Website Design Terms & Conditions

Each client will be required to agree to these terms and condtions in a contract starting August 2008.

Client: The paying customer; Amy Williams, Amy Williams Design, I: Amy Williams Design

Content. Content (including text and images) must be received in a timely manner, usually within one week of payment. In most cases this can be worked around, but the timeline given to the client is dependent on receiving the content quickly.

Text can be submitted by email or sent by CD. The clients can also send a paper copy, but there will be an additional charge for typing it out. Images must be submitted by email or CD only at this time.

Charges, Payment & Refunds. A deposit for 50% of the quoted rate is required before any work begins…with the other half due upon completion/approval of the website, but before any work is uploaded to the client's host.  Additional charges may be incurred during the design process if the scope of the project changes, but the client will be informed of the additional charge and be offered the chance to not go forward with the change. Additional charges are billed with the final payment.

I accept all forms of PayPal, though payments made by credit card are subject to a 2.9% fee to cover costs associated with accepting credit cards. I also accept money orders and checks who are written on banks local to Salem, Oregon. With e-checks on PayPal and paper checks, work will not begin until the check clears the bank(s).

If I am unable to do the originally planned work, I will inform the client and the payment is completely refunded. If the client changes what they want, then backs out, or just backs out without giving me sufficient time to see if I can do what they need, the refund will be prorated for work done at an hourly rate of $60/hour.

Late fees.  I will charge a late fee of $50 per week if I have emailed the client and do not receive a response. Failing to respond to emails greatly increases the time to completion. There is an additional late charge of $50/week starting the week after the web design is completed if content has not been received. Having to wait for content with nothing to do also greatly increases the time to completion. See “Time to Completion”, below.

Time to Completion. All clients are provided with an estimated time to completion. This estimate is dependant not only on receiving website content, but on being able to communicate in a timely manner. I recommend clients check their email twice a day (including weekends, I work 7 days a week) and respond at that time to any communication from me, if at all possible. This will ensure the work is completed on schedule. Please see “Late Fees”, above.

Process. The process for web design typically starts by obtaining the client's ideas and needs, collecting payment plus hosting/ftp information, then starting the design. During the design process, draft images and web designs will either be sent by email to the client, or uploaded onto the Amy Williams Design website for feedback. Upon completion/approval by the client, and final payment if needed, the website will be uploaded to client's host. Final payment must be received before files are uploaded.

Domain & Hosting. Amy Williams Design does not provide hosting or domain registration at this time. If there is ever any problem with the client's web host, I will not be held at fault. Things such as server failure are far beyond my scope of control. Costs associated with domain registration and hosting are not included in what I charge, the client is responsible for paying for those separately.

Search Engine Optimization. Using your content and my own knowledge of search engine optimization, I will help your site be seen by search engines. What I can do is only part of the equation to getting high page ranks, and it takes months for engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN, to "find" your site and assign it a page rank, so you won't see immediate results. I cannot and do not promise top search results placement for any keyword.

Copyright. All designs created by Amy Williams Design are copyrighted to Amy Williams. The website and website content are copyrighted to the client. This may seem confusing, as copyright laws are, but this basically means that the client doesn't have the right to resell the design or claim it as their own without express written permission from me. The client is allowed to make copies of the website, which includes the designs I made, and upload to other servers, as long as the original owner stays the same (this allows for hosting changes). Owner of any stock images used retain copyright to those images, unless heavily altered with permission, in which case, I own the copyright to the final image. The client is to retain the Amy Williams Design credit on their website unless they have purchased the rights to remove it.

Updates. 7 days of updates are included in the price paid by the client. The 7 days begins the day after the website is uploaded on to the client's host. During this 7 days, text and image changes can be made for no additional cost. After 7 days, only typographical errors can be fixed at no charge. Updates needed after the 7 days are over are done for an additional fee.

Liability. Amy Williams Design will not be liable to the client or any third party for any direct, indirect, special, consequential, or incidental damages (including but not limited to damages for the loss of profits or savings, downtime, business interruption, loss of business information, damage to or replacement of equipment and property, recovery or replacement of programs or data, or other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use, the results of use, or inability to use the website services.