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Website design project terms (see further down for hosting and SEO terms)

Three-month bug fix warranty

We offer a three-month bug fix warranty on our dynamic website packages. It is the client’s responsibility to review the site and ensure they are happy with it before agreeing to the project’s finalization.

However, we understand that during the pressure of a project, occasionally, some things get missed. In this case, where bugs or technical errors are found after go-live such bugs will be fixed free of charge within 3 months of us issuing th1e final invoice.

An error will be assumed to be a bug or technical error if the project deliverable is not functioning as specified in the proposal (or via modifications throughout the project) in the same delivery environment that it was launched in and therefore can be assumed the bug was present when we went live.

Any modifications that we don’t define as a bug for the purposes of the warranty will be quoted for separately and not fixed within the 3 month warranty.

Any changes that fall outside the 3 month period of any nature will be quoted for separately and not fixed within the 3 month warranty.

Inclusions

If it is not specifically listed in the statement of work or proposal then it is not included in the project. If you have any doubts about what is included please raise these before commencements.

Demo system

Because we use existing open-source systems it is important that you familiarise yourself with these systems prior to engaging us. The logins for our demo systems will be provided with your site requirements document.

Throughout the project we understand the need to make tweaks here and there to how the system works and the design etc however the underlying process and functionality of the website and all associated components will be derived from our demo system which you have seen. Acceptance of these terms means you are agreeing that any major process or functionality differences are specifically identified in this proposal and won’t be introduced mid-project. If there are major changes introduced mid-project these will be quoted as a separate piece of work.

Invoicing

The project will be invoiced as follows:

50% at commencement – this is defined as the date at which you inform us via email that you agree to the terms of the proposal and you wish to go ahead. The project will not begin until this invoice is paid in full.

50% at delivery. This is defined as the date you ask us to make the website live or we hand over the management of the site to you. Neither will occur until the invoice is paid in full.

Invoice terms are 14 days, agreeing to go ahead means agreeing to pay all invoices within 14 days. Please see our invoice collection policy below for more information on this.

Invoices are not refundable. If the client delays the project or decides not to go ahead then we invoice for any time spent over and above the equivalent hours for what has already been invoiced and then we terminate the project. Any invoices already issued are payable.

Invoice collection policy

RhinoTheme is committed to making sure we help our clients get the most out of the web and offer exceptional value in doing so. This invoicing policy has been written so that clients who regularly pay on time are not disadvantaged by increased costs and restrictions associated with managing clients who do not pay on time.

When you engage RhinoTheme you are agreeing to our terms and conditions (including our invoice terms) and therefore agreeing to pay all invoices on time.

All of RhinoTheme’s invoices have strict 14-day terms unless otherwise agreed.

Every 2 weeks we will email all clients with overdue invoices. We will inform them how overdue the invoice is and we will ask for a date when the invoice will be paid. If there are special circumstances we may agree to extend the due date for an additional 14 days.

2 weeks following if the invoice is still outstanding we will call the client and ask for an explanation and ask for a date when the invoice will be paid. They will be informed that the Director will keep a note of the due date and for the client to send a remittance to the director when paid.

If the invoice is not paid by this date the Director may consider one or more of the following:

  • freezing any current work
  • moving to an up-front payment model for future projects
  • referring the debt to an agency
  • reducing the amount of concurrent projects
  • taking the website down and / or
  • discontinuing all future work for the client.

The same may be considered for clients who continually fail to pay their invoices on time.

If we refer outstanding invoices onto our collection provider the client will be liable for the invoice as well as the collection fees.

Scope changes

There will be no major changes from the current content / design. If we feel the project is going out of scope we will advice you of the additional work and the costs for the work.

Timeframes

Any timeframes mentioned are a rough guide and may change once a project begins. Some common things that will impact on timeframes include:

  • Clients who do not host with us and have hosting environments that slow down the development process
  • Feedback from the client at the beta delivery

3 month limit

If the client puts the project on hold for any reason or if the project runs more than 3 months for any reason we will issue an invoice for the amount of time spent to date minus any amount already paid and the project will be finalized. If the project resumes within 12 months of the commencement we will continue with the costings and invoicing identified in the quote however the work will have to be rescheduled and it may take extra time. If it doesn’t re-commence within 12 months any future work will be re-quoted.

In the event of the Customer being in default of his obligation to pay and the overdue account is then referred to a debt collection agency, and/or law firm for collection the Customer shall be liable for the recovery costs incurred and if the agency charges commission on a contingency basis the Customer shall be liable to pay as a liquidated debt, the commission payable by the Supplier to the agency, fixed at the rate charged by the agency from time to time as if the agency has achieved one hundred percent recovery.

In the event where the Supplier or the Supplier’s agency refers the overdue account to a lawyer, the Customer shall also pay as a liquidated debt the charges reasonably made or claimed by the lawyer on the indemnity basis.

Site go live

When the site is made live on the request of the client that is generally the time when the project is complete and the final invoice is issued. Any changes after this point will be quoted separately and not included in the project (other than bug-fixes fixed as part of the bug-fix warranty). In some cases we may hand the site over to the client before we go live. In these cases this is deemed to be the end of the project and we will issue the final invoice when we do the handover. When the client is ready to go live we will commit to doing this free of charge however it is expected that the invoice will be paid within the terms from the date of issue regardless of the final go live date.

Ongoing maintenance and security releases

We use open source systems which means after your site is built, there will be newer versions of the system released from time to time. We strongly suggest that you ‘patch’ the website to the latest release each time it comes out to keep the site secure. If you host with us and your site is compromised we will require that you upgrade the CMS to keep the site secure.

Intellectual property

RhinoTheme does not hold any intellectual property associated with new websites. We will keep a copy of all source files and reserve the right to demonstrate website projects with permission from the client.

Hosting terms and conditions

SPAM & illegal / copyrighted files

Any account found sending spam or hosting illegal content and/or copyrighted content will be immediately suspended and, pending further investigation, may be terminated. We have a zero-tolerance for SPAM & Illegal Content. You may report abuse via our contact form.

Server abuse

Any attempt to undermine or cause harm to a server, or customer, of RhinoTheme, is strictly prohibited.

Unauthorized use of other people’s accounts or computers is strictly forbidden. RhinoTheme will strongly react to any use or attempted use of an Internet account or computer without the owner’s authorization. Such attempts include “Internet scamming” (tricking other people into releasing their passwords), password robbery, security hole scanning, etc.

Any unauthorized use of accounts or computers by a RhinoTheme customer, whether or not the attacked account or computer belongs to RhinoTheme will result in action against the attacker. Possible actions include warnings, account suspension or cancellation, and civil or criminal legal action, depending on the seriousness of the attack.

Accounts using more than 30% of system resources for longer than 60 seconds will be suspended and may be terminated with or without refund (determined by RhinoTheme) pending further investigation.

RhinoTheme has the right to discontinue service or deny access to anyone who violates our policies or the terms and conditions shown below without warning or prior notice. No refund of fees paid will be made if account termination is due to a violation of the terms outlined below. RhinoTheme will suspend or terminate any account hosting illegal or infringing content following a valid complaint. RhinoTheme will comply with the authorities in any legal matter and will provide them with anything needed to pursue the owner of a site that hosts illegal or infringing materials. Though RhinoTheme makes an effort to monitor the sites that they host, RhinoTheme does not monitor all of them and will not be liable for any of the unacceptable uses of our hosting services: Unacceptable uses include, but are not limited to:

  • Bulk emailing,
  • unsolicited emailings,
  • newsgroup spamming,
  • pornographic content,
  • illegal content,
  • copyright infringement,
  • trademark infringement,
  • illegal MP3′s,
  • warez, cracks or software serial numbers, and/or
  • anything else determined by RhinoTheme to be unacceptable use of RhinoTheme’s services including abuse of server resources.

Accounts may be terminated that include the following content or which have links to the following content:

  • Providing material that is grossly offensive to the Web community including blatant expressions of bigotry, racism, hatred, or profanity, promoting or providing instructional information about illegal activities;
  • promoting physical harm or injury against any group or individual;
  • displaying illegal material containing nudity or pornographic material;
  • displaying material that exploits children under 18 years of age;
  • acts of copyright infringement including offering pirated computer programs or links to such programs;
  • information used to circumvent manufacturer-installed copy-protect devices, including serial or registration numbers for software programs, or any type of cracker utilities

MP3′s

Any MP3 that is not copyright by you, is not allowed on our servers. However, if the MP3 does not have a copyright, or if it only available for free via the internet (not sold in stores or on the internet) then it is allowed on our servers. If you are found with illegal MP3′s, your account will be suspended, and if you do not delete them, terminated.

Bandwidth and disk space:

Please note that if your account reaches its bandwidth limit, it will be automatically suspended – please contact us to arrange an increase in bandwidth allocation.

Unsolicited email (spam):

Unsolicited commercial advertisements are not allowed in e-mail, and will likely result in account suspension or cancellation. Commercial advertisements are unwelcome in most Usenet discussion groups and on most e-mail mailing lists. Inappropriate posting may result in account suspension or cancellation. See the newsgroup or mailing list’s charter for whether advertising is allowed or not. “Spamming,” or sending a message to many different off-topic newsgroups, is particularly unethical and will be treated as such. Sending a message, especially an advertisement, to more than five or six recipients, is by itself spamming unless the individuals have specifically requested to be added to a mailing list on that topic. E-mail is a person-to-person medium, not a broadcast medium. If you are found spamming your account may be suspended or terminated.

CGI scripts:

Each account comes with its own cgi-bin. You are free to use any CGI scripts you wish, however we reserve the right to disable any CGI script that effects normal server operation without prior warning.

Open source Scripts

If your account is compromised for whatever reason and you are running a version of an open source script that has security patches available for it (i.e. it’s not up to date) we will request that you have the site patched to the latest secure version. If you do not comply with this request we reserve the right to terminate the account. Such security holes jeopardise other customers so keeping systems secure is a very high priority.

Abuse of SMTP mail server:

We do not allow clients to send more than 2,000 pieces of e-mail per day. If you do send more than 2,000 pieces of e-mail per day, your account will be placed on hold for Network Abuse. If you are sending more than 2,000 legitimate e-mails and you do not notify us first, your account may either be suspended and terminated upon further investigation or may be moved to a special server that is specifically designed to handle high volumes of e-mail. You will be charged extra (price determined by Webtech Nepal) in addition to your regular hosting charges if your account is moved to this server.

Background running programs:

We may allow programs to run continually in the background. These are considered on a one-to-one basis and an extra charge will be incurred based on system resources used and operational maintenance needed.

IRC:

We currently do not allow IRC or IRC bots to be operated on our servers.

Backups

Backups are made as per the information on our hosting page. Backup regimes differ depending on the hosting environment.

Payment policies:

All pricing is guaranteed for the term of each invoice (maybe quarterly or annually). RhinoTheme reserves the right to change prices at any time unless other terms have been agreed upon. Any account not brought current within 3 days of email notification of payment being overdue is subject to suspension. Any account not brought current within a week (7 days) of e-mail notice of payment being overdue or exceeding this time frame in any way is subject to termination. The customer is responsible for all money owed on the account from the time it was established to the time that the customer notifies RhinoTheme.

Canceling your account

To cancel your account please contact RhinoTheme during the month or before the end of the billing period you wish the account to be canceled. Your account will be canceled at the end of the billing period and all necessary passwords and files will be provided to you to enable you to hand them over to another provider. No refunds are made for a cancellation during the billing period. There are no fees charged for cancellation.

RhinoTheme canceling your account

RhinoTheme reserves the right to cancel your account at any time. All fees paid in advance of cancellation will not be returned by RhinoTheme if RhinoTheme institutes its right of cancellation. Any violation of policies that results in extra costs will be billed to the customer (i.e. transfer, space, etc.)

Uptime:

RhinoTheme strives for 100% uptime. While other hosting providers will quote 99.9% or 100% uptime, there are some things that are simply out of our control. If for whatever reason your server goes down we will notify you immediately and resolve the issue as soon as possible. We will notify you once the issue is resolved.

Lawful purpose:

RhinoTheme reserves the right to refuse service to anyone. Customers may only use the RhinoTheme server for lawful purposes. Transmission of any material in violation of any Federal, State, or Local regulation is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to copyrighted material, material legally judged to be threatening or obscene, and material protected by trade secrets. The designation of any materials as described above is left entirely to the discretion of RhinoTheme management.

Terms of service:

RhinoTheme reserves the right to add or modify the terms of service, listed above, at any time. Upon such addition or modification, customers (current or new) must abide by these changes.

SEO Program terms and conditions

RhinoTheme SEO services are provided both as one-off service offerings and ongoing monthly services (paid quarterly).

RhinoTheme does not guarantee a ranking result in Google and in signing up to our program you agree you have watched our introductory videos and understand that Google’s algorithm is complex and dynamic and therefore ranking positions can change quickly and dramatically.

RhinoTheme will perform SEO-related services to the best of RhinoTheme’s knowledge and ability.

RhinoTheme will endeavor to avoid SEO tactics that clearly breach the policies of the major search engines however participants in our SEO program understand that this is not always clear cut and at any stage, Google can dramatically reduce the rankings of their sites or ban them completely if they choose to.

It is up to you in choosing to work with RhinoTheme to look at our experience and previous work to determine if you want to work with us.

Your website’s ranking for a term will be influenced by a lot of factors, some things we can influence, some things will be influenced by you, and some will be influenced by other people including the broader market and your competitors.

Our program is predominantly designed to improve rankings in Google’s search engine and may or may not improve results in other search engines.

Participants in our SEO program understand that at times we will give SEO related advice which will recommend services outside our current plan, in such cases it will be up to the participant to decide if they want to engage us or a 3rd party to do the work. We can’t accept responsibility for any work done by 3rd parties.

Participants in our SEO program accept that we can not guarantee that participation in the program will improve your rankings, improve your traffic or improve your revenues.

Participants in our SEO program understand that where content is required from the participant, we will wait for the participant for such content. If the content is not delivered or is delivered late we may not complete the SEO program steps relating to that content.

Participants in our SEO program understand that it would be unusual to see any measurable improvements in their position in the search engines for at least 3 months after beginning the program and achieving stable high rankings could take 6-12 months or more.

RhinoTheme will be producing content and representing you online which may include but will not be limited to:

  • Articles written and spun (produced in different versions) and submitted to article directories (spun articles may be of a lower standard than full human-written articles)
  • Sites created around your keyword topics
  • Social networking on your behalf

RhinoTheme cannot be held responsible for problems or additional costs arising due to any errors made by third parties, or failure to maintain a current copy of your own website.

For more information on this policy and other policies please contact RhinoTheme.