Terms and conditions

Definitions:

The Client : The company or individual requesting the services of Populate.
Populate: Populate Ltd, the primary designer/site owner & employees or affiliates.

General

Populate will carry out work only where an agreement is provided either by email, mail or fax. Populate will carry out work only for clients who are 18 years of age or above. An 'order' is deemed to be a written or verbal contract between Populate and the client, this includes telephone and email agreements.

Website Development

Whilst every endeavour will be made to ensure that the website and any scripts or programs are free of errors, Populate cannot accept responsibility for any losses incurred due to malfunction, the website or any part of it. 

The code, scripts or routines written specifically for clients remain the property of Populate until all outstanding accounts are paid in full at which point the client can reproduce, distrbute or sell as they please.

All code, scripts and routines that are part of the Populate platform remain the property of Populate and cannot be accessed, reproduced or used by the client outside of the Populate environment unless specifically agreed in writing.

Populate cannot take responsibility for any copyright infringements caused by materials submitted by the client. We reserve the right to refuse any material of a copyrighted nature unless adequate proof is given of permission to use such material. 

Any additions to briefs provided will be carried out at the discretion of Populate and where no charge is made by Populate for such additions, Populate accept no responsibility to ensure such additions are error free and reserve the right to charge an according amount for any correction to these or further additions. 

The client agrees to make available as soon as is reasonably possible to Populate all materials required to complete the site to the agreed standard and within the set deadline. 

Populate will not be liable for costs incurred, compensation or loss of earnings due to the failure to meet agreed deadlines.

Populate will not be liable or become involved in any disputes between the site owner and clients and cannot be held responsible for any wrongdoing on the part of a site owner. eg. Any disputes regarding content/images that have been provided to us for inclusion on the site. 

Populate will not be liable for any costs incurred, compensation or loss of earnings due to the work carried out on behalf of the client or any of the clients appointed agents. 

Populate will not be liable for any costs incurred, compensation or loss of earnings due to the unavailability of the site, its servers, software or any material provided by its agents. 

A deposit of 33% is required with any standard project before any work will be carried out. 

Once a website has been designed and completed been approved by the client and made ‘live’ a second payment of 33% is then due in accordance with our payment terms. Within one month of the 'go live' date of the site the client will agree a list of snags outstanding items with Populate upon the satisfactory completion of this snag-list the balancing payment will be made.  There are no exceptions to this, i.e if the client decides they no longer want the site, as they have commissioned the work and paid a deposit they are still obliged to pay for the work that has been done. Non payment will result in legal action being taken if necessary. Once full payment is received for a website, it is assumed that the project has been completed to the client’s satisfaction and no refunds can be offered.

Website and E-Commerce Development

Populate cannot take responsibility for any losses incurred by the use of any software created for the client. Whilst every care has been taken to ensure products are problem free and accurate, the ultimate responsibility lies with the client in ensuring that all software is functioning correctly before use. 

Any scripts, applications or software (unless specifically agreed) written by Populate remain the copyright of Populate and may only be commercially reproduced or resold with the permission of Populate. 

Where applications or sites are developed on servers not recommended by Populate, the client is expected to provide or seek any information, additional software, support or co-operation pertaining to the server required in order for the application to be correctly developed. Where large applications are to be developed, it is the client’s responsibility to provide a suitable testing environment which is identical to the final production environment. 

The client is expected to test fully any application or programming relating to a site developed by Populate before being made generally available for use. Where "bugs", errors or other issues are found after the site is live, Populate will endeavour (but is not obliged to) to correct these issues to meet the standards of function outlined in the brief

Compatibility

Populate will endeavour to ensure that any developed/designed site or application will function correctly on the server it is initially installed in and that it will function correctly when viewed with the web browsing software Microsoft Edge, Chrome and Safari, on desktop and mobile.

Website Hosting

The Populate content management system is a hosted system meaning it is usually hosted on our servers. This is because the server environment has been specifically tailored to offer the best security and performance for the sites that use it. It also allows us the most freedom to resolve issues, launch updates and roll-out new versions in the most cost effective way.

For larger projects the Populate system can be hosted on the client’s server, however it is the client’s responsibility to make sure the server is configured correctly to our specifications and the hosting package is maintained, backed up and kept operational. For remotely hosted installations service and support contracts are arranged on a per project basis.

The servers that contain the Populate CMS are leased from our hosting Supplier Namesco (www.names.co.uk). Occasional maintenance is required on the server which can result in downtime. This is usually performed during off-peak times and notification will be given by email at least seven days in advance. While uptime of the servers and the server network is guaranteed no guarantee is offered as to its availability from any point on the internet due to this being affected by services that are not under our or Namesco's control.

Support

Support is provided via the ticketing system within your control panel only. Once a ticket has been raised we guarantee a response with one working day though priority is given to urgent requests. Telephone support can be arranged if required.

Website Optimization

Due to external factors, such as changes to the way search engines rank websites, we cannot offer any guarantees regarding the position we will achieve for websites. The process of optimizing websites itself will bring in more traffic and hits and you'll see visits increase to your site naturally. We cannot accept liability for any change in rankings, or drop off in the position of your website due to changes in the algorithms of the search engines or the factors that they use to rank websites. 

We use 'white hat techniques' when optimizing websites and always aim to achieve a top ten ranking for your website within six months of undertaking the optimization process. Due to the work involved payment is generally required in advance and we are unable to offer a refund of any monies to clients in relation to this type of work. 

Populate reserve the right to refuse to handle in any way, material which may be deemed offensive, illegal or in any way controversial.

Ongoing fees for hosting, support and the subscription.

The first years hosting is normally included in the build cost of any project. The yearly renewal cost of hosting, support and the subscription to the system is always included and therefore agreed at the start of any new project. This amount is then required to be fully paid before the commencement of any new period, either by invoice in advance or paid online.

Exit strategy for clients leaving Populate

When clients wish to leave Populate their data and files will be fully and permanently deleted from our server after 30 days, clients will be able to access the administration system during this time and can use the built in export routines to extract any user, order or product data. If a client wishes us to perform any additional export of their data, this will be charged at our current hourly/daily rates.

Registration and renewals of URLs

We encourage our customers to register their own URLs so that they are the legal holder and then assist with the setup. This also means that they are notified directly about the renewals. If we register URLs for a client, we will invoice for the renewal fee in advance so that they are fully paid before we renew them, we also reserve the right to charge a nominal fee for the time this takes. 

Payment of Accounts

A deposit is required from any new client before any work is carried out. It is the Populate policy that any outstanding accounts for work carried out by Populate or its affiliates are required to be paid in full, no later than 30 days from the date of the invoice unless by prior arrangement with Populate.

Once a deposit is paid and work completed you are obliged to pay the balance of payment in full. We will contact clients via email and telephone to remind them of such payments if they are not received when due. 

If accounts are not settled or Populate have not been contacted regarding the delay, access to the related website may be denied and web pages removed, we will then pass such cases to the Small Claims Court to pursue payment, non payment can result in county court judgements (ccj's) being added to the client’s credit rating. 

Following consistent non payment of an invoice our Solicitors will contact the client in question, with a view to taking the matter further and if need be to seek payment through legal procedures, and if necessary court summons.

Your Privacy

We do not share or sell any of your details with third party companies, without your express permission and we will only email you or contact you about work related matters.

Complaints Procedure

Informal procedure
Anyone who experiences a problem with their web service provided by Populate should raise the matter directly using our online contact form to do so, giving sufficient information to locate the material (such as an URL) and clearly outlining the grounds for complaint. 

Populate will approach the individual responsible for the material in question with a view to resolving the matter to the satisfaction of the complainant.

Formal complaints procedure 
The formal complaints procedure should only be used where the complainant feels that the nature of the complaint is too serious to be dealt with informally, or where a satisfactory conclusion has not been reached after following the informal procedure. 

A formal complaint should be made in writing to Populate, who will acknowledge receipt and ensure that the matter is looked into as soon as possible. 

An initial response to any complaint can be expected within seven days of its receipt; a full and considered response to the complaint should be completed within 30 days and any subsequent remedy implemented with the minimum of delay.