Terms & Conditions

Summary

We will always do our best to fulfil your needs and meet your goals, but sometimes it’s best to have a few things written down so that we both know what’s what, who should do what and what happens if something goes wrong. In this contract you won’t find complicated legal terms or long passages of unreadable text. We have no desire to trick you into signing something that you might later regret. We do want what’s best for the safety of both parties, now and in the future.

In Short

You are hiring us (Studio 72) to perform the services we have been hired to do for the estimated total price as outlined in our proposal. Of course it’s a little more complicated, but we’ll get to that.

What do both parties agree to do?

As our customer, you have the authority to enter into this contract on behalf of your company or organisation. You agree to provide us with everything that we’ll need to complete the project – including final versions of text, images and other information – as and when we need it and in the format we ask for. You agree to review our work, provide feedback and approval in a timely manner too. Deadlines work two ways and you’ll also be bound by any dates that we set together. You also agree to stick to the payment schedule set out at the end of this contract.

We have the experience and ability to perform the services you need from us and we will carry them out in a professional and timely manner. Along the way we will endeavour to meet all the deadlines set but we can’t be responsible for a missed launch date or a deadline if you have been late in supplying materials or have not approved or signed off our work on-time at any stage. On top of this we’ll also maintain the confidentiality of any information that you give us.

Getting Down to the Nitty Gritty

Project Timeline

You agree that this project will be completed between 1 to 8 weeks and no later than 8 weeks from the date of the invoice and the appropriate payments made except where you have been previously notified of a different period.

Client’s Availability

You agree to be the single point of contact for this project and to be available via email and phone, for clarifying requirements for design, key features, usability and maintenance issues including feedback and changes. We require you to answer questions arising from the project within 24-48 hrs on weekdays, subject to reasonable exceptions. If you are unresponsive to communications, we reserve the right to reschedule your project to a later date or to consider the project completed.

Content

You agree to provide final versions all content such as text, images and other information that may be required by us to effectively complete the project and in the format we ask for.  If the content requested by us are not provided within 5 business days of the commencement of the project, we reserve the right to use placeholder images and dummy text or reschedule your project to a later date.

Text Content

We may have written a hundred blog posts but we’re not responsible for writing or inputting any text copy unless we specified it in the original estimate. We’ll be happy to help though, and in addition to the estimate we will charge you at our standard copy writing or content input rate.

Graphics and Photographs

You will supply us graphics and photographs in a high resolution digital format. If you choose to buy stock photographs we can suggest vendors of stock photography. Any time we spend searching for appropriate photographs will be charged at our standard discovery rate.

Design

We create designs and flexible layouts that adapt to the capabilities of many devices and screen sizes. We create designs iteratively and use predominantly HTML and CSS so we won’t waste time mocking up every template as a static visual. We’ll create designs for the look-and-feel, layout and functionality of your website. This contract includes one main design plus the opportunity for you to make up to two rounds of revisions. If you’re not happy with the designs at this stage, you may continue to commission us to make further design revisions at our standard design rates.

Browser Testing

The landscape of web browsers and devices changes regularly and our approach is to look forward, not back. With that in mind, all our designs use web standards and will work in current versions of all major browsers. Users of older or less capable browsers or devices will experience a design that is appropriate to the capabilities of their software.

We do not cater for people using Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and cannot predict the behaviour of that browser.

We will not test old or abandoned browsers, for example Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or 5.5 for Windows or Mac, previous versions of Apple’s Safari, Mozilla Firefox or Opera unless otherwise specified. If you need us to consider these older browsers, we will charge you at our standard old browser rate for any necessary additional design work, development and testing.

Changes and Revisions

We know from plenty of experience that fixed-price contracts are rarely beneficial to you, as they often limit you to your first idea about how something should look, or how it might work. We don’t want to limit either your options or your opportunities to change your mind.

The estimate/quotation prices you received are based on the amount of work we estimate we’ll need to accomplish everything that you have told us you want to achieve. If you do want to change your mind, add extra pages or templates or even add new functionality, that won’t be a problem. However, you will be charged accordingly and these additional costs will need to be agreed to before the extra work commences. This additional work will affect deadlines and they will be moved accordingly. We’ll be up front about all of this if and when it happens to make sure we’re all on the same page before proceeding. We may also ask you to put requests in writing so we can keep track of changes. If the nature or functions of the project change significantly throughout the process, we reserve the right to deem the current project cancelled. At this point you will pay us in full for all the work we have done and may commission us to complete the new project based on the new requirements. This will require a new quote and contract.

Dependencies

In the event that any aspect of this Contract is dependant on a separate third party or your in house team, the quality and punctuality of the project may be subject to said party’s ability to meet the required timelines and/or level of quality. We will not responsible for any delays or defects caused by a separate third party or your in house teams. If you’d like us to attend to any defects caused by a separate third party or your in house teams, please let us know and we can provide a separate estimate for that.

Response Time

We are not set up to support on call services. We will make every effort to reply to inquiries within 48-72 hours except where you have been previously notified of a period of limited availability. We will respond in good faith but cannot guarantee any specific action within a given time frame. If you’d like us to attend to any work immediately, please let us know and we can provide a separate estimate for that.

Technical Support

You may already have professional website hosting, you might even manage that hosting in-house; if that’s the case, great. If you don’t manage your own website hosting, or your current hosting environment does not support the solution we are providing, we can set up an account for you at one of our preferred, third-party hosting providers. We will charge you a one-off fee for installing your site on this server, plus any statistics software such as Google Analytics, then the updates to, and management of that server, plus any support issues will be up to you. We are not a website hosting company and so do not offer or include technical support for website hosting, email or other services relating to website hosting.

Backups

We maintain internal backups of active project code and design files. This backup system is not intended as a solution for you, rather as a code archive through the duration of this Contract. While we may have backups of active project code and design files, it is not guaranteed and does not support any content produced by you. You are solely responsible for the backup and restoration of the final versions of the project and any associated data.

Security

Although we make every effort to provide secure versions of the project, due to the nature of rapidly advancing technology, we can in no way guarantee that the project will not be subject to security breaches. We recommend the use of strong passwords and the observance of standard security practices. In order to minimize the chances of security violations, systems should be updated often. You are solely responsible for tracking software updates. If you need us to apply any updates during the life of or after the expiration of the Contract, we can provide a separate estimate for that.

Legal Stuff

We can’t guarantee that the functions contained in any web page templates or in a completed website will always be error-free and so we can’t be liable to you or any third party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages arising out of the operation of or inability to operate this website and any other web pages, even if you have advised us of the possibilities of such damages.

If any provision of this agreement shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this agreement and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

Copyrights

You guarantee to us that any elements of text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, or other artwork that you provide us for inclusion in the website are either owned by your good selves, or that you have permission to use them.

When we receive your final payment, copyright is automatically assigned as follows:

You own the graphics and other visual elements that we create for you for this project.

We’ll give you a copy of all files and you should store them really safely as we are not required to keep them or provide any native source files we used to make them.

You also own text content, photographs and other data you provided, unless someone else owns them. We own the unique combination of these elements that constitutes a complete design including the markup, CSS and other code and we license it to you for use on only this project, unless we agree otherwise. If you wish to resell or redistribute this design, we can provide a separate estimate for that.

We love to show off our work and share what we have learned with other people, so we reserve the right to display and link to your completed project as part of our portfolio and to write about the project on websites, in magazine articles and in books.

Training

Some of our packages offer a free training session which must be completed within 2 weeks after the completion of the project or the free training session will expire and our current hourly rate for training will apply.

Payments

We’re sure you understand how important it is as a small business that you pay the invoices that we send you promptly. As we’re also sure you’ll want to stay friends, you agree to stick tight to the following payment schedule.

For balances over $999, a 50% deposit paid prior to any work been carried out and the 50% balance paid prior to delivery of the project.

For balances under $999, or for all services related to Advertising, Marketing, and SEO, a 100% deposit is required up front prior to any work been carried out.

All deposits are non refundable.

NB: If you are unable to supply all of the right content at this stage, it does not mean we have not done our job. Once the site has been tested and is ready to go live, either with your content or placeholder images and dummy text, we will issue the final invoice. Once the final invoice is paid we will hand over the keys and show you how to put your own content in once it’s ready. If the final invoice is not paid within the credit terms we have given you, we are under no obligation to keep the site on our testing server or continue with the project in anyway. Late payments will be charged a 5% compounded monthly late fee.

Cancellations

In the event of the cancellation of this contract, ownership of all copyrights and the original artwork shall be retained by us, and a cancellation fee for work completed, and expenses already incurred, shall be paid by you.

If the project is on an hourly basis and the project is cancelled by you, you agree to pay no less than 100% of the hours already spent on the project at the time of cancellation plus, either a flat fee of $250 or 50% of the remaining hours that were expected to be completed on the project, whichever is greater. A 100% cancellation fee is due if the project has already been finished, whether delivered to you or not, and whether you decide to use it or not.

If the project is on a fixed fee basis and the project is cancelled by you, you agree to pay no less than 100% of the hours already spent on the project at the time of cancellation plus, either a flat fee of $500 or 50% of the remaining fixed fees that were expected to be completed on the project, whichever is greater. A 100% cancellation fee is due if the project has already been finished, whether delivered to you or not, and whether you decide to use it or not.

If the project is on a monthly contract and the project is cancelled by you, you agree to pay no less than the minimum monthly contract cost multiplied by the number of months remaining.

Liability

You are liable for all reasonable expenses (including contingent expenses such as debt collection commission) and legal costs (on a full indemnity basis) incurred by Studio 72 Web Design & Online Marketing for enforcement of obligations and recovery of monies due from you to us.

But where’s all the horrible small print?

Just like a parking ticket, you can’t transfer this contract to anyone else without our permission. This contract stays in place and need not be renewed. If for some reason one part of this contract becomes invalid or unenforceable, the remaining parts of it remain in place. Although the language is simple, the intentions are serious and this contract is a legal document under exclusive jurisdiction of Australian courts.