Terms and Conditions of Use

Definitions

  • "digitalaffinity" means Digital Affinity of Kedleston Road, Derby DE22 1FX.
  • "Client" means any individual, company, partnership, organisation or body requesting the services of digitalaffinity.
  • "Agreement" means the contract between digitalaffinity and the client to which these conditions will apply.
  • "Order" means confirmation by the client of their acceptance of the quotation given by digitalaffinity.

Contract

The client's request for work to commence shall be deemed a contractual agreement between the client and digitalaffinity. digitalaffinity will carry out work only where an agreement is provided either by email, telephone or mail. digitalaffinity will carry out work only for clients who are 18 years of age or above. An ‘order' is deemed to be a written or verbal contract between digitalaffinity and the client; this includes telephone and email agreements.

Copyright Responsibilities

If images, text, animations, layouts or any other content for a website/ web development project is provided by the client, it is their legal responsibility to ensure that this material does not infringe any copyright. digitalaffinity cannot take responsibility for any copyright infringements caused by materials submitted by the client. digitalaffinity reserves the right to refuse any material of a copyrighted nature as website content unless adequate proof is given of permission to use this material.

The client agrees to defend, indemnify, and hold digitalaffinity harmless against claims against material added to a clients website at any time which infringes or allegedly infringes on the proprietary rights, legal and/or civil rights of any third party.

Design Concepts

Design concepts can include site mock ups, graphics and design proposals. The client agrees that (unless specifically agreed otherwise) only one concept will be provided by digitalaffinity. The client should ensure that they have provided as much information as possible pertaining to colour schemes, artwork and design requirements beforehand. Note: Design concepts and associated graphics remain the property of digitalaffinity unless otherwise agreed.

Stock Photography

Certain images provided by digitalaffinity may have been purchased under licence from stock image suppliers. These images are generally only licensed for use on a website. The licence may not permit them to be used in publicity material. The website owner is legally responsible for ensuring that this does not happen. If the client wishes to use any such images from the website for other purposes they are required to contact digitalaffinity to clarify whether this is appropriate. The client agrees to meet all third party costs arising from the purchase of stock photography as well as any administration fees relating to the procurement of images imposed by digitalaffinity.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Copyright

digitalaffinity retains ownership of all intellectual property, including source code and original images created for the client until payment of the final invoice. At this time ownership rights of imagery will be transferred to the client. Any scripts, CGI applications, PHP scripts, or software written by digitalaffinity remain the copyright of digitalaffinity (unless an alternative arrangement has been agreed prior to the contractual agreement) and may only be commercially reproduced or resold with the permission of digitalaffinity.

Database Application and E-Commerce Development

digitalaffinity cannot take responsibility for any losses incurred by the use of any software created for the client. Whilst every care is taken to ensure products are problem free and accurate, the ultimate responsibility lies with the client to ensure that all software is functioning correctly before and during use. Where applications or sites are developed on servers not recommended by digitalaffinity, the client is expected to provide or seek any information, additional software, support or co-operation pertaining to the server required in order for the application to be correctly developed. Where large applications are to be developed on servers not recommended by digitalaffinity, it is the client's responsibility to provide a suitable testing environment which is identical to the final production environment. The client is expected to test fully any application or programming relating to a website developed by digitalaffinity before it is made generally available for use. Where "bugs", errors or other issues are found after the site/development is live, digitalaffinity will endeavour (but is not obliged to) to correct these issues to meet the standards of function outlined in the brief.

Submission of materials

The client agrees to make available as soon as is reasonably possible to digitalaffinity all materials required to complete the site to the agreed standard and within the set deadline. digitalaffinity will not be liable for costs incurred, compensation or loss of earnings due to the failure to meet agreed deadlines.

Registration Charges

All third party costs arising from the registration of a domain name shall be met by the client. Domain names registered on behalf of the client by digitalaffinity are property of the client. In these circumstances, digitalaffinity acts as administrator on the client's behalf. digitalaffinity agrees to transfer any domain names to the client immediately upon request.

Web and Email Hosting

For sites and domains hosted by digitalaffinity, clients will have a dedicated and secure hosting infastructure. This is maintained by a data centre in a secure environment with 24 hour technical support and a 99.95% uptime guarantee provided to digitalaffinity. digitalaffinity reserve the right to refuse to handle in any way material which may be deemed offensive, illegal or in any way controversial, and also to terminate the hosting service should the necessity arise without liability for loss of business.

Loss of service

We will endeavour to maintain network stability and satisfactory service levels, however:

  • We may from time to time perform routine maintenance, service and upgrades. We will endeavour to act on such instances at the most convenient times and provide reasonable notice by any means we deem satisfactory
  • We may experience outages beyond our control caused by any of the following; force majeure (any 'act of god' including those induced by negative human activities), war, invasion, act of hostilities, civil war, rebellion, military power or confiscation, terrorist activities, nationalism, governmental/quasi-governmental sanction, restraint, embargo, prohibition or intervention, blockage, labour dispute, general strike, lockout or failure of utilities (electricity, telephone, etc), failure of hardware (our hardware as well as third party), failure of software, failed software or hardware upgrade or any other failure as caused by digitalaffinity, our suppliers or any third party
  • We may, at our discretion provide notification of outages whether planned or unplanned
  • You release us from any claim or potential claim with relation to outages and any loss of business/service suffered by you or any third party

Search Engine Promotion

When undertaking a new contract, digitalaffinity will code the client"s site to be search engine friendly. If the client wishes to take out an ongoing Search Engine Optimisation contract, this will take the form of a seperate agreement to the website contract. In the absence of a Search Engine Optimisation contract, digitalaffinity is not responsible for ongoing site promotion.

digitalaffinity provides Search Optimisation services including link sourcing, link placement, on-site optimisation, traffic analytics and search engine rank position monitoring.

If a written contract is entered into by digitalaffinity and the Customer, this contract will specify the exact services to be provided, in exchange for a charge calculated at a daily rate. Our rates are not dependent upon nor linked to site traffic, rankings in search engines or any other performance metrics or data supplied by third party companies.

All information pertinent to a Search Optimisation campaign shall be supplied to digitalaffinity, including history of any prior campaigns conducted with other Search Optimisation providers.

digitalaffinity shall not be responsible for URLs dropped or excluded by a search engine for any reason.

Travel Time and Travel Expenses

Travelling time to and from customer premises or other meeting places is not generally included in any quotations or estimates. digitalaffinity reserves the right to make a charge for travelling time at the current hourly rate. Likewise digitalaffinity reserve the right to charge for travelling expenses based on 40p per mile. (NOTE: digitalaffinity do not charge for travelling time or expenses incurred during the quotation process, i.e. before approval for work to commence is received).

Refund Policy

After work on a website commences any fees paid are not refundable.

Payment Methods

Unless otherwise agreed, payment is only accepted by direct bank transfer (BACS or CHAPS), cheque or bankers draft in UK Pounds Sterling. If a cheque is returned by the bank as unpaid for any reason, the client will be liable for an additional administration fee of £35 +VAT.

Quotations

The price quoted by digitalaffinity to the client is for the work specifically agreed on the quotation only. Should the client decide that changes are required after work on the website has commenced, these changes must be agreed. Any additional costs will also need to be agreed prior to the work being started. Unless otherwise agreed any quotation provided will be valid for 30 days from the date of issue.

Cancellation

Should the client wish to cancel at any point during the project they shall remain liable for the work that has taken place and shall be invoiced accordingly. There are no exceptions to this, i.e. if the client decides they no longer want the site, as they have commissioned the work (whether a deposit has been paid or not) they are still obliged to pay for the work that has been done up to the point of cancellation.

Payments of Accounts

A deposit may be required from any new client before any work is carried out. If digitalaffinity undertake a project which is large or deemed to be of significant duration then interim payments may be required at agreed milestones within the project. Invoices for any remaining balance are only issued when the client accepts that their website/ development has been completed to their satisfaction. digitalaffinity reserves the right not to launch a website until full payment has been received.

Any outstanding accounts for work carried out by digitalaffinity or its affiliates are required to be paid in full, no later than 30 days from the date of the invoice. digitalaffinity reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to deactivate hosting services for clients with unsettled accounts. When this occurs an additional minimum charge of £50 + VAT will be required to have the site restored.

Accounts that have not been settled within 14 days of the due date will incur a late payment charge of 10% of the amount outstanding. Any unpaid balance due shall bear interest at the rate of 8% compounded per annum, and costs of collection, including Court costs and reasonable legal fees shall be added as principal amounts to such balance.

Support

Websites will be handed over as a fully functioning, completed work. Unless a support contract has been arranged, digitalaffinity is not responsible for support. Support can be provided upon request for an agreed fee. Websites are offered as a single contract and no guarantee of the availability or compatibility (including rendering compatibility with future browsers or future versions of existing browsers) from digitalaffinity is offered unless an ongoing support package has been agreed.

Malicious Activity

Websites will be handed over as a fully functioning, completed work. Unless a support contract has been arranged, digitalaffinity is not responsible for support. Support can be provided upon request for an agreed fee. Websites are offered as a single contract and no guarantee of the availability or compatibility (including rendering compatibility with future browsers or future versions of existing browsers) from digitalaffinity is offered unless an ongoing support package has been agreed.

Compliance with E-Commerce, Accessibility or Other Regulations

digitalaffinity develops websites in accordance with the client's specifications. It is the client's responsibility to ensure that the website and its content comply with current online trading laws and regulations. digitalaffinity cannot accept responsibility for any failure to comply with laws and regulations related to accessibility, selling online or those related to a specific business or trade. Research can be undertaken on the client's behalf upon request, but in any business where complex compliance issues may exist it is recommended that the client takes legal advice.

Design Credit

A link to digitalaffinity will appear in either small type or by a small graphic at the bottom of the client's website. If a graphic is used, digitalaffinity will design it to be sympathetic to the overall site design.

Notes

Should digitalaffinity waive any of these terms on an individual basis, this shall not affect the validity of remaining clauses or commit digitalaffinity to waive the same clause on any other occasion. By agreeing to these terms and conditions your statutory rights are not affected.

digitalaffinity reserves the right to change or modify any of these terms or conditions at any time. Should clarification of any of the above be required please contact us.

This Agreement shall be governed by English Law.