About our terms of service
These terms have been written to protect both you (the client, you) and us (Filament Design, us, the design agency) during the design process.
Accepting a quote
Your project will not be booked until there is agreement of the scope of the project, our terms have been accepted, and the initial invoice has been paid.
Acceptance of these terms can be made by a) paying the initial invoice, and b) stating acceptance of the quote in an email reply.
Scope of Project – Quote and Proposal
The scope of the project will be outlined in a quote/proposal document prepared especially for your project. Please read your quote document carefully, as this is the easiest and cheapest point to make changes to the scope of the project.
Once you have accepted the quote, an invoice will be prepared for you.
Payment
We ask that you make a 50% deposit prior to work commencing. The deposit is non-refundable. It covers initial exploration work and project planning, as well as conceptual work.
The remaining 50% balance shall become due prior to delivery of final goods to you. “Final goods” here is taken to mean the end deliverable of the project as agreed to in the scope of the quote. It does allow for final client review and minor changes that are considered within scope. It does NOT include large, out-of-scope changes or multiple reviews.
Our preferred payment methods include internet-banking (transfer) and paypal (credit card). Details will be provided to you on the invoice.
Failure to pay any invoice on time will result in interest begin applied to your account in the amount of 5% per month, for up to 3 months. After 3 months we will assume that you do not intend to pay your invoice and this may result in project deliverables being withheld, websites being de-activated, and your account being sent to a collections service.
Alternative payment terms may be negotiated (i.e. a payment plan), and these will be recorded at the end of this document.
Roles
You, the client: you agree to be responsible for paying all invoices associated with this project, providing content and media to us, maintaining a clear line of communication with us, reviewing the project in a timely manner, and other associated tasks specific to your project.
Us, the design agency: we agree to be responsible for undertaking your project, for quoting and scoping your project as accurately as we are able to, to complete the work to a high-standard, to work to the scope set out in the quote/proposal document, to adhere to industry-standard best practices, and to maintain a clear line of communication with you.
Out-of-scope changes
We are all human and out-of-scope changes happen. These are changes or requests that were not foreseen and have not been accounted for in the original quote. Please read your quote document carefully before giving the project the “green light” as out-of-scope requests will incur additional fees. You will be notified of any out-of-scope requests that will incur these additional fees, and a new invoice will be prepared for you. The out-of-scope changes will not take place until the new invoice has been settled.
Note that out-of-scope changes will almost always alter the due date for the project.
Reviews and client feedback
At certain stages of the project, there will be opportunities for you to review the work we have done and provide feedback to us. We will aim to give you clear instructions on what aspect of the project you need to review, and how to make notes on any changes required. Please note that any delays in the review turnaround time can push out the deadline of the project. If you require more review opportunities than have been included in the quote/proposal document, these may be added for additional fees.
Testing
With web design work especially, the project will need to be tested by real people who have not previously been involved in the project. This is called alpha testing, and occurs before the public launch of a website.
Depending on the nature of your web design project: You may be asked to find suitable candidates to alpha-test the website. If this is the case, we will provide links and instructions to the candidates so they can conduct their tests. Then we will determine if any changes need to be made before the site is launched publicly.
Once the site is freshly launched, it can be considered to be in beta-test stage (although not all sites are complex enough to require this stage). During beta testing, the public can view the website and use the functionality. Any feedback may be collected from users to assist us in refining the website. Changes from beta testing will be out of the scope of the initial project, and require a new quote.
Acceptance of Final Work
We love to know that you are happy with the project we have created for you, so please email or call to let us know that you have accepted the final work.
If we have not heard back from you in 30 days from the date the work was sent to you we will consider the job completed and accepted.
If you do find something incorrect in the final work, then you give us the first right to fix it for you. We want to put things right!
Copyright and Ownership
Copyright for any final artwork becomes the property of you the client once the final invoice has been settled, with the following exception: