I’ve had a bit of an issue recently with a client, without going into details I decided it was time to put a new set of T&C’s in place and to add in some sort of acceptance mechanism.
Now I know there is some grey thinking about how I’ve done this, but I figure it’s better than what I had before, which was just a link to a page of text.
I’m putting this here to start the discussion and also to give those who think they need to do the same some ideas.
Very good. I do something similar with a ‘Letter of Agreement’ which sets out many of the same conditions. Even so, I still have two current clients who, having paid the 50% deposit still haven’t provided me with any meaningful content!
Easy to read and clear.
One thing I’d slightly expand on is the bit about Domain name(s). A lot of people cant mentally separate the site/host/domain name … especially the domain name, it might be worth noting that the dn ISNT the site etc.
Good points Paul, I’ll do that. While `i’n sitting on the plane, sipping wine, on the way to Alicante, where it’s mid 20’s. Ha Ha!
I’m also going to pull the accept form thing, it’s pointless. There is no way to prove it’s them who complete the form, only to occurred to me after I added it! I might setup some system for confirmation using Joes Post Office stack and Sendy. Or I might not bother at all and just had it as read only, so to speak.
Is that your full terms & conditions or just a list of ground rules for getting started? In a full set of T&Cs I would include points like the client ensuring they either own the copyright or have licences to use any content they provide you. Also limitations of any liability on your part if they try to hold you responsible for something beyond your control.
I would also stipulate where any legal matters must be handled. You don’t want to find yourself dealing with a client from hell who decides to commence legal action in the US for example.
Hi, it’s not really a T&C, I used to have those to cover all that stuff, but in the end scraped it as I felt is was a bit pointless. This is more a guidelines type of thing.
Fair enough, though a really thorough T&Cs can prove useful when push comes to shove if you get a difficult one and they do exist. I regularly find that customers ride a coach & horses through T&Cs, but they are there if really needed.
Last year I had a client from hell and it saved the day, but I learned enough from the experience to realise this is not about being nasty or nice. It’s just good business and protecting yourself. For example, you don’t want some client claiming you owe them thousands for loss of business because the server went down for ten minutes when they sent out a newsletter.