By placing an order with Hidden Spark, you confirm that you are in agreement with and bound by the terms and conditions below.
THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE, FROM TIME TO TIME IN OUR SOLE DISCRETION. WE WILL NOTIFY YOU OF AMENDMENTS TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS BY POSTING THEM TO THIS WEBSITE.
Definitions:
The Client: The company or individual requesting the services of Hidden Spark.
Hidden Spark: Primary web developer/site owner & employees or affiliates.
General
Hidden Spark reserves the right to change or modify the Terms and Conditions at any time without prior notice.
Hidden Spark will carry out work only where an agreement is provided either verbally, by email, telephone, mail or fax. An ‘order’ is deemed to be a written or verbal contract between Hidden Spark and the client, this includes telephone and email agreements.
Pricing
All Hidden Spark quoting is based on a fixed cost, unless agreed otherwise. You will be consulted before any additional work is performed.
Quotes are valid for 30 days only.
Payment Terms
Work will not commence on the above mentioned project if there are monies outstanding from previous invoices or projects.
Production of your website will begin upon receipt of your 50% deposit. This figure is negotiable for projects exceeding $3000+GST.
Deposits and any other additional payments, including final balances are non-refundable.
Once a deposit is paid and work completed you are obliged to pay the balance of payment in full. We will contact clients via email and telephone to remind them of such payments if they are not received when due.
Websites will go live upon receipt of final payment.
Payment of invoices is required no later than 30 days from the date of the invoice unless by prior arrangement with Hidden Spark.
Once a website has been designed and completed the final balance of payment is then due in accordance with our payment terms. There are no exceptions to this, i.e. if the client decides they no longer want the site, as they have commissioned the work and paid a deposit, they are still obliged to pay for the work that has been done. Non-payment will result in legal action being taken if necessary.
If accounts are not settled or Hidden Spark has not been contacted regarding the delay, access to the related website may be denied and web pages removed. We will then pass such cases to the Small Claims Court to pursue payment; non-payment can result in county court judgements (ccj’s) being added to the client’s credit rating.
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 court summons.
Any additional costs incurred as a result of chasing late debts, including admin, emails, phone calls or faxes or third party charges will be added to the account in question.
Suspension of Works
Default in payment causing any monies to be overdue, Hidden Spark without affecting its other rights, shall not be obliged to carry on further works until payment of outstanding monies in cash has been receipted.
Website Development
While every endeavour will be made to ensure that the website and any scripts or programs are free of errors, Hidden Spark cannot accept responsibility for any losses incurred due to malfunction of the website or any part of it.
Hidden Spark cannot take responsibility for final proofing of text or website content. The final responsibility for checking the sites functionality and content lies with the client.
The website, graphics and any customised programming will remain the property of Hidden Spark until final payment is made.
Any scripts, cgi applications, php scripts, or software (unless specifically agreed) written by Hidden Spark remain the copyright of Hidden Spark and may only be commercially reproduced or resold with the permission of Hidden Spark. Open source code is provided under the GNU licence.
Hidden Spark 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.
Any additions to the original brief will be carried out at the discretion of Hidden Spark. Additional work of this nature can be charged for at the rate of $130+GST* per hour.
Hidden Spark will not be held 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.
Hidden Spark will not be liable for any costs incurred, compensation or loss of earnings due to the unavailability of the site, its servers, software or any material provided by its agents.
Database, Application and E-Commerce Development
Hidden Spark cannot take responsibility for any losses incurred by the use of any software created for the client. While every care has been 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 use.
Any scripts, cgi applications or software (unless specifically agreed) written by Hidden Spark remain the copyright of Hidden Spark and may only be commercially reproduced or resold with the permission of Hidden Spark.
Where applications or sites are developed on servers not recommended by Hidden Spark, the client is expected to provide or seek any information, additional software, support or co-operation pertaining to the server required to allow 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 fully test any application or programming relating to a site developed by Hidden Spark before it is made generally available for use. Where “bugs”, errors or other issues are found after the site is live, Hidden Spark will endeavour (but is not obliged) to correct these issues to meet the standards of function outlined in the brief.
Search Engines
Hidden Spark accepts no responsibility for Search Engine ranking for any of its clients websites. Hidden Spark has no direct control over these rankings.
Completion Times
Completion times for new website builds are approximately 6-8 weeks. Times will differ depending on complexity of the project.
Completion dates are estimates only and are given in good faith and under present conditions.
At any given time, Hidden Spark has a number of projects at various stages of production. By providing us prompt feedback, and by supplying your content in the requested format at the beginning of the production process you will be helping us to ensure that your project remains on schedule. If you are unavailable or cannot provide feedback or content, your project completion dates may be lengthened.
Hidden Spark will not be liable for costs incurred, compensation or loss of earnings due to the failure to meet agreed deadlines.
Once an order has been made, the client agrees to provide all necessary information to Hidden Spark within the set time frame of the project. (See table below in Client Content Provision Times). In a case where the client has not supplied content within the time frame, thus rendering Hidden Spark unable to complete the job, the full project price is payable.
Client Content Provision Times
Content provided must be in electronic format e.g. Microsoft Word otherwise additional charges will be apply.
All text/content provided must be proof read approved. Any changes to content after supply may be charged as additional cost at $130+GST* per hour. Up to three minor amendments may be allowed at the discretion of Hidden Spark.
Hidden Spark 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.
Hidden Spark cannot take responsibility for final proofing of text or website content. The final responsibility for checking the sites functionality and content lies with the client.
Website Hosting
Hidden Spark reserves 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 free hosting service should the necessity arise.
Guarantee of Work
All Hidden Spark websites are guaranteed to be compatible with Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla and Chrome. (Only compatible with existing non-beta supported browser versions at time of development). If compatibility is required on older browsers, additional charges will apply.
All Hidden Spark websites are guaranteed for 3 months from the website completion date (generally the go live date). Included in this guarantee are website issues that occur due to errors or bugs in code developed by Hidden Spark within scope of the agreed requirements. During this 3 month period Hidden Spark will fix any of the previously mentioned issues free of charge. The guarantee does not cover issues resulting from changes made by the client or any other third party.
Hidden Spark cannot guarantee the responsiveness of template websites at the time of going live if changes have been made to the original template layout. Additional charges will be incurred to restore responsiveness at $130+GST* per hour.
Support
Hidden Spark offers a one hour website training session for all new website builds and re-designs. This can be provided either in the Hidden Spark offices, or over the phone.
We also offer a 30 day support period free of charge to help with training in the use of the CMS/shopping cart system.
After 30 day support period updates and support will be charged at $130+GST* per hour. Monthly packages are available for support and maintenance.
Limitation of Liability
IN NO EVENT WILL Hidden Spark BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOST PROFITS OR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES, LOSS OF USE, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF DATA, OR ANY OTHER INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES HOWEVER CAUSED AND ARISING UNDER ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER BASED IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), PRODUCT LIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE. THE FOREGOING LIMITATIONS SHALL APPLY REGARDLESS OF WHETHER HIDDEN SPARK HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES AND REGARDLESS OF WHETHER ANY REMEDY FAILS OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE.
* Prices subject to change without notice