Terms & Conditions

These terms and conditions are the terms under which Sharpedge Technologies ( “Sharpedge”, “we”, “us”) provides its services to our Clients (“you”). These services include but are not limited to, web design and development, website support and maintenance, domain name registration, web hosting, search engine optimization, marketing & website promotion. These terms and conditions have been put together in a way to try and be as transparent as possible with our clients in regards to how we work, and how we expect clients to act in return. When you engage the services of Sharpedge Technologies, you agree to, and are bound to these terms.

General Terms

• All content of the sharpedge.io website is property of Sharpedge Technologies unless otherwise specified. Sharpedge Technologies may change the content of this website at will without any prior notice.
• This website uses cookies. By using this website and agreeing to these terms and conditions, you consent to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of our privacy policy. You may disable cookies in your browser if you wish, however this may prevent features of this website from working correctly.

• You must not use this website in any way that causes, or may cause, damage to the website or impairment of the availability or accessibility of the website; or in any way which is unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful, or in connection with any unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful purpose or activity.

• This website is provided “as is” without any representations or warranties, express or implied. Sharpedge Technologies makes no representations or warranties in relation to this website or the information and materials provided on this website.

Privacy Policy

• In order to conduct business with clients, Sharpedge Technologies may request information that may be of a personal nature. This may include, but not be limited to:
  Names
  Phone
  Email
  Address
  IP Address
  Web hosting details (if hosted elsewhere)
  Website login credentials

• No information provided to Sharpedge Technologies will be disclosed to any third party who is not engaged by Sharpedge Technologies for services pertaining to the design, development, promotion, domain name registration or hosting of your website, unless we are required by law to do so

• Sharpedge Technologies are committed to ensuring your information remains secure and private and have suitable processes in place to safeguard your details.

• The sharpedge.io website uses cookies and may also obtain non-identifying information such as IP Address, referral website etc. You personally cannot be identified by us with this information, however these details enable us to improve the experience of our website and analyse usage patterns.

Disputes, Liability and Indemnity

• o Sharpedge Technologies provides its services as is, without any guarantees on security or other issues leading to loss of data, sale or reputation. We ensure to the best of our ability that our systems and servers are protected from security issues however we will not be held liable for any disruption of services if such situation arises.

• The Client is fully responsible for the security, content and every-day operations of their website. Any breach of security, including, but not limited to, server hacking, stolen passwords, compromised data, lost data, etc., shall be the sole responsibility of the Client. Sharpedge Technologies strongly recommend the Client back up their own website files and data regularly, or engage Sharpedge Technologies to do so via our off-site backup product and support & maintenance packages.

• Sharpedge Technologies shall be held harmless from any legal problems, accusations, or illegal activities that may arise from the Client’s website, business or personal activities. Sharpedge Technologies is a hired contractor, and is not in any other way affiliated with or employed by the Client.

• Sharpedge Technologies is an independent contractor and is not in any way bound by any terms, to work for the Client exclusively, nor shall Sharpedge Technologies be restricted from contracting other companies of similar or same business type in any market or geographic area.

• There is no warranty express or implied for any services offered unless explicitly detailed in each individual agreement.

• Sharpedge Technologies will not be liable for any issues resulting from a Force Majeure Event – including but not limited to Act of God, fire, lightning, explosion, war, disorder, flood, earth quake, industrial disputes (whether or not involving their employees), extremely severe weather, or acts of local or central government or other competent authorities

Web Design & Development

• It is the client’s responsibility to provide Sharpedge Technologies with a clear written brief for any work to be carried out.

• Sharpedge Technologies will endeavour to interpret your requirements and where we anticipate the development to take longer than two (2) hours we will provide a written fixed price quote outlining the work to be carried out.

• Should we anticipate that the work will take less than two (2) hours, we may undertake the work on a time based arrangement with the work being conducted, and then invoiced for at a standard hourly rate. Billing will be in 10 minute intervals, so should the development only take 10 minutes, that is all the client will be invoiced for. If you are a new client, you will be provided a fixed price quote for work under two (2) hours and payment will be required in advance of any work being conducted on your servers.

• For fixed price projects where a written proposal has been supplied by Sharpedge Technologies and subsequently approved by the client, a deposit payment will be required to commence work.

• Once a written proposal has been approved by the client, any additions, changes or enhancements in the functionality or design of the project will affect the proposal and may incur additional cost and a revised delivery date. All additional work, over and above the estimates is charged separately. Under no circumstances will Sharpedge Technologies be liable for any delays caused by client change requests to the original proposal.

• Sharpedge Technologies endeavour to complete projects in a timely manner, however the client must recognise that there may at times be unforeseen circumstances that delay the development process. This may be caused by but not limited to, complex coding, 3rd party integrations, waiting on deliverables, communication delays.

• Website content and all related materials such as images, text, video, product details etc need to be provided to us in a timely manner by the client.

• For complete site designs, Sharpedge Technologies may place a small link at the bottom of client’s website identifying us as the designer. Should client not wish for this acknowledgement to be placed, please advise.

• Sharpedge Technologies takes no responsibility for any third party products, software or components used in website development. This includes, but is not limited to, core software such as React, Laravel, WordPress, OpenCart, Joomla, Drupal or others. It also includes all 3rd party plugins for these packages. We suggest clients take regular back-ups to ensure any issues can be rectified reasonably quickly by restoring a recent backup. Any backup restoration that does not form a part of the maintenance packages and off-site backup products offered separately by Sharpedge Technologies will incur charges.

• Once a website has been paid for in full by the client, that site becomes the responsibility of the client. Website software updates, security patches etc will need to be applied from time to time. Sharpedge Technologies offers support and maintenance packages as well as backup services to assist with the ongoing maintenance of a website. Unless the client has engaged our services with one of these plans, Sharpedge Technologies is under no obligation to keep the client’s website up to date.

Hosting

• Usage of our hosting service will be provided at the sole discretion of Sharpedge Technologies.

• Sharpedge Technologies reserves the right to refuse its hosting service from being used for publication of any material which is deemed to be offensive or illegal. This includes but is not limited to pornography and sex-related merchandising, adult/sex related sites, pirated software, copyright violations, 419 Scams, Warez sites, Hacker programs or archives, IRC servers, IRC bots and Hate propaganda

• Hosting is an annual charge which must be paid in advance for the whole year. It is the responsibility to pay for hosting renewals annually on time (ie before the due date) to ensure continuation of service. In accordance with the information outlined under “Late Payments”, failure to pay hosting invoices on time may result in suspension or deletion of your account. Sharpedge Technologies will not be responsible or liable for any loss of files, data, emails, backups etc. resulting from unpaid hosting fees.

• There is a bandwidth limit on all of our hosting plans. We allow you to exceed that limitation by paying $1/GB. The overage fee (if there’s any) will be charged at the end of each month. If you continuously go over month after month then we’ll reach out and ask you to upgrade your plan.

• Hosting accounts are provided on servers hosted via third party providers in data centres. Sharpedge Technologies endeavours to ensure that these systems and servers are protected from hackers, viruses, intruders and other online and offline problems, however we will not be held liable for any disruption of services if such situation arises.

• In order to keep servers up to date, our hosting providers will perform scheduled maintenance to servers from time to time. This may result in short periods of downtime during this maintenance window. Sharpedge Technologies will attempt to notify clients of any scheduled maintenance that is expected to last for more than 30 minutes.

• Unscheduled maintenance may occur from time to time as a result of failed hardware components, DDOS attacks on the servers, or other issues. It will not be possible to provide advanced warning in these circumstances however we endeavour to keep clients updated in these events.

• Sharpedge Technologies can only pass on the Service Level Agreement of our suppliers. Our suppliers guarantee uptime of 99% across each month. In cases where unscheduled maintenance results in monthly uptime of less than 99% compensation may be applied for as follows: Uptime 97%-99% (downtime of between 7 hrs – 22 hrs across a month) = compensation of 1 day hosting. Uptime 95%-97% (downtime of between 22 hrs – 36 hrs across a month) = compensation of 2 days hosting. Uptime 90%-95% (downtime of between 36 hrs – 73 hrs across a month) = compensation of 5 days hosting. Uptime less than 90% (downtime of more than 73 hrs across a month) = compensation of 1 month hosting.

• Clients using Sharpedge Technologies hosting service acknowledge that, due to the inherent risks of the internet, and of computer-based networks and systems:
  → the services provided under this agreement will not be uninterrupted or error free
  → the services may not meet your requirements; and
  → your data may not be secure or protected from loss or corruption, and data loss or corruption may occur due to delays, service interruptions or other reasons.

• The Client agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Sharpedge Technologies and the employees and agents of Sharpedge Technologies against any losses, claims, damages, liabilities, penalties, actions, proceedings or judgments relating to the Client’s use of this service.

• Sharpedge Technologies provides no guarantees on service availability and will not be held liable for any damages or loss that may be incurred by clients as a result of scheduled or unscheduled maintenance, hackers, user error, hardware failure, or other event that may result in downtime of service, or loss of information. Subject to statutory warranties that may apply under the Australian Consumer Law, we will not be responsible for any loss or damage to you or your business which may result from any interruptions, delays, faults or errors in the supply of the service.

• It is the Client’s responsibility to maintain local copies and backups of your website files and data. Our hosting providers perform weekly snapshot backups, however these cannot be relied upon. We strongly recommend you regularly back up your own website files, database, emails etc. Sharpedge Technologies offers an off-site website file and database backup service which can be implemented along with your hosting plan. In the event that a backup needs to be restored, if you have taken our off-site backup service as part of your hosting package, your files will be restored to the most recent backup at no cost to you. If we are unable to restore your site with our backups under this service, your site will be rebuilt at no cost. If you do not have the Sharpedge Technologies backup service, any charges to restore a backup copy of your website will be invoiced. Should you not have a backup copy of your website, and your website needs to be rebuilt, this will incur full development charges.

• Technical support relating to hosting service will be provided for free for up to 15 minutes per case as part of the annual hosting charge. Issues that take longer than 15 minutes to resolve will be invoiced at hourly professional services rates.

Support & Maintenance Contract Terms

• The minimum maintenance and support contract term is 3 months. Contracts are payable in advance via a monthly invoice.

• Packages are designed for minor website maintenance tasks such as software updates, content updating, adding new pages, monthly newsletters, updates to social network sites, email and/or telephone support. The support time does not cover custom coding or new site developments. However, in these cases we can apply your monthly hours towards our quoted pricing for any custom work.

• All tasks carried out are timed to the second and logged via our time management software. Each task will count toward the overall monthly hourly limit.

• If you don’t use all your hours in a particular month you can ‘carry forward’ the equivalent of 1 months support time to the next month. For example if your contract gives you 5 hours of support time per month, the maximum amount of unused support time you can carry forward is 5 hours. If you find that you are consistently requiring less hours than your contract states, we will be happy to revise your contract to meet your needs more closely.

• If you use all of your allocated hours in one month, you will be advised as such, and any additional requests will be invoiced separately at an hourly rate or will be put on hold until the following month.

Search Engine Optimization Contract Terms

• The minimum search engine optimization contract term is 3 months. Contracts are payable in advance via a monthly invoice.

• Sharpedge Technologies engage in best practice “white hat” SEO techniques. We will not engage in methods that may be used to try and deceive search engines into ranking your site better. Deceitful techniques are quickly detected by search engines and will leave your site penalised which may result in difficulty improving your ranking in future.

• Sharpedge Technologies will provide Client’s with monthly updates detailing the work that was carried out, the current ranking position for targeted keywords as well as the impact on the work in terms of traffic to the website.

• Due to the algorithms used by search engines when determining a sites ranking, Sharpedge Technologies cannot provide any guarantees on the position we may be able to obtain for you through our promotional work.

• Ranking positions will vary often as new sites are added and competitors conduct their own search engine optimization work.

Please note that Sharpedge Technologies reserves the right to change these terms and conditions without notice. By using our services, you hereby undertake to familiarise yourself with these terms and conditions, and indemnify Sharpedge Technologies from claims arising from misunderstandings or ignorance of these terms.