Terms of service

The following terms of service apply to all services provided by Susi Sinclair and, in the event of any dispute, are governed by the laws of Scotland. All work carried out by Susi Sinclair is on the understanding that the client has agreed to Susi Sinclair’s terms of service. Copyright is retained by Susi Sinclair on all design work created by Susi Sinclair, including words, images, ideas, visuals and illustrations, until all costs have been settled. If a choice of designs is presented and one is chosen for your project, only that solution is deemed to be given by Susi Sinclair as fulfilling the contract. All other designs remain the property of Susi Sinclair unless specifically agreed in writing.

Project Acceptance
At the time of proposal, Susi Sinclair will provide a written estimate or quotation by email. A copy of the written estimate or quotation is to be signed and dated by the customer to indicate acceptance and should be returned to Susi Sinclair at susi@susisinclair.co.uk.

Alternatively, the client may send an official purchase order in reply to the estimate or quotation, which binds the client to accept our terms of service, or an email acknowledging acceptance of the quotation.

For the avoidance of doubt, Susi Sinclair’s terms of service are what govern the job, not any conditions on the customer’s purchase order. 

Design Charges
Charges for services provided by Susi Sinclair will be set out in the written estimate or quotation that is provided to the customer. At the time of the customer’s signed acceptance of this estimate or quotation, indicating acceptance of the terms of service, a payment of 50%, unless otherwise agreed, of the quoted fee will become immediately due, with no work commencing until payment has been made and funds cleared.

The remaining 50% of the project quotation total will be due upon completion of the work, prior to uploading to a server or release of materials for print.

Source Files
We will supply proofs in the form of PDF files as appropriate for printing or other graphic files as detailed in the job scope or request.

Charges for Other Services
Charges over and above the estimated time or out of scope for any additional services requested during the project will be fully payable (100% of the quoted amount) at the time of quotation acceptance.

Payment
The customer will be provided with an approval form, a proof email, and a final invoice before final publication/upload. At this time, the remainder of the amount due will become payable, and the customer will be required to sign and return the approval form or signify approval by email to Susi Sinclair at susi@susisinclair.co.uk.

Any invoice queries must be submitted by email to Susi Sinclair within seven days of the invoice date.

Accounts which remain outstanding for 40 days after the date of invoice will incur a late payment interest charge at the Bank of England Base Rate plus 8.0% on the outstanding amount from the date due until the date of payment.

All payments should be made by online transfer. All invoices include Susi Sinclair’s bank details.

Publication and/or release of work done by Susi Sinclair on behalf of the client may not take place before cleared funds have been received.

Incomplete projects resulting from the client pausing the work require full payment if the project is dormant for more than three months.

Default
An account shall be considered default if it remains unpaid for 40 days from the date of invoice or following a returned cheque. Susi Sinclair shall be entitled to remove Susi Sinclair’s and/or the customer’s material from any and all computer systems until the amount due has been fully paid. This includes any and all unpaid monies due for services, including, but not limited to, hosting, domain registration, search engine submission, design and maintenance, sub-contractors, printers, photographers and libraries.

Removal of such materials does not relieve the customer of its obligation to pay the due amount.

Customers whose accounts become default agree to pay all reasonable legal and accounting expenses and third-party collection agency fees incurred by Susi Sinclair in the enforcement of the debt and these terms of service.

Copyrights and Trademarks
By supplying text, images and other data to Susi Sinclair for inclusion in the customer’s website or another medium, the customer declares that it holds the appropriate copyright and/or trademark permissions. The ownership of such materials will remain with the customer or the rightful copyright or trademark owner.

Any artwork, images, or text supplied and/or designed by Susi Sinclair on behalf of the customer, will remain the property of Susi Sinclair and/or its suppliers until full payment is made.

Any software, code, plugin or other third-party material used in a web or digital project remains the property of the creator and any ongoing licence fees or fees for upgrades are the responsibility of the client, not Susi Sinclair.

By supplying images, text, or any other data to Susi Sinclair, the customer grants Susi Sinclair permission to use this material freely in the pursuit of the design.

Should Susi Sinclair or the customer supply an image, text, audio clip or any other file for use in a website, multimedia presentation, print item, exhibition, advertisement or any other medium believing it to be copyright and royalty-free, which subsequently emerges to have such copyright or royalty usage limitations, the customer will agree to allow Susi Sinclair to remove and/or replace the file on the site.

The customer agrees to fully indemnify and hold Susi Sinclair free from harm in any and all claims resulting from the customer not having obtained all the required copyright and/or any other necessary permissions.

Alterations
The customer agrees that changes required over and above the estimated work, or in addition to the agreed scope, or where the client makes changes to the supplied copy or changes required to be carried out after acceptance of the draft design, will be liable to a separate charge.

The customer also agrees that Susi Sinclair holds no responsibility for any amendments made by any third party before or after a design is published.

Data Formats
The client agrees to Susi Sinclair’s definition of acceptable means of supplying data to the company.

Text is to be supplied to Susi Sinclair in electronic format as standard text (.txt), MS Word (.docx) via e-mail or the Susi Sinclair DropBox (details supplied on request).

Images supplied in an electronic format must be provided in a format as prescribed by Susi Sinclair via e-mail or the Susi Sinclair DropBox (details supplied on request) or via wetransfer. Images must be of a quality suitable for use without any subsequent image processing. Susi Sinclair will not be held responsible for any image quality that the client later deems unacceptable.

Susi Sinclair cannot be held responsible for the quality of any images which the client wishes to be scanned from printed materials.

Design Project Duration
Any indication given by Susi Sinclair of a design project’s duration is considered by the customer as an estimation. Susi Sinclair cannot be held responsible for any project overruns, whatever the cause. Estimated project duration should be deemed to be from the date that cleared funds are received by Susi Sinclair for the initial payment or by the date confirmed in writing by Susi Sinclair.

Design Project Completion
Susi Sinclair considers the project complete upon receipt of the customer’s signed approval form or sign-off email. Other services such as printing, display panel production, film work, website uploading, publishing etc, either contracted on the client’s behalf, constitute a separate project and will be treated as a separate charge.

Website design only
Susi Sinclair requires a template approved by the customer before a site build commences. Once the template(s) for the website are approved by the customer, the build will commence; any changes to navigation items, colours, structure or content that require changes to the template will incur an additional charge.

Once the web design is complete, Susi Sinclair will provide the customer with the opportunity to review the resulting work. Susi Sinclair will make one set of minor changes at no extra cost within seven days of the start of the review period. Minor changes include small textual changes and small adjustments to the placement of items on the page. It does not include changes to images, colour schemes or any navigation features. Any minor changes can be notified to Susi Sinclair by e-mail. Susi Sinclair will consider the client has accepted the original draft if no notification of changes is received in writing from the customer within seven days of the start of the review period.

Design Credits
The customer agrees to allow Susi Sinclair to place a small credit on printed material, exhibition displays, advertisements and/or a link to the Susi Sinclair website on the customer’s website. This will usually be in the form of a small logo or line of text placed towards the bottom of the page unless agreed otherwise in writing.

The customer also agrees to allow Susi Sinclair to place designs and content, along with a link to the client’s site on Susi Sinclair’s own website, for demonstration purposes and to use any designs in its own publicity and portfolios, unless agreed otherwise in writing.

Rights of Refusal
Susi Sinclair will not include in its designs any text, images or other data that it deems to be immoral, offensive, obscene or illegal. All advertising material must conform to all standards laid down by all relevant advertising standards authorities. Susi Sinclair also reserves the right to refuse the inclusion of submitted material without giving a reason. In the situation where any images and/or data that Susi Sinclair does include in all good faith and subsequently discovers is in contravention to such terms and conditions, the customer is obliged to allow Susi Sinclair to remove the contravention without hindrance or penalty. Susi Sinclair is to be held in no way responsible for any such data being included.

Cancellation
Cancellation of orders may be made initially by telephone contact or e-mail; however, following this, Susi Sinclair will need formal notification in writing to the company’s postal address. The client will then be invoiced for all work completed over and above the deposit that will have been made at the time of first ordering. The balance of monies due must be paid within 14 days. Please note: any cancellation which is not formally confirmed in writing and received by Susi Sinclair within 14 days of such instruction being issued will be liable for the full quoted cost of the project.

Disclaimer
Susi Sinclair makes no warranties of any kind, express or implied, for any and all products and/or services that it supplies. Susi Sinclair will not be held responsible for any and all damages resulting from products and/or services it supplies. Susi Sinclair is not responsible for any loss or consequential loss of data or non-delivery of products or services of whatever cause. While we take reasonable steps to investigate the materials we recommend, we accept no responsibility for the performance or quality of materials or any consequential loss arising from their failure. The customer agrees not to hold Susi Sinclair responsible for any such loss or damage. Any claim against Susi Sinclair shall be limited to the relevant fee(s) paid by the customer.

Susi Sinclair reserves the right to use the services of sub-contractors, agents and suppliers, and any work, content, services and usage is bound by their terms and conditions. Susi Sinclair will not knowingly perform any actions to contravene these, and the client also agrees to be so bound.

Susi Sinclair and her clients agree to comply with printers’ terms and conditions, including disclaimers for non-completion on time and the flexibility to supply quantities within 10% of the total ordered. Susi Sinclair recommends that if an exact quantity is required, then 10% extra is added to the quantity and extra time made available should the job be delayed. 

General
These terms of service supersede any previous terms of service distributed in any form. Susi Sinclair reserves the right to change any rates and any of the terms of service at any time and without prior notice.

Acceptance of Terms of Service and Quotation
The placement of an order for design and/or any other services offered by Susi Sinclair by email, verbally or in writing is deemed to be acceptance of these terms and conditions, which are freely available at www.susisinclair.co.uk

An estimate validated by the customer’s signature on the estimate or quotation form or by email constitutes acceptance of the estimate or quotation and agreement to comply fully with all the terms and conditions and forms a contract for business between the signatory and Susi Sinclair.