The following page details the Terms and Conditions which you are agreeing to if you employ us for your project(s).

 

Invoices and Estimates

By making a payment towards any estimate or invoice; the client is agreeing to the terms and conditions found on this page.

If there are any tasks NOT itemized on an estimate or invoice that the client expects to be completed, then they are NOT included within the scope and budget. This means they will require an additional, or revised, estimate and funding.

Unless specified otherwise all estimates are time based. Therefore if more time is required than was originally estimated, whether to complete a project or satisfy the client’s expectations, we will notify the client as soon as possible and await written approval of the additional time and respective cost before proceeding with un-approved time.

 

Project Process

Website Development Projects

Design

Before we promise to begin general development and programming, the client must provide written approval of the design files. Once approval is received, the design phase of the project is considered complete and any further revisions requested by the client will be billed by the hour.

 

Standards

When integrating WordPress into a website clients often wonder if it will change the design of their existing website. Ultimately we can integrate WordPress into any website without modifying the design at all.

However, it’s important that your websites code is standards compliant. As it relates to the design this means that, unless there is an explicit marketing or functional reason for the design of an element or page to be unique from it’s counterparts; we will ensure there are consistent standards for the design across the site.

For example; if your website has a button that is a specific width on two pages, but on a third it’s size is slightly different, we will match it to the majority.

These types of changes are usually very subtle, if noticed by our clients and their users at all. But we opt to disclose this to clients as – on rare occasions – some clients want to pay the extra to avoid standards compliancy in favor of their design preference.

 

Content

While we will assist clients with implementing their content; the client is ultimately responsible for the development and implementation of their website’s content (all text on the website including navigation, page titles, body, etc…). This means that clients cannot withhold payment or delay the project due to contingency to content.

 

Training

After the website has been published; training materials can be accessed upon signing into the administrative section of their website. Of course, if the training materials are insufficient, our staff is available to assist the client as is necessary using the pre-paid time that was allocated within the estimate and invoice.

 

Payments, Refunds, Returned Payments & Chargebacks

We reserve the right to bill and collect the final balance owed prior to publishing any project. Publishing means making the product available to the client for use.

Upon delivery of beta, the client is obligated to provide final revisions within 10 days. If the client is unable to do this The Portland Company reserves the right to collect on the final website balance.

Refunds are issued at our sole discretion.

Unless the charge to your card was unauthorized filing a chargeback is illegal. More specifically, under state and federal laws, it is Fraud (punishable by jail) and/or Theft of Services and we will pursue you to the full extent of the law.

If, for any reason, funds we’ve received from you are withdrawn from our account (ex. Chargeback) without our authorization we reserve the right to charge your card for that amount, plus any fee’s we’ve incurred by our bank or payment processor, or your bank, and all of our time at our hourly rate that is spent resolving such issues (as specified in the Proposal and/or alternative contracts TPC has already delivered to you). Upon request, we will provide an itemized explanation of the amounts being charged, as well as proof that we were charged the stated fees.

If a dispute is triggered with our payment processor, you will be responsible for resolving the issue by contacting our payment processor and ensuring the dispute is completely removed from our account history.

 

Website & Application Development

Unless specified otherwise in the written estimate/agreement; the client must remit the final payment of the remaining balance immediately prior to the publication of the website or application.

Sometimes clients have external conditions that require them to cancel a project. We allocate and fund staff as well as resources within 24 hours of the agreement being signed and a deposit being made. Because of this, we are unable to issue refunds of deposits. The client is obligated to pay for all labor and expenses that were not covered by the deposit.

 

Ongoing

For ongoing website development work you will be charged every Monday, or when the current work is completed, for the previous weeks work – whichever comes first.

 

Recurring Services

We require different length contracts for different services, but in any case we require clients to provide a written 1 month notice prior to your payment for the upcoming month. For example, if today is Jan. 31st and submit cancellation notice, then your final payment will be on Feb. 1st. But if you give notice on Feb. 1st, your final payment will be March 1st.

  • Advertising Management – Min. 6 month commitment. Why?
    • We invest significant time during the first 60 days beyond what is paid for.
    • 6 months gives us sufficient time to experiment with different strategies and measure the strengths and weaknesses between them.
  • General Retainers  – Min. 6-12 month commitment, depends on scope of work.

 

Warranty

Website Development

For clients whose websites are hosted on our servers, and domains are registered through our business account, we offer a lifetime warranty. If the client chooses to host or register their domain elsewhere; this warranty becomes void.

The warranty covers any server, code, or design-related issues that cause the site to function differently than was written within the project(s) estimate(s) and proceeding invoice(s).

Administrative access to WordPress or the code of a clients website is strictly prohibited from third parties. This includes managing plugins and theme files. If a client desires to work with another developer or development company, they must transfer their website to that party. This is to ensure optimum security and reliability of the website and server.

All websites and web applications we develop will be fully operational in the latest and most popular versions of browsers according to the World Wide Web Consortium (basically the government for website development standards).

 

WordPress Plugins & Web Applications

Because WordPress Plugins and other web applications are used in a variety of environments with variables it’s simply not possible for us, or any developer, to test these applications in every environment and guarantee they’ll always work as described. In such cases we extend the following warranty to repair the issue, free of charge, if the following criteria are met:

  1. The customer confirms that their web server meets the minimum requirements for the application to run. These requirements can be found in the FAQ section of any Product page on our website.
  2. The customer tested the Free version of the application and confirmed it was working before purchasing the Premium version (if there was a free version available).
  3. The customer can replicate the issue on the demonstration site.
  4. In the case of WordPress Plugins; the customer has disabled all other Plugins and reverted to the native WordPress Twenty Thirteen Theme and the issue is persistent.
  5. The customer has reviewed the forums before contacting support to see if this is a known issue for which there is an existing explanation of its cause and a solution.
  6. The customer has submitted a free Support Request )which provides us with technical details, such as the login to their website, to properly diagnose the issue).

If any of these criteria are not met (the customers server does not meet the minimum server requirements, they didn’t test the free version before purchasing, the issue cannot be replicated on the demonstration site, the customer has not disabled all Plugins and reverted to the native WordPress Theme, the customer has not reviewed the support forums, an official Support Request has not been submitted) then we cannot provide free support for their issue and the customer must purchase Premium Support.

If the customer has met the criteria above then we will extend free support and diagnose and resolve the issue they are experiencing.

If we cannot do so within a reasonable window of time, 3-7 business days, then we will issue a refund upon request.

 

Plugin Integration

If the client’s project includes the integration of plugins provided by a third party, and the client is dissatisfied with its functionality for any reason, we are not liable in any way to warranty that application. This includes applying a clients requested revisions and enhancements unless otherwise noted in the projects invoice.

 

Ownership & Rights

Domain Names

ICANN is the organization that regulates the internet. They require at least three specific types of contact information to be registered:

  • Owner
  • Technical Contact
  • Administrative Contact

If we purchase a domain name on your behalf, or transfer an existing domain to our company you will be made, or remain, the listed Owner if you have pre-paid or once you have reimbursed us for the expense.

Once a purchase or transfer has been made ICANN requires that the domain name cannot be transferred again for 60 days. This is not our policy, it’s out of our control.

The process of transferring a domain is technical and requires someone with experience like a professional web programmer. However, we will assist, at no additional charge, with that transferring process for up to 30 minutes (the transferring process should only require 5-10 minutes for someone with experience).

As long as you are the registered owner you will always be able to transfer your domain to a new provider without needing to communicate with us – as ICANN will send approval and instructional emails to the registered Owner.

 

Digital Assets

If you employ us and have paid in full for any digital assets (logo, business card, website design, infographic, website code, database, etc…) then we will relinquish intellectual property rights to you, the client, and, upon request, provide all of the created assets and their editable files via a link to a folder on Google Drive. From there you can easily download it. If you need assistance downloading them you may employ us by the hour or invite a third party to assist.

 

Photography/Videography Digital Assets

For clients who employ us for photography or videography, we assume we reserve the right to use them as portfolio pieces unless requested otherwise in writing before the project begins. Otherwise, all intellectual property rights remain with our clients.

 

Damages

The client releases the Company for any and all liability of physical or digital damage to items provided by the Client to the Company for photo or video. The Client retains intellectual property rights but otherwise releases ownership of provided items to the Company.

 

Access

In general, we provide a link to Google Drive where we store all of your digital assets – apart from website database and code – at the start of a project.

If you employ us for website development, domain registration, and hosting services then you will also receive, upon request, the administrative username and password to the content management system (typically WordPress), as well as the Unix username and password to the web server itself, but there is no username or password to manage your domain as that is a service we manage for you in a private interface. Although, that does not limit your authority to transfer the domain away to another provider at any point.

 

Access Regarding Advertising Services

We employ a variety of proprietary management techniques that empower us to provide a comptetive edge for our clients. For this reason we cannot share access directly to Google Ads, Facebook Ads or Instagram Ad accounts that we create for our clients. This, in no way, prevents clients from creating a new and independant account at any point to continue advertising on those platforms as they wish. And data feeds to any reporting can be updated with the new account information.

 

How do retainers work?

For clients who want to simplify the billing process, get priority for their projects and get a discounted rate we offer monthly retainers. They are customized on a per-project basis for clients and reduce our hourly rate from $75 to $60 per hour. If you pay $6,000 a month, we’ll give you 100 hours of our time every month. Unused time will roll over into the following month, but expires after 60 days from the date the retainer payment was made.

We only offer retainers for clients who respect the minimum three-month commitment. If the client decides to cancel within the first three months we’ll send a bill at our premium hourly rate of $120 for the difference. So if you have employed us for 10 hours of labor at $60 per hour, per month, and cancel after two months, you’ll receive a bill for $120 times the 20 hours, minus the balance already paid.

 

What is the average turnaround time?

This depends on the type of project, but here are a few examples:

  • For clients who are paying a retainer to us the average turnaround time is 48 hours or less.
  • For clients who are not paying a retainer to us the average turnaround time is about 72 hours.

In all cases; tasks that have dependencies or complications we promptly notify the client and provide an updated ETA as necessary. Clients who have a specific timeline can request the expedited timeline and, in most cases, we can re-prioritize their work above others of a later due date. If the task is required to be completed after normal business hours we will bill the client at our overtime rate of $112.50 per hour (equivalent to time and a half of our normal rate of $75 per hour). The same condition applies to work that is required to be completed by a specific date but compete’s with other projects of the same priority.

 

Will I received training?

Website Development

We provide training materials including step by step written, pictorial, and video documentation at http://codex.wordpress.org/Getting_Started. If you require additional training you may hire us at our hourly rate or purchase a retainer for ongoing support.

 

Project Conditions

Website Development

If you have employed us for a website development project you are responsible for the following:

  1. You must provide the content for all of the pages on your website in a Rich Text Format document such as Google Documents, Microsoft Word, etc…
      1. This includes all media, such as images.
  2. Any content revisions that you want to make after that are out of scope and will not be completed by our staff unless that time is paid for. Although, you may enter the content yourself (and request training) after your balance is paid in full.

 

Content Implementation

For projects where we are required to implement content that has been provided to us, we do not guarantee our estimated labor. This is due to a high degree of subjectivity to how the content is laid out, a high level of variance among website content editors and respective Themes, etc… We will, however, provide written notice and await written approval if we believe we will require more time.

If we require more time to implement content than was estimated and you decide not to give written approval to continue you are still obligated to make payment for the previously approved labor.

 

Form Creation

When a project requires the creation of a form from a document, unless explicit instruction is provided, we reserve the right to use our discretion as to how the form will be coded, what tools will be used to develop it (such as WordPress Plugins), what types of fields will be used when it’s being developed, etc…

For forms that require signatures, unless explicit instruction is provided, we assume that a checkbox accepting the Terms & Conditions along with a field for their first name and last name, as well as automatic capturing of their IP address is acceptable.

If explicit instruction is provided, it must be included in the Proposal before payment is made to ensure those expectations are accounted for in the project’s budget and timeline.

 

Credits and Discounts

Occasionally we offer credits and discounts to our customers when we need a boost in sales, we didn’t perfectly fulfill a commitment, or other reasons. In such cases we want our customers to know, unless otherwise stated in writing by an authorized manager these are applied to your account and are not convertible into cash.

This means if we offer you a $100 credit, you will receive $100 off your next order or invoice. Not that we will send you a check for $100.

 

What information do we collect?

We collect information from you when you register on our site, place an order, submit a contact request, or subscribe to our newsletter.

When ordering or registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your: name, e-mail address, mailing address, phone number, or credit card information. You may, however, visit our site anonymously.

 

What do we use your information for?

Any of the information we collect from you may be used in one of the following ways:

  • To personalize your experience – Your information helps us to better respond to your individual needs.
  • To improve our website – We continually strive to improve our website offerings based on the information and feedback we receive from you)
  • To improve customer service – Your information helps us to more effectively respond to your customer service requests and support needs)
  • To process transactions – Your information, whether public or private, will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other company for any reason whatsoever, without your consent, other than for the express purpose of delivering the purchased product or service requested.
  • To send periodic emails – The email address you provide for order processing will only be used to send you information and updates pertaining to your order.

Note: If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, we include detailed unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of each email.

 

How do we protect your information?

We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information when you place an order or enter, submit, or access your personal information. We offer the use of a secure server. All supplied sensitive/credit information is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and then encrypted into our Payment gateway providers database only to be accessible by those authorized with special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the information confidential.

After a transaction, your private information (credit cards, social security numbers, financials, etc.) will not be stored on our servers.

 

Do we use cookies?

Yes (Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computers hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the sites or service providers systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information we use cookies to help us remember and process the items in your shopping cart, understand and save your preferences for future visits and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future. If you prefer, you can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies via your browser settings. Like most websites, if you turn your cookies off, some of our services may not function properly. However, you can still place orders over the telephone or by contacting customer service.

 

Do we disclose any information to outside parties?

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

 

Third-party links

Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third-party products or services on our website. These third-party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these sites.

 

California Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance

Because we value your privacy we have taken the necessary precautions to be in compliance with the California Online Privacy Protection Act. We therefore will not distribute your personal information to outside parties without your consent.

As part of the California Online Privacy Protection Act, all users of our site may make any changes to their information at any time by logging into their control panel and going to the ‘Edit Profile’ page.

 

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance

We are in compliance with the requirements of COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act), we do not collect any information from anyone under 13 years of age. Our website, products, and services are all directed to people who are at least 13 years old or older.

 

Voided Warranty

In the event that the FTP is given to the client, all terms of this warranty are void. Once the FTP is released, anyone with that information has access to the website infrastructure. The FTP, in this case, would be considered public information.

As a business, we can no longer take responsibility for issues involving the website, or website coding, due to the fact that we would no longer be able to trace the cause back to the company.

 

Online Privacy Policy Only 

This online privacy policy applies only to information collected through our website and not to information collected offline.

 

Your Consent

By using our site, you consent to our privacy policy.

 

Changes to our Privacy Policy

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page.

 

Collections

Clients or customers are subject to collections if not paid upon receipt. We reserve the right to pursue collection or attorney fee’s in the event of non-payment.

 

Contacting Us

If there are any questions regarding this privacy policy you may contact us using the contact form here on our website.

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