Terms & Conditions

By placing an order with Design M, you confirm that you are in agreement with and bound by the terms and conditions below.

Definitions:

The client: The company or individual requesting the services of Design M.
Design M: Primary designer/site owner & employees or affiliates.

Design M will carry out work only where an agreement is provided either by email, telephone or mail. Design M 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 Design M and the client; this includes telephone and email agreements.

Design

The client agrees to make available as soon as is reasonably possible, and preferably in advance, to Design M all materials and content required to complete a website or other design work to the agreed standard and within the set deadline.

Text content should be delivered in an editable document format (e.g. Microsoft Word) and be clearly labelled and organised. Content supplied in a manner that requires time-consuming formatting, organising or excessive editing by Design M will incur additional charges.

Conceptualising is the process of producing website and design concepts for clients, which can include site mock ups, graphics and design proposals. The client agrees that (unless specifically agreed otherwise) only one concept will be provided by Design M. In order to provide an appropriate design, the client should therefore ensure that they have provided a brief including any colour scheme, artwork and design requirements beforehand. Design concepts and associated graphics remain the property of Design M unless otherwise agreed.

Design M will provide the client with opportunities to review the appearance and content of the website during the design phase and again on final completion. It is vital that during these reviews the client mentions anything to do with the design that is not to their approval before the next stage continues (design, layout, colours etc, to which Design M will make a reasonable number of revisions), otherwise it will be deemed that the client approves of the work carried out so far, and further changes down the line to work already carried out may incur additional charges.

Any additions to briefs provided will be carried out at the discretion of Design M and Design M reserve the right to charge an according amount for any correction to these or further additions.

A HTML page built from a graphic design may not exactly match the original design because of the difference between the display in design software and the rendering of HTML code by internet browser software. The client agrees that Design M can apply a nearest available alternative solution to try and match the design as closely as is possible when building the code.

Design M will not be liable for any costs incurred, compensation or loss of earnings due to errors in copy used on design work, whether it is copy provided by the client or by us. It is the client’s full responsibility to check all completed design work thoroughly for errors (including, but not limited to: spellings, grammar, content meaning, ambiguity, contact details, telephone numbers, email addresses, website addresses, prices of products and services, privacy policy, terms & conditions etc), before using the design in a promotional way, or by sending the design to a printer, etc. If we are required to send a design directly to a printer on behalf of the client, we will require approval in writing first (usually via email) from the client, to confirm the design is approved and ready for printing.

Design M cannot take responsibility for any copyright infringements caused by materials submitted by the client. We reserve the right to refuse any material of a copyrighted nature unless adequate proof is given of permission to use such material.

Design M will not be liable or become involved in any disputes between the site owner and their clients and cannot be held responsible for any wrongdoing on the part of a site owner. e.g. over any disputes regarding content/images that have been provided to us for inclusion on the site.

Design M endeavours to create web pages that are search engine friendly, however, due to external factors, such as changes to the way search engines rank websites, we cannot offer any guarantees regarding whether the site will become listed with search engines or of certain position achieved in the search results. We cannot accept liability for any change in rankings, or drop off in the position of a website due to changes in the algorithms of the search engines or the factors that they use to rank websites.

Design M has no control of, or responsibility for, the content of our clients’ websites. In no way does the textual or image based content of our clients’ websites constitute Design M’s endorsement, or approval of the website or the material contained within the website. Design M has not verified any of the materials, images or information contained within our clients’ websites and is not responsible for the content or performance of these sites or for a client’s transactions with them. Design M may provide links or references to our clients’ websites solely for the convenience of prospective customers and intends that the links it provides be current and accurate, but we do not guarantee or warrant that such links will point to the intended client site at all times.

Design M will not be liable for any costs incurred, compensation or loss of earnings due to the unavailability of a website, its servers, software or any material provided by its agents.

Design M reserves the right to assign subcontractors in whole or as part of a project if needed.

Design M makes every effort to ensure websites are designed to be viewed by the majority of visitors and websites are designed to work with the most popular current browsers. The client agrees that Design M cannot guarantee correct functionality with all browser software across different operating systems.

Design M cannot accept responsibility for web pages which do not display acceptably in new versions of browsers released after the website has been designed and handed over to the client. As such, Design M reserves the right to quote for any work involved in changing the website design or website code for it to work with updated browser software.

The client understands and accepts that any website designed and supplied by Design M will have a lifespan, the duration of which cannot be predicted. After website completion, updates will be required on a regular basis to keep the website functioning at its optimum, for example, to keep the website secure. At some point the client understands that updates may no longer be available and at this point a new website design may be required. The client accepts that all updates and/or a new website design will be deemed as new projects and will be quoted for and invoiced accordingly.

Images

Certain images provided by Design M for use on a website 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 other publicity material. The client 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 Design M for clarification. 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 Design M.

Website development

The client agrees that it is their responsibility to have regular backups of their website and software made by themselves or third party services in case of a software or hardware failure.

Any scripts, cgi applications, php scripts, or software (unless specifically agreed) written by Design M remain the copyright of Design M and may only be commercially reproduced or resold with the permission of Design M.

Whilst every endeavour will be made to ensure that the website and any scripts or programs are free of errors, Design M cannot accept responsibility for any losses incurred due to malfunction of the website or any part of it. The ultimate responsibility lies with the client in ensuring that all software is functioning correctly before use.

Where applications or sites are developed on servers not recommended by Design M, 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, 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 site developed by Design M before being made generally available for use. Where ‘bugs’, errors or other issues are found after the site is live, Design M will endeavour (but is not obliged) to correct these issues to meet the standards of function outlined in the brief.

Design M will endeavour to ensure that any developed/designed site or application will function correctly on the server it is initially installed in and that it will function correctly when viewed with the most commonly used web browsing software. Design M can offer no guarantees of correct function with all browser software.

Hosting

Design M does not provide or sell hosting for websites. Design M can, however, recommend third-party hosting companies who have proven to be reliable. Design M are not liable or responsible for any website hosting or any problems encountered or related to hosting.

The client will need to remember that the hosting renewal fee will need to be paid prior to its expiry, usually on an annual basis. If you do not pay the hosting renewal fee to your hosting company by the due date, your website hosting will not renew and your website will not remain live. This will also affect your emails if they come thorough via the website. Design M is not responsible for any loss of data incurred due to a hosting company’s removal of their service. Design M will charge a re-activation fee to re-establish a website to hosting.

To install a website to hosting, Design M must be granted temporary access to the client’s storage directories which must be accessible via FTP, CPanel or hosting account. Depending on the specific nature of the project, other resources might also need to be configured on the server.

Design M can offer a technical support service in dealing with any website hosting company that the client may choose.

Design M cannot be held liable for any losses incurred as a result of the client’s failure to complete or renew the registration of a domain name.

Pause clause and kill fee

The client acknowledges and agrees that their delayed response to Design M’s requests for feedback on projects could have a significant impact on any agreed completion timescale. If the client does not respond to a request for feedback within 5 working days, Design M can issue a pause notice to the client advising them that all work on their project will be temporarily ceased if a response providing the originally requested information is not supplied within 24 hours of receipt of the pause notice. Design M have no liability associated with the pause. Any outstanding payments due up to this point in the project must be settled in full. When the client wishes to resume work, Design M will need to schedule the project in around other projects, hence there may be a delay.

Design M or the client has the right to terminate the project agreement at any point. Upon termination, Design M will provide the client with any work in progress or completed prior to the termination date. The client will pay Design M an amount as determined by Design M for any completed and partially completed work in progress. Any initial deposit amounts paid are non-refundable.

Project completion

Design M will provide the client with an expected project completion date, if requested. We will endeavour to meet any given deadline but (due to the many external factors involved that are beyond our control) we do not guarantee it and are not bound in any way to complete the project by this date. Design M will not be liable for costs incurred, compensation or loss of earnings due to the failure to meet agreed deadlines.

After site completion, the client or a third party of their choosing may wish to edit their website code or content themselves to make updates. The client agrees that in so doing they assume full responsibility for any issues which occur as a result of changing the code or content themselves. If the client or a third party of their choosing edits the website code and this results in functionality errors or the page displaying incorrectly, then Design M reserves the right to quote for work to repair the website. Design M will not be liable for any costs incurred, compensation or loss of earnings due to the work carried out on behalf of the client or any of the client’s appointed agents.

Design M reserves the right not to carry out any further work for the client if there are any unpaid invoices of the client’s remaining overdue at the time of the work request.

SEO

We do our utmost to ensure that your site will perform well by adding standard SEO to your website’s main pages. However, if you are in a competitive industry you may wish to consider additional SEO, in which we can provide a quote or recommend trustworthy specialists to help you.

Payment

Quotations are valid for a period of 30 days. Design M reserves the right to alter or decline to provide a quotation after expiry of the 30 days.

A non-refundable deposit of 50% is required for all Design M projects before any design work will be carried out. It is the Design M policy that any outstanding accounts for work carried out by Design M or its affiliates are required to be paid in full, no later than 7 days from the date of the invoice, unless by prior written arrangement with Design M.

Payment for services is due by bank transfer. Bank details will be made available on invoices. Cheque payments can be discussed and will incur a small additional fee to cover processing.

Once a deposit is paid and work completed you are obliged to pay the remaining balance of payment in full. Payment can be requested prior to upload to the server or release of materials. We will contact clients via email and telephone to remind them of such payments if they are not received when due. Accounts that remain unpaid seven days after the date of the invoice will incur additional administrative fees to cover time spent sending late payment reminders.

If accounts are not settled or Design M have not been contacted regarding the delay, access to the related website may be denied and web pages removed. Following consistent non payment of an invoice, our solicitors will contact the client in question, with a view to taking the matter further and if need be to seek payment through legal procedures, and if necessary court summons.

Once full payment is received, it is assumed that the project has been completed to the client’s satisfaction.

Additional revisions, design work or technical issues encountered outside the scope of the project will be charged separately.

The client agrees to reimburse Design M for any additional expenses necessary for the completion of the work, for example the purchase of special fonts, stock photography etc. Design M will discuss and confirm with the client prior to purchase.

Websites will be handed over as a fully functioning, completed work. Unless it has been agreed beforehand, Design M is not responsible for support. Support can be provided upon request for an agreed fee.

The website, graphics and any programming code remain the property of Design M until all outstanding accounts are paid in full.

Travelling time to and from customer premises or other meeting places is not included in any quotations or estimates.

Your privacy

We do not share or sell any of your details with third party companies.

Complaints procedure

Anyone who experiences a problem with the service provided by Design M should raise the matter directly with us, giving sufficient information to locate the material (such as an URL) and clearly outlining the grounds for complaint. Design M will then aim to resolve the matter to the satisfaction of the complainant.