The Terms

Below are the standard terms and conditions for Squawk Creative (we, us, etc) for all projects. It is vital that you (the client) read and understand these terms and conditions before you commence a project with us. Please contact Squawk Creative if you are unsure about any of the terms and conditions below. If you are unhappy with these terms and conditions then we would be happy to discuss suggested exemptions to particular terms. These terms and conditions are to be read in conjunction with other communication including quotes and invoices. These terms and conditions are governed by the laws of Ireland and will be interpreted as such and in accordance with Irish courts. Irish courts will have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any claims or dispute which might arise out of or in connection with these terms and conditions.

WHAT IS EXPECTED OF YOU, THE CLIENT.

You must have the authority to enter into contract on behalf of yourself, your company or your organisation and you must comply with the terms and conditions outlined below. You agree to give us the materials and information we need in order to complete the project in a timely fashion.

You will review our work, provide feedback and approval at the appropriate junctures prior to completion of each individual stage and when requested when requested and / or according to any agreed upon deadlines.

Deadlines work both ways, so you shall also be bound by the agreed upon deadline prior to the start of the project. You agree to adhere to the payment schedule as set out below.

WEBSITE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT.

The website owner is solely responsible for any liability arising out of or related to the website. You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Squawk Creative from and against any and all liabilities, losses, damages, costs, and expenses, including but not limited to, legal and/or experts’ fees, associated with any claim or action brought against Squawk Creative related to and/or arising out of the website and/or your breach of representations, obligations, and/or warranties under these Terms and Conditions.

All content (including but not limited to text, images and other assets) provided to Squawk Creative by or on behalf of the Client must be either original content created by the Client or else have the written permission of the copyright holder. You are responsible for the content and / or views expressed on the website and Squawk Creative reserves the right to remove any content / disable the site at our discretion due to objectionable content at our discretion. Squawk Creative reserves the right to outsource any / all of any project to a third party without additional cost to the Client. Where such outsourcing or contracting adds to the project cost, the Client will be asked for permission to proceed.

Squawk Creative does not provide a web hosting facility inhouse and it is the Client’s responsibility to provide this should they need it. Alternatively, for an additional fee we can assist or purchase domain names / hosting from third party companies with or on behalf of the client. Squawk Creative is not responsible for the running, operation or maintenance of the hosting company’s services; this includes but is not limited to outages, downtime, maintenance periods covering server issues and subscription and payment issues relating to hosting and domains.

Squawk Creative (with permission of the Client and for the appropriate fee, if and where applicable) may set up social media accounts, email or other accounts and services on behalf of the Client but we are not responsible for maintenance, content or any issues arising from these.

Squawk Creative develops content management systems for the Client by using platforms such as WordPress and Squarespace. We are not responsible for any errors, downtime or security issues as a result of any issues with these platforms or any plugins used on the site which may develop over time.

While every effort is taken to make secure any websites we design and develop, we shall not be held responsible for any security issues which may occur.

We do not guarantee any improvements relating to our Search Engine Optimisation ( SEO ) but we do design and develop with best practices in mind in pursuit of better search engine rankings.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

As outlined above, you guarantee that all elements of text, images or other artwork you provide are either original and/or you own all rights for the use of such artwork, and/or that you have obtained permission of the use of such artwork. When you provide text, images or other artwork to us, you agree to protect us from any claim by a third party should they claim that we are using their intellectual property.

We guarantee that all elements of the work we deliver to you are either owned by us or that we have obtained permission to provide them to you. When we provide text, images or other artwork to you, we agree to protect you from any claim by a third party that you are using their intellectual property provided you have paid for the work and that our contract has not been terminated and we shall assign all intellectual property rights to you as follows: You shall own the website or other work we design for you plus the visual elements that we create for it. We shall give you source files, finished files any other relevant information / assets. It is your responsibility to store and keep safe the aforementioned work and we shall not be required to keep a copy. You own all intellectual property rights of text, images, site specification and data provided to you, unless someone else owns them.

We shall own any intellectual property rights we have developed prior to, or developed separately from this project and not paid for by you. We shall own the unique combination of these elements that constitutes a complete design and we shall license its use to you, exclusively and in perpetuity for this project only, unless we agree otherwise.

Squawk Creative love to show off our work, so we reserve the right to display all aspects of our creative work, including sketches, work-in-progress designs and the completed project on our portfolio and in articles on websites, in magazine articles and in books.

TESTING AND MAINTENANCE

We will make sure all designs / content created is compatible with the latest versions of all major browsers namely Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge. We do not guarantee designs for other less popular browsers or Internet Explorer which have been discontinued. Similarly, we develop all our sites and design with mobile browsing in mind and will do our best to try make sure all work is responsive and displays correctly on iOS and Android however this can’t be guaranteed 100%.

We try our best to make every design as near to identical as we can however this is not always possible due the standards (or lack thereof) on some browsers. From time to time, in particular during the first few months after the project is completed, Squawk Creative may need to provide maintenance to the website at short / no notice to the Client although we will always endeavor to give five days notice prior to this. A grace period of one week applies where the client can request changes to content on the website.

After the one week’s grace, any changes will be billed at an hourly fee at the discretion of Squawk Creative. Any issues relating to errors on our part will be covered at no cost to the Client. We do not provide support for any external applications, email, hosting, social media etc which the Client may use.

GDPR

Whilst we make every effort to build our products in compliance with GDPR, once the website is handed over to the client we do not take any responsibility for compliance issues from that point on as decisions and changes made by the client are at their own discretion. If we provide a boilerplate GDPR policy with a site, this should be reviewed carefully by the client and amended as they see fit. We also recommend getting dedicated GDPR audits on all aspects of your business in order to provide the most accurate information on your privacy policies. Our service, unless otherwise specified is purely that of design and the ultimate responsibility of GDPR with regards to the business or website is that of the clients. Squawk Creative do not take responsibility for any third party software or services in use.

PAYMENTS AND REFUNDS.

We operate a no refund policy due to the nature of deadlines and the opportunity to cancel at anytime. Unless otherwise agreed upon by both parties before work commences, a non-refundable 50% deposit will be paid at the start of the project. Under certain circumstances a refund either partial or full may be issued but this is purely at the discretion of Squawk Creative.

All Flexi-Pay plans are unique and agreed upon in writing before the project starts. Where no Flexi-Pay plan is in place, normal terms apply. Failure to comply with the terms of the Flexi-Pay plan may result in suspension of service and / or legal action.

The Client is required to meet all payments/deadlines agreed upon and failure to do so may result in a late fee of 10% of the overall project cost. Any overruns as a result of the actions of the Client may be charged at a rate of 10% of the overall project cost per overrun or on a weekly basis.

Squawk Creative reserve the right to change prices after 30 days written notice has been given. All quotes are valid for up to 30 days. If, at any stage, you change your mind about what you want to be delivered and are not happy with the direction our work is taking you shall pay us in full for the time spent working with on the project up until that point and terminate this contract.

UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES

Squawk Creative shall not be held liable or to account for any delays / suspensions / failure to finish a project due to unforeseen circumstances or events out of their control (eg: theft of equipment, accidents, illness,COVID19).

SUSPENSION OF SERVICE.

Squawk Creative reserves the right to suspend or terminate service(s) to you as a result of, but not limited to, the following reasons: 1. The Clients refusal to pay or meet deadlines for a period of up to 30 days. 2. Any breach of the terms and conditions. 3. If we believe it is necessary to protect Squawk Creative or the Client. 4. The result of a court order or other legal requirements. You agree to pay all fees owed to Squawk Creative starting with any penalty fees first if any. The Client can cancel our service anytime after giving written notice of five working days and payment for all work undertaken on behalf of the client up to the point of cancelling our service.

Squawk Creative reserve the right to change these terms and conditions at any stage and may do so without consent. Any changes shall be applicable at the time of posting on the Squawk Creative website. Any failure of Squawk Creative to insist or enforce any provision of these terms and condition shall not be construed as a waiver of any provision or of any right of Squawk Creative.