Terms of Business

Who these terms are with

Work is supplied by AJWC Tech Consulting Ltd, a private limited company registered in England & Wales (company number 16867620), registered office 3 The Row, Stanton St. Bernard, Marlborough, Wiltshire, SN8 4LR. In these terms “I”, “me” and “my” mean that company, and “you” means the client named on the quotation.

These are terms of business, covering work you buy from me. They are separate from the Terms of Use that cover simply browsing this website.

Business clients only

I supply these services to businesses, not to consumers. By instructing me you confirm you are acting for purposes relating to your trade, business, craft or profession, and not as a consumer.

This matters to both of us: it means the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 do not apply, so there is no automatic 14-day cancellation period. What applies instead is the cancellation and refund position set out below, which I have tried to make plainly fair.

If you are buying as an individual rather than for a business, tell me before you pay anything and we will agree different terms in writing.

Quotes and prices

Prices published on this site are starting prices. Before anything begins I send a written quotation setting out the scope, the price and the timescale. That quotation is the agreed price.

A quotation is valid for 30 days. The price does not change unless the scope changes. If you ask for something outside the agreed scope I will tell you what it costs before I do it, and you can decide — you will never receive an invoice for work you did not agree to.

Prices exclude VAT. I am not currently VAT registered, so no VAT is charged. If that changes, VAT will be added to work quoted after the registration date.

Paying

A signed acceptance of the quotation and a 40% deposit book the work into my schedule. I do not start before both are in place.

The remaining 60% falls due when the work is complete and you have confirmed you are happy with it. If you paid the deposit by card, the balance is charged to that same card, and I will tell you before I take it. You will never get a surprise charge.

Card payments are processed by Stripe. Your card details are entered on Stripe’s own systems and are never held by me.

When work counts as complete

I will tell you in writing when the work is finished and ready for your review. You then have seven working days to either confirm you are happy or tell me what is wrong.

If something is wrong and it is within the agreed scope, I fix it at no charge and the seven days start again. If I hear nothing within seven working days, the work is treated as accepted and the balance becomes payable. That clause exists so a finished project cannot sit unpaid indefinitely, not to catch you out — if you need longer, ask and you will get it.

What I need from you

I need your content — text, images, logos, product details, logins — and reasonably prompt answers when I ask questions. Timescales assume both.

If a project stalls on your side for more than 60 days, I may invoice for the work completed to that point and release the slot in my schedule. Picking it back up later is usually fine, but it will be rescheduled rather than resumed immediately.

You are responsible for making sure you have the right to use anything you send me, and that its content is lawful and accurate.

Changing your mind

The deposit is refundable in full until I begin design work. Up to that point, tell me you want to stop and you get all of it back.

Once design work has started the deposit is non-refundable, because it is paying for work already done. If you cancel after that, you owe the deposit plus any work completed beyond it, charged at the proportion of the project delivered — and you keep whatever has been produced.

I will tell you clearly when design work is about to begin, so the point at which this changes is never a surprise.

I may cancel a project if it becomes clear I cannot deliver it well, or if what is being asked for is unlawful. If I do, you get a full refund of anything paid for work not yet delivered.

Late payment

Invoices are due on receipt unless the quotation says otherwise. Late payment is the thing most likely to sour an otherwise good working relationship, so this is stated openly rather than hidden. Anything about an invoice itself — a copy, a PO number, a wrong address — goes to [email protected].

Under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 I am entitled to charge statutory interest on overdue business invoices at 8% above the Bank of England base rate, together with fixed statutory compensation and any reasonable costs of recovery. I would much rather have a conversation than invoke it — if cash flow is tight, tell me and we will work something out.

Who owns the finished work

Ownership of the finished website transfers to you once you have paid in full. That includes the design, the code written specifically for you, the content files and the domain. There is no charge to leave, and nothing is held back.

Until final payment is received, I retain ownership of the work.

Some parts are not mine to give: third-party components, open-source libraries, fonts and stock images remain under their own licences, and I will tell you which those are. Anything I built before your project and reused within it stays mine, but you get a permanent, unlimited licence to use it as part of your site.

I keep the right to show the work in my portfolio and to describe how it was built, unless we agree otherwise in writing before the project starts.

Care plans

Care plans are monthly, paid in advance, and renew automatically each month until cancelled.

Either of us can cancel with 30 days’ notice. There is no minimum term and no cancellation fee. If you cancel, cover continues to the end of the notice period and then stops — I do not refund part months, and I do not hold your site hostage either.

Included time does not accumulate indefinitely. Unused time rolls over for one month and then lapses. Work beyond the included allowance is quoted before it is done.

If a payment fails I will tell you and try again. If it is still unpaid 14 days later, cover pauses until it is settled. Your site stays online — pausing cover stops the maintenance, not the hosting, and I will always warn you before anything affects your site being reachable.

What I am not responsible for

I build carefully and test what I ship, but no website is guaranteed to be uninterrupted or error-free.

I am not liable for failures of third-party services outside my control — hosting providers, domain registrars, payment processors, email providers or network outages — nor for changes you or someone else makes to the site after handover.

Except where the law does not allow it to be limited, my total liability for any claim connected to a project is capped at the total fees you have paid me for that project. I am not liable for loss of profit, loss of business, loss of data or any indirect loss. Nothing here limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

You should keep your own backups of anything you cannot afford to lose. Care plans include backups, but they are my safety net for recovery work, not a substitute for your own records.

Confidentiality

Anything you share with me about your business that is not public stays confidential, and I will not pass it to anyone else without your say-so. The same applies to any credentials you give me, which I hold only for as long as the work needs them.

How I handle personal data is set out in the Privacy Policy.

If something goes wrong between us

Tell me. Almost everything is fixable if it is raised early, and I would far rather sort a problem than lose a client over it. Email [email protected] or ring 07712 334722.

These terms are governed by the law of England & Wales, and the courts of England & Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.

Changes to these terms

I may update these terms from time to time. The version that applies to your project is the one in force on the date of your quotation, and I will send you a copy with it — so a later change to this page can never alter what you already agreed.