Graffiq – Terms and conditions of business

 These are the terms and conditions of business for the ‘Service Provider’, Graffiq, whose business address is Marlowe Innovation Centre, Marlowe Way, Ramsgate, Kent . CT12 6FA, email design@graffiq.com.

Your authorisation to proceed with a project or assignment is deemed as your complete acceptance of these terms and conditions.

These terms of business shall remain in force at all times when working with Graffiq.

1. Working hours

Normal working hours are 9am to 6pm Monday to Friday, excluding Bank Holidays/Public Holidays.

1.1  Emergency Technical Support

Emergency technical support is provided outside of normal working hours.   An emergency is considered when your website or email service is not working and you have carried out all reasonable checks to ensure it isn’t your internet connection or other issue which can be resolved at your end.  If you are unable to access your email, then please email from your secondary or personal email address.  Please supply your name, website name, contact number, email address and full details of the issue you are experiencing so that we can investigate and resolve the issue.   Any other issues will be dealt with at our first opportunity during normal working hours.  Please use the email address support@graffiq.com and the subject ‘EMERGENCY TECHNICAL SUPPORT’ on your email. 

2. Service location

Any work undertaken may, at the discretion of the owner, be carried out at the services provider’s business address, or home office, or the client’s business premises if appropriate.  

3. Work undertaken

Graffiq Web Studio’s services include website design, digital design for print and web, website support, website hosting and maintenance plans, website hosting, and domain management services. Graffiq reserves the right to refuse to undertake any website project or assignment, if it considers the project to be inappropriate by any means or will damage the reputation of Graffiq Web Studio.

4. Ownership of property and intellectual property

All property you provide to Graffiq for the purposes of completing a project, remains your property and will be returned to you on completion of the project.

All design work carried out by Graffiq remains the intellectual property of Graffiq  until all related invoices are paid in full.

Graffiq does not accept responsibility for the end use of any documentation or images produced or edited on your behalf including use of images, artwork or intellectual property provided by you for use on a project. You must agree to respect copyright laws with relation to others intellectual property rights.

5. Web Hosting

Our website hosting is provided on a fully managed server, based in a UK datacentre who provide 24/7 support and offer a guaranteed uptime of 99.9%. As your hosting arranger, Graffiq cannot accept any liability for unavailability, malfunction or interruption of their services and cannot recompense you of any losses caused by a service outage but will contact their support team and liaise with them until any outage is resolved. If we believe that any content or activity on your website does not adhere to the hosting company’s terms and conditions, we reserve the right to terminate or suspend your website/email hosting package with immediate effect.  A copy of the company’s hosting agreement can be provided upon request.  Hosting is provided on either an annual basis, or on a monthly basis and is payable in advance.  One full calendar month’s written notice is required to terminate any hosting arrangement.  Where a month’s notice is not provided, full payment equal to one month’s hosting will be due.  

6. Domain registration and management

Upon request, Graffiq will register your chosen domain name. For a nominal fee, in addition to the actual cost of the domain, we will manage the domain, appropriate records and renewals on your behalf. A copy of the domain agent’s terms of registration can be provided to you upon request. It is the Client’s responsibility to ensure that the domain records are kept up to date with any changes including name changes, address and contact details.

You’ll need to ensure that Graffiq are kept up to date with your correct contact details, as we both have a responsibility to do so to the domain registrar. You will be invoiced for all domain name renewals in advance of it becoming due to the domain agent, unless this is included as part of your monthly website hosting and care plan. If payment isn’t received by the expiry date, your domain name will not be renewed and you risk losing it permanently as it will eventually become available for public release.

7. Travel expenses

Any travel expenses incurred by Graffiq whilst on assignment for the Service User will be invoiced accordingly at a rate of £0.60p* per mile. This includes travelling to and from the client’s office or agreed meeting place, to collect or deliver work, or to the client’s office to work on site.  

8. Additional expenses

Any expenses incurred by Graffiq in relation to a project will be charged at the relevant amount and invoiced accordingly. This includes printing, postage or any other materials required in order to complete a project to the client’s specification.

9. Deposits & Payments

An invoice will be issued prior to commencement of any project.  This invoice should be paid in full as per the payment terms on the invoice in order for the project to go ahead.  On payment of invoice, your project will be started, or if we have agreed to schedule your project in advance, then a deposit invoice will be issued for a minimum of 50% of the project total or £100 (whichever is the greater) and must be paid in order for your project to be scheduled in for the agreed date.  If this deposit invoice is issued and remains unpaid, we cannot guarantee being able to start your project on the agreed date and any other work may be scheduled ahead of it.  In all instances, invoices must be paid in full by the due date shown.

10. Payment

All invoices are payable by the due date stated on the invoice. This is usually 7 days from the date of invoice. We accept payment by the following methods:

Preferred payment methods:  Direct Debit via GoCardless.  Direct debits are usually taken within 3-7 days from the invoice date.  

Other payment methods:  We also accept payment via Standing order or BACS transfer.  Our bank details are provided on your customer invoice.  

Please do not send cash payments through the post as these cannot be traced and we cannot accept responsibility for non-receipt of cash payments.  

11. VAT

Graffiq is not currently VAT registered and does not charge VAT on invoices.  However, when using suppliers such as domain registrars or printers who do charge VAT, this will form part of our charges in order that we cover our costs. 

12.  Late payment/non-payment

If payment is not received within the above terms, or the terms detailed on the invoice, one reminder will be sent.

Where payment is more than 14 days overdue, statutory interest will be applied. Statutory interest is equal to 8% plus the Bank of England base rate for business to business transactions plus our administration fee to cover costs. A new invoice will be issued for the statutory interest and this will become payable immediately.

All web hosting payments must be received by the due date.  Late payments will result in suspension of your hosting account, which will affect your website and email services where applicable.

If you are experiencing payment difficulties, please contact us immediately at accounts@graffiq.com  to see what options are available you.

13.  Confidentiality & Non Disclosure

All projects undertaken by Graffiq are treated as confidential except where end use of the work is available in the public domain. Once in the public domain (such as websites or printed marketing material), then it may be used as part of the Graffiq business portfolio and details may be made available on our website as part of our portfolio or references. If you do not wish your project to be used as part of our business portfolio, please notify us immediately, in writing, on completion of your project, or at any time beforehand.

Where the Client has their own confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement, please provide a copy for us to review.  Our agreement to this will not be unreasonably withheld.

14. Proof reading, errors and print proofs

Graffiq endeavours to provide a high standard of work.  However, we are human, mistakes may occasionally happen.  For this reason, we ask that you carefully and thoroughly check all work for accuracy, immediately, before signing it off, and within a maximum period of 7 days from the completed project being sent to you. Final proof-reading remains the responsibility of the client. In the event of an error being found, please notify us immediately giving the correct information and we will make the amendments as soon as reasonably practical.  If we do not hear from you with 7 days from the completed work being sent, or a project going live, we will regard the project as being signed off.  Any additional changes after this day will be chargeable at our standard rate.

Where a print proof is issued prior to a print job being carried out, it is essential that this is checked carefully and completely before providing your authorisation to print. Once the print job has been ordered, it cannot be modified, and any amendments and reprints will incur further costs which will be invoiced to you, the Client and must be paid prior to the final version being released.

15. Anti-virus disclaimer

We are all at risk of obtaining software viruses on our computers when interacting online. Graffiq will always ensure that up to date anti-virus software is in operation on computer equipment and we ask the same of you, the Client.

Graffiq accepts no liability for any damaged caused by viruses, corrupt files sent or received through transmission of files or any other means, or for damage caused by malicious software to your website.

16. Changes to these terms and conditions of business

Graffiq may from time to time review and update these terms of business. If we do update them, we will republish them on our website at https://graffiq.com/terms-of-business.   Any significant changes will be recorded in section 18. Updates & Revisions..

17. Privacy Policy

These terms and conditions should be read in conjunction with our Privacy Policy which can be found on our website at https://graffiq.com/privacy.

18. Updates & Revisions
Amendments:
22/03/2022  Section 7 Travel expenses amended  .45p per mile to .60p per mile cost to take into account rising fuel costs.
21/09/2022  Section 1 Working Hours amended  from 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday, to 9am – 6pm Monday – Friday. 
21/09/2022  Section 1.1 Out of Hours Support section added to cover emergency support
21/09/2022  Section 2 Service Location wording amended  to include service provider’s home office
21/09/2022 Section 10 Payments preferred payment method amended to direct debit and rest of paragraph updated accordingly.
19/06/2023  Section  9 Deposits & Payments wording amended to make terms of deposit invoices & payments clearer.
07/12/2023  Section 1.1 Emergency technical support wording updated to make the procedure clearer.
07/12/2023 Section 14 Proof reading, errors and print proofs wording updated to make the section clearer.

Graffiq terms and conditions of business copyright 2022.  Updated 19 June 2023.