Terms Of Service - Creative Compass

Table of Content

  • Introduction

  • Services

    • Web Design Projects

      • Website Design

      • HTML & CSS Templates

      • Photographs and Digital Assets

      • Changes and Revisions

    • WordPress Hosting Plans

      • Technical Support

      • Client Conduct & Acceptable Use

      • Overage Pricing

    • Digital Marketing

      • Search Engine Optimisation Service

      • Content Production Disclaimer

    • WordPress Maintenance Package

  • Non-Disclosure Agreement

  • Payment Policy

  • Terms of Agreement, Cancellation & Refunds

  • Warranty Disclaimers

  • Indemnity

  • Limitation of Liability

  • Governing Law & Jurisdictions

  • Miscellaneous

Introduction

Creative Compass Digital Australia Pty Ltd (hereinafter, “Creative Compass,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) ABN: 21 636 531 907 provides a variety of digital services such as but not limited to Web Design and Development, WordPress Hosting services, Website Maintenance and Support, Digital Marketing services such as SEO and PPC, Content Creation services such as Copywriting and EDM and Social Media and Video Production.

Service – Web Design Projects

Website Design

If we are designing your application we’ll create designs for the look-and-feel, layout and functionality of your website. Our service includes one main design with the option for you to make revisions. If you’re not happy with the designs at this stage, you will pay us in full for all of the work that we have produced until that point and you may either cancel this contract or continue to commission us to make further design revisions at our standard design rates.

HTML & CSS Layout Templates

If the project includes HTML markup and CSS templates, we’ll develop these using valid HTML and CSS code. The landscape of web browsers and devices changes regularly and our approach is to look forward, not back. With that in mind we will test all our markup and CSS in current versions of all major desktop browsers to ensure that we make the most from them. Users of older or less capable browsers or devices will experience a design that is appropriate to the capabilities of their software.

We do not cater for people using Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and cannot predict the behaviour of that browser.

We will also test that these templates perform well on Apple’s latest iPad and iPhone models. We will not test old or abandoned browsers, for example Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or 5.5 for Windows or Mac, previous versions of Apple’s Safari, Mozilla Firefox or Opera unless otherwise specified. If you need us to consider these older browsers, we will charge you at our standard old browser rate for any necessary additional design work, development and testing.

Photographs & Digital Assets

Unless otherwise stated, you will supply us photographs or icons in digital format with high resolutions. If you choose to buy stock photographs we can suggest vendors of stock photography. Any time we spend searching for appropriate photographs will be charged at our standard discovery rate.

Changes & Revisions

We know from plenty of experience that fixed-price contracts are rarely beneficial to you, as they often limit you to your first idea about how something should look, or how it might work. We don’t want to limit either your options or your opportunities to change your mind.

The estimate/quotation prices at the beginning of this document are based on the amount of work we estimate we’ll need to accomplish everything that you have told us you want to achieve.

If you do want to change your mind, add extra pages or templates or even add new functionality, that won’t be a problem. However, you will be charged accordingly and these additional costs will need to be agreed to before the extra work commences. This additional work will affect deadlines and they will be moved accordingly. We’ll be up front about all of this if and when it happens to make sure we’re all on the same page before proceeding. We may also ask you to put requests in writing so we can keep track of changes.

If the nature or functions of the project change significantly throughout the process, we reserve the right to deem the current project cancelled. At this point you will pay us in full for all the work we have done and may commission us to complete the new project based on the new requirements. This will require a new quote and contract.

Service – WordPress Hosting Plans

We offer WordPress hosting for our clients through the use of third party vendors such as Kinsta, WPEngine, and Flywheel. We are not a hosting company. Our vendors are upmarket managed WordPress hosting companies that provide a superior level of service and support and will only allow the use of the WordPress application. We resell plans to our clients with the added benefit of account management by our team to provide a point of contact. This may often result in additional benefits such as a reduction in price due to the higher volume of our reseller service. By using our reselling service you are bound by the relevant providers’ terms of service plus other conditions we put in place.

Technical Support

We are not a website hosting company however we resell hosting, therefore we will be your first point of contact for any issues. We may charge you a one-off fee for installing your site on this server at our discretion.

Depending on the issue and how it came to be, we will either fix it ourselves or contact the host ourselves. We also have the option for you to contact the host directly if needed by giving you server level access to your hosting environment, however this is not provided by default.

Please note that our hosting support is limited to the server only. For any application support issues we recommend you take out a website maintenance package with us.

Client Conduct & Acceptable Use

You agree to use our reseller hosting services in compliance with applicable local, state, national, and international laws and regulations, including, but not limited to, Australian export-control laws and applicable data privacy laws. Please review our providers Privacy Policy and Data Processing Addendum, as applicable.

You agree not to perform, attempt to perform, or encourage or assist others in performing any of the following while accessing or using the Services: (a) use, display, mirror, or frame the Services or any individual element within the Services; (b) access or tamper with non-public areas of the Services; (c) test the vulnerability of any Host service system or breach any security or authentication measures; (d) circumvent any measure implemented by our host provider or any third party to protect the Services; (f) modify, decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, tamper with, or attempt to derive the source code of any part of the Services; (g) interrupt, damage, destroy, or limit the functionality of the Services; or (h) host, upload, or in any way transmit malware, viruses, or any other malicious code or activity (“Malicious Code”).

Clients who unintentionally or inadvertently host Malicious Code in connection with the Services shall cooperate with the provider to promptly remove the Malicious Code. If Malicious Code is determined by the host provider to have been migrated unintentionally as part of a website migration performed by the Client, the Client shall be afforded the opportunity to promptly remove the Malicious Code.

If the Client fails to promptly remove the Malicious Code as directed by the hosting provider, the Malicious Code shall be removed by them, and a A$800.00 removal fee shall be charged to Client and paid through Client’s default payment method (including auto payment).

Limits of Use. You agree to cooperate with the hosting provider in ensuring that resource utilisation is accurately measured. Do not overburden the Services or place excessive burdens on any CPUs, servers, or other resources used in connection with the Services.

Do not use excessive bandwidth or data transfer. If your Services are unmetered, and your use of them exceeds the use of the Services by similarly situated customers, we may offer to move you to a metered plan. If you refuse to move to a metered plan, we may place restrictions on your use of the Services until your use corresponds with that of similarly situated Clients.

If the Service plan to which you subscribe sets out an amount of data transfer or number of visits, you agree not to exceed this amount. If you exceed this amount, and we choose not to limit your use of the Services, your data transfer or visits over the contracted amount will be billed at our then-current rate. You can read about how our hosting provider counts visits in their knowledge base article on visitor counts (https://kinsta.com/knowledgebase/visitor-counts/).

If the Service plan to which you subscribe sets out an amount of disk space, you agree not to exceed this amount. If you exceed this amount, we may notify you in writing and then upgrade your subscription to a plan which includes sufficient disk space.

Our providers plans may allow you to send a certain amount of transactional emails per day, and you agree not to exceed the maximum amounts listed on our website. If you exceed your daily transactional email quota, we may offer to upgrade your plan, or use a third-party provider to send transactional emails. If you refuse to upgrade your plan or use a third-party provider, we may refuse to deliver emails on your behalf.

Do not use or provide open proxies or Internet Relay Chat. Additionally, you may not use the Services for video streaming.

Plan Limits & Hosting Overage Pricing

Our plans include a certain amount of limits. Running over a bit is not a problem. We will not force you to upgrade to a new plan and we will never take your site down because you went over your limits. That is not fair to you or your customers.

  • Visits - If you hit your plan's visits cap we'll keep your sites running but charge you an overage fee after a specific number of visits. (A$2.00 / 1,000 visits)

  • CDN - If you hit your CDN limit we'll keep your sites running but we'll charge you a fee after each additional GB. (A$0.18 / GB)

Service – Digital Marketing

SEO Service Disclaimer

The Client acknowledges the following with respect to SEO services from Creative Compass:

  • Creative Compass has no control over the policies and ranking algorithms of search engines with respect to the type of sites and/or content that they accept now or in the future. Client’s web site may be excluded from any search engine or directory at any time at the sole discretion of the search engine or directory.

  • Due to the competitiveness of some keywords / phrases, ongoing changes in search engine ranking algorithms, and other competitive factors, Creative Compass does not guarantee No.1 positions or consistent top 10 positions for any particular keyword, phrase, or search term.

  • Google has been known to hinder the rankings of new websites (or pages) until they have proven their viability to exist for more than 6 months of time or have enough authoritiy within an industry.

  • Creative Compass or any contractors Creative Compass engages assumes no liability for ranking, traffic, indexing issues related to such penalties. Consequently client understands that ranking new websites is much more difficult than ranking old and established sites and they should not have unrealistic expectations about rankings, traffic and revenues.

  • New websites may get temporary boosts in rankings for some targeted keywords for a small period, but then stablises to their real ranking. This is known as ‘new site boost effect’ and happens quite commonly. Consequently, the client understands that his/her new site has not really secured top rankings within a month, and soon it will return to its actual position.

  • Occasionally, search engines will drop listings for no apparent reason. Often, the listing will reappear without any additional SEO efforts.

  • A websites search engine ranking can fluctuate anyday, at any time because of on- going changes in the ranking algorithm, SEO efforts made by the competitors, or both.

  • Creative Compass makes no guarantee / warranty of the project timeline or added expenses (like charging additional fees, etc) if the SEO work is destroyed either wholly or in parts, either knowingly or unknowingly by any party other than Creative Compass Digital or without the prior consultation of Creative Compass Digital Pty Ltd. SEO work is considered to be destroyed either wholly or in parts if following changes (but are not limited to) are made to a website by any party other than Creative Compass Digital or without first consulting Creative Compass Digital Pty Ltd:

    • Changes in the file(s) or folder(s) name

    • Putting a file in a different folder or putting a folder in another folder or sub domain

    • Making changes in the head section of a document like changing the text in the title tag, removing certain HTML tags required for site authentication.

    • Deleting a link, folder, file, web document or sub domain.

    • Modifying text on a web document like changing the formatting of the text or repositioning the text.

    • Removing analytics code from the web page which is used to track website traffic.

    • Linking out to any website without prior consultation of Creative Compass Digital

    • Adding a file, folder, web document, widget or any functionality.

    • Renaming URLs of existing web documents.

    • Taking down the website or part of the website.

    • Renaming, relocating, adding or removing any file, folder or sub domain on a web server including web documents, robots. txt, . htaccess file, sitemap. xml, RSS. xml etc

    • Changes in the site architecture

    • Changes in the anchor text

    • Making any changes on an optimised web page

  • The client guarantees any elements of text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, or other artwork provided to Creative Compass for inclusion in the project are owned by the client, or that the client has received permission from the rightful owner(s) to use each of the elements, and will hold harmless, protect, and defend Creative Compass Digital and its holding companies, subsidiaries, employees and subcontractors from any liability or suit arising from the use of such elements.

  • Creative Compass Digital makes no guarantee / warranty of project timeline or added expenses (like charging additional fees etc) if:

    • The client fails to resolve Creative Compass Digital queries on time.

    • Make delays in providing required access, documents, permissions or any support for Search Engine Optimisation purpose

    • The client fails to make necessary changes on the website as and when advised by Creative Compass for carrying out the Search Engine Optimisation services.

    • There is a server outage for prolonged time on client’s site.

    • The website is compromised by hackers and/or penalised by Google.

  • Creative Compass is not responsible for the client over writing SEO work. The client will be charged an additional fee for any re-constructing, re-optimising content/ web pages, based on the hourly rate of AU$180 per hour, ex. GST.

  • Creative Compass may provide reports for tracking and measuring the progress of the SEO campaign or project. These reports are provided by third party services such as but not limited to: Ahrefs, SEMRush, Moz, Agency Analytics, AccuRanker, Databox, Google Search Console. Creative Compass provides no warranties or guarantees for the accuracy of this data. Creative Compass may decide to pass the costs on for reporting services at our sole discretion. Reports are provided to the client by allocation of the billable retainer hours.

Content Creation

  • Creative Compass develops and proof-reads high-level SEO friendly content in the form of articles and website copy. We also provide video production services to flesh out campaigns and increase engagement if needed or requested.

  • All content creation will be provided at the rate of $180/hr (Ex GST), with quotes being provided for marketing campaigns while general web copy and articles will be charged under the retainer unless otherwise stated.

Services – WordPress Maintenance Package

  • The support time is used once every month to take a full backup of your website. After that, we work on updating your CMS and plugin versions along-with any website fixes that may arise as a result of the updates. Any additional work hours are requested for your approval.

  • The package is auto renewed every month on its start date the month prior.

  • Monthly maintenance package fees require credit card payment only. No other forms of payment will be accepted for monthly maintenance.

  • Monthly maintenance package fees will be charged to the clients credit card on file on the 1st day of every month.

  • If your website/application is not hosted on a Creative Compass managed server, any additional man-hours that may be required due to any server or network related issues are not covered in our quotes and may be charged separately.

Non-Disclosure Agreement

  • Provider agrees to keep all information obtained during the term of this agreement confidential. Client will not disclose any confidential information without prior written consent from the owner. Furthermore the Client agrees to hold the highest level of respect for all individuals employed or contracted by the Provider during and at anytime following agreement terms.

Payment Policy

  • Creative Compass’ services are provided either as a one off project or monthly retainer both based from an hourly billable rate.

  • For retainer services such as but not limited to SEO, there is a minimum of ten hours per month with a minimum term of three months, billed at the start of each month.

  • For one off projects we will estimate the amount of billable hours at the start of the project. This is not a fixed project rate and may change throughout the project. We will contact you if a project will go over budget and get approval from you to extend the amount of billable hours to complete the project. Any changes to the project scope are welcome however may also incur extra billable hours. We will retrieve approval from you before carrying out this work.

  • The monthly retainer is based off a mutually agreed amount of hours and the Client will be notified when we have reached 80% and 100% capacity.

  • If Creative Compass requests or are requested to exceed the standard retainer hours for any given month Creative Compass will confirm with the client before any extra work is carried out. Extra hours will be invoiced to the client at the end of the month separate to the retainer.

  • Creative Compass may also provide services on a one off basis by which a quote is provided for the estimate of billable hours. We require a 50% initial payment of the estimation with the balance of billable hours carried out on delivery.

  • Remittance for retainer payments to Creative Compass are made via automatic monthly direct debit (provided through Ezidebit or Stripe) and any agreed extra billable hours through a balance payment via bank transfer upon invoice receipt.

  • Charges not paid by the due date for any reason might result in a suspension of services until full payment is received. We also reserve the right  to restrict your website

  • Late payment fees may apply at the sole discretion of Creative Compass and includes any charges for re-debit dishonour fees.

  • The Client acknowledges that any unpaid invoices will be sent to a collection agency after 2 months with the collectors fees to be passed on to the client.

  • Except in the case of a material breach of this agreement by Creative Compass, Creative Compass does not issue refunds of any fees for any reason.

Terms of Agreement, Cancellation & Refunds

  • All estimates/quotes are based on our understanding of your requirements provided in the scope of work as per the given time-frame. Any changes to the scope including micro-improvements, may incur additional costs set accordingly.

  • By accepting a quote, scope of work, or contract, you agree to and accept the Terms of Service for Creative Compass Digital Australia Pty Ltd. Acceptance can be verbal, by email, payment of Initiation, or by signing a quote, contract, or statement of work.

  • Any re-work on an already completed task may attract additional charges. Any changes in the design after the design approval will incur additional charges.

  • One off projects can only be cancelled with approval of both parties with no refunds given for work that has already been completed. We also may need further remittance to cover the completed work.

  • Retainers shall renew at the end of each calendar month for a successive calendar month term unless either party provides a minimum of 45 days written notice of its intention not to renew or if both parties agree to enter a new contract term for a determined time period.

  • Cancellations become effective on the day they are processed by Creative Compass. The Client will be notified of the cancellation via email.

  • Some client contacts may contain a minimum term which will be confirmed with the client prior to starting the contract.

  • Creative Compass reserves the right to negotiate and refund an appropriate portion of the amount paid by customer towards the requested service. If you cancel your order after making the payment, but the work has not commenced, we will refund 75% of the payment that you have already made. If the order is cancelled after the commencement of work, the maximum refund or charge will be 50% of the invoice and no refunds will be given for work that has already been completed. There will be no refund or adjustments if a cancellation is called when more than 50% of the work has been completed. All cancellations must be received in writing and can be sent via regular mail or email. Telephone requests on cancellations will not be accepted.

Warranty Disclaimers

  • Creative Compass expressly disclaims any and all warranties regarding or related to this agreement other than those imposed by statute under the laws of the Commonwealth of Australia or New South Wales.

  • Creative Compass makes no warranty or representation:

    • as to the position your advertisement is placed on a search result page, or the frequency and time of day that your advertisement is displayed;

    • for any specific result on any search engine;

    • as to the quantity or quality of increased traffic or sales to the Client’s Website; or

    • as to Client Website’s ranking. In particular, the Client acknowledges that the search engines change their ranking algorithms on a regular basis and new sites and competitor sites may be being optimised and submitted continually.

  • While Google’s results are displayed on other search engines, Creative Compass’s Services are aimed at increasing the visibility and boosting traffic from Google. Google does change its algorithm and Creative Compass is not responsible for the client’s rankings due to this algorithm change. Creative Compass will endeavour to maintain the Client’s Google rankings, but the Client acknowledges that Creative Compass is not liable for any loss of business due to ranking fluctuations caused by Google algorithm changes. Plus, if the Client has had any previous search engine optimisation work carried out on their website by another SEO organisation, Creative Compass is not responsible for the Client’s ranking fluctuations that may have been caused by this previous SEO work.

  • The Client acknowledges and agrees that:

    • the information available on or through the Client’s Website following the application of the Services is not reviewed, controlled or examined by Creative Compass in any way before it appears on Client’s Website;

    • Creative Compass does not endorse, verify or otherwise certify the contents of any such information; and

    • The Client remains at all times legally responsible for the content of the Client’s Websites (including in connection with infringement of intellectual property rights of any other party).

  • Creative Compass does not warrant or guarantee that:

    • any information available on or through Creative Compass will be free of infection by viruses, worms, trojan horses or anything else manifesting contaminating or destructive properties; or

    • that the functions or services performed by Creative Compass or a Supplier will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that defects in the services will be corrected.

  • The Client remains responsible for the ongoing security and integrity of their own software, website, networks and systems.

  • The Client remains the owner of any content created by Creative Compass on the Client’s social media profiles or the Client’s website. The Client remains responsible for all content on the Client’s website or the Client’s social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and other social media networks belonging to the Client or Google Ads.

    • If Creative Compass makes any changes to the Client’s website or Google Ads, the Client remains responsible for checking the content and for correcting it if it is necessary.

    • Creative Compass does not guarantee any conversion rates or specific numbers of clicks and spend related to SEO, Google Ads and social media services.

    • If Creative Compass makes any posts or uploads content or makes any changes to the Client’s social media networks such as Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, the Client remains responsible for checking the content and for correcting it if it is necessary.

    • By providing access to the Client’s social media networks, the Client allows Creative Compass to read and respond to any messages or posts made on the Client’s social media networks.

  • The Client agrees to share the Client’s website URL, keywords used for SEO purposes, website design, and/or social media profile URLs created/or managed by Creative Compass on Creative Compass marketing materials (such as websites, proposals, and portfolio examples), unless the Client instructs otherwise.

Indemnity

  • The Client will indemnify Creative Compass and its customers, suppliers, directors, officers, contractors, agents and employees from and against any and all losses, costs, damages, liabilities and expenses (including, without limitation, reasonable legal fees) arising out of or relating to any breach by the Client of any of the terms of this Agreement.

Limitation of Liability

  • Creative Compass or any contractors Creative Compass may engage on behalf of the Client shall not be liable to the Client or any entity or person claiming through or under the Client for any loss of profit or income or other indirect, consequential, incidental, or special damages, whether in an action for contract or tort, in connection with this Agreement, even if Creative Compass has been advised of the possibility of such damages. In no event shall Creative Compass`s liability to the Client hereunder exceed the amount paid to Creative Compass by the Client for the previous one (1) month of services or total project fees, whichever is smaller. This limit is cumulative and the existence of more than one claim will not enlarge the limit. The Client acknowledges that these limitations of liability are an essential element of the bargain between the parties and in their absence the terms and conditions of this agreement would be substantially different.

  • Creative Compass operates under the assumption that any elements of text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, or other artwork that the Client provides for inclusion in a project are either owned or licensed by the Client. Creative Compass will not be responsible for any claims arising from copyright infringement for these elements.

Governing Law & Jurisdictions

  • Just like a parking ticket, you can’t transfer this contract to anyone else without our permission. This contract stays in place and need not be renewed. If for some reason one part of this contract becomes invalid or unenforceable, the remaining parts of it remain in place. Although the language is simple, the intentions are serious and this contract is a legal document under exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Sydney, NSW Australia.

Miscellaneous

  • This Agreement constitutes the entire understanding and agreement of the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof. This Agreement may be amended from time to time in Creative Compass’s sole discretion. An electronic communication sent to the Client’s last known email address or Twist account will be deemed sufficient notice of any such changes in this Agreement.

  • This Agreement shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of the parties' successors and permitted assigns; provided however, that the Client may not assign this Agreement, in whole or in part, without Creative Compass`s prior written consent and any assignment by the Client without such consent shall be null and void.

  • This Agreement shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of the state of New South Wales (Australia) without regard to its rules pertaining to conflict of laws. Any litigation or dispute resolution related to this Agreement shall take place in Australia, and the parties hereby consent to the jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located therein.

  • Except as otherwise expressly set forth herein, any notice required or permitted to be given under this Agreement shall be sufficient if in writing, in the English language, and sent via Australia Post Certified Mail, return receipt requested.

  • If any provision of this Agreement shall be held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be unenforceable, that provision will be severed only to the extent minimally necessary, and the remaining provisions of this Agreement will remain in full force and effect.

  • The waiver of any breach or default of this Agreement will not constitute a waiver of any subsequent breach or default, and will not act to amend or negate the rights of the waiving party.