General Terms and Conditions
1 : Terms Relating to all Products and Services
1.1: Services are provided by Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited, whose main offices are at Aston Court, Kingsmead Business Park, Frederick Place, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP11 1LA and whose registered address is Crown House, London Road, Loudwater, High Wycombe, Bucks, HP10 9TJ. Registered number: 3298690.
1.2: Unless otherwise stated, prices exclude VAT. VAT number 669 1843 92.
1.3: In order to continually improve the services it provides, Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited reserves the right to alter these terms and conditions at any time. The placing of an order with Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited by a customer signifies that the customer accepts that changes to the company's standard conditions may occur and any amended terms and conditions represent a change to the contractual terms of the product or service provision. Updated terms and conditions will be posted on the company's main website, www.appliedconsultancy.com/terms.
1.4: Full payment must be made at the time of order unless agreement has been given for payment by invoice instead. Where a customer has requested credit terms, a credit check will be carried-out via credit reference agencies. ACS reserves the right to accept or refuse credit applications on it's own judgement and will not be liable to provide reasons why a credit decision has been reached. All credit account payments are due strictly within 14 days of invoice. If the existance of a credit account has not been confirmed in writing by ACS, payment is due on receipt on an invoice or on the commencement of a service, whichever is later. Failure to pay within this timeframe will lead to the service (and any other ACS service, whether paid in full or not) being withdrawn until payment is made in full. Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited reserves the right to charge interest on all payments at a rate 5% above the standard Natwest Bank rate. To eliminate doubt : Where payment is overdue for one service supplied to a customer by Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited or it's associated companies, we reserve the right to temporarily cease/disconnect any or all other services, even if such services have themselves been paid for, for which the customer will have no grounds for recourse or refund, provided to the same customer until full payment is received. If payment is still not received, legal action will be taken with all legal costs also being claimed via the UK court system.
1.5: Payment can be made by cheque, made payable to Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited, or by BACS to our account (sort code 60-11-01, account number 83436200), or, where previously agreed, via credit card.
1.6: Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited may, in it's absolute discretion, choose to terminate any service by giving 30 days notice in writing. In the unlikely event of this occurring, Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited will reimburse the customer on a pro-rata basis, but will not accept any other charges or claims for damages from the customer.
1.7: Terms and conditions in this document are legally severable. All jurisdiction will be under English Law.
2 : Terms relating to Software/Telecoms/IT Maintenance and Support Services
2.1: Unless otherwise stated, all maintenance payments are due in advanced with order or, in the case of an on-site maintenance contract on the day of an engineer visit in the case of ad-hoc maintenance. Failure to pay within this timeframe will lead to the service (and any other ACS service, whether paid in full or not) being withdrawn until payment is made in full. Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited reserves the right to charge interest on all payments at a rate 5% above the standard Natwest Bank rate.
2.2: Payments should be made by BACS to our account (sort code 60-11-01, account number 83436200), or, where previously agreed, via credit card.
2.3: Maintenance contracts are for a period of 12 months from the date of invoice. Where the maintenance contract follows-on from an initial installation, the 12 month term will run from the date on which Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited completes the installation of the network, as defined by the official order. Where additional work has been added to the scope of the implementation during the implementation timescales, and this leads to a delay in the overall completion, the maintenance contract invoice will still be raised once the initial ordered work is complete, and is payable strictly within 14 days even if the extended work is not completed by this time. Refunds are not paid to customers wishing to terminate a contract before the end of a 12 month contract period, regardless of the circumstances.
2.4 : 30 days written notice must be given before the end of a 12 month contract period to discontinue the service. If such written notification has not been received, the contract will auto-renew for a further 12 month period at the current year's rates.
2.5 : Your order form will specify whether your contract covers remote support only, on-site support, or a combination of the two.
2.6 : For customers with on-site support, site visits will not be applicable within the first 5 working days of a new maintenance contract, and maintenance contracts do not include the resolution of pre-existing problems, which will be separately charged for if resolved.
2.7: Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited cannot accept responsibility for any damage to systems, lost data or other financial loss as a result of a lack of maintenance visits/action as a result of non-payment within the specified timescales.
2.8 : Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited accepts no responsibility, whatsoever, for any equipment damage, loss of data or financial loss, howsoever caused, resulting from any action carried-out by it's staff in the course of implementation of the maintenance contract, except where the damaged equipment/software has been supplied by Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited or for any damage whatsoever to any software or data regardless of origin. The placing of an order by a customer signifies that this term is fully understood and accepted. All customers are advised to take regular back-up of data on all PCs and other equipment, particularly in advance of any maintenance action being taken.
2.9: Where a fault has been caused or worsened by customer intervention (i.e. a customer attempting to fix a fault and failing) and this increases the amount of time required by Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited to fix the fault, Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited reserves the right to charge any additional work at it's standard service charges, even if a maintenance contract exists. Note that customer intervention can also invalidate any equipment warranty which may be in place.
2.10: The customer accepts that during maintenance work, slight damage may sometimes be caused to walls, ceilings, paintwork etc. or other elements of the surrounding area. Although Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited will, in these cases, attempt to make reasonable repairs, the company accepts no legal or financial responsibility for doing so and, by ordering from Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited, the customer agrees not to hold Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited responsible for such damage.
2.11: Where Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited staff need to work on equipment not supplied by Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited and not covered by the maintenance contract (e.g. PC problems where PCs are not specifically included within the scope of the maintenance contract), this additional work will be charged at Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited's standard service charges, and is carried-out under the strict understanding that ACS will not be held responsible for any consequential loss or damage.
2.12: From time-to-time, Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited may recommend to a customer that an upgrade to Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited supplied equipment/software or other equipment, or additional equipment/software may be required to prevent repeated occurances of a fault, error, or unstable operation. If a customer fails to act on this advice, and this leads to repeated maintenance requests, Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited may, at it's absolute discretion, refuse to continue to support future occurances of the same fault/error or unstable operation until the recommended actions are taken. In this eventuality, the customer will still be liable for the full payment of the maintenance contract as ordered.
2.13: Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited provides a range of maintenance services ranging from ad-hoc, individually priced service visits, to a full next day on-site services with enhanced same day remote diagnostics support. Some packages are "best endeavours" and it is important that customers understand that this does not constitute any guarantees that a visit to site, if necessary, will be made within a specified time.
2.14: Where a customer has purchased a remote support package, all support requests should be made via our dedicated support portal at www.acssupport.co.uk. Customers will also be provided with a UK telephone helpdesk number, but any information gathered from such telephone calls will be transcribed onto acssupport.co.uk and any responses not made at the time of a telephone call will be made via acssupport (ie by email and online).
2.15 : Target response times for remote support customers are : next business day for minor/standard problems and within 4 hours for critical problems affecting all users. ACS always aims to better these timescales and responses will be given as soon as possible in all cases.
2.16: Where a customer has purchased a "next day on-site" maintenance package, a visit to site will be treated as a possible course of action after telephone supported diagnostics/remote configuration (if possible) have been tried. Please note that only the problem reported will be addressed by the engineer if a site visit is deemed necessary - any other problems should be reported separately.
2.17: If a "next day on-site" package has been purchased and a visit to site is required to resolve a problem, there may be circumstances under which other customer support calls mean that it is not possible to visit a customer site on the next day. Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited do, however, aim to meet the "next day on-site" target in at least 80% of cases for each customer, although this is not a contractual commitment. It should be noted that some faults will not be fixed on the same day as the initial site visit (e.g. when faulty equipment needs to be returned to the supplier for repair or replacement).
2.18 : ACS expects all staff to be treated in a non-discriminatory way by clients. We will not tolerate verbal or physical abuse of our staff. A complaints procedure is available via our support website, www.acssupport.co.uk, should a customer have a problem with a member of staff's actions. Should an issue be reported by an engineer, this will be investigated by ACS Management with a senior representative within the client organisation. If a resolution is not found, ACS reserves the right to unilaterally cease the provision of services and refund the customer on a pro-rata basis for any pre-paid contract.
2.19: Some of our maintenance contracts have a specified number of total hours or days per month which will be spent on a customer's support requests (either on-site or off-site). The inclusive number of hours will be displayed on the order form. Where, in any given month, the number of hours/days is exceeded, a supplementary invoice will be issued monthly in arrears for additional days/hours based on our current in-contract daily rate, charged in 15 minute intervals. "Unused" days/months cannot be carried forwards to the next month. Where a customer pays for supply and installation of equipment, the time spent on implementing such will not contribute towards the monthly allowance. Where equipment is supplied on a "supply-only" basis, time spent on implementation will contribute towards the monthly allowance.
2.20: Wherever possible, five day's notice should be given for moves and changes (if included in the maintenance package) and these will be scheduled around other customer faults, which will always take priority over moves and changes. Moves and changes will be charged for, at Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited's standard ad-hoc service rates, where these are not included in the purchased maintenance package.
2.21: The maintenance contract provides support between the hours of 9am and 5.00pm, Monday to Friday, excluding UK public holidays. Where moves and changes or support are required outside these hours, Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited reserves the right to make and additional charge.
2.22: All faults/requests for assistance must be made via Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited's support website, www.acssupport.co.uk or via the company's support telephone number, which may change from time to time. Support requests made via other means will not be acted upon. In all cases, the customer must give their support contract number and contact details. Support requests are dealt with in strict rotation, with problems affecting multiple customers simultaneously taking precedence over those affecting a single customer. Customer contacts will be contacted by a member of Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited staff, usually within 4 hours.
2.23: Unless specifically stated within the contract between ACS and the customer, the customer is solely responsible for all telecommunications services (BT etc.). ACS will not, under any circumstances accept responsibility for the payment of such services. This is especially the case where bills are higher than anticipated by the customer or ACS. Customers are reminded that they should check their telecommunications service bills as soon as possible after installation to ensure that all is well, as ACS will not accept responsibility for any unexpectedly high call charges for on-going problems etc which are independently proved to be due to problems caused by the actions of ACS and which should have been avoidable, but which are identified more than 30 days after an installation.
2.24: Customers will normally be contacted by Applied Consultancy Solutions limited at least 14 days prior to the expiry of their maintenance contract. Renewal invoices must be paid in full prior to the expiry date of the previous contract for un-interrupted maintenance cover (see item 7 above).
26.25: When renewal invoices are raised, an assessment of the network topology (number of PCs, number of voice extensions, scope of the software etc.) will be made and this may result in a change to the maintenance charge band.
2.26: Where additional equipment is added to a network during the course of a maintenance contract, a pro-rata invoice for the maintenance of the additional equipment, if appropriate, will be raised at the time of installation.
3 : Terms Relating to Website Design, Development and Hosting
3.1: Web Design Services
3.1.1 : In order to keep prices low and to project manage our implementations in a quality way, Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited, follows a strict methodology defined by initial draft and final draft stages. Where a customer wishes to have the opportunity to review their website more than the allowed two times prior to launch, this service can be added at an additional price.
3.1.2 : Where a website draft is issued to a customer, the customer should provide feedback within 7 days. Where no feedback has been received within 7 days, it will be assumed that the customer is happy with the proposed draft and work will continue. Any subsequent additional change requested by the customer will be chargeable.
3.1.3 : Where acceptance of a final draft or a request for changes to it have not been received with 7 days of notification of the completion of the draft to the customer, it will be assumed that the customer is happy with the final draft and the site will be fully launched "as is" with payment being due within standard timescales. The customer may then request changes within 30 days, and these will not be commenced until full payment has been received.
3.1.4 : Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited cannot accept responsibility for any legal action, including copyright infringement, arising from the use of material provided by the customer. Where compelled to attend court for legal reasons to testify, provide legal advice, information, or for any other purpose, Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited will charge their customer for their attendance at the company's standard consultancy rates. Customers ordering web design services from Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited accept these terms and agree to pay for such court attendance, or any other time consuming legal activity, as a condition of the acceptance of their order.
3.1.5 : All websites created by Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited carry a small ACS credit/link to the company's website. Where a customer specifically requests that such a credit should not be included on the site, an additional fee will be payable.
3.1.6 : Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited has no control over Search Engines and, as such, cannot guarantee Search Engine listings or positions. Although every effort is made to achieve as good a Search Engine listing as possible (including the use of keywords and advertising of the site to the Internet's free search engines), the customer must recognise and accept that achieving a good listing is taking much longer and is becoming more difficult to achieve without separate payment being made directly to the Search Engines, than previously. In ordering web site design services from Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited, the customer accept this, and agrees not to hold the company responsible in any way for failure to achieve Search Engine listings.
3.1.7 : Some web site design packages provided by Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited specify a maximum number of pages, graphics or shopping trolley items. Where additional items are requested by the customer, these will be added only on payment of an additional fee.
3.1.8 : Where a customer has already registered a domain name elsewhere, it must be accepted by the customer that the responsibility for asking the existing registrar to transfer the domain name to Names and Space (Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited's own hosting platform) lies with the customer and is out of the control of Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited. Where such a transfer is not carried-out in good time, this will not prevent the site being launched (possibly to temporary web space) within the usual timescales and invoices being raised (and payable within 14 days).
3.1.9 : Where a customer elects to have their website hosted by an alternative hosting company, Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited cannot accept responsibility for any loss of functionality or non-availability caused by a change of technology or processes implemented by the hosting company after the launch of the website. Where Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited is asked to investigate such problems by a customer, this work will be chargeable at Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited's standard consultancy rates.
3.1.10 : Where a customer has not purchased a web site change package, Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited will quote for any necessary changes and a signed order must be received prior to work being started.
3.2 : Web Site Hosting Services
3.2.1 : Customers will be contacted by Applied Consultancy Solutions limited at least 14 days prior to the expiry of their web site hosting contract. Renewal invoices must be paid in full prior to the expiry date of the previous contract for un-interrupted service.
3.2.2 : Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited's web servers are housed in a secure, environmentally-controlled data warehouse with multiple power supplies, multiple connections to the Internet and on-site maintenance staff. Despite these measures, all PCs (servers included) do experience some downtime, either due to reboots, preventative maintenance or upgrades. In addition, Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited are reliant on the services of a number of other external parties in order to provide an end-to-end (i.e. browser to website) service, and so no guarantees on service availability are given. Where a customer feels that their service has been affected more than on comparative ISPs, this should be reported via the Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited support website, www.acssupport.co.uk , and will be investigated. Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited do not offer service rebates under any circumstances unless specifically in writing and the ordering of a service from Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited indicates that the customer accepts this.
3.2.3 : Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited accepts no responsibility for the content posted on it's servers. If, however, a complaint is made by a third party regarding the content of a customer site, Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited will act to prevent the site from being viewed on the Internet as soon as possible until the two parties have resolved their differences. Under no circumstances will Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited enter into any legal process regarding any web hosting services whatsoever. Where compelled to attend court for legal reasons to testify, provide legal advice, information, or for any other purpose, Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited will charge their customer for their attendance at the company's standard consultancy rates. Customers ordering web hosting services from Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited accept these terms and agree to pay for such court attendance, or any other time consuming legal activity, as a condition of the acceptance of their order.
3.2.4 : Although Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited make irregular back-ups of some of the contents of their servers for preventative maintenance purposes, no guarantee is made that an up-to-date back-up of any website will be available in the event of a server hardware, or other, problem. Customers are strongly advised to maintain adequate back-ups of the information they post onto any web server and accept that Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited is not liable for the loss of any data from servers for any reason, as a condition of order acceptance.
3.2.5 : Any service problems should be reported via the Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited support website, www.acssupport.co.uk , and will be investigated in strict rotation. Service problems reported via other means will not be acted upon. Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited do not offer service rebates under any circumstances.
3.2.6 : Where a customer wishes to transfer a domain name to or from one of Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited's web servers, the process detailed on the www.NamesAndSpace.com website must be followed. Customers wishing to transfer a domain name away from Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited servers are reminded that they are responsible for finding the transfer details (name servers, IP addresses and, in the case of .co.uk names, Nominet TAG) from their new ISP. Without these details, the transfer cannot take place.
3.2.7: Transfer requests will not be progressed should there be any outstanding amounts on the customer account. Where a domain name is transferred away from our servers before the end of a rental period, no refund will be given for any unused period of hosting. Where a request to transfer a domain away from our servers is received after the end of a hosting period, a full renewal period's hosting fee must be received before the transfer request is processed.
3.2.8: Where a customer does not pay for the renewal of hosting, forwarding or other similar services before the renewal date, Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited will disable their account on the day that hosting expires. Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited reserves the right to suspend e-mail and web site services, replacing the website with a holding page.
If payment is still not received, a short time later, contents will be deleted from our servers. If, after this action, a customer wants to re-initiate their service, a re-connection fee will be payable.
3.3: Web Site Maintenance Services
3.3.1 : Where a customer has elected to purchase one of Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited's web site change packages, reasonable textual and graphical changes only will be made to the website within the current topology at no further charge within the duration of the change package contract. Unless specifically stated on the order form, all website maintenance contracts are auto-renewing with written notice of 30 days being required before the end of a current period to terminate this arrangement. Where topology or functionality changes are required (e.g. additional pages, functionality or sections, or a complete re-design, for example), these will be quoted for separately. Where a customer does not request changes within a change package contract, no refund will be given for non-use.
3.3.2 : Where a customer has not purchased a web site change package, Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited will quote for any necessary changes and a signed order must be received prior to work being started.
3.3.6 : All requests for changes must be made via the ACS support site at www.acssupport.co.uk.
3.4: Web Development Services
3.4.4 : Where a development is carried-out on behalf of a customer, the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) assigned to the customer are limited to those relating to the information and ideas given by the customer before, or during the course of, the development. ACS reserves the right to re-use elements of functionality developed using standard programming languages elsewhere unless expressely agreed in writing before the start of the development, although anything developed specifically for the customer under the customer's instructions will be included in the IPR assigned to the customer. ACS cannot assign rights to the actual programming languages to the customer as these are owned by others and are publicly available.
3.4.6 : Where a draft illustrating any development or development changes is issued to a customer, the customer should provide feedback within 7 days. Where no feedback has been received within 7 days, it will be assumed that the customer is happy with the proposed development/changes and work will continue. Any subsequent additional change requested by the customer will be chargeable.
3.4.7 : Where acceptance of a final draft illustrating a development or development changes have not been received within 7 days of notification of the completion of the final draft to the customer, it will be assumed that the customer is happy with the final draft development or changes and the site will be fully launched "as is" with payment being due within standard timescales. The customer may then request changes within 30 days, and these will not be commenced until full payment has been received.
4 : Terms Relating to the Supply of Goods
4.1: Payment in full must be received prior to the supply of goods unless prior agreement has been received that an invoice will be raised instead.
4.2: Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited will normally pass-on a supplier's warranty, if one exists. Typically, repair/replacement under warranty will involve sending the original equipment directly to the supplier prior to a replacement being sent back.
4.3: Returns in the event of faulty equipment should be shipped, at the customer's expense, back to Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited unless otherwise advised to return direct to the manufacturer.
4.4: Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any damage caused to the supplied product, or other equipment, software, data or personnel, caused by incorrect installation, configuration or incompatibility. Where in doubt, customers are advised to use Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited's installation service, or that of another qualified resource.
4.5: Once an order has been received and accepted by Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited, the transaction will be considered as final, and no refund will be given in any circumstances unless either Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited fails to source the equipment within the specified timescales, or the equipment is found to be faulty and a replacement cannot be sourced.
5 : Terms Relating to our Installation Service
5.1: All payments are due strictly within 14 days of invoice. Failure to pay within this timeframe will lead to the service and any other ACS service being withdrawn until payment is made in full. Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited reserves the right to charge interest on all payments at a rate 5% above the standard Natwest Bank rate. Where a payment is late, Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited reserves the right to request payment in advance for all future work carried-out for the same customer.
5.2: The customer accepts that during an installation, slight damage may sometimes be caused to walls, ceilings, paintwork etc. or other elements of the surrounding area. Although Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited will, in these cases, attempt to make reasonable repairs, the company accepts no legal or financial responsibility for doing so and, by ordering from Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited, the customer agrees not to hold Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited responsible for such damage.
5.3: Where the scope of an installation changes throughout the timescales of the implementation, invoices will be raised for the original work, when complete, and are payable within the standard 14 days, regardless of whether or not the additional work has been completed. Where payment for the additional work (as specified on the origin