These are the standard terms and conditions for Graphic Design, Hosting, Search Engine Optimisation and Website Development and apply to all contracts and all work undertaken by Alliance Graphics for its clients.
On acceptance of our quote, you will be invoiced for an upfront payment of either 50% of the work to be done and related fees or payment in full with a 5% discount if paying in full upfront. This will need to be paid within five working days of date of invoice. We reserve the right not to commence any work until payment is made. Note that payments in full get priority over projects currently in production but not over other projects where payment was made in full.
In terms of Deposit payment: A 50% deposit of the total fee payable under our quote is due immediately upon you instructing us to proceed with any work, hosting or website development. The remaining 50% shall become due when the work is completed to your reasonable satisfaction but subject to the terms of the “approval of work” and “rejected work” clauses.
The 50% deposit is only refundable if we have not fulfilled our obligations to deliver the work required under the agreement. The deposit is not refundable if the development work has been started and you terminate the contract through no fault of ours.
Printing: Design costs will be included in the printing fee but in some cases will be quoted separately. If you use us for printing, you will be invoiced when the print quote is approved and this account must be paid before the job goes to print so that we can settle with our printer when they deliver to us. You may use your own printers if preferred but we will not be able to take responsibility for any errors or lack in quality on the final print job.
All prices quoted are valid for 30 days and will need to be reconfirmed after this time, unless otherwise stated.
You must supply all materials and information required by us to complete the work in accordance with any agreed specification. Such materials may include, but are not limited to, photographs, written copy, logos and other visual or informative material. Where there is any delay in supplying these materials to us which leads to a delay in the completion of work, we have the right to extend any previously agreed deadlines by a reasonable amount.
We provide very basic copywriting, editing and proofreading service included in the quote. You need to provide your own copy and do your own proofreading or request the additional quote for this service if required.
Image hire and photography - Often, during the design process, additional or alternate images are required or suggested. Image hire is an additional cost and we have a good image hire source in stock.adobe.com. We also have good contacts for photography. The cost for this needs to be taken into account and is not included in our design studio fee. You may obviously provide your own images if preferred.
Where you fail to supply materials, and that prevents the progress of the work, we have the right to invoice you for any part or parts of the work already completed.
We are pleased to offer you the opportunity to make revisions to the design. However, we have the right to limit the number of design proposals to a reasonable amount and may charge for additional designs if you make a change to the original design specification. If, during the process of design, the nature or size of the job changes, we will need to either re-quote or charge for additional time at our hourly rate as indicated below.
Initial logo and graphic design changes are limited to 3 (three) rounds of amendments. Major changes or redesigns following this will incur extra costs at our hourly rate of R500. Our website development phase is flexible and allows certain variations to the original specification. However any major deviation from the specification will be charged at the rate of R500.00 per hour.
With regards to preparing final approved design/layout for printing. This is covered in the estimate but changes after print preparation will incur extra cost to redo the print ready files at our rate of R500 per hour.
All work should be completed within four to six weeks of your upfront payment unless specifically stated or organised prior to commencement in the case of major projects. Payments made in full should be completed within two weeks depending on the workload and the complexity of the project. Should the completion of work be delayed due to any hold-up from the client’s side, the balance outstanding on your account will be invoiced after six weeks.Any time frames or estimates that we give are contingent upon your full co-operation and complete and final content and imagery for the work. During development there is a certain amount of feedback required in order to progress to subsequent phases. It is required that a single point of contact be appointed from your side and be made available on a daily basis in order to expedite the feedback process.
On completion of the work you will be notified and have the opportunity to review it. You must notify us in writing of any unsatisfactory points within 7 days of such notification. Any of the work which has not been reported in writing to us as unsatisfactory within the 7-day review period will be deemed to have been approved. Once approved, or deemed approved, work cannot subsequently be rejected and the contract will be deemed to have been completed and the 50% balance of the project price will become due in the case of deposits paid.
If you reject any of our work within the 7-day review period, or not approve subsequent work performed by us to remedy any points recorded as being unsatisfactory, and we, acting reasonably, consider that you have been unreasonable in any rejection of the work, we can elect to treat this contract as at an end and take measures to recover payment for the completed work.
For work with deposit paid we will invoice you for the 50% balance of the project once work is completed or on approval of the studio work (before websites are made active in the case of web development), before artwork handed over to yourselves or printers, you will be invoiced the balance, including any additional costs incurred if applicable.
You must obtain all necessary permissions and authorities in respect of the use of all copy, graphic images, registered company logos, names and trade marks, or any other material that you supply to us to include in your website or web applications.
You must indemnify us and hold us harmless from any claims or legal actions related to the content of your website.
Once you have paid us in full for our work we grant to you license to use any logo, marketing material artwork and website and its related software and contents for the duration of your working relationship with Alliance Graphics.
We do not guarantee any specific position in search engine results for your website. We perform basic search engine optimisation according to current best practice.
We shall not be liable for any loss or damage which you may suffer which is in any way attributable to any delay in performance or completion of our contract, however that delay arises.
To the full extent permitted by law, all terms, conditions, warranties, undertakings, inducements or representations whether express, implied, statutory or otherwise (other than the express provisions of these terms and conditions) relating in any way to the services we provide to you are excluded. Without limiting the above, to the extent permitted by law, any liability of Alliance Graphics under any term, condition, warranty or representation that by law cannot be excluded is, where permitted by law, limited at our option to the replacement, re-repair or re-supply of the services or the payment of the cost of the services that we were contracted to perform.
We reserve the right to subcontract any services that we have agreed to perform for you as we see fit.
We (and any subcontractors we engage) agree that we will not at any time knowingly disclose any of your confidential information to any third party. Please see our full Privacy Policy.
Artwork will not be handed over to client or to printer if there are any payments overdue. In the case of web development and social media the websites will not be made “live” until final payments made. In the case of website and email hosting, accounts that are unpaid after renewal date are immediately suspended and then deleted after 3 months of non-payment if no correspondence received.
If you are making use of our web hosting service, you will receive an annual invoice in advance unless otherwise agreed upon. Any lapse in your payments will result in your website and email services being terminated as in the "Outstanding Invoices" condition above. A re-activation fee of R250 will then be payable when settling the outstanding hosting fees. Please note: Your website may not be transferred to another website developer for amendments or “taking over” whether we host it or not. It is your right to transfer your domain and moving hosting accounts but note that should you do this you will in most cases have to redevelop your website with your new website designer.
Note that monthly or annual quoted marketing packages are subject to rates increase that will be informed of well in advance. Monthly packages are offered on a month-to-month basis and can be cancelled in writing at any time. Annual packages can also be cancelled at any time but no-refund will be given.
You agree to reimburse us for any requested expenses which do not form part of our proposal including but not limited to the purchase of templates, third party software, stock photographs, fonts, domain name registration, web hosting or comparable expenses.
We are responsible for maintaining your website and email backups if we host these services only. Note that these backups are only stored for seven days. Restoration of service can be done but we will not be liable for client data loss except to the extent that such data loss arises out of a negligent act or omission by us. Should you wish to download backups of your website and email data you are welcome to request access to do so.
We will supply to you account credentials for domain name registration and/or web hosting that we purchased on your behalf when you reimburse us for any expenses that we have incurred.
The agreement constituted by these terms and conditions and any proposal will be construed according to and is governed by the laws of South Africa. You and Alliance Graphics submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in and of South Africa in relation to any dispute arising under these terms and conditions or in relation to any services we perform for you.
By using current versions of well supported content management systems such as “Joomla”, we endeavour to ensure that the web sites we create are compatible with all current modern web browsers such as the most recent versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari. Third party extensions, where used, may not have the same level of support for all browsers. Where appropriate we will substitute alternative extensions or implement other solutions, on a best effort basis, where any incompatibilities are found.
You are responsible for complying with all relevant laws relating to e-commerce, and to the full extent permitted by law will hold harmless, protect, and defend and indemnify Alliance Graphics and its subcontractors from any claim, penalty, tax, tariff loss or damage arising from your or your clients’ use of Internet electronic commerce.
While Alliance Graphics strives to ensure the accuracy of all material, the ultimate responsibility of checking copy and proofs remain with the client who will have no recourse to Alliance Graphics in the event of discrepancies in the final product.
Please note that Alliance Graphics is not VAT registered.