Terms and Conditions

Hughes & Co Design Ltd and Hughes Communications (a trading style of the Company) collectively referred to in this document as ‘the Company’. All work is carried out by the Company is done so on the understanding that the client has agreed to the Company Terms and Conditions as set out below.

Project Acceptance

At the time of estimation, the Company will provide the customer with a written estimate or quotation. By accepting the estimate or quotation the customer is agreeing to the Terms & Conditions set out herein.

Provision of Materials

You agree to provide us with the specific copy, images and information we require in order to complete the work, or to advise us as to where we can locate such materials. We accept no responsibility for your work not being completed by a specific date if we are unable to secure necessary and/or suitable information and/or materials from you.

If you cannot supply the information you wish to feature in your product, we will do what we can to obtain it, but we accept no responsibility for errors, omissions or discrepancies which may be present on the final. The time taken to compile the data, as well as any time required to correct errors, omissions or discrepancies which have arisen through your not providing us with adequate materials, will be charged at our standard rate. We accept no responsibility for the delay caused in providing you with the final work as a result of your supplying us with insufficient or unsuitable materials.

Where you supply or specify materials, we will take every care to secure the best results in the finished product, but we accept no responsibility for imperfect work caused by defects in or unsuitability of materials so supplied or specified.

PRINT SERVICES

Print Proof Agreement

If the Company has provided you with a proof, your signing this agreement confirms that you agree to the design and contents of the printed document as depicted on the proof. By signing this agreement, you absolve the Company of all liability for any errors, omissions or discrepancies which may be present on the proof. Once you have signed this agreement and proof if supplied, you are not able to make any changes to the final product, nor are you able to hold the Company responsible for anything you are unhappy with. This contract revokes your right to take any kind of action against the Company for any aspect of the work with which you are later dissatisfied. Signing this contract means that, as long as the finished product is consistent with the proof if supplied, you must pay in full for the work. These terms are final and non-negotiable.

Making Changes After Proof Stage (Print Only)

If a change is requested, we will do everything we can to make the correction before the printing starts, but we cannot guarantee this. We accept no responsibility, under any circumstances, for any mistakes present on the completed work, as the signing-off of a proof absolves us of all liability (see “Proof Agreement” above). Once the proof is signed off or agreed, whether verbally or via email, we incur charged and this is passed on to you as part of the total charge.

Print Quality (Print Only)

Every effort will be made to obtain the best possible colour reproduction on customer”s work but because of the nature of the processes involved, the Company cannot guarantee an exact match in colour or texture between any materials that you may have supplied us, and the printed article.

Quantity Supplied (Print Only)

Every effort is made to produce the exact quantity of items ordered. However, some variation is inherent in the print process and so you accept that minor variations in quantity are possible. These do not affect the price charged.

Claims (Print Only)

Advice of damage, delay or partial loss of goods in transit or of non-delivery must be given in writing to the Company within three clear days of delivery (or, in the case of non-delivery, within 28 days of dispatch of the goods) and any claim in respect thereof must be made in writing to the Company and the carrier within seven clear days of delivery (or, in the case of non-delivery, within 42 days of dispatch). All other claims must be made in writing to the Company within 28 days of delivery. The Company shall not be liable in respect of any claim unless the aforementioned requirements have been complied with except in any particular case where the customer proves that (i) it was not possible to comply with the requirements and (ii) advice (where required) was given and the claim made as soon as reasonably possible.

Standing Material (Print Only)

All materials (including but not limited to film, plates, negatives and positives) produced and used by the Company during the production process remain the property of the Company. Where these materials are provided by the client, they remain the property of the client. The Company reserves the right to dispose of lithographic work immediately after the order is executed unless written arrangements are made to the contrary. In the latter event, rent may be charged for the safe-keeping of the materials.

Payment Terms (Print)

New customers agree to pay a deposit of 50% of the final bill upon ordering, and to pay the outstanding balance on delivery of the completed work. Existing customers agree to adhere to the terms stated on the invoice. All deposit payments are non-refundable.

ONLINE SERVICES

Website Updates & Site Maintenance

These are charged at our standard rate per hour (or part thereof). If you want to introduce new material in the form of extra pages, additional functions, or more information than is already available on your site, this must be paid for as a new job or hours taken from a prepaid package if you have this account with us.

Hosting & Email Accounts 
Hosting

Hosting for websites is charged from £150 plus VAT per year. No clients or third parties will be granted FTP (File Transfer Protocol) access to our servers or any of our affiliates. Where a CMS (Content Management System) license and functionality is purchased, hosting is charged from £300 plus VAT per annum. One pop email account is provided, all additional email addresses will be forwarded to this or another email address which must be provided by the client.

The Company take no responsibility for any loss of business through non retrieval of emails, bounced messages or undelivered electronic mail. The Company take no responsibility for the content of emails including attachments and viruses.

Cancellation of any website will result in the withdrawal of the hosting package after 48 hours. All hosting packages are non-refundable. Should the client request that a domain name purchased by the Company on their behalf be transferred to another host, a release fee of £50 + VAT will be charged. Website hosting will be renewed automatically as part of the initial contract, but a notice period of not less than 14 days will be given at the time invoicing. Clients must cancel their renewal in writing within this notice period, otherwise all charges will become payable and cancellation will NOT be accepted after this date, as monies will have been paid by the Company on the client”s behalf.

Domain Names

Domain name of the client’s choice (subject to availability) can be provided as part of our hosting package by the Company. This cannot be a domain name already registered with another provider, but must be an additional one in such cases. Delay in websites going live because of administrative issues will not result in a delay in the site going live on the domain name that we have purchased on your behalf.  Once the site is live on the domain name, all outstanding payment is due. It is not the Company’s responsibility if there is a delay in the transfer of a domain name held with another provider, and this will not be accepted as a reason to delay payment in full of all outstanding monies.

Systems

Any systems, including eCommerce, bespoke systems and Content Management Systems (CMS), provided to the client remain the intellectual property of the Company and as such no access is given to the source code or database. Systems cannot be transferred away from our provided hosting solution. The Company websites are built on the Linux or Coldfusion platforms and may not work on Windows servers or other non-Linux, Coldfusion systems.

E-commerce/CMS

E-commerce/CMS systems will be provided as an empty shop/site, and training will be given to the client(s) on using the system. A delay in the client populating the e-shop/site will not be accepted as a reason for delayed payment as, once it is ready to be populated and training has been given, the Company’s job is done. The Company offers a service to populate the client’s shop site/CMS on their behalf, and prices are available on request for this service. Additional training and support packages are available, and again the prices for these services are available on request.

Warranty

The Company guarantees all of its websites/bespoke software solutions provided to clients insofar as any faults or bugs will be rectified within a reasonable period of time so as not to interrupt the service provided by clients to their clients / users for an unacceptable time. Any software provided by the Company proving to be faulty or defective will be repaired/replaced free of charge to the working standard equivalent to launch.

The Buyer acknowledges that it is the Buyer’s responsibility to ensure that the facilities and functions of the Licensed Materials meet the Buyer’s requirements.

If a problem is found upon investigation not to be the Compnay’s responsibility, the Compnay may charge the Buyer immediately for all reasonable costs and expenses incurred by the Company in the course of or in consequence of such investigation.

Website Approval

Once a client has agreed the look and feel proof for the website and instructed the Company to proceed to build, any subsequent changes in style or design requested by the client will be charged for at the appropriate hourly rate.

Once a complete website, or changes to a website are made live on the website on the clients instruction, it is deemed that the site and/or the content of the site have been approved and the work is therefore completed.

Clients have a period of 14 days in which to revert back any further changes and corrections afterwhich Hughes & Co reserve the right to make additional charges for further work.

Exceptions (Web)

We accept that certain details regarding your business, such as telephone numbers and email addresses, sometimes change, and that the details placed in a proof are liable to change. To this end we will amend smaller details such as these as part of our construction package. This policy applies throughout your contract with the Company: Larger changes, such as the creation of a new page or introduction of a new feature on your site, or the sourcing / changing of images are not covered by this policy and must be paid for.

Payment Terms (Web)

When we have finished building your site, we will put it live on our own server under a temporary name which we will give you. After we have informed you of the site”s location on our server, you must review the site and ask for any amendments to be made within two weeks. The site can be kept live for a longer period if you specifically request this.

We will put the site live on its own domain name, you are not permitted to point your own domain name to the test site on the Company servers. If this is found to be the case, we reserve the right to remove the site from our server.

GENERAL

Copyright

Unless negotiated and agreed in writing, the copyrights of general artwork, commissioned artwork, illustrations, website design, programming and copy belong to the Company.

If you supply us with material, it is your responsibility to obtain all necessary copyrights for its use, and we assume that you possess these. In such cases, the copyright belongs to you. By signing this agreement, you agree to indemnify the Company from any claim which arises regarding the use of material with which you supply us. We reserve the right to use any artwork or printing we produce for the purposes of promoting our services unless you request otherwise in writing.

Estimates

All estimates for work are valid for thirty (30) days, after which time all proposed work will have to be re-quoted. We take no responsibility for a re-quoted price differing from an original quote.

Illegal Matter

The Company reserves the right not to print any matter deemed illegal, libellous or offensive, or which may be an infringement of the proprietary or other rights of any third party. This agreement indemnifies us in respect of any claims, costs and expenses arising out of any libellous matter or any infringement of copyright, patent, design or of any other proprietary or personal rights contained in any material printed for the customer. The indemnity shall extend to any amounts paid on a lawyer”s advice in settlement of any claim.

Consequential Loss

The Company accept no liability whatsoever for consequential or third party losses, resulting from a delay in delivery or loss in service provided by the Company howsoever caused.

Financial Loss

The Company accept no liability whatsoever for financial loss or loss of earnings arising from products or services provided by the Company.

Force Majeure

The Company accept no responsibility if we are unable to carry out any provision of the contract for any reason beyond our control including (without limiting the foregoing) Act of God, legislation, war, fire, flood, drought, failure of power supply, lock-out, strike or other action taken by employees in contemplation or furtherance of a dispute or owing to any inability to procure materials required for the performance of the contract. During the continuance of such a contingency you may, by written notice to ourselves, elect to terminate the contract and pay for work done and materials used, but subject thereto shall otherwise accept delivery when available.

Liability

The Company shall not be liable for any loss to the customer arising from delay in transit caused by circumstances beyond the Company”s control.

Price Breakdown

The invoice we send you will be itemised, showing the cost of the design and research process, as well as the production itself. VAT is charged at the current Customs & Excise rates and according to current regulations, irrespective of whether or not it is included in a price quotation.

Jobs Put On Hold or Cancelled by the Client

Jobs put on hold or cancelled by the client during production will be invoiced at our full hourly rate based on the number of hours worked and our outlay on materials. This applies irrespective of any package agreements which have been signed, as package discounts only apply if a job is brought to completion. The invoice we issue must be paid in full together with any VAT that falls due accordingly.

Credit Terms

For invoices not settled within the agreed credit terms of 30 days from invoice date, we reserve the right to charge interest on the overdue debt at 2% above the Barclays base rate at the time and an administration fee to cover the debt recovery costs.

Insolvency

Any customer ceasing to pay their debts in the ordinary course of business or proving unable to pay their debts as they become due or, being, a company, is deemed to be unable to pay its debts, or has a winding-up petition issued against it or, being a person, commits an act of bankruptcy or has a bankruptcy petition issued against it, the Company, without prejudice to other remedies, shall (i) have the right not to proceed further with the contract or any other work for the customer and be entitled to charge for work already carried out (whether completed or not) and materials purchased for the customer, such charge to be an immediate debt due to it, and (ii) in respect of all unpaid debts due from the customer, have a general lien on all goods and property in its possession (whether worked on or not) and shall be entitled on the expiration of 14 days” notice to dispose of such goods or property in such manner and at such price as we think fit and to apply the proceeds towards such debts.

Data Protection

The Company agrees keep the confidential information of its clients confidential, including all administration areas of websites and details of referrers and those who are referred. All such data recorded by a website will be completely secure, and all information will be treated as confidential in accordance with the Data Protection Act.

Issued with effect 01/01/2010