07956 529 014 tkey@sprkdesign.co.uk

      TERMS & CONDITIONS

      These terms and conditions were updated in September 2019.

      Our terms and conditions exist to ensure that both SPRK Design and you the customer have the same understanding of how our team works. Please read this document in its entirety before taking a training course or starting a project with us.

      In these conditions “Agreement” means any agreement made subject to these Conditions, which shall incorporate these Conditions. “Company” means SPRK Design (10 Dagmar Road, Windsor SL4 1JL). “Customer” means any person or organisation with whom the Company enters into an Agreement subject to these conditions. “Service” means the services described in Company literature together with such value added services to be provided by the Company to the Customer.

      These terms and conditions are a legal document under exclusive jurisdiction of English and Welsh courts.

      PAYMENT

      Unless specifically varied in the Quote section of our proposal or otherwise in writing by the Company, the following payment terms shall apply:

      • There is no VAT to pay.
      • For fees totalling £500 or more (such as but not limited to website development);
        • 50% (non-refundable) of any ‘one off’ value is due prior to commencement.
        • 30% balance will be due following sign off and prior to delivery of any deliverables.
        • 20% balance due following project delivery (such as but not limited to website going live or files transferred).
      • Where sign off is requested and no response is received within 14 days, the total remaining balance (50%) becomes payable in full. One set of revisions will be allowed post this event and upon full payment.
      • Invoices will be due for payment strictly within 14 days of submission.
      • For fees totalling under £500 (such as but not limited to domain registration);
        • 100% (non-refundable) of any ‘one off’ value is due prior to commencement.
      • For ongoing fees (such as but not limited to hosting and online marketing);
        • Payment must be made in advance of the service being provided.
        • Where payment is late, it is still applicable, but the Company are not obliged to provide services for the period that the payment was late.
        • All fees quoted are subject to review and adjustment by the Company at any time.
      • The Company has a standard hourly rate of £75 which is calculated in units of 30 minutes.

      NON-PAYMENT

      • In the event that full payment is made later than required by the conditions set under the section ‘PAYMENT’ or if only partial payment is made, the Company may at its absolute discretion, charge for administration costs and interest on any monies owed at either the rate of 2% interest per month or at the annual rate of 7% above the base rate published from time to time by Bank of England, whichever is the greater rate, calculated weekly and compounded monthly.
      • Failure to apply such charges does not constitute a waiver of the option so to charge.
      • If the Customer also holds a hosting account with the company, the hosting account may be terminated without notice in the event that invoices fall into arrears. This will affect email communications and any other services provided by the Company.

      CANCELLATIONS

      • If a project is cancelled at any point the initial invoice is nonrefundable and therefore will be retained.
      • If a project is cancelled at any point after sign off, the full project balance is payable.
      • Cancellation of ongoing services (such as but not limited to; domain name registration, website hosting, email hosting, website maintenance) must be received 30 days prior to renewal date.
      • The Company may at its absolute discretion charge for any work undertaken by the Company in order to comply with the Customer’s transfer instructions (such as but not limited to domain name registration or website hosting) in providing files etcetera to the Customer’s new provider. In this event the Customer will be charged at the Company’s standard hourly rate (invoiced and payable in advance of such a transfer).
      • Notice of cancellation must be made in writing via email.
      • Information and files retained by the Company will be returned to the Customer upon final payment for any outstanding invoices.

      WITHDRAWAL OF SERVICES

      • The Company reserves unto itself the right to withdraw services at its entire discretion, particularly in the event of any failure to pay. Upon such withdrawal of its services, the Company shall be under no liability whatsoever to compensate the Customer for any costs, losses or damages, howsoever arising, that the Customer may incur or may have incurred.
      • It is hereby agreed between the Company and the Customer that where the Company withdraws its services, the Company may remove any material stored upon any computer or server and shall retain, and shall not be under any obligation to return or provide access to, any and all documents, papers, etcetera belonging to the Customer until payment is made in full of all the Company’s invoices.

      COPYRIGHT

      • Copyright in all documents, papers etcetera prepared or caused to be prepared by the Company is expressly reserved by the Company until full payment is received.
      • Upon full payment of all invoices provided to the Customer, all rights to any work carried out by the Company for the Customer is passed to the Customer. From this point, the Company assumes no rights to the material created and supplied except in accordance with the point directly below.
      • The Company maintains the right to reuse Intellectual Property that it has created whilst providing services to the Customer.
      • The Customer does not have ‘resell’ rights.
      • The Customer shall indemnify and save harmless the Company against any claims that may arise out of the content or nature of the material stored upon any computer or server or which may be prohibited or protected by laws of any country or state relating to copyright, confidentiality or intellectual property.

      CONTENT

      • The Company reserves the right to display all aspects of our creative work, including sketches, work-in progress designs and the completed project on our portfolio and in articles on websites, in magazine articles and in books.
      • The Company will not provide and cannot be held responsible for any legal documents required or published by the Customer (such as but not limited to Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy).
      • The Company are not responsible for creating or providing content for any project (such as but not limited to website design and marketing) unless stated in the Project Proposal. Any ‘Ad-Hoc’ work carried out will be charged at the Company’s standard hourly rate.
      • The Company is not responsible for editing any content provided by the Customer.
      • The Customer shall be solely responsible for verifying whether their content and materials comply with any applicable law, including laws in jurisdictions where their content and/or materials are uploaded, hosted or accessed.
      • The Company shall not bear any liability if the Customer violates any law or regulation.

      LIABILITY

      • The Company carry out work in accordance with good industry practice and at the standard expected from a suitably qualified person with relevant experience. That said, The Company cannot guarantee that our work will be error-free and so the Company cannot be liable to the Customer or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if the Customer advised the Company of them.
      • The Customer’s liability to the Company will also be limited to the amount of fees payable under this contract and the Customer will not be liable to the Company or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if the Company advised the Customer of them.
      • Finally, if any provision of this contract shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this contract and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

      ROYALTY FREE ASSETS

      • Royalty free assets refers to (but not limited to images, fonts, textures, sounds and videos) any asset obtained via a third party.
      • Royalty free or public domain assets may be used in work provided to the Customer with the approval of the Customer. Any conflict between an unknown author of such assets and publication of said assets will be the full responsibility of the Customer.
      • The Company will charge (at the standard hourly rate) for any time involved in correcting the use of assets that the Customer does not have the right to use.
      • Should the company be required by the Customer to obtain assets, full payment is due regardless of whether the assets/s is/are used.
      • It is the Customer’s full responsibility to read and adhere to the terms and conditions of the third party provider/s.
      • The Company reserves the right to charge (at the standard hourly rate) for modifying assets for the purpose and use of the Customer.

      WORDPRESS

      • Where appropriate, the Company uses the WordPress content management system. The Company are not responsible for site outages or any costs, losses or damages, due to the WordPress platform or ‘Plug-In applications’ used to create the Customer website.
      • It is important to update WordPress and any used ‘Plug-In applications’ when new updates are available. It is the responsibility of the Customer to check and update these programmes with the exception of the point below.
      • Where the Customer has paid for (and payments are up to date) a WordPress update service, it is the responsibility of the Company to ensure all updates are installed within a reasonable time from the update being released.

      THIRD PARTY SERVICES

      • Where the Company uses any third-party services (such as but not limited to; site search facilities, chat room, email, assets or tracking services) the Company is not responsible for third-party service commitments, quality or availability.
      • It is the responsibility of the Customer to read the terms and conditions of any third party service used on their behalf. These will be provided on request.

      AMENDMENTS & FIXES

      • An Amendment is any item that when requested is different to what was originally requested. This is typically where content is provided and later changed or upon seeing a project part built, a new feature is required.
      • A Fix is any request that when requested is the same request as was originally requested. This is typically through a function not working as was originally agreed.
      • Where a Fix relates to a Browser Compatibility issue, see the specific terms in relation to Browser Compatibility in section below.
      • When a new task is requested by the Customer, the Company will determine whether the request is a Fix or an Amendment. A Fix of any previously agreed and paid for item will be free from charges. Amendments are charged at the standard hourly rate. The Customer agrees to pay these fees as invoiced.
      • The Company only promises to consider Fix requests prior to sign off.

      BROWSER COMPATIBILITY

      • Browser testing no longer means attempting to make a website look the same in browsers of different capabilities or on devices with different size screens. It does mean ensuring that a person’s experience of a design should be appropriate to the capabilities of a browser or device. The Company test work in current versions of the desktop browsers Apple (Safari) and Google (Chrome). The Company will not test in other older browsers unless agreed separately.
      • Further browser configurations (version number and device) should be specified to the Company at the time of the project. Ensuring Browser Compatibility on these additional browsers is charged at the Company’s standard hourly rate.

      MOBILE RESPONSIVENESS

      • Testing using popular smaller screen devices is essential in ensuring that a person’s experience of a design is appropriate to the capabilities of the device they’re using. The Company test designs in: Apple (Safari iOS), Google (Chrome Android). The Company will not test other mobile browsers unless agreed separately.

      UPLOADING OF WEBSITES

      • The Company is responsible for uploading the Customer’s website and testing all functionality where the site is hosted by the Company.
      • The Company is not responsible for uploading the Customer’s website to hosting servers not provided by the Company. Nor is the Company responsible for the hosting configuration of the Customers hosting provision if it is not with the Company unless agreed in writing prior to the project commencing. However;
        • The Company agrees to upload to another provider’s servers at the Company’s standard hourly rate.
        • Where functionality will not work on another providers hosting provision, the Company will demonstrate that same functionality works on its hosting servers to prove that the functionality works and the server is at fault.

      HOSTING & DOMAIN SERVICES

      • In line with best practice, the Company uses third party hosting and domain registration services. Whilst it is the responsibility of the Company to act in the Customer’s best interests when sourcing such suppliers, the Company cannot guarantee ‘up-time’, and any hosting services used on the Customer’s behalf are subject to the terms and conditions of the provider. These will be provided on request.
      • If the Customer decides to move hosting away from the Company, the Company will provide assistance as required. This is subject to the following;
        • There is a standard Domain Transfer Fee for domain transfers of £25 per domain name.
        • Support provided by the Company in any way towards the move will be charged at our standard hourly rate.
        • Moves cannot take place where overdue invoices exist.
        • During any period where unpaid invoices exist and hosting is still being provided, the hosting fee will continue to accumulate.

      ONGOING MAINTENANCE

      • The Company do not include ongoing maintenance in the original quotation unless itemised as a separate item.
      • Any work carried out as part of a maintenance contract or as ‘Ad-Hoc’ is charged at the standard hourly rate.

      COURSES & TRAINING

      • If the Customer has paid for a training course date and then cannot make that date and has notified the Company at least 7 days prior to the course date, the fee cannot be refunded. However, the customer will be offered a future date on the same or same value course as an alternative. The alternative course will be available for 12 months from the date a new course is offered by the Company.
      • If the Customer does not attend the course date they have booked and does not notify The Company at least 7 days in advance, the course fee cannot be refunded or exchanged for a future course date.