Terms of Service

We (New Sky Websites, LLC) agree to these Terms of Service (TOS) when we complete your project. You (Client) agree to these TOS when you sign a contract and/or pay your down payment to begin services.

Website Design Service Terms

We consult with you to determine your website objectives. Based on your needs we choose which Content Management System (CMS) we feel will be best for you. CMS companies may include, but not be limited to WordPress, Squarespace, Faithwebsites or Weebly. After your approval, your website is built within the CMS of that chosen company. After production begins, the CMS company used for your project cannot be changed without additional fees. If a CMS change is needed, a new quote will be provided and no refunds are available for project time already invested.

Once a theme or template is chosen and approved by the customer, that theme may not be changed without additional fees due to the cost of the theme itself and time investment in that theme not being refundable.

You will receive a detailed quote or contract prior to development beginning that must be approved in writing. We will invoice you via email for 50% – 100% of the fees upfront depending upon contract terms. Payment must be received before production or services begin. The remaining balance will be due upon project completion or at intervals disclosed in a specific contract. Refunds are not available because purchased themes and hours invested in development cannot be “returned.”

Every site developed by New Sky Websites will include a small text link in the footer to identify our company as the site designer. That text will open a link in a new window to our website so visitors don’t exit your site if they click it. This link may be removed at a customer’s request.

Website Completion, Training & Support

A website project is considered “complete” once it is launched and taken live at your domain name unless further communication indicates more work is needed. Additional revisions requested after a website is complete is subject to hourly fees.

After a website is complete, client may request up to 60 minutes of CMS training on making site updates (unless otherwise agreed upon) and 30 days of free technical support via phone and/or email. After 30 days, continued website design support will be billed hourly if needed.

Website Ownership

The website itself, including CMS logins, hosting services, and domain name ownership (if applicable) are owned by the client. Clients will work directly with the Hosting company and Domain Name Registrars to make payments and alter services. All hosting services including outages and in the event of a website being hacked are supported by the hosting company directly. New Sky Websites, LLC does not provide hosting services, but may contact a hosting company on your behalf for an extra fee (if requested) to resolve issues.

Licenses, Intellectual & Creative Property

Custom created graphics within your website design remain the property of New Sky Websites, LLC. You may not use elements created by our team outside your website without consent. Each design created by us will include very small text in the bottom right corner of the design to show creative ownership. This may be resized, relocated or removed upon special request.

If you are using a template from a CMS company (ie. Squarespace, Faithwebsites), please refer to their terms and conditions regarding property and licenses. In most cases, templates are the property of the CMS company and the system being used (the CMS itself) is the intellectual property of the CMS company. You must agree to their terms and conditions. We are not responsible for conflicts that may arise between you and the CMS company, but we will help you as we can towards resolution if needed. In either case, you are permitted to use the raw content and graphics you provide within your website in any way that you would like.

Wordpress Maintenance

Wordpress is a powerful open-source website building system with themes and plugins built by millions of different people. When updates come out, those developers often don’t fully realize the implications to other developers’ work. For this reason, it’s extremely common for WordPress websites to have “breaks” which prevent websites from looking or operating correctly IF regular maintenance isn’t done. Along with breaks, security vulnerabilities are a huge concern when these elements aren’t updated 1-3 times a month. We’ve learned it’s best to do this for our clients so every WordPress customer pays $25/month for this service. Even when intentions are good, it’s difficult for clients to keep up on this and to fix breaks when they occur which is why this is a required fee. Regular updates keep client sites secure, functioning well and looking great.

Ongoing Website Updates & Assistance

Website revisions and assistance are not included in monthly WordPress maintenance or with any website after it is released and “live.” This may include, but is not limited to website design or content updates, new domain name setups, additional training, SEO adjustments, blog writing, social media posts, consultation phone calls, etc.

Time blocks may be pre-purchased in different increments and may recur monthly for greater savings otherwise regular hourly rates applied. All requests must be submitted via email in a format that we can copy/paste from. File uploads must be submitted in acceptable file formats for uploading to that region of your website (for example, photos must be .jpg, .gif or .png files, they cannot be pulled from a Word doc or .pdf). Each individual email / request we receive for maintenance or assistance is charged a minimum of 15 minutes towards your time block. Phone calls are charged by rounding to nearest 15 minute increment.

Search Engine Optimization Services

Advanced Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services are specified and agreed upon in the project proposal and contract inclusions. SEO work is performed on a best-effort basis. While we’re confident we can improve rankings for targeted keyword phrases, there are no guarantees.

Since search engines continually refine their ranking algorithms, we recommend an ongoing SEO program to monitor, maintain and attempt to further improve site rankings. Without ongoing SEO maintenance and back linking efforts, we do not expect top ranking results to be obtained or continue over time.

Privacy Policy

We take your privacy very seriously and will never share your private contact information with outside parties. However, we reserve the right to share public url’s, screen shots and client reviews after project completion. We use the contact information you provide to complete your project or for personal communications with you only. If you sign up to receive emails, you can unsubscribe anytime.

You are required to provide us with accurate information when setting up your account and during the course of our relationship. Most of the time we will communicate with you by email about your service, but some phone calls may take place as well.

During your project development, you agree to work under one email address and monitor that email address daily. We have no responsibility or liability for interruptions in services or development based on communications that are misdirected, blocked or otherwise not received by your email system or spam filters. All of our regular contact with customers is done by email. The primary contact in our records is considered by us to be our customer. Only that entity may request changes to your account.

Payments

You are responsible for the fees and charges on your personalized quote and on your invoice. Your quote and invoice will have a payment schedule. Before a project can begin, a 50-100% prepayment is required, then a payment schedule is in place for the remaining period of development. Our obligation to provide service to you is contingent upon your payment of the fees by your due date and hosting services in good standing. It is your responsibility to ensure that we receive payment and your CMS company or Hosting company receives payment as well. We may temporarily discontinue your project development or services for nonpayment if needed.

CMS / Hosting services, fees and nonpayment suspensions are not the responsibility of New Sky Websites, LLC but of the client and the CMS / Hosting company chosen during project planning. Most CMS / Hosting companies will suspend or terminate accounts after 30 days of nonpayment. A credit card is required for CMS / Hosting services and an automatic recurring payment subscription will be started using that card information. We will set that up for you initially, but it is your responsibility to keep that information updated with your CMS / Hosting company. It is common for credit cards to expire and cause disruptions in website services so we urge you to stay on top of this matter.

Refunds

If ever you have an issue with a New Sky Websites, LLC invoice, we will work with you in all good faith to resolve it. If you have an issue with the CMS / Hosting company invoice, we can help you work with them to get resolution as well. However, ultimately your relationship with the CMS / Hosting company is separate from our services and we are not responsible for their policies, service issues, outages or pricing.

Invoice Disputes

Full refunds are not available on any project due to the hourly investment we’ve made into your project that cannot be “returned.” However, if either party determines we cannot move forward, we will work with you in good faith towards a logical solution. If you make a prepayment and choose not to utilize our services, we will estimate the number of hours invested into your project, purchased themes and plugins, pre-paid hosting or technical services and determine if a refund can be made and in what amount if possible. This is determined, in good faith, by New Site Websites, LLC alone because project time estimates and investments are managed internally. By signing up for our services you agree to this policy.

Refunds on CMS / Hosting or third party services are at the discretion of those companies and their policies. Please review the terms and conditions of the companies presented in your quote for details. We are not responsible for disputes between you and third party services used on your project.

Representations

You represent and warrant to New Sky Websites, LLC that: (1) you have understanding of our service; (2) that in entering into this TOS, you will not violate any applicable laws and regulations; and (3) that you will pass through the terms of our TOS to your system users. You expressly warrant that you own the entire right, title and interest to, or have an appropriate license to use, all materials provided to New Sky Websites, LLC, or which may be accessed or transmitted using our service.

Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN AS-IS BASIS. NEW SKY WEBSITES, LLC HAS NOT, AND DOES NOT, MAKE ANY WARRANTIES WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. THIS DISCLAIMER INCLUDES, BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND TITLE. NEW SKY WEBSITES, LLC DOES NOT WARRANT THAT A THIRD PARTY HOSTING SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, SECURE, OR FREE FROM VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. NEW SKY WEBSITES, LLC IS NOT LIABLE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY LIABILITY, FOR THE CONTENT OF ANY DATA TRANSFERRED EITHER TO, OR FROM, YOU OR STORED BY YOU OR AN END USER VIA THE SERVICE PROVIDED BY US OR A THIRD PARTY COMPANY CHOSEN FOR THE PROJECT. NEW SKY WEBSITES, LLC SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES REGARDING SERVICES PROVIDED BY THIRD PARTIES, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THOSE SERVICES APPEAR TO BE PROVIDED BY NEW SKY WEBSITES, LLC, LLC. NO WARRANTIES MADE BY THESE THIRD PARTY ENTITIES TO NEW SKY WEBSITES, LLC SHALL BE PASSED THROUGH TO YOU, NOR SHALL YOU CLAIM TO BE A THIRD PARTY BENEFICIARY OF SUCH WARRANTIES. THIS WARRANTY DISCLAIMER EXTENDS TO ANY ORAL OR WRITTEN INFORMATION YOU MAY HAVE RECEIVED FROM NEW SKY WEBSITES, LLC, ITS EMPLOYEES, THIRD-PARTY VENDORS, AGENTS OR AFFILIATES. YOU MAY NOT RELY ON SUCH INFORMATION. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW NEW SKY WEBSITES, LLC TO EXCLUDE CERTAIN WARRANTIES. IF THIS APPLIES TO YOU, YOUR WARRANTY IS LIMITED TO 90 DAYS FROM THE EFFECTIVE DATE FOR AN INDIVIDUAL SERVICE.

Limitation of Liability

By using our services, you agree that New Sky Websites, LLC has no liability for unauthorized access to, or any corruption, erasure, theft, destruction, alteration or inadvertent disclosure of, data, information or content, transmitted, received, or stored on the CMS system or Hosting services your website uses.

General Provisions

Notices will be sent to you at the email address you provide to us. It is your obligation to ensure that we have the most current email address for you in our records. We do not communicate in writing, as we are a mostly paperless company.

Please refer to our website, newskywebsites.com, for more details. Notices regarding this TOS and other New Sky Websites, LLC policies should be directed to:

New Sky Websites, LLC
P.O. Box 372
Hartland, WI 53029

Last Revision: December 30, 2016