Terms and conditions

The following terms and conditions apply to work being commissioned directly by the client or agency/individual acting on behalf of their client.

I will assume that the commissioner of the work is also the ‘paymaster’ unless otherwise agreed in writing.

For the purposes of these terms & conditions I will refer to the ‘paymaster’ as the ‘commissioner’, ‘you’, the ‘client’, ‘customer’, ‘third party’ or ‘agency/agencies’, or any other party charged with commissioning work or hiring me/my services.

The term ‘work’ refers to ‘copy’, ‘copywriting’, ‘research’, ‘planning’, ‘internal/external factors’, ‘job’, ‘jobs’, and any other reference to carrying out activity/work, whether it be an instruction in writing, or verbally from the client.

The terms ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘myself’, ‘my service/s’, ‘Jim’, ‘Jim Morrissey’, apply to me: James Morrissey.

Payment of a deposit or any invoice issued by me is a clear instruction to commence work, and tells me unequivocally that you agree in full to these terms and conditions, without prejudice.

All terms and conditions apply unless otherwise agreed in writing.

Quotations / quotes / proposals
Before any work commences, a full breakdown of costs will be submitted to you within a formal proposal/quotation or detailed email. Quotations are valid for 30 days or, at my discretion, the timeline can be shortened or extended.

In the event that the scope of work changes – at the request of either party – during the project, you will be notified, and costs to accommodate these changes will be submitted to you in writing.

You will need to accept these changes and make the appropriate payment in order for work to continue.

Payment terms
Jobs up to the value of £500 require prepayment in full.
Jobs between £500 and £1000 require the first £500 to be paid as a deposit, unless otherwise agreed in writing. Jobs starting from £1001 and above, require a 50% deposit.

Any balance payment that is due, is to be made within 24 hours of receipt of invoice.
Unless an invoice is disputed, in writing, within seven days of receipt, a late payment fee of 50% of the total invoice value will be invoiced.

Deposit payment is due upon invoice. Failure to make this payment ensures that no work will commence.

I accept the following payment methods:
 

• Direct bank transfer

• Cash

• Cheques

• PayPal

• Credit Cards

• International bank transfers (client will incur all fees)

Drafts, revisions, and timescales
One draft/concept, plus two revisions will be supplied, where necessary.

Complete rewrites are considered to be additional drafts and will be charged accordingly. If this is required a quote will be submitted before commencing work.

Submission of the first piece of work to the client will take place on or before day seven of receipt of deposit/prepayment. This can be changed at my discretion, and does not require me to inform you of this.

All timescales specified within proposals/quotations are approximate and are subject to change in accordance with a job’s pace, typically dictated by the client’s feedback response times.

I will incur no penalties in the event that submissions are delayed, under any circumstances or/unless I deem otherwise.

Feedback, proofreading and approval
I require feedback within 3 working days of submission of work.
In return I will aim to send revisions back to you within 2 – 5 working days.

If the client fails to provide feedback within 14 days, I can, at my discretion make a decision to cancel the job. See ‘my/your right to cancel’.

If something goes wrong
My goal is to always do my very best to make the client happy.
On the rare occasion a difficulty arises, I will endeavour to be fair and resolve issues in a professional manner and without delay.

If this requires further drafts or revisions outside of the agreed work-scope and cost, I will, at my discretion, provide them at no additional cost to the client.

My/your right to cancel
Work can be cancelled by the client up until the point of paying a deposit, without incurring any cost.

Paying a deposit or making a payment of any kind is a clear instruction by the client to proceed with the work.

If in the unlikely event a job isn’t ‘working out’ for whatever reason, either party can ‘call time’ and end/cancel the job at any point.

The only notice that’s required by either party is an email giving an ‘instruction to cease work’. This will ensure that work stops with immediate effect.

Any work that has been created/carried out up until that point will be paid for by the client – whether approved or not.

If time has been spent on planning, research or other internal/external factors (regardless of how much content has been written), these work costs will also be taken into account and deducted from the deposit. This is regardless of whether time allocation was detailed on an invoice, quotation, or proposal. Time is charged at £85 per hour.

After work costs have been deducted any remaining balance/monies will be reimbursed back to the client.

If the work has exceeded the value of the deposit, the client must pay the total value/balance.

The client owns the work that has been created and submitted, providing it has been paid for.


Responsibility for accuracy
I accept no responsibility for the accuracy of the copy/content/advice that I submit/provide or the claims that I make when in consultation.

It is the sole responsibility of the client to ensure that all statements, claims, promises, information on said service or product, and guarantees are upheld in accordance with the laws of England and Wales.

No claim for compensation or reimbursement due to loss of earnings or any other detrimental effect to the business in question can be made against myself or other party/s working on my behalf.

Showcasing your project
I can, without requiring your permission, showcase your project amongst my website’s portfolio pages, unless otherwise agreed in writing, or, as a result of me signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA),

Managing expectation
I cannot guarantee search engine rankings or listings, and my job as a copywriter or consultant is to give you the best possible start in your pursuit of driving traffic to your website or assisting you in promoting your business in some way – assuming that that has been defined as a goal.

Search engine optimisation is best achieved by way of a mix of search engine marketing
(SEM), social media, and other on/offline marketing activity.

I can only advise on what I consider to be best practice, and make no guarantees as to rates of conversion, search engine rankings or ROI (return on investment).

Ownership
Once all invoices have been paid in full, the client takes full ownership of the work/ copywriting’s copyright and intellectual property rights.

Jurisdiction of law
This agreement is governed by the laws of England and Wales, without regard to its conflict or choice of law provisions. The 1980 United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods shall not apply to this agreement.

Customer acknowledges and agrees that England is an appropriate place for venue of any litigation and that English courts have exclusive jurisdiction over this agreement and Customer. In the event the Customer and Seller are unable to resolve any Customer dispute, and any collection action, suit or other judicial proceeding is commenced, the prevailing party in any such collection action, suit or judicial proceeding shall be entitled to recover its costs and reasonable legal fees incurred.

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