Terms and Conditions

Here you will find the various Terms & Conditions relating to our Web Design services and our Hosting services.

Web design services

Introduction

In its simplest form, the following Terms and Conditions cover the following points:

  1. We promise to provide you with a web site according to your requirements,
  2. You promise to pay us for it.

If you have any queries about any of the points in this document please contact us.

These terms and conditions are subject to change without warning.

1. Definitions

Us/We refers to Matthew Dawkins.  You refers to the business, organisation or individual purchasing products or services from Us.  The Project is defined as anything related to providing You with the product, which can include the coding of the web site, graphic design for the web site, setting up web-related services (such as web space, visitor counters, e-mail accounts), and correspondence with Us (including telephone, mail, e-mail, meetings).  Completion is when the Project has been approved by You, is live on the Internet and available to the public, and no further work is deemed necessary.  Browser Compatibility is an indication of how the web site appears and functions on different web browsers.

2. Data Protection

By agreeing to these Terms and Conditions, You declare that the information concerning You provided in online or written forms are correct.  You agree to allow Us to use the information only for reference and correspondence between Us and You during the course of the Project.  We do, however, reserve the right to use the finished web site for design competitions and marketing materials, and may link to the finished web site from other sites.  We agree not to use Your information for any purpose other than those stated in this document, unless with express written permission from You.

3. Estimate & Alterations

The Estimate provided for any Project is based on the predicted hours needed to complete the Project, plus any fixed cost items required, and does not take into account unforeseeable delays or complications encountered.  The figure quoted is also only applicable for the original brief - any alterations to the brief must be paid for by You in addition to the original estimate (unless alterations decrease the amount of work required).

4. Ownership

Once the Project has been completed, ownership of the web site, template(s), images and graphics belong to You.  We reserve ownership of any one-off code written for the Project.

5. Expenses

You are responsible for all expenses incurred by the Project, including the purchase of web space, stock photos and travel expenses incurred by Us in attending meetings (charged at 40p per mile for the entire journey to and from the meeting).

6. Payment Terms

Payment will normally be made in two stages; 50% of the quoted estimate must be paid as a deposit before work may begin, and the remainder will be paid on Completion of the Project.  At this point You will be sent a final bill detailing all expenses, hours worked, and the total amount to be paid (this may differ from the original estimate).  Where ongoing work is required (such as routine maintenance over a significant period of time), You will be billed periodically until Completion or until You cancel the ongoing maintenance agreement.  Payment is deemed to be made once the money has been transferred into Our bank account.

Other payment arrangements may be considered.

6a. Late Payment Fees

Failure to pay the full amount specified in an invoice within 28 days of the date of the invoice will result in a Late Payment Fee being issued to You.  This is payable in addition to the amount on the original invoice, and must be paid within 14 days of being issued.  The amount charged as the Late Payment Fee is at Our discretion, but will typically be 20% of the value of the original invoice.

7. Web Site Hosting

If You do not already own web space, or wish to use new web space for the Project, You will be responsible for all costs of hosting and setup.  If the hosting packages provided by Us are not adequate for the Project We can act as agent for You in sourcing an external web host.  Alternatively You can provide your own hosting solution, and all relevant login details given to Us for the purposes of the Project.

8. Browser Compatibility

Every reasonable effort will be made to ensure that the Project appears and functions correctly on the most popular web browsers.  We will test the Project, as and when necessary, on Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera, using the latest release available at the time of testing, on Windows, Mac and Linux platforms as appropriate.  If, at the end of the Project, there are outstanding inconsistencies across browsers, You will be notified.  Testing on other browsers and platforms will only be considered if You explicitly stipulate compatibility with a particular software; You will be responsible for any costs involved in testing on such browsers.  No warranty is given for compatibility with browsers other than those stated above.

9. Modification of Site

If You wish the site to be updated or modified in any way, this can be done by Us, You or a third party, at your discretion.  If You wish modifications to be made by Us, charges will be made at the normal advertised hourly rate (may be different from the rate included in the original Estimate), and You will be invoiced accordingly.

10. Use of Login Details

Login details (usernames and passwords) for the Project's web space will be required by Us for testing and development purposes.  On completion of the Project, all details will be copied to You by e-mail.  At this point We will not be permitted to access the web space without Your permission; if You wish Us to modify the site at a later date, the correct login details must be given to Us.

11. Recovery of Loss

We will keep a copy of the original web site as provided on completion of the Project; should You lose your web site (e.g. through system failure, accidental deletion) We can provide You with a CD with the original project files for a flat-rate charge of £20.

12. Protection against Viruses

We will check the Project files for viruses periodically and before completion, using the most up-to-date virus definitions available at the time.

13. Penalty for Resale

You are not permitted to sell the finished product on to any third party.  Resale will incur a fixed penalty of £10,000, payable to Us.

14. Consequential Loss

We accepts no liability for any consequential loss or damage to information, business or other property.

15. Acceptance of Terms and Conditions

To accept to the above Terms and Conditions, You is required to fill in and sign the form accompanying the Project Estimate and post one copy of the document to Matthew Dawkins, 2 Caroline Close, Wivenhoe, Essex, CO7 9SD.  This form must be accompanied by payment of the deposit, preferably in the form of a cheque or by direct bank transfer (other forms of payment must be agreed with Us in advance).

16. Expiry of Estimate

The estimate for the Project will be valid for 28 days after the date of estimate.  If the Terms and Conditions have not been accepted or the document not returned by that date, the quote will be deemed invalid and a new estimate will need to be drawn up if You still wish Us to take on the Project.  It is Your responsibility to ensure this document is signed and returned to Us within that time.

Web hosting services

Introduction

In its simplest form, the following Terms and Conditions cover the following points:

  1. We promise to provide you with web hosting according to your requirements.
  2. You promise to pay us for it.

In addition, the following summarised disclaimers will be covered:

  1. Web servers can and do have problems and failures from time to time, and it is unreasonable to expect 100% uptime.
  2. As a consequence of the above, we cannot guarantee that your data will never be lost.

If you have any queries about any of the points in this document please contact us.

These terms and conditions are subject to change without warning.

1. Definitions

Us/We refers to Matthew Dawkins.  You refers to the business, organisation or individual purchasing products or services from Us.  Billing Cycle refers to the amount of time between invoices.

2. Data Protection

By agreeing to these Terms and Conditions, You declare that the information concerning You provided in online or written forms are correct.  You agree to allow Us to use the information only for reference and correspondence between Us and You regarding the products or services purchased.  We agree not to use Your information for any purpose other than those stated in this document, unless with express written permission from You.

3. Ownership

In the case of any Webspace provided by Us for You, the Webspace shall remain Our property.  Your lease of the service is offered for the duration of the Billing Cycle, renewable at the end of each Billing Cycle, and is subject to these terms and conditions.

In the case of any Domains provided by Us for You, the Domain shall be registered to You, using Your name and contact details.  We will act as registrar for Your Domain.  Your lease of the Domain is offered for the duration of the Billing Cycle, renewable at the end of each Billing Cycle, and is subject to these terms and conditions.

All data stored on Your Webspace belongs to You, including files, databases and e-mails, excepting any data owned by Us or a third party.

4. Acceptable Use

You are not permitted to store, copy, sell, promote or distribute any of the following:

  1. Viruses, trojans, malware, adware, spyware, or keyloggers.
  2. Hacking, cracking, scanning and probing tools.
  3. Software or lists for spamming or UCE.
  4. Materials or information that is libelous, slanderous, racist or defamatory.
  5. Inaccurate, false, fraudulent or misleading information.
  6. Copyright material without consent.
  7. Materials or information to incite violence, cruelty or racial hatred.
  8. Chainletters, pyramid schemes, multi-level-marketing schemes.
  9. 'Adult' content or material.
  10. Illegal materials, content or information.
  11. Software or information which compromises security or privacy.

Prohibited activities:

  1. Promoting, facilitating or engaging in activities contrary to UK law.
  2. Promoting a website, email address, service or other point of contact with mass text messaging, auto-diallers, random-diallers, cold -calling, uce, spam, adware, spyware, viruses, viral marketing, and all other forms of multiple personal contact.
  3. Deleting, changing or viewing files or information outside of your home directory.
  4. Tampering with log files.
  5. Compromising security.
  6. Sniffing, IP-spoofing, or MAC-spoofing.
  7. Using IP-addresses or MAC addresses which you have not been allocated.
  8. Phishing, Pharming.
  9. DOS-ing, DDOS-ing, attacking or flooding networks.
  10. Sending forged, spoofed, illegal or malformed packets.
  11. Network abuse.
  12. Posting files or information which may cause harm or offence to others.

5. Cancellation

You may cancel any Project You have purchased from Us by contacting Us by phone, e-mail or post.  Security checks may be carried out to ensure Your identity.  We make no charges for cancellation.  Cancellation of Webspace is effective immediately and in most cases is irreversible.  We accept no liability for loss of information or business resulting from premature cancellation where You have requested it.  Cancellation of a Domain is not necessarily effective immediately, but will be marked for expiry at the end of its Billing Cycle (the Domain's own Billing Cycle may differ from the Billing Cycle operated by Us).  Upon cancellation the Domain will have its nameservers and DNS reset.  The Domain will still appear to belong to You and cannot be re-registered by anyone else until after it has expired.  We offer no refund in the event of early cancellation.

6. Consequental Loss

We accept no liability for any consequential loss or damage to information, business or other property caused by down-time, compromised security or server failure.

7. Excess Usage

Any Webspace provided by Us will have limits on the amount of storage space and bandwidth available, and different packages may offer different services.  We may contact You if We notice You are getting close to the allocated limit, and may recommend that You upgrade to a bigger package.  If You reach a predetermined limit on Your storage space or bandwidth Your site may become unavailable; no data will be lost at this time.

8. Upgrading and Downgrading

You may upgrade or downgrade Your Package at any time by contacting Us with Your request.  The process will happen almost immediately and You will be invoiced at this time.  The Billing Cycle will also be reset at this point, so the following invoice will relate to the upgrade/downgrade date rather than the setup date.  No refund will be given in the case of upgrading/downgrading before the end of the Billing Cycle.  You will be liable for all costs relating to upgrading/downgrading the package.

9. Backups and Server Security

Since We operate as hosting resellers We are not directly responsible for the upkeep of the servers used.  While we do strive to make regular backups of sites hosted by Us, this is in no way a guarantee against data loss, and we cannot necessarily guarantee the frequency of those backups.  We are assured, however, that the server itself is backed up daily by the Provider, but this is for the restoration of data across the entire server rather than for particular hosting accounts.  It is therefore Your responsibility to ensure Your web site is backed up externally.  We shall not be held liable for any breaches in security on the server; we will however liaise with the server Provider on Your behalf to ensure the best quality of service possible.

10. Service Renewal

Near the end of a Billing Cycle, We will contact You with an Invoice covering the next Billing Cycle.  The amount invoiced will relate to the package You have, and is payable within 28 days of the date of the invoice.  You may opt to cancel, upgrade or downgrade any part of Your Package at this point; in this case you are required to contact Us within those 28 days to arrange a revised invoice or cancellation.

11. Late Payment Fees

Failure to pay the full amount specified in an invoice within 28 days of the date of the invoice will result in a Late Payment Fee being issued to You.  This is payable in addition to the amount on the original invoice, and must be paid within 14 days of being issued.  The amount charged as the Late Payment Fee is at Our discretion, but will typically be 20% of the value of the original invoice.

12. Termination

Failure to comlpy with these terms and conditions may result in temporary or permanent deactivation of Your Webspace or Domain, a fine and/or legal action as required.