TERMS AND CONDITIONS

General Terms:

• All pricing quoted is excluding GST. GST will be added at time of Invoice. Creative Ground International is registered for GST.
• A 50% non-refundable deposit is required, upfront, prior to any progress commencing on the project. Payment of the balance outstanding shall be made in full on completion of the site, and immediately upon receipt of a Tax Invoice for same, and, prior to taking the website live or the handover of graphic files.
• The Customer has no right to withhold payment or make set offs or deductions from any payment due by it for any reason whatsoever. No extension of payment of any nature will be granted unless reduced to writing and signed by the Customer and a duly authorised representative of Creative Ground International. The Customer will be liable for any costs incurred due to collecting unpaid monies.
• Creative Ground International shall have the right to suspend services if any amount due by the Customer is unpaid.
• The Domain name, website design, graphic design files and any other service we offer, will remain the property of Creative Ground International until payment is received for the entire contract or any outstanding monies on the account.
• Once the Customer accepts a signed quotation by way of signature or payment of Creative Ground International invoice, a formal Contract is formed between Creative Ground International and the Customer. This acceptance must occur within 30 days of receipt of such quotation.
• Creative Ground International reserves the right in its sole discretion to vary or amend these terms and conditions from time to time and any such amended or varied terms and conditions shall be binding on the Customer from the time that the Customer is notified thereof.
• The  Website hosting charge does not include any changes that need to be made after the website has gone live. Any changes to website will be charged per hour at the standard labour rate as advised in writing by Creative Ground International.
• Any subscription service requires a 1 month notice period for termination of services.
• Quotes are valid for 30 days from date of quote but subject to the US Dollar to Australian Dollar exchange rates for any plugins or themes required for purchase.
  • “Themes” is defined as a predefined template that allows users to change the look and functionality of a basic WordPress website. A Theme can be installed without altering the content of the health of a website. Every WordPress website requires at least one theme to be present.
  • “Plugins” is defined as the architecture that allows users to extend the normal WordPress features.
• The responsibility for the observance of applicable copyright laws shall be the Customers solely.
• The responsibility for the observance of any laws relating to confidentiality shall be that of the Customer solely.
• The Customer agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Creative Ground International from any and all claims, demands, losses, causes of action, damage, lawsuits, judgments, including attorney’s fees and costs.
• The suspension of any project by the Customer for any reason, shall entitle Creative Ground International to payment in full for the amount specified in the Contract.
• Failure by the Customer to provide information to Creative Ground International within 30 days of being requested to do so will entitle Creative Ground International to terminate this Contract and thereupon require payment in full of all monies then remaining unpaid under the Contract.
• The Customer agrees that Creative Ground International shall have the right to terminate this Agreement in the event of a dispute which is not resolved within 14 days.

Website Design Terms:

• Website design quote is for 1 design and up to 3 revisions for the website unless otherwise stipulated
• Any additional revisions will be charged out at our hourly rates of $99.00 ex gst
• Any additional pages not included in the initial quotation will be charged at $75.00 ex gst per page.
• All websites are designed on test environment and will be moved across to live environment upon completion of website and final payment has been received.
• Certain number of Stock images will be provided based on the quotation. Customer can arrange for own additional stock images at additional costs.
• Once website is live the work is deemed to be completed and thereafter additional fees will be applied for additional work.
• Customer’s responsible for ensuring the website is perfectly correct prior to taking the website live. Creative Ground International will not be held liable for any losses or damages to the Customer based on incorrect information included on the website once the website has been approved.
• All Website testing to be completed by the Customer prior to website going live.
• We will not be held liable for “Forked” or unlicensed plugins and themes on a website. We only use licensed versions.

SEO Terms:

• Search Engine Optimization, referred to as “SEO”. SEO is defined as the process of affecting the visibility of a website or web page in a search engine’s unpaid results – often referred to as “natural”, “organic” or “earned” results.
• We cannot guarantee results for SEO services due to the constant changing of regulations and rules by google.
• We use premium SEO approved plugins by SEOPress or Yoast Premium and conform to the standard terms and conditions as per the provider which can be found on their website or via link: https://cdn.yoast.com/docs/Yoast-Terms-and-Conditions.pdf and https://www.seopress.org/terms-conditions/

WordPress Care Plans:

• Our Care Plans include the updating of Plugins, Theme and Core. It does not include fixing of bugs caused by the updates. If there are issues that need to be fixed these will be covered under the allocated Website Edit support hours. If you are on a plan that doesn’t include support hours, then these issue repairs will be chargeable at hourly rates. 
• Website Edits can include – Updating existing content & Images, Adding new images & content, Link validation and corrections, Advice and guidance via phone and email, Removal of duplicate pages / themes / plugins, Installation of plugins or fixing issues generated by updates. (unutilised hours do not accumulate from month to month)

Secure WordPress:

• We shall not be held responsible or liable for any attacks on your website that were not detected, or prevented by the AI Machine Learning Assistant plugin software signed up for on our sister website https://securewordpress.com.au 
• The AI Machine Learning Assistant plugin is used as an assistive plugin to help minimise attacks and reduce hacks, it cannot completely eliminate them. 
• The Software has be designed and developed by WebTotem and we conform to their terms and conditions.

Google Ads Terms:

• Google Ads, referred to as “Adwords”. SEO is defined as an advertising service by Google for businesses wanting to display ads on Google and its advertising network
• We cannot guarantee results for Ads services due to the constant changing of regulations and rules by google.
• We conform to the rules and regulations set out by Google Ads for all their online campaigns, which can be found on their website or via link: https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/54818?hl=en-AU

Graphic Design Terms:

• All graphic design shall be for the exclusive use of the Customer other than for promotional use by Creative Ground International, upon payment of all fees.
• The Customer shall be entitled to full ownership of all final artwork created when all monies due under this Contract or otherwise agreed to be paid, have been paid in full.
• Each design come with a number of designs options and revisions per design chosen, this will be stipulated on the quotation.

Hosting Terms / SSL / CDN / Web Optimization:

• The Hosting contract is subject to signing a direct debit or payment via EFT within 7 days from date of invoice. The period is defined from the day Creative Ground International takes on the website domain. The Customer will be liable for any costs incurred due to collecting unpaid monies.
• Should payment not be made on account within 7 days of invoice, hosting services will be terminated following 3 days written notice of non-compliance, which non-compliance continues.
• We offer hosting on dedicated servers within Sydney Datacentre. We our providers are Google Cloud Platform and Digital Pacific. We do grant access to cPanel® for any of our Customers on our dedicated servers through digital pacific as this service does not include the hack guarantee. We do not grant access to cPanel® or FTP for any Google Cloud Platform clients, this is to ensure that we can uphold the hack guarantee. Should you require direct access to your files then the Hack Guarantee will become null and void.
• We do not offer emails through the Google Cloud Platform due to spamming policies that are a Google requirement. If you are wanting an email service then we recommend looking at the Dedicated Servers we offer from our partner Digital Pacific.
• What our Hack Guarantee includes (only available to those on Google Cloud Hosting Platform): As one cannot ever guarantee your website will not be hacked, we will restore your website to the last secure backup and add on an additional layer of security at website level should you be hacked at no additional charge. We utilize Google Dedicated Network, Google Secure Firewall and Imunify 360 Proactive Defense. The Hack Guarantee will only be upheld
• Our Digital Pacific servers require we conform to their standard terms and conditions (which can be found on their website) or via this link: https://www.digitalpacific.com.au/about/agreements/
• Our Google Cloud Platform services require we confirm to their standard terms and conditions (which can be found on their website) or via this link: https://cloud.google.com/terms/
• We have strict email regulations to prevent against spam. Emails limits are 100 emails per email address per day as per the anti-spam act 2003
• Our SSL certificates are issued by cPanel or LetsEncrypt and are free for all clients that host with us. We conform to their standard terms and conditions (which can be found on their website) or via this link: https://documentation.cpanel.net/display/CKB/cPanel+Glossary and https://letsencrypt.org/repository/ respectively
• We take every precaution to protect our Customers websites and their data, but cannot be held liable for any hacks / theft / loss of data / materials and any other information and Creative Ground International is hereby indemnified by the Customer absolutely in this regard.

Printing Terms and conditions

• Creative Ground International is a print broker.
• We cannot be held responsible for any incorrect printing such as layout, cutting, colouring that resulted in from incorrect artwork that the Customer had submitted to us or was previously approved by them.