Here’s the fine print you should probably read!
We prefer payments made by e-transfers and cash, but we will accept your business cheque, PayPal and major credit cards.
Quotes
Unless otherwise stipulated, quotes from MEDIATOPIA will be honoured for 60 days from the date of the quote.
For web design customers:
A 50% deposit is generally required prior to beginning work on your website. Full payment for website design (and hosting, if applicable) is due when your website is ready to go live, or no more than net 7 days if arranged ahead of time. Please note that hosting fees begin to accrue as soon as your domain is added to my server. We reserve the right to take down your website in the case of non-payment for services rendered until such payment is made in full. A reconnection fee of $150 will apply and must also be paid prior to your website being brought back online.
For hosting customers:
Annual hosting fees and domain renewals will be invoiced 30 – 45 days prior to the anniversary date of your website/domain. Non-payment by the due date may result in your domain not being renewed, causing your website to go offline. If you no longer own your domain, please know that your website will crash. Please review your invoices as they are tendered and inform MEDIATOPIA of any changes or cancellations prior to the renewal date. Once a domain has been allowed to lapse through non-renewal, it may either be impossible or very costly to get it back!
Customers who pay by cheque:
If your cheque is returned NSF, a $50 service fee will apply. Please note that MEDIATOPIA reserves the right to take your website offline if the original web design/hosting invoice and the NSF fee are not paid within 7 days of notice of the NSF cheque. A reconnection fee of $150 will apply and must be paid prior to your website coming back online. We understand that sometimes there are extraneous issues; those who keep the lines of communication open are more likely to be shown leniency than those who don’t. Communication is key.
Cancellation of Website Build
If you reconsider and no longer wish to have MEDIATOPIA design or host your website after entering an agreement to do so, you will be charged an hourly rate of minimum $55/hr for the time already invested in your website design (less your deposit) plus the cost of hosting your website, plus the cost of any domains, plus any fees to transfer your domains from our account at GoDaddy to your own account, which you may have to open solely for this purpose. If you purchased your domains with us, they must be transferred to your own account if you intend to use them with another web designer/hosting company and are entirely non-refundable from the registrar. Transfer will occur after full payment has been made. Hosting fees will be charged from the day your domain was accessible on our servers. The files created to date on your behalf become yours after payment due is received and these can be emailed to you. We understand that people sometimes change their minds, but if time and output costs are already spent on your behalf, then those costs must be recouped.
Revisions
Included in your website quote/estimate is an allowance for some minor revisions. We understand that most websites will require a bit of tweaking and finessing once the client is able to assess the finished product. Major revisions, including our designers having to do or redo photo work and document work that was supposed to be provided by the customer, will be billed at a rate of $55/hour on top of the quoted price. Generally speaking, if we are on round 3 or more of revisions, there will be extra charges.
Cancellations of Service
Web hosting fees are billed annually and are generally considered to be non-refundable. Please advise us at least 30 days in advance in order to facilitate the cancellation of your hosting service and deletion of files from our servers. In certain situations, when cancelling services with us, hosting fees may be refunded on a pro-rated basis. Contact MEDIATOPIA for more information.
Kindly respond in a timely fashion to your annual domain registration or hosting invoice to let us know if you wish to continue hosting with MEDIATOPIA or if you’d like to cancel your services. If you do not respond to your annual invoice for website hosting, one further attempt will be made to reach out and find out your wishes concerning your website. If we cannot reach you, and you do not contact us within the time frame noted on your invoice, we will assume that you no longer wish to have your website hosted with us, and thus will not renew your hosting contract nor your domain registration. This means that your website will go offline. If you want your website reinstated after non-communication and subsequent lapse of your domain, a $150 reconnection fee will apply, plus any other costs we may incur in trying to re-secure your domain after it has lapsed. Grace periods are very short with domain name providers, and they may levy a steep charge to get your domain re-registered after allowing it to lapse. In some cases, the domain may get purchased by another once you’ve lost ownership of it and unfortunately, there may not be any recourse for getting it back.
In the case of cancellation, if you wish to have your website files, you must provide me with a flash drive on which to copy them. Once copied to your flash drive, I will delete your files from my servers.
Abuse of Goodwill
Successful business transactions are based on respect and goodwill. If we at MEDIATOPIA feel that our goodwill is being abused by a client who refuses to respond to calls or emails while we are actively building and setting up their website, we will view this as their way of expressing buyer’s remorse about the website, and the invoicing steps outlined above under cancellation of website build will be put in place after a period of one month of non-communication.
Break-Fix Rates
Break-Fix – If you request to have administrator privileges on your website, and subsequently make changes that break the website, the cost to troubleshoot and repair your website is $75/hr during regular business hours, minimum billing of one hour. That cost rises to $150/hour for emergency, after-hours fixes, with one hour minimum billing. The invoice for troubleshooting and repairs will be due immediately upon receipt, usually the same day as the website repair occurred.
After Hours Work
If you require web work to be done after hours, Prior to 9 am or up till 11 pm ,there is a 50% surcharge. After 11 pm, the regular rate doubles. Work that is required to be performed on statutory holidays will be billed at 3X the regular rate.
Ongoing Work
If we do work for you on a regular basis, the work is billed at the end of the month with 7 or 15 day terms.
The information on payments and cancellations is subject to change without notice. If you have any questions about payments and cancellations, please contact MEDIATOPIA for more information.
Are you still reading these boring but necessary details? I’m impressed! You rock!
A PDF containing the terms and conditions of work contracts is available at your request.
These terms and conditions are subject to change. Please refer to this web page for the most up-to-date terms and conditions.
This page was last updated on January 20, 2025.