These Terms and Conditions ("Terms") set out the basis on which webdesignco provides website design, development, maintenance, hosting, search engine optimisation and related digital services to businesses. Please read them carefully before you accept a proposal or order any services from us.
Our services are intended for businesses and other organisations, not for consumers acting outside their trade or profession. If you are dealing with us as a consumer, some of these Terms may not apply to you and you may have additional rights under the law of the country where you live. Nothing in these Terms is intended to limit any right that cannot lawfully be excluded.
1. Introduction and acceptance
In these Terms, "we", "us" and "our" refer to webdesignco (as identified in section 2). "You", "your" and "the Client" refer to the business or organisation that requests or receives our services, and the person accepting these Terms on its behalf confirms that they are authorised to do so.
You accept these Terms when you sign or otherwise confirm acceptance of a proposal, quotation or service agreement, pay an invoice, or instruct us to begin work, whichever happens first.
Where a signed proposal or service agreement (together, an "Agreement") contains terms that conflict with these Terms, the Agreement takes priority for that project or service.
Use of our website https://webdesignco.io is also governed by our Privacy Policy.
2. Who we are
webdesignco is a business operated by its owner as a sole trader in South Africa.
Email: dgdekoker@gmail.com. Phone: 072 445 8957.
3. Our services
3.1 Services we offer
Depending on what is agreed for your business, our services may include:
- custom website design and development;
- website maintenance, updates and technical support;
- website hosting, where we offer it;
- search engine optimisation (SEO);
- business email setup and domain configuration;
- Google Business Profile setup and optimisation; and
- ongoing website and SEO services under a monthly agreement.
3.2 Scope
The exact services, deliverables, number of pages, features, revision rounds and any monthly inclusions for your business are those set out in your proposal or Agreement. Anything not listed there is outside the scope of the work.
If you ask for work outside the agreed scope, we will tell you before we start whether it carries an additional charge or affects the timeline, and we will only go ahead once you have agreed.
3.3 Nature of our services
Our services are professional, human-delivered services tailored to each client. They are not an off-the-shelf software subscription. Where a monthly plan applies, the monthly fee pays for the ongoing services described in your Agreement, such as hosting, maintenance, updates and SEO work.
4. Quotations, proposals and agreements
Quotations and proposals are based on the information you give us. They remain valid for the period stated on them.
If the requirements change significantly after we quote, or the information you gave us turns out to be incomplete, we may revise the quotation. We will always agree any revised price with you before charging it.
A contract between us comes into existence when you accept a proposal or Agreement as described in section 1.
5. Pricing, invoices and payment
5.1 Prices
Prices are as stated in your proposal or Agreement. Your proposal shows the currency and whether VAT or other taxes apply.
Prices published on our website are a general guide. The price in your signed proposal or Agreement is the one that applies to you.
5.2 Monthly agreements and recurring payments
Our services are provided on monthly plans, with no upfront project fee. The monthly fee is billed each month, from the start date and by the payment method set out in your Agreement or invoice. We will tell you in advance of any change to how you are billed.
We may change our monthly fees by giving you at least 30 days' written notice. If you do not agree to the change, you may cancel under section 11 before it takes effect.
5.3 Payment terms and late payment
Invoices are payable by the due date shown on the invoice.
If a payment is overdue, we will contact you first. If the payment is still outstanding 14 days after we have reminded you in writing, we may pause work or suspend services as described in section 17. We may also charge interest or recovery costs where the law of the governing jurisdiction allows it.
6. Your responsibilities
To help us deliver the services on time, you agree to:
- provide accurate information about your business, and the text, images, logos and other content we need, within the agreed timeframes;
- make sure you own, or have permission to use, all content and materials you give us, and that they are lawful and do not infringe anyone else's rights;
- give us any access we reasonably need, such as logins for your domain registrar, hosting, Google Business Profile or email accounts, and keep your own account credentials secure;
- review work and give feedback or approval within the agreed timeframes;
- nominate a contact person who can make decisions on your behalf; and
- make sure your website's content, products, services and claims comply with the laws and regulations that apply to your business, including any industry-specific rules.
We are not responsible for delays, extra cost or problems caused by inaccurate, late or missing information, content, access or approvals.
7. Timelines, revisions and acceptance
7.1 Timelines
Any timeline in a proposal is an estimate made in good faith. It depends on you providing content, access and feedback on time. We will keep you informed if we expect a delay.
7.2 Revisions
Your proposal sets out how many rounds of revisions are included. Further revisions, or changes to work you have already approved, may be charged as additional work, and we will agree them with you first.
7.3 Client delays
If a project is on hold for more than 30 days because we are waiting on you, we may reschedule the remaining work around other commitments, and we may invoice for the work completed so far.
7.4 Acceptance and launch
When the website or deliverable is ready, we will ask you to review it. It is treated as accepted when you approve it in writing, when you ask us to launch it, or if you have not raised any material issue within 10 working days of our request for review.
Accepting the work does not affect our obligation to fix defects in our own work that you report within 30 days of launch.
8. Ownership, intellectual property and licences
8.1 Your content
You keep ownership of all content, trade marks, logos and materials you provide to us. You give us a licence to use them only as needed to provide the services.
8.2 Website and deliverables
webdesignco owns the website design, code and all other deliverables we create, unless a signed Agreement expressly says otherwise. While your services are active and paid for, you have a non-exclusive licence to use the website for your business.
This licence ends when your services end. You are not entitled to a copy of the website, its design or its code after cancellation or termination.
8.3 Our pre-existing tools and know-how
We keep ownership of our pre-existing code, templates, components, frameworks, processes and know-how, including anything we developed independently of your project. Where these form part of your website, you receive a licence to use them as part of that website.
8.4 Third-party assets
Websites may include third-party materials such as fonts, stock images, icons, plugins, open-source software or themes. These are provided under their owners' licence terms, which you agree to follow. Where a third-party licence has to be bought in your name or renewed, we will tell you.
8.5 Portfolio
Unless you tell us otherwise in writing, we may display your website and a short description of our work in our portfolio and marketing. We will not disclose your confidential information in doing so.
9. Domains, hosting, email and third-party providers
Some services rely on third-party providers, such as domain registrars, hosting and infrastructure companies, email providers (for example Google Workspace or Microsoft 365) and Google Business Profile. These providers have their own terms and policies, which apply to your use of their services.
- Domains: a domain you already owned before working with us remains yours. A domain we register as part of our services is registered and managed in our account.
- Hosting: where we provide hosting, it is supplied through third-party infrastructure. We will manage it with reasonable care, but we do not control the provider's systems.
- Email: we can set up and configure business email. Your mailbox service and the data in it are provided by your chosen email provider under its terms.
- Google Business Profile: we can set up and optimise your profile, but Google decides whether it is verified, how it is displayed, and whether it is suspended. We cannot guarantee any outcome.
We are not responsible for failures, outages, price changes, policy changes, suspensions or data loss caused by third-party providers. We will, however, help you resolve these issues where it is reasonable for us to do so.
10. SEO and no guaranteed results
SEO and Google Business Profile work aim to improve how visible your business is in search engines and maps. Search engines decide their rankings using algorithms that they control and change often, and which also depend on competitors and factors outside our control.
For this reason, we do not guarantee any specific ranking, position, amount of traffic, number of enquiries, leads, sales or other business results. Any figures, case studies or examples we share describe past results for other clients and do not predict your results.
We use recognised, ethical SEO practices and do not knowingly use techniques that breach search engines' published guidelines.
11. Maintenance, support, cancellation and termination
11.1 Maintenance and support
Where your plan includes maintenance or support, the scope, response times and any monthly limits on changes are as set out in your Agreement. Support is provided during normal business hours.
11.2 Cancelling a monthly agreement
You may cancel a monthly agreement by giving us 30 days' written notice by email to dgdekoker@gmail.com. There is no minimum term. Services and billing continue until the end of the notice period.
11.3 What happens when services end
When services end, for whatever reason:
- the website, hosting, maintenance and SEO services stop at the end of the notice period, and the website is taken offline;
- the website, its design and code remain ours, as set out in section 8, and are not handed over; and
- content and materials you originally supplied to us, such as your text, logos and photos, remain yours. We will return copies on request.
12. Refunds
New clients can cancel within 14 days of their first monthly payment and receive a full refund of that payment.
After that, monthly payments are not refunded, because they cover services already provided or reserved for you. If you cancel, you will not be charged for any month after your notice period ends.
If you believe we have not provided the services as agreed, please contact us. We will review the matter fairly, and we will do our best to put the problem right before discussing any refund.
Our Refund Policy explains this in more detail. Nothing in these Terms affects any refund rights you have under the law.
13. Confidentiality and data protection
Each of us will keep confidential any non-public information received from the other about its business, and will use it only to perform or receive the services. This does not apply to information that is already public, that was lawfully obtained from someone else, or that must be disclosed by law.
We treat logins and access credentials you share with us as confidential, and use them only for the agreed services.
How we handle personal information is explained in our Privacy Policy. Where we process personal data on your behalf, for example enquiries submitted through a contact form on your website, we do so as your processor, on your documented instructions. You are responsible, as controller, for having a lawful basis to collect that data and for your own website's privacy notice.
14. Availability, security and interruptions
We take reasonable steps to keep the websites we host and maintain secure and available. However, no website or online service can be guaranteed to be uninterrupted, error-free or completely secure.
Interruptions may happen because of maintenance, updates, third-party provider outages, cyber attacks or events outside our reasonable control. Where possible, we will give notice of planned maintenance and work to restore service promptly.
Unless your Agreement says otherwise, you are responsible for keeping your own copies of important content and data. If backups are included in your plan, we will make them as described in your Agreement.
15. Limitation of liability
Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded by law.
Subject to that, and to the extent the law allows:
- we are not liable for any loss of profits, revenue, business, goodwill, anticipated savings or data, or for any indirect or consequential loss; and
- our total liability to you arising from or in connection with the services is limited to the total fees you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose.
We are not responsible for losses caused by third-party providers, by changes to search engine algorithms, or by content or instructions you supplied.
16. Indemnity
To the extent the law allows, you agree to indemnify us against claims, losses and reasonable costs arising from third-party claims that content or materials you supplied infringe someone else's rights or break the law, or that arise from your use of the website in breach of applicable law.
We will notify you promptly of any such claim and give you reasonable cooperation in handling it.
17. Suspension or termination for breach
We may suspend or end the services by written notice if:
- you fail to pay an amount due and do not pay within 14 days after a written reminder;
- you seriously breach these Terms and, if the breach can be put right, do not put it right within 14 days of written notice;
- you use, or ask us to build, a website for unlawful, fraudulent, abusive or harmful purposes; or
- you become insolvent or stop trading.
You may end the services by written notice if we seriously breach these Terms and do not put it right within 14 days of written notice.
Where we suspend services for non-payment, we will restore them promptly once the overdue amount has been paid.
18. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. The version in force when you accept a proposal applies to that project. For ongoing monthly agreements, we will give you at least 30 days' notice by email of any material change. If you do not agree to the change, you may cancel before it takes effect.
The date at the top of this page shows when these Terms were last updated.
19. Governing law and disputes
If you have a concern, please contact us first. We will try to resolve any dispute informally and in good faith, and both of us agree to try to do so before starting legal proceedings.
These Terms, and any dispute arising from them, are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa, and the courts of South Africa have jurisdiction. If you are a consumer, you may also have the right to bring proceedings in the courts of the country where you live.
20. Contact us
If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us:
- Email: dgdekoker@gmail.com
- Phone: 072 445 8957