Last modified: April 29, 2010: The following document outlines the terms of service for all services provided by Helvetic Design (the "Designer") related to work performed for clients (the "Client"). This document may change without notice. This is written using simple English terms.
Helvetic Design performs the following work:
All Designers working for and with Helvetic Design are required to produce an estimate of work involved to the Client before starting a project. This is not related to the actual cost of the project (see "Quotes"). For design work, this must include an rough cut preview of the final product. This is also to ensure that the Client has a perspective on what the final product will look like.
A Client may request a price estimate or quote on the amount of labor required to fulfill a task. This is not a guarantee that the labor involved will not surpass this amount. The figure provided by the Designer is meant as an indication only and may be more or less depending on the additional complexities that are often revelead during the project.
All design work commissioned by the Client belongs to the Client and is no longer the property of the Designer once the project is completed, unless previously agreed upon otherwise. All passwords and hosting credentials are kept in strict confidentiality, and are permanently destroyed after the support period provided as a service by the Designer.
All design work work is billed by the hour. No minimum or maximum amount of work is set at this time. The amount that is to be billed per hour is to be negotiated between the Designer and the Client before the Designer accepts any project. This also applies to the number of expected hours that will be spent on the project.
Any non-design work (such as site updates) performed that requires less than an hour can be combined up to three times. That is, if three consecutive tasks each take less than an hour to perform (and their combined sum is not more than an hour), they will be billed to the nearest half hour. An exception to this is a post-delivery support period of 3 months, in which all updates are free of charge (see Delivery). The Designer may, at his or her discretion, asked to be paid a 1/3 (one-third) amount of the total expected billable hours before commencing any work, with the rest delivered upon successful completion of the project.
All payments are handled by personal cheque or via PayPal. PayPal payments incur a 1% fee to offset the transaction fees set by PayPal. All Clients are provided with a bill at the conclusion of a project.
Billing is negotiated at the end of each month by default or on as a requested basis.
As part of the design work the Designer may be asked to purchase domains, hosting, certificates, artwork, imagery or other services necessary to perform the work assigned. The Designer will communicate all available options (including free) to the Client for these purchases, and will only proceed to purchase these with the expressed approval of the Client. These will be billed seperately from the billable hours, and at no time will any billable hour be spent on the purchases of these products.
It is up to the Designer to refer the client to third-party providers. Hosting providers, for example, may be chosen between DreamHost and GoDaddy depending on the needs and budget of the client. Should the Client desire an alternative provider (for example, if they already have a host or a discount with another provider), it is up to the Client to research and furnish those details.
Web design work requires a cooperative effort between the Designer and the Client. This may involve phone conversations, in-person meetings and email communication. If a client fails to pursue this effort the project may be put at risk of incompletion.
The Designer will negotiate a suitable time frame for the project to be completed. If the Designer does not complete the project on time, the Client may file a Claim for Abatement in which the Designer will agree to reduce the billable hours for every week that the project is delivered late. This Abatement will not apply for projects delivered early.
If the Client breaks (reneges upon) a previously stated agreement on payment, or does not pay the full amount, the project will be labeled Incomplete and all rights and access to the project remain with Helvetic Design. The Designer must use all available means of communication, including phone and email, before moving the status of a project to Incomplete. After a grace period of 90 days the project will be Abandoned and no further work will be done.
After a project is delivered to the Client, Helvetic Design automatically provides a support period of three months (90 days) during which additional changes and support may be provided at no cost. All such work is at the discretion and availability of the Designer.
It is Helvetic Design's general policy not to accept payment until a project is successfully delivered in a timely manner. If it is in the opinion of the Designer that the project delivered is not in line with similar projects provided by Helvetic Design previously, the Designer will not accept any compensation except that which covers any third party services (see Additional Purchases above).