Terms of service

1. About these terms

• These terms apply whenever Seaside IT (Dylan Roberts trading as Seaside IT, based in Blackpool, Lancashire) provides a service to your business. Our services are for businesses only, not for personal use.
• Your agreement with us is your written proposal plus these terms. It starts when you accept the proposal in writing, and email counts. If the proposal and these terms ever disagree, the proposal wins.
• Whoever accepts the proposal confirms they're allowed to agree to it for your business.
• For anything about these terms, email hello@seasideit.co.uk. Notices under these terms can be sent by email.

2. Our services

• We provide websites, AI chatbots, remote IT support and the Everything plan, as described on our pricing page and in your proposal.
• All our work is done remotely, by phone, video call and secure remote access. We don't make site visits.
• We're available Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, except bank holidays, and we reply within one working day.
• We don't provide out-of-hours emergency support, hardware repairs, printers, phone systems or cabling.
• We use trusted suppliers, such as hosting providers, to deliver some services. We stay responsible for the service we provide to you.
• On a monthly plan we host your website. If you pay once, we set up hosting in an account in your name, and the hosting provider's own terms apply.
• We work hard to keep your website and chatbot online, but no online service can be guaranteed to run without interruption. Where we can, we'll give you notice of planned maintenance.

3. Building your website

• Your proposal sets out what's included. Before launch, you get up to two rounds of changes to the design and content.
• Anything outside the proposal is extra work. We'll always quote it in writing and wait for your go-ahead before starting.
• Your plan's monthly edit time is for small changes. Unused time doesn't carry over to the next month.
• If we're waiting for your content or approval for more than 30 days, the 12-month term for a monthly website or the Everything plan still runs from when work started. For a website you pay for once, the second payment becomes due at the end of those 30 days.

4. Prices and payment

• Our prices are in pounds and shown on our pricing page. Your price is confirmed in writing in your proposal.
• VAT: Our prices include everything. We're not registered for VAT, so no VAT is added.
• Monthly plans are paid monthly in advance, starting when work starts. For monthly websites and the Everything plan, this is also the start of the 12-month minimum term. Websites you pay for once are paid half when you accept the proposal and half at launch. The AI chatbot setup fee is paid at the start. Invoices are due within 14 days.
• New clients get 25% off monthly plan charges for their first six months. The discount does not apply to one-off website prices or the AI chatbot setup fee. After the first six months, the normal monthly price applies.
• Some costs aren't included and are charged at cost or billed to you directly by the provider: domain names, and software licences such as Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or paid plugins. We'll always tell you about these before you commit.
• We won't raise your price during a minimum term. After that, we'll give you at least 30 days' written notice of any price change.
• If a payment is late, we may charge interest and recovery costs as allowed by the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. If it's more than 14 days late, we may also pause your service until it's paid, after telling you in writing.

5. Minimum terms and cancelling

• Monthly websites and the Everything plan have a 12-month minimum term, starting when work starts. After that they run month to month, and either of us can end them with 30 days' written notice.
• AI chatbots, IT support and website care run month to month from the start. Websites you pay for once have no ongoing contract. Either of us can end them with 30 days' written notice.
• If you cancel a monthly website or the Everything plan during the minimum term, the monthly payments for the rest of that term are still due.
• Either of us can end the agreement straight away if the other seriously breaks these terms and doesn't put it right within 14 days of being asked, or becomes insolvent. We can also end a service straight away if a payment is more than 30 days late, or if the service is used for anything unlawful.
• When a service ends, anything you owe us up to the end date is still due.

6. Who owns what

Yours: your domain name, the words, photos and logos you give us, your business accounts (such as email, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and your Google Business Profile), and your business's data.

Websites you pay for once: once paid in full, the website is yours, including its design and code. We keep the right to reuse our general tools, templates and know-how.

Monthly websites: the design, code and templates we create stay ours, and your plan gives you the right to use your website for as long as you subscribe. We may reuse our general tools and know-how for other clients, never your content.

If you leave a monthly plan: once everything owed is paid, we'll send you a copy of your content and help you move your domain name to your new provider. At the end of your notice period, we take the website we built offline.

Credit: we may add a small "Website by Seaside IT" link to your website's footer and name your business as a client. Just tell us if you'd rather we didn't.

You confirm that you have the right to use anything you give us, and you allow us to use it to provide your service.

7. What we need from you

• Accurate information and content, on time. Delays on your side can delay your launch.
• Updates when things change, such as your prices, opening times or policies, so your website and chatbot stay correct.
• Responsibility for what your website and chatbot say about your business, including any rules for your industry, such as allergen information.
• Access to the accounts we need, and prompt action on the security advice we give you. You always keep your own administrator access.
• Lawful use of your website, chatbot and accounts.

8. AI chatbots

• Your chatbot answers from information you've approved. Like any AI, it can sometimes get things wrong, so please check its answers and tell us about any mistakes.
• It always says it's an AI assistant. It never takes payments or card details, and it passes bookings, complaints and anything it's unsure of to you.
• We review its answers every month and update its information when you ask us to.

9. IT support and security

• We follow good security practice, including two-step login and separate administrator accounts, and we act on your instructions.
• No system can be made completely secure. We're not responsible for losses from cyber attacks or scams unless they were caused by us failing to take reasonable care.

10. Your data and confidentiality

• When we host your website or chatbot, or manage your email and accounts, we handle personal data on your behalf. We'll sign a data processing agreement with you before we start, as UK data protection law requires.
• We'll each keep the other's confidential information private, unless the law requires otherwise.
• Our privacy notice explains how we handle our own clients' information.

11. Our responsibility to you

• We'll provide our services with reasonable care and skill.
• We're not responsible for problems caused by services we don't control, such as outages at Microsoft, Google, domain registrars or internet providers, or for delays caused by events outside our reasonable control.
• We're not responsible for indirect losses, such as lost profits, lost business or lost opportunities.
• Our total responsibility to you is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the problem happened.
• Nothing in these terms limits responsibility for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law doesn't allow us to limit.

12. Changes, disputes and the law

• We may update these terms. We'll tell you at least 30 days before any change affects your service.
• If something goes wrong, tell us first. We'll try to put it right within 14 days.
• Your proposal and these terms are the whole agreement between us. If any part of them can't be enforced, the rest still applies.
• Neither of us can pass the agreement to someone else without the other's consent, except that we may transfer it to a business that takes over Seaside IT.
• These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales can deal with any dispute.