The following Terms and Conditions of Service apply to all products and services provided by The Thought Store (hereinafter referred to as TTS) and in the event of any dispute are governed by the laws of the Isle of Man and England.

All work is carried out by TTS on the understanding that the client has agreed to our terms and conditions.

Copyright is retained by TTS on all design work including words, pictures, ideas, visuals and illustrations unless specifically released in writing and after 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 us as fulfilling the contract. All other designs remain the property of TTS, unless specifically agreed in writing.

PROJECT ACCEPTANCE

At the time of proposal, TTS will provide the customer with a written estimate or quotation by email. These Terms and Conditions can be read at any time on the TTS website.

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 TTS.

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

For the avoidance of doubt, the TTS Terms & Conditions are what govern the job, not any conditions on the customer’s purchase order.

DESIGN CHARGES

Charges for design services to be provided by TTS 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 & Conditions, a non-refundable payment of 50% of the quoted fee will become immediately due.

Unless agreed otherwise with the client, all design services require an advance payment of a minimum of fifty (50) percent of the project quotation total before the work commences or is supplied to the client for review. The remaining fifty (50) percent of the project quotation total will be due upon completion of the work prior to upload to the server or release of materials.

SOURCE FILES

We will supply proofs and PDF files as appropriate for printing, or other graphic files as detailed in the job scope or request.

Charges for design work do not cover the release of our copyright design source files, including but not restricted to ae, indd, psd, ai, png or other source files or raw code; if the client requires these files for transfer to an in-house or other designer, they will be subject to a separate quotation or buy-out charge.

CHARGES FOR OTHER SERVICES

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

PAYMENT

The customer will be provided with an Approval Form or Proof Email, and an invoice prior to final publication. At this time the remainder of the amount due will become payable and the customer will also be required to sign and return the Approval Form or signify approval by email to TTS.

Any invoice queries must be submitted by email within 14 days of the invoice date.

Accounts which remain outstanding for 30 days after the date of invoice will incur late payment interest at the Bank of England Base Rate plus 8% on the outstanding amount from the date due until the date of payment.

Payments may be made by online transfer.

Payments made by cheque must be previously agreed and may be subject to an administration charge. Cheques should not be sent in regular mail unless sent by recorded delivery.

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

Returned cheques will incur an additional fee of £50 per returned cheque. TTS reserves the right to consider an account to be in default in the event of a returned cheque.

TTS reserves the right to suspend work if invoices are not paid in accordance with the agreed terms.

DEFAULT

An account shall be considered default if it remains unpaid for 30 days from the date of invoice, or following a returned cheque. TTS shall be entitled to remove TTS’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 TTS’s reasonable legal and accounting expenses and third party collection agency fees in the enforcement of the debt and these Terms and Conditions.

COPYRIGHTS & TRADEMARKS

By supplying text, images and other data to TTS for inclusion in the customer’s website or other 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 rightful copyright or trademark owner.

Any artwork, images, or text supplied and/or designed by TTS on behalf of the customer will remain the property of TTS and/or its suppliers unless otherwise agreed in writing. A licence for use of the copyright material is granted to the customer solely for the project defined in the scope or request and not for any other purpose.

The customer may request in writing from TTS the necessary permission to use materials for which TTS holds the copyright in forms other than for which it was originally supplied, and TTS may, at its discretion, grant this and may charge for the additional usage. Such permission must be obtained in writing before any of the aforesaid artwork, images, text, or other data is used.

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 TTS.

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

Should TTS, 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 TTS to remove and/or replace the file on the site.

The customer agrees to fully indemnify and hold TTS 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 TTS holds no responsibility for any amendments made by any third party, before or after a design is published.

LICENSING

Any design, copywriting, drawing, idea or code created for the customer by TTS, or any of its contractors, is licensed for use by the client on a one-time only basis and may not be modified, re-used, or re-distributed in any way or form without the express written consent of TTS and any of its relevant sub-contractors.

All design work where there is a risk that another party may make a claim should be registered by the client with the appropriate authorities prior to publishing or first use, or searches and legal advice should be sought as to its use.

TTS will not be held responsible for any and all damages resulting from such claims.

TTS is not responsible for any loss, or consequential loss, non-delivery of products or services, of whatever cause. The customer agrees not to hold TTS responsible for any such loss or damage.

Any claim against TTS shall be limited to the relevant fee(s) paid by the customer.

DATA FORMATS

The client agrees to TTS’s definition of acceptable means of supplying data to the company.

Text is to be supplied to TTS in electronic format as standard text (.txt), MS Word (.docx) or via e-mail / Dropbox.

Images which are supplied in an electronic format are to be provided in a format as prescribed by TTS via e-mail / Dropbox. Images must be of a quality suitable for use without any subsequent image processing, and TTS will not be held responsible for any image quality which the client later deems to be unacceptable.

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

Additional expenses may be incurred for any necessary action, including, but not limited to, photography and art direction, photography searches, media conversion, digital image processing, or data entry services, colour correction and alteration of images.

DESIGN PROJECT DURATION

Any indication given by TTS of a design project’s duration is to be considered by the customer to be an estimate. TTS 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 TTS for the initial payment or by date confirmed in writing by TTS.

Any timeline provided by TTS is dependent on the client supplying content, feedback, approvals, access details and other required information in a timely manner. Delays in client communication or third-party dependencies may result in revised project timings.

RIGHTS OF ACCESS FOR WEBSITE CREATION

The client agrees to allow TTS all necessary access to computer systems and other locations, as required, in order to complete a website project and until all due funds are cleared, including the necessary read/write permissions, usernames and passwords.

The customer also agrees to allow TTS access to any computer systems, usernames and passwords required to remove data and/or sites for failure to comply with these Terms and Conditions.

The customer agrees to supply TTS with all necessary materials, electronic or otherwise, required to create and complete the project, and to supply them in a timely manner.

DESIGN PROJECT COMPLETION

TTS considers the design project complete upon receipt of the customer’s signed Approval Form or sign-off email. Other services such as printing, display panel production, filmwork, website uploading and publishing, whether contracted on the client’s behalf or otherwise, constitute a separate project and can be treated as a separate charge.

WEBSITE DESIGN ONLY

TTS requires that a template is approved by the customer before coding of a site commences. Once the template(s) for the website are approved by the customer, coding will commence; any changes to navigation items, colours, structure or content that require changes to the template will incur an additional charge.

Once web design is complete, TTS will provide the customer with the opportunity to review the resulting work. Unless otherwise stated in writing, TTS will make up to two rounds of minor revisions at no extra cost within 14 days of the start of the review period. Minor revisions include small textual changes and small adjustments to placement of items on the page. They do not include changes to images, colour schemes, navigation features, page structure, new functionality, or any change of direction from the approved template or brief. Any additional revisions, or any revisions outside this definition, will be charged separately.

TTS will consider that the client has accepted the original draft if no notification of changes is received in writing from the customer within 14 days of the start of the review period.

If a project becomes inactive for 14 days or more due to lack of client communication, TTS reserves the right to pause work. If a project remains inactive for more than 30 days, TTS reserves the right to close the project. Any work required to restart the project may be subject to a revised quotation.

HOSTING WEBSITES

TTS offers limited hosting services through an outsourced virtual server. TTS does not guarantee continuous service and will accept no liability for loss of service, whatever the cause.

TTS may request that clients change the type of hosting account used if that account is deemed by TTS to be unacceptable because of poor service, lack of bandwidth or in any other way insufficient to support the website. Fees for hosting on TTS’s virtual server are due at the commencement of any period of service and are non-refundable.

Fees due to third-party hosting organisations are the responsibility of the client and TTS is not liable for their payment, nor for the renewal of domain names, which are the sole responsibility of the customer / domain owner.

Where TTS recommends or integrates third-party services including hosting, plugins, software or external tools, TTS is not responsible for their performance, security, ongoing availability, pricing changes or licence terms.

DOMAIN REGISTRATION

TTS cannot guarantee the availability of any domain name. Where TTS is to register a domain name on behalf of a client it will endeavour to do so but the client should not assume a successful registration.

SEARCH ENGINE SUBMISSION

Due to the infinite number of considerations that search engines use when determining a site’s ranking, TTS cannot guarantee any particular placement. Acceptance by any search engine cannot be guaranteed and when a site is accepted, the time it takes to appear in search results varies from one search engine to another. Rankings will also vary as new sites are added. TTS recommends that customers use a professional SEO company and is happy to provide details of such companies, but accepts no responsibility for their services.

DESIGN CREDITS

The customer agrees to allow TTS to place a small credit on printed material, exhibition displays, advertisements and/or a link to TTS’s own 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.

The customer also agrees to allow TTS to place websites and other designs, along with a link to the client’s site, on TTS’s own website for demonstration purposes and to use any designs in its own publicity and portfolios.

RIGHTS OF REFUSAL

TTS will not include in its designs any text, images or other data which 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. TTS also reserves the right to refuse to include submitted material without giving reason. In the situation where any images and/or data that TTS does include in good faith is subsequently discovered to be in contravention of such Terms and Conditions, the customer is obliged to allow TTS to remove the contravention without hindrance or penalty. TTS 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. Following this, TTS will require formal notification in writing to the company’s postal address or by email. The client will then be invoiced for all work completed over and above the non-refundable deposit that will have been made at the time of first ordering. The balance of monies due must be paid within 30 days. Please note: any cancellation which is not formally confirmed in writing and received by TTS within 14 days of such instruction being issued will be liable for the full quoted cost of the project.

TTS reserves the right to terminate a project at any time if the working relationship breaks down, if the client fails to provide required materials or approvals within a reasonable timeframe, or if these Terms and Conditions are not adhered to. In such cases, the client will be invoiced for all work completed to date and any outstanding balance will become immediately payable.

DISCLAIMER

TTS makes no warranties of any kind, express or implied, for any and all products and/or services that it supplies. TTS will not be held responsible for any and all damages resulting from products and/or services it supplies. TTS 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 TTS responsible for any such loss or damage. Any claim against TTS shall be limited to the relevant fee(s) paid by the customer.

TTS 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. TTS will not knowingly perform any actions to contravene these and the client also agrees to be so bound.

TTS and its clients agree to comply with printers’ Terms and Conditions which include disclaimers for non-completion on time and the flexibility to supply quantities within 10% of the total ordered. TTS 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 and Conditions supersede any previous Terms and Conditions distributed in any form. TTS reserves the right to change any rates and any of the Terms and Conditions at any time and without prior notice.

ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS & CONDITIONS AND QUOTATION

The placement of an order for design and/or any other services offered by TTS, by email, verbally or in writing, is deemed to be acceptance of these Terms and Conditions, which are freely available at tts.im.

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 TTS.