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY will provide the client with an expected completion time frame for the project (live on the internet) if requested.
  3. Open Source software (OSS) is publically available software that may be adapted or modified to suit particular applications. OSS may be used to help develop elements of the functionality of the client’s website to speed development and add functionality. Where Open Source software is used, the ownership of the site coding and any customisations made by the developer is still passed to the client upon final payment.

Hosting and Search Engine Optimisation

    1. THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY will host the website in all cases on behalf of the client. In doing so, THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY will provide a reliable and professional service to the client at all times, excluding unavoidable technical failures.
    2. THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY hosting is annually renewable. The date of renewal will be 12 calendar months from the date the website was made live.
    3. The hosting renewal charge must be received within 10 days of the hosting expiry date. We reserve the right to deactivate any website when the hosting has expired and the client has not paid the renewal charge. We reserve the right to charge an administration fee of £100 for reactivating the website/hosting.
    4. If the client does not wish to renew the hosting the site files and associated data can be made available to the client fee free on request and the domain name can be transferred to the client’s registrar account. Should the client instruct us to upload and configure the site and domain name to a third party server this work will be subject to charge.
    5. THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY reserve the right to delete the website from our servers 3 months after the date your hosting expired if you choose to not renew the hosting.
    6. THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY do not take any responsibility for a client’s website rank on search engines. This also includes any potential website downtime that can occur. When updating, changing, creating and hosting a client’s website, there could be a change in the websites search engine ranking.
    7. THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY will not under any circumstances allow access to 3rd parties to its servers. This is to ensure the security and integrity of our network and your data.
    8. THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY retains all licenses for themes and plugins on your website. If you transfer to another company these will need to be purchased again and paid for bi-annually to keep them valid. We cannot guarantee they will work on other hosts due to spec variations. Free and low cost hosting is generally not sufficient for these programs to run. The same applies to custom work we have created that can be very demanding of servers and need specialist setups.

Domain Names and Links

  1. Where required, a domain name will be registered by THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY on behalf of the client once we have received payment in full. Although the domain names are registered to us, the client is the legal owner of the domain and if they request to have details changed or the domain transferred elsewhere, we will do this within a reasonable timeframe.
  2. THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY provides links or references to our client’s websites solely for the convenience of prospective customers and intends that the links it provides be current and accurate, but does not guarantee or warrant that such links will point to the intended client site at all times.
  3. We place a small text link on the footer of our client’s website that simply states the website was designed by THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY and links to our company website. This link cannot be removed without incurring a £500 charge, as this is our main form of advertising and the reason our prices are so competitive.

Support

  1. While a website is hosted with THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY, we shall monitor and maintain any issues that may arise 24/7. Within a reasonable time period we will look to fix any issues with the website which are not due to a customers doing. This may mean the occasional restriction on services but these will be kept to the absolute minimum.
  2. THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY email accounts are available on any device that supports email. THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY will provide instructions on how to setup email on these devices via our support area on our website. We are not able to provide email or phone support for these devices.
  • (*) THE WEB DESIGN COMPANY will not tolerate any form of harassment against it’s employees from customers or third parties and we reserve the right to cancel a contract without refund in the event of unreasonable or inappropriate conduct. This includes threatening behaviour and abuse directed towards our employees thereafter any further communication must be via postal mail only.