Policies and Terms of Service

We will never share your information with third parties unless required to do so by law or requested by you. The information we collect from you will be used to maintain your services with us and to represent the quality of our work to others, such as in our online portfolio.

Upon completion of a custom website design and payment of web design and development fees, the client is the owner of the commissioned website. The client may continue to use the commissioned website to promote the client’s company or organization regardless of whether he/she chooses to continue further services with Professional Digital Publishing. The client does not have the right to resell the design or development to other companies. The client does have the right to add pages onto the existing website or have another company add pages onto the existing site using the commissioned website design/development. Advertiser programs which display advertisements on the website are the sole ownership of Professional Digital Publishing; advertisement graphics are the ownership of the client.

Website domain names are leased from domain name registration companies. When Professional Digital Publishing registers a domain name for a client, the registration will be made on our domain registration account with the client listed as the Registrant and Professional Digital Publishing listed as the Administrative, Technical and Billing contacts. Upon payment of any outstanding fees, the client has the right to use that domain name regardless of whether he/she chooses to continue further services with Professional Digital Publishing. Domain name renewal and renewal fees are the responsibility of the client. Clients are advised to closely monitor the renewal date of a registered domain name. If the client has Professional Digital Publishing retain the domain name on their domain name registration account and has Professional Digital Publishing renew the domain name on behalf of the client, an additional service fee will apply. Professional Digital Publishing guarantees the renewal of your domain name on their domain name registration account in a timely manner.

Professional Digital Publishing requires all clients to use our services for their hosting needs. The hosting plan will automatically renew every twelve months until the hosting account is cancelled in writing 30 days prior to the renewal date or the client requests another hosting plan option.

All text and photos used as content in a commissioned website must be provided by the client. The client must have ownership or written permission to use all content he/she provides for use. Professional Digital Publishing cannot be responsible for copyright infringements on behalf of clients.

The initiation of a web design or development project requires a signed or electronically submitted “Website Planning Questionnaire” form and payment of half (50%) of the initial web design and/or development fees for custom website design.

Two Week Guarantee on Mockups – Professional Digital Publishing takes pride in handling requests in a timely manner. Starting from the date of the project initiation, Professional Digital Publishing will submit an initial mockup to the client within ten business days or the client will be entitled to a $ 25.00 discount off the second half of the initial web design fees. If the client requires modifications to the design, the same two-week guarantee applies on subsequent mockups starting from the time the feedback is given on the previous mockup. (Effective 2/1/10)

Two Week Guarantee on One-Page Websites, Brochure, and Non-Database Websites – Also, starting from the date on which the client submits all content and any other administrative needs (passwords, etc.) or the date on which the client approves the mockup (whichever is later), Professional Digital Publishing will convert the approved mockup into website format and add the test for the home page and first sub pages within ten business days or the client will be entitled to a $ 25.00 discount off the second half of the initial web design fees. (Effective 2/1/10)

This guarantee applies only to information-based sites. The turnaround time on e-commerce sites or websites with custom programming, databases or add-ons are based on the size of the project and the list of other projects in the development queue.

Professional Digital Publishing cannot complete a website if the client does not provide content (the text and/or photos to be used in the website) or other required elements (pre-existing logo or account login information, etc.). If Professional Digital Publishing is waiting for content or other pieces of information, the client will be notified. If the client fails to handle the requests in a timely manner, the website may be delayed. (Professional writing and photography services are available for a surcharge if the client needs assistance with content development.)

In order to keep projects on track, Professional Digital Publishing offers incentives and penalties. If a client provides all content (text and photos) and other required elements within ten business days of project initiation, the client will receive a $25.00 discount off the website design fee. Alternatively, if the client has not submitted all content and other required elements within 30 days of project initiation, client will be billed $30.00 per month for every month the project is delayed. (Effective 2/1/10)

If the client-driven delays continue, Professional Digital Publishing will complete as much of the project as possible without the missing elements. In order to keep all accounts current, Professional Digital Publishing may bill for the completed project and add missing elements later as they are received. If more than 60 days from the website design and build has passed, and the client still has not submitted the remaining missing content, Professional Digital Publishing reserves the right to consider the project complete in its entirety and bill for future work.

All content must be submitted electronically via email (contact us for the correct email address) or on CD mailed to Professional Digital Publishing, 300 Highway 70 E, Dickson, TN 37055. Both text and photos/graphics must be clearly labeled with the name of the page on which it will be displayed. Content may not be submitted via fax or paper copies. Exceptions to this policy must be approved in advance and is subject to incurring a surcharge.

Due to web page load time considerations and the flat rate charged for web pages, there is a limit on what can be included in a single web page. A web page can hold the equivalent of about 1 page of the content that would typically fit on an 8 ½ “X 11” piece of paper. If the content is straight text without any pictures, tables, graphs, etc., this equates to a maximum of 500 words. If there are pictures, or tables, etc., then less text will fit. Additionally, a web page may include up to a maximum of six photos on a page. A photo gallery page with limited text may contain up to ten photos. If a client’s content does not fit within these parameters, one or more additional pages should be purchased. Web pages of more than 900 words of text may be subject to additional fees, especially if they require a substantial amount of formatting. Please send us your final text. Time required to make substantive changes to client-submitted text after the web pages have been constructed will be additional and billed by the hour.

We take pride in providing attractive designs, and the vast majority of our clients are extremely pleased with the design we create for them. However, design is a subjective art, and not everyone’s tastes are the same. While we will gladly make initial minor modifications for no additional charge, it is important to be clear on how revisions to the look of a website design are handled.

The “Website Planning Questionnaire” form is the contract which describes the look a commissioned web design project will achieve. Design preferences should be specified at that time, prior to the commencement of any design work. If any design preference stated in the “Website Planning Questionnaire” was not met, the adjustments will be made free of charge. If the client develops preferences or changes his/her mind after the completion of the work, adjustments will be made by the hour at our regular hourly maintenance rate.

Unless otherwise specified in the “Website Planning Questionnaire”, sub pages of any website will use the same design as the home page. Mockups are not provided for sub pages. Formatting requests for sub pages will be considered but will not be guaranteed. If the client requires specific looks or formatting for sub pages, this request should be made at the time of the initial contract and may incur additional fees.

Professional Digital Publishing reserves the right to assign subcontractors to this project, or any portion therein, to insure the right fit for the job as well as on-time completion.

Clients who have signed up for a maintenance plan receive discounts off the web designer’s hourly rates for website updates. The standard half hour maintenance plan is enough time to add about five photos and a few paragraphs of text. Clients on a Professional Digital Publishing web maintenance plan may send update requests via email (contact us for the correct email address). Routine maintenance which fits into the allotted time specified in the client’s maintenance plan is typically completed in about three to four business days. If a client on a website maintenance plan requests more than the scheduled amount of maintenance, he/she will be given a quote and, if approved, the additional work will be completed at a discounted rate as described in their maintenance plan and the turnaround time will be based on workload issues. Clients who are not on a maintenance plan may request website updates at the full hourly maintenance rate and the turnaround time will be based on workload issues.

Monthly maintenance plan fees are separate from hosting fees and may be cancelled at any time. (See details under the Termination of Services section).

In the event of a website hosting outage, clients whose websites are hosted by Professional Digital Publishing have access to emergency technical support 24 hours a day. Clients should leave a voicemail message or text message and a technician will be contacted. The phone numbers are listed on the Contact Us page of our website. For all other technical issues (non-emergency), please contact our office during regular business hours as posted on our website or by email. Please note, technical support cannot be provided for clients’ individual computer issues.

If the client or an agent other than Professional Digital Publishing causes an error to occur with any portion of the website or the hosting of the website, time to repair the hosting during regular business hours will be assessed at the hourly rate of $30.00 (one-hour minimum) and will be assessed the hourly rate of $45.00 per hour (one-hour minimum) for repairs during non-business hours, and is not included as part of any hosting or maintenance plan.

All hosting fees and one-half of the initial website design and development fees are due upon project initiation. Upon project completion, the remaining balance is due in full within five business days. If payment is not made on the remaining balance by the sixth business day after project completion, Professional Digital Publishing reserves the right to charge a fee of $ 10.00 per day until full payment is made. Once the remaining balance is paid in full, the completed website will be moved from the staging process to the live process. At that time, Professional Digital Publishing will also register the client’s website with the leading search engines.

Payment Plan. Clients experiencing financial hardship should discuss payment options prior to project initiation with Professional Digital Publishing. If a payment plan for the website development is placed into effect, payment must be made by the first day of each month until balance is paid. If a payment is not received in Professional Digital Publishing’s office by the fifth day of each month, a $ 25.00 late fee will be assessed. If payment is not received in Professional Digital Publishing’s office by the tenth day of each month, the website will be temporarily suspended until payment is received. Temporary suspension will suspend the entire website and hosting, causing a suspension page to be placed on your domain and all emails will cease; when the overdue balances are paid in full, the account website and email functions will be reinstated the next business day. (Effective 2/1/10)

Most every client would like his/her website to rank high in search engine results for selected keywords, yet search engine results are determined by a multitude of constantly changing factors, third party search engines, and the amount and quality of competition on the world wide web. Professional Digital Publishing guarantees certain search-engine friendly techniques will be used in the creating of each custom website, such as keywords in the title bar at the top of the browser, the meta tags in the hidden coding behind the scenes, and alternate text behind some images. If the keyword placement in these three areas is not to the client liking, Professional Digital Publishing will change these three items to the client’s choices one time for free. Subsequent or additional changes will be billed at the standard hourly rate. Professional Digital Publishing cannot be held responsible for search engine results.

From time to time governments enact laws and levy taxes and tariffs affecting Internet electronic commerce. The client agrees that the client is solely responsible for complying with such laws, taxes, and tariffs and will hold harmless, protect, and defend Professional Digital Publishing and its subcontractors from any claim, suit, penalty, tax or tariff arising from the client’s exercise of Internet electronic commerce.

1. Transmission, distribution or storage of any material in violation of any applicable law or regulation is prohibited. This includes, without limitation, material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property right used without proper authorization, and material that is obscene, defamatory, pornographic constitutes an illegal threat, or violates export control laws.
2. Sending Unsolicited Bulk Email (“UBE”, “spam”). The sending of any form of Unsolicited Bulk Email through Professional Digital Publishing’s servers is prohibited. Likewise, the sending of UBE from another service provider advertizing a web site, email address or utilizing any resource hosted on Professional Digital Publishing’s servers, is prohibited. Professional Digital Publishing accounts or services may not be used to solicit customers from, or collect replies to, messages sent from another Internet Service Provider where those messages violate this Policy or that of the other provider.
3. Running Unconfirmed Mailing Lists. Subscribing email addresses to any mailing list without the express and verifiable permission of the email address owner is prohibited. All mailing lists run by Professional Digital Publishing customers must be Closed-loop (“Confirmed Opt-In”). The subscription confirmation message received from each address owner must be kept on file for the duration of the existence of the mailing list. Purchasing lists of email addresses from third parties for mailing to from any Professional Digital Publishing Hosting-hosted domain, or referencing any Professional Digital Publishing Hosting account, is prohibited.
4. Advertising, transmitting, or otherwise making available any software, program, product, or service that is designed to violate this AUP or the AUP of any other Internet Service Provider, which includes, but is not limited to, the facilitation of the means to send Unsolicited Bulk Email, initiation of pinging, flooding, mail-bombing, denial of service attacks.
5. Operating an account on behalf of, or in connection with, or reselling any service to, persons or firms listed in the Spamhaus Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) database at www.spamhaus.org.
6. Unauthorized attempts by a user to gain access to any account or computer resource not belonging to that user (e.g., “cracking”).
7. Obtaining or attempting to obtain service by any means of device with intent to avoid payment.
8. Unauthorized access, alteration, destruction, or any attempt thereof, of any information of any Professional Digital Publishing Hosting customers or end-users by any means or device.
9. Knowingly engage in any activities designed to harass, or that will cause a denial-of-service (e.g., synchronized number sequence attacks) to any other user whether on the Professional Digital Publishing Hosting network or on another provider’s network.
10. Using Professional Digital Publishing’s Hosting Services to interfere with the use of Professional Digital Publishing Hosting network by other customers or authorized users.

Each Professional Digital Publishing Hosting client is responsible for the activities of its users and, by accepting service from Professional Digital Publishing, is agreeing to ensure that its customers and/or representatives or end-users abide by this Policy. Complaints about customers and/or representatives or end-users of a Professional Digital Publishing Hosting client will be forwarded to the client’s postmaster for action. If violations of the Professional Digital Publishing Hosting Policies and Terms of Service occur, Professional Digital Publishing reserves the right to terminate services with or take action to stop the offending client from violating Professional Digital Publishing’s Hosting Policies and Terms of Service as Professional Digital Publishing deems appropriate, without notice.

Managed Hosting Plans. Our managed hosting plans are for our custom web design customers who wish to have their web site updated with each software upgrade, whether it is website software or server software. Although we still hold the rule of the almost non-existent downtime, your site could possibly be briefly interrupted during the maintenance upgrades. Most of the upgrades will occur at night and your site will be fully functional before the start of the work day. Clients will be notified within a minimum of five business days prior to any maintenance scheduled for the server or website. Our specialists will update email accounts, monitor bandwidth and disk space, send a link for monthly reports of site traffic and statistics, and more.

Unmanaged Hosting Plans. Our unmanaged hosting plans are for our customers who wish to update their own website with each software upgrade, whether it is website software or server software. Clients will be notified within a minimum of five business days prior to any maintenance scheduled for the server and the changes expected. It will be the client’s responsibility to plan and make the necessary changes to their website based on the presented upgrade schedule. Clients will be given a login to their modified cPanel account where they can view your statistics, update email accounts and more.

Upon account creation for a client on Professional Digital Publishing’s Hosting server, regardless of when the domain, website, or other information is placed on the server, initiates the client’s hosting billing cycle. Clients are initially set up on a yearly managed hosting plan. The yearly hosting plan will automatically renew every twelve (12) months until hosting account is cancelled in writing or the client requests another hosting plan option. Hosting statements will be emailed thirty (30) days prior to renewal for charges unless otherwise stated in a hosting agreement.

Payments for Hosting services are due net 15 with a 15% discount if paid within 5 days of invoice date, unless stated otherwise in a hosting agreement (effective 2/1/10).

Professional Digital Publishing reserves the right to charge a late fee of 20% up to a maximum of $50.00 for payments received after net 30. All hosting accounts at net 60 are at risk of suspension and/or termination. Temporary suspension will suspend the entire website and hosting account, causing a suspension page to be placed on your domain and all emails will cease; when the overdue balances are paid in full, the account website and email functions will be reinstated the next business day (Effective 2/1/10). Clients experiencing financial hardship should contact Professional Digital Publishing within 10 days of invoice due date to discuss payment options.

Professional Digital Publishing defines “Maintenance” as keeping the website current. It is not intended to be a new design.

Professional Digital Publishing maintains a current backup, and archive all submitted files for a client’s website.

The client’s site will be submitted to popular search engines. In an attempt to make sure sites are valid, the client may receive confirmation from the search engines. It is the client’s responsibility to continue registration and confirmation.

Updates are completed within 3 working days of the time they are received, except weekends and holidays. Professional Digital Publishing offers same day rush service if needed for an additional charge of $ 50.00. Updates received after 3:00 PM CST are not scheduled until the next business day unless prior arrangements have been made.

A client’s rate is calculated on the total time involved in completing the updates. Billing occurs on the 30th day from the contract date every month, unless otherwise stated in a client's maintenance contract.

It is the client’s responsibility to review updates and notify us of any necessary changes that we need to make. There will be no charge for any errors on our part. However, if a change needs to be made due to client error, the regular hourly update fees will be charged.

Professional Digital Publishing reserves the right to distinguish between “updates” and “new designs”. Changing the navigation, the adding of new pages, graphic changes, buttons, etc. are considered new designs and charged accordingly to our hourly design rate.

Updates should be provided electronically (by email) as much as possible. Attachments should be in text format. Send digitized pictures in common format such as .jpg, .gif. Updates may also be sent by postal mail or by fax. This will require retyping data or the scanning of photos and will incur additional fees.

A client’s website may be using third-party components. Professional Digital Publishing has no control over what third party sites do and take no responsibility for loss of information due to actions of these sites. Any changes to a client’s site stemming from regulations of these third-party components will be billed at the normal maintenance rate.

All maintenance plans require a one-year service contract. The maintenance plan will automatically renew every twelve months until the maintenance account is cancelled in writing 30 days prior to the renewal date or the client requests another hosting plan option.

Payment can be paid in full at the time of signing the Maintenance Contract, or every 30th day from the contract date Professional Digital Publishing will bill you by direct debit via PayPal.

Payments for Maintenance services are due net 15 with a 5% discount if paid within 5 days of invoice date, unless stated otherwise in a maintenance contract. (Effective 2/1/10)

Professional Digital Publishing reserves the right to charge a late fee of 20% up to a maximum of $ 40.00 for payments received after net 30. Accounts at net 60 are at risk of suspension and/or termination. Temporary suspension will suspend the entire website and hosting, causing a suspension page to be placed on your domain and all emails will cease; when the overdue balances are paid in full, the account website and email functions will be reinstated the next business day (Effective 2/10/10). Clients experiencing financial hardship should contact Professional Digital Publishing within 10 days of invoice due date to discuss payment options.

If the client halts work with Professional Digital Publishing during the course of initial web design or development phase, the client will be responsible for the amount of work already completed. Work completed will be billed at the hourly rate as shown on our price sheet, and deducted from the initial payment, the balance of which shall be returned to the client. If, at the time of the request for refund, work as been completed beyond the amount covered by the initial payment, the client shall be liable to pay for all work completed at the hourly rate as shown on our price sheet. Depending on the amount of work completed at the time of cancellation, this may mean receiving a partial refund, no refund, or owing additional fees.

In order to protect clients from unintentional service interruption, clients wishing to terminate any services must request the service termination in writing by registered letter within 30 days. If a client is on a 12-month hosting and/or maintenance plan, and if the 12 month commitment has not passed, the client is responsible to pay for the hosting and/or maintenance fees for the remaining months or pay a $200.00 cancellation fee, whichever is less.

If a client is found in violation of any of the terms and agreements in this Policy, they will not be refunded any amounts paid to Professional Digital Publishing.

Our liability on any account is limited to the amount of money that the customer has paid us. If we incur legal expenses due to a client, we reserve the right to recover these expenses and any associated costs from the client. For example, if a client has violated a copyright and Professional Digital Publishing is sued, we will require you to pay our legal fees and any associated costs.

Third party vendors may have separate terms of service agreements. Professional Digital Publishing cannot be held liable for disputes with third party vendors.

There are numerous Federal, State and International laws regulating the use of the Internet. Professional Digital Publishing will not hesitate to initiate criminal prosecution and/or cooperate with government agencies relating to abuse of Professional Digital Publishing services or systems.

Professional Digital Publishing may cancel specials or promotions at any time for any reason. Prices are subject to change at any time, and prices are only guaranteed for the period of prepayment.

Professional Digital Publishing reserves the right to decline to do business with any client for any reason.

Warranty. From the date of website completion, Professional Digital Publishing provides a 90-day warranty that the functions contained in the Web Pages or the Internet Website will meet the client’s requirements or that the operation of the WebPages will be uninterrupted or error-free. If the client or a third party makes any changes to the completed website or any functions within the website during the 90-day period, the warranty will be void. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the WebPages and website after the 90-day warranty is with the client.

In no event will Professional Digital Publishing ever be liable to the client or any third party for any damages, including any lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages arising out of the operation of or inability to operate these WebPages or website, even if Professional Digital Publishing has been advised of the possibility of such damages. If any provision of these Terms of Service shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed separate from these Terms of Service shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

Professional Digital Publishing reserves the right to change these terms of services at any time for any reason.