When we enter a collaborative project together – whether it be web design and development, hosting services, website care plans or search engine optimisation – it’s important that there is clarity and transparency around the work I undertake for you. Below are Bloom Digital’s terms and conditions. Please read through them and get in touch if you have any questions before engaging Bloom Digital in a project.
The instruction for work to commence and/or payment of the required deposit indicates the client has read and agreed to the terms and conditions outlined in this documentation.
Bloom Digital is also called “we”, “us”, “our” or “Bloom Digital” in these terms and conditions.
The client means the person or business accepting these terms and conditions and is also referred to as “you” or “your”.
If Bloom Digital hosts your website, we aim to take the best care of your website as possible. Whilst we do all we can to keep your hosting working in tip top shape, we take no responsibility for downtime, hacking, loss of content, slow speeds or anything else that is caused by the hosting company or any other external party. Should this happen, we will fix the issue to the best of our ability and there may be an additional cost to do this.
Premium website hosting is free during the development phase, up to 3 months. Should your website build exceed 3 months, you will be moved onto a website care plan which includes hosting and maintenance, and you will be invoiced for this. Your build still continues as usual.
If Bloom Digital purchases your domain name on your behalf, it will be under Bloom Digital’s domain account. Domain names will be automatically renewed each year, unless instructed by the client to not renew. You must notify Bloom Digital of this before the renewal date; failing that you will be charged for the next renewal term.
It is your responsibility to provide all of your website content which includes all text and images, and brand assets. We can assist with this if agreed at the start of the project and can source stock imagery for you if needed. This may incur a cost. All proofreading – spelling and grammatical errors – are the responsibility of the client. Final approval and agreement to launch a website is the client’s responsibility.
After launch, you can make changes to your website at any time. This includes text and image changes, or functionality changes. If you add new software or plugins, remove existing software or plugins, or change the configuration of any functionality, please do so with care. Any repair work requested for errors resulting from your changes will be charged at our hourly rate.
If required, Bloom Digital may engage other trusted web development professionals to support the design or development of a project. We consider these select few an extension of our team. By accepting our proposal or estimate and/or engaging in a project with us, you consent to your website, domain or hosting data including login information, being shared with a third party subcontractor.
We prefer to primarily communicate via email. We may also, when suited, talk over the phone or on video call and we may send you an email after these discussions to confirm what we spoke about. We prefer one point of contact so if your website or project involves decision making from many people, please nominate one individual to be the person that we speak to. This ensures nothing is lost in translation and that Bloom Digital is not making changes repeatedly to comply with requests from multiple people.
You can expect a reply to your email in 1-3 business days.
Bloom Digital offers website care plans for a monthly fee. You can pay annually also. All maintenance work is undertaken sometime in the last few days of each month. Website care plans do not include content changes, page additions, added functionality such as ecommerce, or design changes. If you require these changes or anything else that is not included in a website care plan, you will charged at Bloom Digital’s hourly rate.
The care plans include hosting and access to premium software licences that may be used on your website. Should you leave a Bloom Digital care plan, you will then be responsible for your own hosting cost. Your website will be removed from our software licences and you will be responsible for the ongoing cost of these also.
There is no refund on pre-paid website care plans so we’re happy to host and look after your website until when it’s paid up to.
Bloom Digital provides estimates as opposed to quotes, and only charges the client for time undertaken to complete your project. Should your project look to exceed the estimate, we will endeavour to notify you that this is the case so you can make a decision as to how the project should then proceed. If you request any changes to the project that are not outlined in the estimate, this is considered work that is out of scope and you will either be issued a new estimate or you can approve this extra cost via email.
Any ongoing work is billed at the end of each month.
Estimates provided to you but not accepted via written confirmation will be valid for one month 30 from the initial date of receipt of the
estimate.
All estimates are quoted in New Zealand dollars (NZD).
Aside from your initial discovery meeting with Bloom Digital, all future meetings – either in person, on the phone or via video chat – are charged at our hourly rate. This includes travel to and from the meeting location.
Bloom Digital requires a deposit to confirm your project start date. This will be detailed in your proposal and payment of deposit is required before we can start on your project. We carry out a series of administrative tasks as soon as your space is booked, therefore your deposit is non-refundable should the project be abandoned for any reason. The leftover amount is required upon completion of the project if completed by end of month. If not, you will be invoiced at the end of each month for work completed that month. We reserve the right to require further deposit payment at our discretion.
If your account is not or cannot be settled for any reason, we reserve the right to cease any scheduled work and terminate our services with you. You will be notified of this via email. We will do our best to minimise any website disruption, however cannot guarantee this.
Your website may include functionality which requires email notifications to yourself or the website user. We install software to help ensure secure and prompt deliverability of these emails, however we cannot guarantee 100% deliverability. Around launch, Bloom Digital will test your emails and contact you to confirm that you have received them in your inbox. It is the client’s responsibility to make sure they are delivered and to let Bloom Digital know if there are any issues which we can fix for you. At any time, if you are not receiving emails from your website please let me know. Fixing this issue may incur an extra cost.
Bloom Digital will place a credit in the footer of your website, linking to our website. If you want this removed, please get in touch with us.
Final approval of the website is required by the client before launch. Please thoroughly check all of your website text and images, test buttons and forms, look at the website on different devices. Once we have received approval from you and launch the website, further changes may incur an extra cost at our discretion.
A work-to-date invoice will be issued just prior to launch, and the website will not be launched until this payment is received.
We cannot guarantee improvements to your website’s search engine ranking or that your website will rank in a certain place. We develop all websites according to search engine optimisation best practice.
At times we will request more information, feedback or approval from you. If we have not heard from you after three weeks, we will consider the project abandoned, put it on hold and invoice you for work to date. We may remove your website from our hosting server and there will be a cost incurred to upload it again in order to continue with the project.
You may restart your project at any time however we cannot guarantee an immediate space in our work timeline.
Either party may choose to be excused of any further performance obligations in the event of a disastrous occurrence outside the control of either party (“a Force Majeure Event”, such as: an act of God (fires, explosions, earthquakes, hurricane, natural disasters, flooding, storms or infestation), pandemic, epidemic, governmental order, or war, invasion, embargo, or other hostility (whether declared or not), or any hazardous situation created outside the control of either party such as a riot, disorder, nuclear leak or explosion, or act or threat of terrorism. In the event that a party to this agreement believes that a Force Majeure Event has occurred, they will provide notice to the receiving party as soon as is reasonably practicable. Notice is effective immediately upon receipt. In the event of a Force Majeure Event, the parties will be held to the payment agreed in the accepted proposal, and if the Force Majeure Event causes the project to be cancelled, the client will receive a work-to-date invoice.
