Below are the Expert Agency standard terms and conditions. It is vital that you (The Client) please take time to read through thoroughly and ensure you fully understand these terms and conditions and their implications before you commence any project with Expert Agency. Please also note that from time to time Expert Agency may need to alter these terms and conditions without notice. Please contact us if you do not understand any of the terms and conditions in this document.
1. COMMENCEMENT OF WORK
Agreement to work with, and submission of a proposal and/or payment of deposit to Expert Agency constitutes agreement to these terms and conditions.
2. OUR FEES AND DEPOSITS
“The Client” agrees to pay a 50% deposit of the quoted amount to commence any web project, with the balance payable prior to delivery. Once research, resources allocated or design work has commenced on a project, this deposit is non-refundable. In the case of a change of mind by “The Client” this deposit is non-refundable. Expert Agency endeavours to provide web services that meet and exceed a client’s needs and expectations, but in the event of a “change of mind” (after a project has commenced) by “The Client”, the initial 50% deposit is forfeited, plus a pro-rata payment based upon the time spent.
The balance of the project is payable based on agreed terms outlined in your proposal and/or invoice OR after delivery/administrative access is handed over to the client.
All accounts must be settled in full prior to the website going live on your server and domain, and administrative access is handed over. Accounts which remain outstanding for 7 days after the date of invoice will result in the website being placed under suspension and will incur an additional late payment fee equivalent to 5% of the project costs for each week payment is outstanding. If no payment is received within 30 days the website may be deleted.
If you are having difficulty paying your invoice, please get in touch as soon as you are aware of the issue, so we can discuss a solution that works for your company.
3. SUPPLY OF MATERIALS
You must supply all materials and information required by us to complete the work in accordance with any agreed specification dates. Such materials may include, but are not limited to, photographs, written copy, logos and other printed material. Where there is any delay in supplying these materials to us which leads to a delay in the completion of work, we have the right to extend any previously agreed deadlines by a reasonable amount.
Where you fail to supply materials, and that prevents the progress of the work, we have the right to invoice you for any part or parts of the work already completed.
4. VARIATIONS
We are pleased to offer you the opportunity to make revisions to the design. However, we have the right to limit the number of design proposals to a reasonable amount and may charge for additional designs if you make a change to the original design specification.
Once the design has been signed off, and we commence the website development phase, only minimal changes can be accept without additional charges. We code all our sites for responsive design and for multiple browsers which means even the small design changes, can be significant coding hours.
Any major deviation from the specification will be charged at the rate of $85.00 per hour or part thereof.
5. AGREED SCOPE, PERIOD, PRICE, PROJECT DELAYS AND CLIENT LIABILITY
Any projects, services and rates supplied are limited to what is specifically set forth in the proposal and based on a set number of hours. Any additional services will require an agreed quote on additional hours. We reserve the right to adjust our hourly rates at any time.
Changes and additions outside the scope of the proposal will be quoted and invoiced. You will be advised on all costs, changes and additions before commencement of the additional work. Expenses are itemised on each invoice.
Any time frames or estimates that we give are contingent upon your full co-operation and complete and final content for the website. During development there is a certain amount of feedback required in order to progress to subsequent phases. It is required that a single point of contact be appointed from your side and be made available on a daily basis in order to expedite the feedback process.
6. APPROVAL OF WORK
On completion of the work you will be notified and have the opportunity to review it. You must notify us in writing of any unsatisfactory points within 7 days of such notification. Any of the work which has not been reported in writing to us as unsatisfactory within the 7-day review period will be deemed to have been approved. Once approved, or deemed approved, work cannot subsequently be rejected and the contract will be deemed to have been completed.
The only exception to the above is if the delays are a result of injury or illness.
7. REJECTED WORK
If you reject any of our work outside the 7-day review period, or do not approve subsequent work performed by us to remedy any points recorded as being unsatisfactory, and we, acting reasonably, consider that you have been unreasonable in any rejection of the work, we can elect to treat this contract as at an end and take measures to recover payment for the completed work.
8. ACCEPTANCE OF WEBSITE
Once the project has been completed, as determined by Expert Agency, we will provide you with administrative access to the website. At this stage the site is considered ‘handed over’. Expert Agency is not responsible for any further design or content, software additions or errors arising from changes made by the client or others working on behalf of the client.
9. WARRANTY BY YOU AS TO OWNERSHIP OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
You must obtain all necessary permissions and authorities in respect of the use of all copy, graphic images, registered company logos, names and trade marks, or any other material that you supply to us to include in your website or web applications.
You must indemnify us and hold us harmless from any claims or legal actions related to the content of your website.
10. SEARCH ENGINES
We do not guarantee any specific position in search engine results for your website. We perform basic search engine optimisation according to current best practice. If we undertake advanced search services we will set you up with a Google + page which we will make you a manager of, and we will provide reporting to show the optimisation work that has been completed.
11. CONSEQUENTIAL LOSS
We shall not be liable for any loss or damage which you may suffer which is in any way attributable to any delay in performance or completion of our contract, however that delay arises.
12. DISCLAIMER
To the full extent permitted by law, all terms, conditions, warranties, undertakings, inducements or representations whether express, implied, statutory or otherwise (other than the express provisions of these terms and conditions) relating in any way to the services we provide to you are excluded. Without limiting the above, to the extent permitted by law, any liability of Expert Agency under any term, condition, warranty or representation that by law cannot be excluded is, where permitted by law, limited at our option to the replacement, re-repair or re-supply of the services or the payment of the cost of the services that we were contracted to perform.
13. SUBCONTRACTING
We build most of our websites with our current retained staff. We do however reserve the right to subcontract any services that we have agreed to perform for you as we see fit. We will not share any confidential data or logins with subcontractors aside from the website login.
14. NON-DISCLOSURE
We (and any subcontractors we engage) agree that we will not at any time disclose any of your confidential information to any third party.
15. ADDITIONAL EXPENSES
You agree to reimburse us for any requested expenses which do not form part of our proposal including but not limited to the purchase of templates, third party software, stock photographs, fonts, domain name registration, web hosting or comparable expenses.
16. BACKUPS
You are responsible for maintaining your own backups with respect to your website and we will not be liable for restoring any client data or client websites except to the extent that such data loss arises out of a negligent act or omission by us. If you are hosting your website with Expert Agency, we undertake daily backups of your website each evening. Should you want a full copy of this back up we can supply at an additional cost, a zip file of all contents.
17. OWNERSHIP OF DOMAIN NAMES AND WEB HOSTING
Expert Agency do not host domain names and do not host your website. We work with various partners who are responsible for your website domain name and your web hosting. You must be aware of their terms & conditions.
18. GOVERNING LAW
The agreement constituted by these terms and conditions and any proposal will be construed according to and is governed by the laws of NSW. You and Expert Agency submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in and of NSW in relation to any dispute arising under these terms and conditions or in relation to any services we perform for you.
19. CROSS BROWSER COMPATIBILITY
By using current versions of well supported content management systems such as “Wordpress”, we endeavour to ensure that the web sites we create are compatible with all current modern web browsers such as the most recent versions of Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari. Third party extensions, where used, may not have the same level of support for all browsers. Where appropriate we will substitute alternative extensions or implement other solutions, on a best effort basis, where any incompatibilities are found.
20. E-COMMERCE
You are responsible for complying with all relevant laws relating to e-commerce, and to the full extent permitted by law will hold harmless, protect, and defend and indemnify Expert Agency and its subcontractors from any claim, penalty, tax, tariff loss or damage arising from your or your clients’ use of Internet electronic commerce.
21. AUTHORISATION
You authorise Expert Agency to perform services which may include, but are not limited to, accessing your domain control panels, email hosting, DNS, hosting account and disk space, creating databases and applications, and submitting the project to search engines.
22. OWNERSHIP
You have ownership of the website supplied by Expert Agency once it is fully paid. Expert Agency will at all times be and remain the sole and exclusive owner of any custom web development or software created in any format used or made part of the website which is not provided by you or a third party (open source). 3rd Party software such as plugins remain the property of Expert Agency, and may not be transferred without approval from Expert Agency. Except as expressly authorised by Expert Agency, you will not copy, modify, distribute or transfer (by any means), display, sublicense, rent, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble Expert Agency’s properties.
23. LICENSING
Once you have paid us in full for our work we grant to you a license to use the website and contents for the life of the website.
24. LICENSING, CLONING AND/OR DUPLICATION
You are licensed to use the design delivered by Expert Agency on one website only. You may not duplicate the design/website delivered by Expert Agency in any way or on any other domain. Should it be found that you have replicated the site, full fees of the original site will be incurred.