Web Design – Deposits and Payments

Paying for web design related services and projects. Websites Are Us outline on this page our Terms of Payment for web design services.

This policy represents your web hosting agreement with Websites Are Us, in addition to all emails exchanged between us and yourselves. Please retain your emails for future reference in the unlikely event of any dispute. This policy is subject to change, so please check regularly for updates. This policy is in addition to our
Web Design > General Terms & Conditions
Web Design > Standards Of Service
Web Design > Website Updates & Maintenance
Web Design > Closing A Website

From time to time, we (or our provisioning servers) may have to revise, change or update parts of the web hosting terms and conditions. Some parts of the web hosting terms and conditions are governed by our server provisions and therefore legally binding upon us, as well as our web hosting clients.

Paying for web design related services and projects

Websites Are Us outline on this page our Terms of Payment for web design services. Web design services are classed as:
1. Initial Concepts – designs or mock-ups of a potential website;
2. Agreed services of website development, and/or continued updates to any part of the website;
3. Any graphics or logos specifically created by us for you the client;
4. Time spent by us on the website adding, editing or deleting text on behalf of the client.

Deposits

Most clients will be required to make some form of deposit payment after we have agreed with yourself a plan of action to build and develop a website for you. This payment is also referred to as an “initial payment”, and it forms our contract between ourselves and you the customer. It is your way of telling us that you are committed to having a web site designed, and it is also part of our agreement that we will honour your request for a website.

Balancing Payments

During our consultation with you, we will have informed you of an approximate amount the website (at the time of the initial agreement) will probably cost you. During the continuing process of building and developing the website, you will be required to make payment(s) on account, otherwise also referred to as “balancing payments”.

Updates and further charges

With any website, there will always be the chance that clients would like further updates and/or changes made. These are usually agreed verbally or through email communications. When these updates and/or changes are made, then there may be additional costs, which will be billed separately to yourself. These payments due need to be made on time, otherwise arrears may accrue on your account.

Late payments

Nobody likes to be kept waiting for payment. You would not expect to take your car to a garage, have work done and then pay for it a few months later! So we usually ask all clients to make payments promptly, when requested to do so. This helps keep everything in balance. If payments are not made on time, or within an agreed time limit, then the following conditions will apply:
1. Invoice(s) are sent out usually in arrears of work being undertaken by ourselves for the client. As each invoice raised, it will show an “Issue Date”. We would expect to have cleared payment within 7 days of the invoice being sent out to you. If payment is not made within 7 days then condition 2 applies.
2. We will remind you that a payment is due for the invoice raised. Normally clients would then pay the amount outstanding at this point, and keep their account with us in order. However, if payment is not then received by us then condition 3 applies.
3. Further reminders are sent requesting payment be brought up to date (reminders may be sent by email, post or in telephone conversations with the client) and the client is extended a grace period of up to 30 days from the “Issue Date” of the invoice in which to make their payment. After the 30 day period has expired, then accounts or invoices that remain unpaid thirty (30) days after the date of the invoice will be assessed a service charge in the amount of the higher of one and one-half per cent (3.5%) or £25.00 per month of the total amount due. In the meanwhile, any further updates and/or changes to the website will be declined until payment is made in full, and the account is brought up to date.

Additionally, if an account does fall into arrears, and payment is then made late, it may mean that future updates and changes to your website would be charged for in “advance” by us.

Non-payment of web design charges

We don’t like to consider that a client will NOT pay us for their web design costs, but if this happens, then we need to look at ways of being able to recover the costs involved to ourselves. If payment is not made for any part of the web design costs outstanding to us, then we may have to take one, or any of the following actions to recover the debt owed to us.
1. We will reserve the right to decline to carry out any further work on the web design project if there are invoice payments (or part-payments) outstanding;
2. We will reserve the right to remove the website associated with the non-payment from the internet and replace it with a standard holding page, until such time the payment is made in full. If payment is not made in full, then the client will have no rights whatsoever to the website files and/or projects associated with the debt concerned. Whilst the domain name will always remain the property of the legal owner, the associated website for which the non-payment may refer to, will be deemed to have been “not paid up”, and therefore the client will have no entitlement to the website files;
3. We may have to issue a “Letter Before Action” outlining that we plan to issue proceedings against you in the county court without further notice. This may increase your liability for costs, above and beyond your outstanding payment(s) due to us;
4. We may be at liberty to make further administrative charges within reason to cover any costs incurred by ourselves.

Changes to the web design payments policy

Websites Are Us and their server providers reserve the right to add, delete, or modify any provision of these ‘Web Design Payment Terms’ at any time without notice.
Failure to receive notification of a change does not make those changes invalid.