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Please download the Microsoft Word version of our standard terms and conditions here

Sunstone Media Terms and Conditions

(Please ensure that you read and accept these conditions.)

Contract: The client’s approval for work to commence shall be deemed a contractual agreement between the client and Sunstone Media. Important: Approval for the work to commence and payment of the advance fee indicates that the client accepts the terms and conditions outlined in this document.

Sunstone Media Intellectual Copyright: Sunstone Media will hold intellectual copyright of any material, including any source code and original images created for the client until payment of the final invoice. At this time we will transfer this intellectual copyright to the client.

Clients Responsibilities with Regard to Copyright: In situations where the client provides images, text, animations or any other content for their website they are legally responsible for ensuring that this material does not infringe any copyright. Certain images provided by Sunstone Media in the construction of the website may have been purchased under licence from stock image suppliers. These images are generally only licensed for use on a single website and may not be used in publicity material. The website owner is legally responsible for ensuring that this does not happen. If you wish to use any images from the site for other purposes please contact us for clarification.

Registration Charges: All third party costs arising from the registration of a domain name shall be met by the Client. Sunstone Media recommend that clients register their own domain names so that they have full ownership of these but where we have registered a domain name on the client’s behalf we agree to transfer this domain name to the client immediately upon request and without charge.

Search Engine Promotion: Sunstone Media are not responsible for the client’s on-going web site promotion. Should the client require the site to be promoted on an ongoing basis a separate contract must be agreed. The order in which websites are ranked in the natural search results is controlled by the search engines. While we can optimise your site for this we are unable to make any guarantees about the success of any search engine promotion activity. Sunstone Media can accept no responsibility or liability if any search engine, online directory or search site, submitted to as part of a web site promotion commission, chooses not to list a client’s web site.

Cancellation: Should the client wish to cancel at any point during the process they shall remain liable for the work that has taken place and shall be invoiced accordingly.

IMPORTANT! Failure to Provide Required Website Content: We are a small business. To remain efficient we must ensure that work we have programmed is carried out at the scheduled time. On occasions we may have to reject other work and enquiries to ensure that your work is completed at the time arranged.
This is why we ask that you provide all the required information in advance. On any occasion where we cannot progress your website because you have not provided the required information when you have agreed to do so, and we are delayed as result, we reserve the right to impose a surcharge of up to 25%.
If you agree to provide us with the required information and subsequently fail to do within four weeks of project commencement we reserve the right to close the project and the balance remaining becomes payable immediately. Simply put, all the above condition says is do not give us the go ahead to start until you are ready to do so.
NOTE: Text content should be delivered as a Microsoft Word (or similar) document with the pages in the supplied document representing the content of the relevant pages on your website. These pages should have the same titles as the agreed website pages. Contact us if you need clarification on this.

Conceptualising: Conceptualising is the process of producing website concepts for clients. Concepts can include site mock ups, graphics and design proposals. For higher cost websites this will be included but for low cost sites (below $600) please bear in mind that unless previously agreed, only one concept is possible. You should therefore ensure that you let us have your preferred colour scheme and design requirements beforehand. If you don’t do this we will design the website appropriately but if it is not to your taste we may not be able to rework the website without additional charges. This is why it is often best to show us another website that you like as an example of what you require.

Quotations: The price quoted to the client is for the work agreed on the quotation only. Should the client decide that changes are required after work on the website commences, then we will accept these changes with the provision that additional charges may have to be negotiated.
Advance Payment: An advance of 50% of the total cost of the project is required before work can commence. After work commences this is non-refundable.

Payment terms: Payment is currently accepted by cheque or bank transfer n NZ$, unless otherwise agreed. If your cheque is returned by the bank as unpaid for any reason, you will be liable for a "returned cheque" charge of $25.

Payment: Payment of any balance will be due within 30 days of the final invoice date. Full publication of the Web Pages may take place only after full payment has been received. Any material previously published may be removed if payment is not received. When this occurs a minimum charge of $50 will be required to have the site restored.

Late Payment: Accounts that have not been settled within 7 days of our final reminder will incur a late payment charge of 10% of the amount outstanding.

Future Support: The website is provided to and accepted by the client as a fully functioning, completed work. Sunstone Media is not responsible for future support. This support can normally be provided upon request and for an agreed fee. No guarantee of future support is given unless an ongoing support package is negotiated.

Future Site Problems: Unfortunately malicious software, spyware, viruses and website hacking are facts of life on today’s Internet. It is highly unlikely that these will affect your website, and Sunstone Media will endeavour to protect it from this as much as we can during its creation. We cannot be held responsible for problems that develop on completed sites as a result of illegal activity.

Compliance with Accessibility or Other Regulations: We design websites in accordance with the client’s specifications. It is the client’s responsibility to ensure that the website and its content comply with standing regulations. We cannot accept responsibility for any failure to comply with regulations related to accessibility, selling online or those related to a specific business or trade. We can research this on the client’s behalf upon request, but in any business where complex compliance issues exist we recommend that the client takes legal advice from their company lawyer.

Unfit Content: We reserve the right to refuse to construct a web site which we may judge as unfit due to content or otherwise. This includes, but is not limited by, sites containing adult oriented material such as pornography, sites which promote hatred towards persons belonging to any ethnic group, religion or sexual orientation and sites which infringe copyright or are contrary to NZ laws.

Browsers: Sunstone Media makes every effort to design pages which display acceptably in the most popular current browsers, but cannot accept responsibility for pages which do not display acceptably in new versions of browsers released after pages have been designed.

Notes: Should Sunstone Media waive any of these terms on an individual basis, this shall not affect the validity of remaining clauses or commit Sunstone Media to waive the same clause on any other occasion.

By agreeing to these terms and conditions your statutory rights are not affected.

Sunstone Media reserves the right to change or modify any of these terms or conditions at any time. Should clarification of any of the above be required please contact us.

Thanks to Toucher Web Design UK for letting us borrow from their terms and conditions for this document.