The Tresa Group’s Terms of Service
The Tresa Group is a full-service website development company providing website design, programming, content, marketing, search engine optimization, hosting, and maintenance services to individuals, businesses, and non-profit organizations. The Tresa Group cannot provide any of these services to you until you accept the following terms of service. Once you accept these terms of service, The Tresa Group will be able to consider performing these services for you. The Tresa Group reserves the right to accept or decline any request for its services for any reason. If The Tresa Group agrees to perform services for you, but subsequently determines that the written content or images that you intend to incorporate into your website would expose us to possible legal actions or any other form of harm, The Tresa Group may, at its sole discretion, terminate its contractual relationship with you. The Tresa Group reserves the right to change these terms of service at any time without notice.
- Website Design & Programming
- Website Content
- Website Hosting
- Website Maintenance
- Additional Notices and Disclaimers
Website Design & Programming
1. Applicability and Authorizations. The terms of service in this section apply to any services performed by The Tresa Group to create, develop, or improve a new or existing website. The Tresa Group will be acting as an independent contractor when performing these services. If you currently own a website, you are authorizing your web hosting service to provide The Tresa Group with "write permission" for your web page directory, cgi-bin directory, and any other directories or programs that must be accessed for The Tresa Group to perform its services for you. You also authorize The Tresa Group to publicize your completed website to web search engines and other web directories and indexes
2. Content. If you are supplying the content to be displayed on a custom-built website, you must provide that content to The Tresa Group no later than three weeks prior to the completion date that you and The Tresa Group agree to. If you are unable to meet this deadline, the completion date will be extended until three weeks following the date the content is delivered. If you are supplying the content to be displayed on a template-built website, the same logic will apply; delays in the delivery of agreed-upon content will automatically extend the agreed-upon completion date of the template-built website.
3. Design Input and Revisions. The Tresa Group is committed to providing excellent customer service. To accomplish that, we encourage you to provide input to us during the design process. The Tresa Group offers custom-built website packages with different numbers of permitted revision rounds. The more expensive the package, the higher the number of permitted revision rounds. Template-designed website packages do not offer as much opportunity for client input. Most of the design elements have already been decided upon by The Tresa Group. You may, of course, purchase a template-designed website package and hire The Tresa Group to make modifications to it at our standard hourly rate of $75.00 for website design and programming.
4. Website Modifications. Once The Tresa Group completes the services that it has agreed to provide to you, it cannot be held responsible for any damage that you or anyone else does to your website by making modifications to it. If you or anyone else damages your website, you may hire The Tresa Group to make repairs to the site at our standard hourly rate of $75.00 for website design and programming.
5. The use of Subcontractors. The Tresa Group reserves the right to hire subcontractors to assist in the performance of any of our services. If The Tresa Group decides to hire subcontractors to assist in this manner, The Tresa Group will warrant all work completed by said subcontractors. The Tresa Group will only hire subcontractors that are deemed capable of providing the same standard of service that The Tresa Group provides.
6. Copyrights and Trademarks. You hereby represent and warrant that any elements of text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, or other artwork furnished to The Tresa Group for inclusion in web pages are owned by you or that you have permission from the rightful owner to use such elements, and will hold harmless, protect, and defend The Tresa Group, its owners, managers, employees, and its agents from any claim or suit arising from the use of such elements that you have so furnished. The Tresa Group and its subcontractors retain the right to display all designs as examples of their work in their respective portfolios and marketing brochures or similar materials.
7. Payment of Fees. If you hire The Tresa Group to build a custom-designed website, you will be required to make a minimum deposit equal to fifty percent (50%) of the price quoted to you before any work can commence. The remaining fifty percent (50%) will be due and payable when the web pages have been constructed per the written specifications that you and The Tresa Group agreed to at the time work commenced. If you hire The Tresa Group to build a template-designed website, you will be required to make a full payment for all agreed-upon services before any work can commence. The Tresa Group may, at its sole discretion, agree to partial payments if it believes it can do so without incurring an unreasonable risk of nonpayment. The Tresa Group will not upload any work performed on your behalf to its (or your) server(s) or submit said work to search engines until final payment is made for all services performed by The Tresa Group.
8. Ownership of Web Pages and Graphics. Copyright to the finished assembled work of web pages and graphics produced by The Tresa Group shall be vested in your name upon final payment for the project. This ownership is to include, design, photos, graphics, source code, final work-up files, text, and any program(s) specifically designed or purchased on behalf of the Client for completion of this project. The Tresa Group and its subcontractors retain the right to display all designs as examples of their work in their respective portfolios and marketing brochures or similar materials.
9. Website Maintenance. Once The Tresa Group has created, developed, or improved a new or existing website for you, you must make a decision on how to maintain it. The Tresa Group offers several website maintenance options to its clients. We encourage you to consider signing up for one of them.
Website Content
1. Applicability. The terms of service in this section apply to any services performed by The Tresa Group in creating and updating the written content or ad copy on your website. These services may also be described from time to time as proofreading, copywriting, and/or copy editing. The Tresa Group will be acting as an independent contractor when performing these services. If any of the terms of service in this section duplicate those in other sections, you are also agreeing to accept them here within the context of website content. Website content consisting of pictorial or photographic images or other types of non-written material is governed by the terms of service under the Website Design and Programming section herein.
2. Submission of Content. If you are supplying the written content for your website, it must be in final format unless you are also hiring The Tresa Group to perform proofreading, copywriting, and/or copy editing services. The Tresa Group will from time to time offer special promotions wherein one or more of these services are included in the price paid for other services, such as the building of a custom- or template-designed website. If any of these services are included in the price paid for other services, you will be notified of such and be given an opportunity to accept or decline these additional services. If you are supplying the written content for your website, but in performing its agreed-upon services, The Tresa Group discovers grammatical mistakes, incorrectly used words, or misspellings, you will be notified of same and be given an opportunity to accept or reject our suggested corrections.
The Tresa Group and its subcontractors retain the right to display all website designs as examples of their work in their respective portfolios and marketing brochures or similar materials. In the event your website is chosen for such a purpose and you do not agree with our suggested corrections to your written material, we may, at our sole discretion, make mention of the fact that we were not responsible for the web content so as not to harm our professional standing. We may also make the changes on a copy of your website that we use for testing purposes so that we will be able to display your website to prospective clients without the need for the above-mentioned disclaimer. Under no circumstances will any changes be made to your actual website without your permission.
3. Definition of Terms. The purpose of this section is to define what The Tresa Group means by proofreading, light copy editing, copy editing, and copywriting. These definitions limit the scope of what we do when performing these services at your request. We define proofreading to be the reading of written materials for possible misspellings, common grammatical errors, incorrect word usage, and improper punctuation. We may from time to time for the purpose of clarity, use the term light copy editing, and if we do so, it will be defined in the same manner as proofreading. We define copy editing to be everything contained in the definition of proofreading plus a more thorough examination of the structure, logic, and internal consistency of your written materials. In the process of copy editing, sentences may be rewritten or moved around to present your ideas in a clearer or more forceful manner. Words that are acceptable from a proofreading point of view may be considered inadequate when subjected to the additional scrutiny of a professional copy editor whose job it is to present your ideas in the best manner possible to the worldwide web. If so, those words will be replaced. We define copywriting to be the writing of original content or extensive rewriting of existing written materials. In writing or rewriting the content to be posted on your website, the copywriter or his/her supervising copywriter will also perform the proofreading and copy editing services defined above.
4. The use of Subcontractors. The Tresa Group reserves the right to hire subcontractors to assist in the performance of any of our services. If The Tresa Group decides to hire subcontractors to assist in this manner, The Tresa Group will warrant all work completed by said subcontractors. The Tresa Group will only hire subcontractors that are deemed capable of providing the same standard of service that The Tresa Group provides.
5. Responsibility and Payment of Fees. Writing web content is a creative process. We will use our knowledge and skills to create the best content that we are capable of, but the final decision regarding the suitability of the content that will be posted on your website is your decision to make. The Tresa Group will not post any content on your website without your approval, nor will The Tresa Group upload any work performed on your behalf to its (or your) server(s) or submit said work to search engines until final payment is made for all services performed by The Tresa Group.
If you hire The Tresa Group to perform copy editing or copywriting services as defined above, you will be required to make a minimum deposit equal to fifty percent (50%) of the price quoted to you before any work can commence. The remaining fifty percent (50%) will be due and payable when the services have been completed. Proofreading and light copy editing services as defined above will be included in the price of your website if you agree to have us perform said services.
Website Hosting
1. Applicability. The terms of service in this section apply to any services performed by The Tresa Group to prepare your website for hosting, to host your website, or to manage the hosting of your website. The Tresa Group will be acting as an independent contractor when performing these services. If any of the terms of service in this section duplicate those in other sections, you are also agreeing to accept them here within the context of website hosting.
2. Domain Name Registrations. The Tresa Group utilizes an industry standard third-party registrar for domain registration services. Once you place an order for a new domain through The Tresa Group, we register the domain for you through the registrar. Domain names registered in this manner are not eligible for a refund and the cost for such domain registration will be subtracted from any service refund from The Tresa Group.
New domains may be canceled with a full refund within the first 24 hours after placing an order. This grace period only applies to new domain name registrations and is not applicable for domain renewals. If you cancel your account with The Tresa Group, you will retain ownership of your domain name for as long as you continue to renew the domain, provided that your account was current or was brought current at the time of cancellation. The Tresa Group will renew your domain name for you as long as you are a hosting client of The Tresa Group in good standing with no past-due accounts at the time of renewal.
3. Hosting Interruptions. The Tresa Group cannot be responsible for any interruptions in hosting caused by situations outside of its direct control, such as backbone provider failures, fiber-optic main line cuts, DNS or Registrar issues with your domain name, routing issues between your location and The Tresa Group data center. The Tresa Group cannot be responsible for any service interruptions caused by external events such as Acts of God, Wars or any other natural or unnatural events that The Tresa Group cannot directly influence. Our responsibility in the event of a service interruption caused by us is limited to a pro-rated refund of our hosting service fee for the number of days that your service was interrupted.
4. Prohibition of Adult Content. The Tresa Group does not provide hosting services for the storage or posting of adult content or links to adult content. All material of pornographic nature is considered adult content. Online image galleries whose primary purpose is the public display of fine art or artistic mediums are not considered to be adult content, but there may be situations where The Tresa Group is unable to readily distinguish between the two and reserves the right to remove said content on this basis or any other basis at the sole discretion of The Tresa Group. If The Tresa Group removes content from your site and you would like to cancel your hosting agreement with The Tresa Group, you may do so at that time without any penalty provided that your account was current or was brought current up until that time.
5. "Fair-Use" Resource Assignment. It is the intent of The Tresa Group to offer you sufficient amounts of disk space and/or other resources, such as bandwidth transfer, email or FTP accounts, so that you do not need to be concerned about running out of space or resources during the normal course of business.
You hereby acknowledge that these resource allotments are optimized and dedicated toward serving web documents and self-need email / FTP services and is not to be used as offsite storage area for electronic files, or as a provisioning service for third party email or FTP hosts. All downloadable files or files stored on the server must be available for download via an HTML document stored on the Internet in a publicly or privately accessible area, and must be directly related to the general nature of the website index. Illegal content including but not limited to pirated software, music or other media are strictly prohibited and are not allowed on The Tresa Group's servers.
You also acknowledge that these resources are limited by physical restraints of technology as well as by reasonable limits of a shared resource environment. You and all other users understand that server technology limits the amount of available resources for use, including but not limited to disk drive space, CPU processing power, memory and access speed. The Tresa Group takes measures to utilize the latest and most economically feasible mass server market technology available to provide services. You further acknowledge that all of The Tresa Group's services within the context of this section are of shared-server nature, and other users are sharing the same allotted space. Your account will be placed on a server with up to hundreds of other users. The Tresa Group, along with many other hosting providers use this business model in order to offer web hosting services en masse at inexpensive and affordable rates.
You acknowledge that any single account is entitled to utilize the server resources, within reason, up to what is allotted or by what is physically available. If resources become scarce, The Tresa Group reserves the right to limit users of the affected machine to a lower limit to preserve the effectiveness of the service for all users. If a particular user is in extreme excess of what the average users of the machine have in use (actually used) of their resource allotments, that customer may be asked to remove content, cut resource usage, or relocate to a dedicated service provider. This policy only applies to websites that are considered to be abusive in service, disk space or resource consumption and where it is evident that the "fair-use" of resources among customers has been breached, particularly in regards to disk space, bandwidth or CPU processing power utilization. Additionally, websites that are found to contain either/or no html documents or a large number of unlinked files, are subject to warning, suspension or cancellation at the sole discretion of The Tresa Group.
If The Tresa Group, at its sole discretion, determines you have breached its "fair-use" policies, you may be asked to remove files from or reduce access to the server in order to restore full serviceability to other subscribers affected by the breach.
6. Spam and Unsolicited Commercial Emails. You may not use or permit others to use The Tresa Group's network or services to send out spam, flames, mail bombs, or any other type of unsolicited commercial emails. This includes any activity whereby you directly or indirectly transmit email messages to any email address that has not solicited such email and does not consent to such transmission. Your domain may not be referenced as originator, intermediary, or reply-to-address in any of the above transmissions. This prohibition also includes the sending of any unsolicited mass emails from another service that in any way implicates The Tresa Group's network, equipment, or email addresses. A message is considered unsolicited if it is posted in violation of a newsgroup charter or if it is sent to a recipient who has not requested or invited the message. We do not consider the making of one's email address public to constitute permission to receive such messages.
If we receive a complaint or other communication that you have violated our SPAM policy, we will initiate an immediate investigation. During the investigation, we may restrict your access to our network and services to prevent further violations. If we determine that you have violated this or any other of our terms of service, we may, at our sole discretion, unilaterally restrict, suspend or terminate your account. Furthermore, The Tresa Group reserves the right to pursue legal action to recover any costs incurred in such an investigation. We will notify law enforcement officials if the violation is believed to be a criminal offense. You agree to hold The Tresa Group harmless for any such notification.
7. Prohibited Scripts and Applications. The Tresa Group strictly prohibits the use of certain scripts such as IRC, Proxy, SSH, Telnet, or any other script which may overwhelm server resources due to the inherent nature of the script itself or by defect in the coding of the script. If one of the scripts that you are using is found to be in violation of this clause, or is found to be overwhelming system resources, you may be asked to remove the script, or in cases of system resource abuse, it may be removed without prior warning and/or the user account may be suspended for further review.
8. Payment of Fees and Invoice Policy. The Tresa Group accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, or PayPal as payment for its services. The Tresa Group invoices exclusively by email. The Tresa Group does not send out invoices via any type of non-electronic postal service.
9. Late Payments or Failure to Pay. If your account is not current at the start of a billing period, it will be considered late. You will be allowed a 10-day grace period before your account is suspended. If full payment is not received within 30 days, your account will be terminated without any further notice. Such termination will not relieve the subscriber of responsibility for the payment of all accrued charges and any collection expenses on the part of The Tresa Group or its assignees. The Tresa Group may, at its sole discretion, agree to reactivate your account if it is brought current and you pay a reactivation fee. The reactivation fee will not be less than the equivalent of 3 months of hosting.
10. Domain Name Cancellation. The Tresa Group will register your domain name for one year in exchange for an annual hosting fee. If The Tresa Group agrees to accept quarterly or monthly payments, you agree to pay the equivalent of one year of hosting (4 quarterly payments or 12 monthly payments). You may cancel this agreement at any time during the first year of service upon payment of our annual hosting fee, or 4 quarterly hosting fees, or 12 monthly hosting fees. Beginning with the second year of service, you may cancel this agreement at any time provided your account is current or has been brought current at the time of cancellation.
11. Acknowledgement of Possible Interruptions. You acknowledge that the service provided is of such a nature that the service can be interrupted for many reasons other than the negligence of The Tresa Group and that damages resulting from any interruption of service are impossible to ascertain. Therefore, you agree that The Tresa Group shall not be liable for any damages arising from such causes beyond the direct and exclusive control of The Tresa Group. You further acknowledge that The Tresa Group's liability for its own negligence may not in any event exceed an amount equivalent to charges payable by you for services during the period damages occurred. In no event shall The Tresa Group be liable for any special or consequential damages, loss or injury.
12. Change of Nameservers. In cases of new hosting accounts or additions / modifications to hosted domain names or any other cases which involve the change of nameservers of a domain from other DNS servers to The Tresa Group's DNS servers, there may occasionally be a delay of several days, weeks or longer depending on the accessibility of control options at the respective registrar of the domain name registration. It is possible that if the registrar (or the entity having control over the domain registration) is not cooperative, the domain nameservers can not be changed at all. Due to the unpredictable nature of the nameserver change process, no guarantees are made regarding the amount of time a specific change may take. On customer request, nameserver change of domain names is done by The Tresa Group on behalf of the account holder. In such cases, a successful change of nameservers cannot be guaranteed in any way or fashion as it solely depends on the accessibility or cooperation by the domain name registration's registrar.
13. Network. If The Tresa Group assigns a subscriber an IP address for use with the subscription, the right to use that IP address shall belong only to The Tresa Group and the subscriber shall have no right to use that IP address except as permitted by The Tresa Group. The Tresa Group shall maintain and control ownership of all IP numbers and addresses that may be assigned to subscribers by The Tresa Group. The Tresa Group reserves the right to change or remove all such IP numbers and addresses in its sole and absolute discretion, at any time.
You agree that bandwidth and disk usage shall not exceed the maximum number of megabytes per month for the service plan subscribed by the customer ("Agreed Usage"). The Tresa Group will monitor subscriber's bandwidth and disk usage. The Tresa Group shall have the right to take corrective action if subscriber's bandwidth or disk usage exceeds the Agreed Usage. Such corrective action may include the assessment of additional charges, disconnection or discontinuance of any and all services, or termination of this Agreement, which actions may be taken is in The Tresa Group's sole and absolute discretion, at any time deemed necessary by The Tresa Group. If The Tresa Group takes any corrective action under this section, subscriber shall be entitled to a pro-rated refund of any fees paid in advance prior to such action. In any cause, subscriber will be warned of approaching or exceeded resource limits via email by The Tresa Group's automated notification system.
Subscribers or any network users are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security of The Tresa Group's network or any and all components there in. Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. The Tresa Group will investigate occurrences which may involve such violations and may involve and cooperate with law enforcement authorities in prosecuting subscribers who are involved in such violations. These violations include, but are not limited to:
Accessing data not intended for such subscriber or logging into a server or account, which such subscriber is not authorized to access. Attempting to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization. Attempting to interfere with service to any subscriber, host or network, including, without limitation, via means of overloading, "flooding", "mail bombing" or "crashing." Forging any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail or newsgroup posting. Taking any action in order to obtain services to which subscriber is not entitled.
14. Notification of Violation
Subscribers or any network users are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security of The Tresa Group's network or any and all components there in. Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. The Tresa Group will investigate occurrences which may involve such violations and may involve and cooperate with law enforcement authorities in prosecuting subscribers who are involved in such violations. These violations include, but are not limited to:
First violation: Any Subscriber, which The Tresa Group determines to have violated any element of this TOS shall receive an email warning them of the violation. Subscriber's service is subject to a temporary suspension at The Tresa Group's discretion pending a subscriber's agreement in writing to refrain from any further violations. Second violation: Subscribers, whom The Tresa Group determines to have committed a second violation of any element of this TOS shall be subject to immediate suspension or termination of service without further notice. NOTE: The Tresa Group reserves the right to drop the section of IP space involved in SPAM or Denial-of-Service complaints if it is clear that the offending activity is causing great harm to parties on the Internet. In particular, if open relays are on your network or a customer's network or if denial of service attacks are originating from your network. In certain rare cases, we may have to do this before attempting to contacting the subscriber. The Tresa Group will contact the subscriber as soon as it is feasible.
15. Suspension of Service or Cancellation. The Tresa Group reserves the right to suspend network access to any subscriber if in the judgment of The Tresa Group, the subscriber's account is the source or target of a violation of any of the terms of the TOS, or for any other reason which The Tresa Group deems necessary.
If inappropriate activity is detected, all accounts of the subscriber in question will be deactivated until our investigation is complete. Prior notification to you are not assured. In extreme cases, law enforcement will be contacted regarding the activity. The subscriber may not be credited for the time the subscriber's machines were suspended if you are found to be at fault.
16. Miscellaneous Terms. Subscriber must provide The Tresa Group real and current contact information at all times. E-mail address, telephone and fax contacts are used, and in that order of preference.
The Tresa Group takes no responsibility for any material placed on its network by others. The Tresa Group is not responsible for the content of any other websites linked to. Links to other sites are provided as Internet navigation tools only. The Tresa Group disclaims any responsibility for any inappropriate use and any liability to any person or party for any other person or party's violation of this policy. The Tresa Group's subscribers are not permitted to run IRC servers Furthermore, The Tresa Group reserves the right to, but is not obligated to, review the content posted via the service and to refuse or remove any such materials in its sole discretion, without notice at any time.
17. The use of Subcontractors. The Tresa Group reserves the right to hire subcontractors to assist in the performance of any of our services. If The Tresa Group decides to hire subcontractors to assist in this manner, The Tresa Group will warrant all work completed by said subcontractors. The Tresa Group will only hire subcontractors that are deemed capable of providing the same standard of service that The Tresa Group provides.
18. Disclosure to Law Enforcement. These terms of service specifically prohibit the use of our service for illegal activities. Therefore, you agree that The Tresa Group may disclose any and all subscriber information including assigned IP numbers, account history, account use, etc. to any law enforcement agency that requests such information without consent or notification to the subscriber. You agree that it is not the responsibility of The Tresa Group to assess the legality of any request from a law enforcement agency before complying with said request.
19. Data Integrity. You are responsible for keeping a complete and current copy of your website files as a backup on a remote system (not solely on The Tresa Group servers). The Tresa Group is NOT RESPONSIBLE for any lost files, information or data. The Tresa Group makes regular internal backups of internal system configurations and databases. These backups are NOT intended for keeping backups of your websites.
Although The Tresa Group backups may include your sites and information for disaster recovery purposes, these backups are not to be relied on by you. The Tresa Group does not guarantee to possess the most current copy of a your website in its own backups.
20. Non-Existing User Pages. The Tresa Group reserves the right to supply content-enriched pages, including but not limited to search engines, advertisements, directory links, etc., for non-existent user pages that are served by The Tresa Group to requesting sources. These pages include error pages (i.e. 404 Not Found), new account place-holder pages, unused domains and suspended user sites. All users of The Tresa Group services have the option of creating their own error pages and content pages. Unless created by the user, such pages will default to The Tresa Group provided content.
21. Hosting Pre-existing Websites. The Tresa Group provides hosting services for websites that it builds. If The Tresa Group agrees to transfer a pre-existing website to our hosting server, payment must be made before The Tresa Group can begin that process. The Tresa Group reserves the right to terminate the transfer process if The Tresa Group determines that the transfer is more complex than originally anticipated. If that occurs, The Tresa Group will refund any money that you have already paid to us for said transfer service.
You are responsible for providing all information necessary to complete the move (i.e. passwords, script lists, database information, etc.). Path-specific scripts or functions must be described to The Tresa Group to ensure a proper update and transfer. Failure to provide all required information within the specified timeframes may result in a delay or cancellation of the project. You will have 30 days to provide all the required information to us.
The Tresa Group is not responsible for site functions or segments not listed or described by the customer. However, The Tresa Group may see the oversight and make the correction automatically, but this is not guaranteed.
Segment by segment, we will transfer and modify site scripts, content, databases, and accounts to The Tresa Group's services. During the website transfer process, The Tresa Group will provide regular updates and perform its own testing of the entire functionality of the website.
The end result of this service is to have the customer's web site transferred to The Tresa Group services and working properly. Final responsibility is with the customer to ensure and confirm that the website is working properly, tested for any deficiencies or errors, and is working as originally intended.
If the customer does not respond with any feedback and corrections within five business days (unless pre-agreed) upon the final stage of the moving process, it will be assumed that the work is accepted and the completion of the website moving process is approved. Any further changes or modifications will be billed at our then hourly rate.
Should you decide to cancel your request to host a pre-existing website on one of our servers, we will refund 100% of your payment if your order has not been processed and no work has yet been done. If The Tresa Group has already begun moving your pre-existing website to one of our servers, any work performed up until that time will be billed at the hourly rate of $75.00 and deducted from any payments that you have already made. The balance, if any, will be returned to you. If, at the time of the request for refund, work has been completed beyond the amount covered by any the initial down payment or partial payments, you will be liable to pay for all work completed at the hourly rate stated above. Refund requests must be submitted in writing to The Tresa Group, 963 Transport Way, Petaluma, CA 94954.
The Tresa Group is not liable for any damages or data loss that arise from the use of this service. The Tresa Group is not liable for any damages that occur from misinformation or misrepresentation by the customer that may result in a loss or corruption of data. Under no circumstances shall the customer hold The Tresa Group responsible for any loss of data or inability to properly configure complex scripts or programs. All customers should have dedicated recent data backups in the event data loss or corruption occurs.
In no event shall the maximum liability of The Tresa Group exceed the amount that you have paid The Tresa Group for its services. If you do not agree with this limitation, do not engage The Tresa Group to perform any services for you.
Website Maintenance
1. Applicability. The terms of service in this section apply to any website maintenance services performed by The Tresa Group. The Tresa Group will be acting as an independent contractor when performing these services. If any of the terms of service in this section duplicate those in other sections, you are also agreeing to accept them here within the context of website maintenance.
2. Definitions. Website maintenance is defined by The Tresa Group to be modifications to an existing website or updates to an existing website using its current structure and theme. More substantial modifications fall under the category of website design and programming. You will note that The Tresa Group offers various pre-paid maintenance plans that will allow you to obtain a discounted hourly rate for maintenance. No such discount is currently available for The Tresa Group's website design and programming services, hence the importance of understanding and agreeing to these definitions.
Website maintenance includes posting of news reports, press releases, current events, schedule of events, etc. Website maintenance also includes the updating of products and services on an e-commerce website. It also includes the following types of changes if they can be performed within one hour: (1) addition of new text or graphical elements (2) addition of new pages or changes to the website's navigational characteristics (3) minor changes to the content or design of a specific page or pages.
Changes requiring more than one hour per change usually require The Tresa Group to use website designers and programmers instead of website maintenance personnel to complete the task and will be billed at our standard hourly rate for that type of service. If you submit a maintenance request, we will attempt to have our website maintenance personnel perform the task before assigning it to the website design and programming team. If we believe that the task cannot be completed within the scope of the maintenance plan that you have signed up for, we will advise you of that determination and obtain your approval before proceeding.
3. 30-Day Modification Window. Every custom- and template-designed website built by The Tresa Group comes with a 30 day modification window during which you may modify your content and have us post the modified content to your website at no additional charge. What this means is that you have 30 days to review your content, reflect upon it, and make changes to it. If you decide to make any changes, you must assemble those changes and communicate them as a group to The Tresa Group in the same manner that the original content was communicated. Most likely, you will log into your account at The Tresa Group and simply upload a new version of your content. Additional modifications may be possible at no additional cost if they can be accomplished using any of The Tresa Group's automated content management systems.
4. The use of Subcontractors. The Tresa Group reserves the right to hire subcontractors to assist in the performance of any of our services. If The Tresa Group decides to hire subcontractors to assist in this manner, The Tresa Group will warrant all work completed by said subcontractors. The Tresa Group will only hire subcontractors that are deemed capable of providing the same standard of service that The Tresa Group provides.
Additional Notices and Disclaimers
The Tresa Group cannot provide any of these services described herein to you until you also accept the following additional terms of service and disclaimers. If any of the terms of service or disclaimers in this section duplicate those in other sections, you are also agreeing to accept them here and in so doing agree that they will apply to any and all services performed by The Tresa Group.
1. Non-disclosure of Confidential Information. The Tresa Group will not to use any confidential information that you disclose to it for any purpose other than to perform the services that you have hired The Tresa Group to perform. Confidential information includes, but is not limited to, login information, passwords, files, databases (including, but not limited to, products, services, and customers), web designs, configuration information, or financial information of the yours.
2. Lawful Purpose. You agree that you will be using The Tresa Group’s services for lawful purposes and that you will hold The Tresa Group harmless should any of your activities be found by a court of law to have not been lawful or legal. You agree that you will not ask, cajole, or threaten The Tresa Group, its owners, management, employees, or agents to engage in any illegal or abusive activities including, but not limited to, transmission, storage, or depiction of any material, data, or information in violation of any legal statute of the United States. This includes, but is not limited, to material that is threatening, obscene, or protected by trade secrets and other legal statutes.
3. Representations and Warranties. You hereby represent and warrant to The Tresa Group that you have the right to use all material contained in your website, including all text, graphics, photos, sounds, video, programming, scripts and applets; and (b) the use, reproduction, distribution, and transmission of the website, or any information or materials contained in it, on and from The Tresa Group’s servers do not: (i) infringe or misappropriate any copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, servicemark, or any other proprietary rights of a third party; (ii) violate any criminal laws; (iii) constitute false advertising, unfair competition, defamation, invasion of privacy, violate a right of publicity, or violate any other law or regulation. You further represent and warrant that any material submitted for publication will not contain anything leading to an abusive or unethical use of any service provided by The Tresa Group. Abusive and unethical materials and uses may include, but are not limited to, pornography, obscenity, nudity, computer viruses, harassment, any illegal activity, spamming, and advocacy of an illegal activity. You hereby agree to hold harmless, protect, and defend The Tresa Group, its owners, managers, employees, and its agents from any claim or suit arising from the use of any items described herein.
You also hereby acknowledge the terms of the Digital Millennium Act of 1998 and the obligations on the part of The Tresa Group in the event of a notice from any third party that your website infringes upon the rights of any third party. You hereby consent to The Tresa Group following the procedures outlined in the Act in the event of a claimed infringement. You understand and agree that your website’s host’s compliance with the Act may result in your website being taken off line for a period of time. You further agree to indemnify and hold The Tresa Group harmless from and against any and all damages that may result from The Tresa Group’s good faith compliance with the terms of the Act.
4. Indemnification. You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless The Tresa Group, its owners, management, employees, and agents from any and all liability, damage, loss, or expense (including reasonable attorney fees) from any claim resulting from the publication or use of any materials on your website. You also agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless The Tresa Group, its owners, management, employees, and agents from any claim resulting from any injury to person or property caused by any products or services sold or otherwise distributed via your website. This includes infringing on the proprietary rights of a third party, infringing on a copyright, and delivering a defective product, service, or misinformation that is determined to have been detrimental to another person, business, or organization. Your agreement to indemnify The Tresa Group will survive the completion of or termination of the services that The Tresa Group is performing for you.
5. Default. You and The Tresa Group hereby agree that if either party defaults on any obligations described in these terms of service, the non-defaulting party shall give the defaulting party ten (10) days to cure said default. If the defaulting party fails to cure said default, the non-defaulting party may terminate its relationship with the defaulting party as defined by these terms of service. Such a termination requires the payment in full of all monies owed to The Tresa Group for services performed prior to the default.
6. Rights upon Termination. If The Tresa Group enters into an agreement to provide services to you, The Tresa Group shall transfer, assign and make available to you all property and materials in The Tresa Group’s possession or subject to The Tresa Group's control that belong to you, subject to payment in full of amounts due to The Tresa Group upon termination of any agreement.
If you terminate an agreement with The Tresa Group, any work performed up until that time will be billed at the hourly rate of $75 and deducted from the down payment, the balance of which shall be returned to you. If, at the time of the request for refund, work has been completed beyond the amount covered by the initial down payment, you will be liable to pay for all work completed at the hourly rate stated above. Refund requests must be submitted in writing to The Tresa Group, 963 Transport Way, Suite #3, Petaluma, CA 94954.
7. Acceptance of Terms of Service. By accepting these terms of service, you will be entering into a contractual agreement with The Tresa Group if it agrees to perform the services that you are requesting. There may be additional terms, conditions, and obligations that you will be required to accept depending on the service that you are purchasing. They will be in addition to the terms of service contained herein and will not in any way diminish or offset them. All prices and hourly rates quoted by The Tresa Group will be honored for six (6) months from the date of the initial quote. Any oral representations or modifications concerning these terms of service shall be of no force or effect unless contained in a subsequent written modification signed by you and a representative of The Tresa Group.
The Tresa Group reserves the right to change these terms of service at any time without notice. Any such changes will apply to any services not yet performed. The Tresa Group will be excused from delays in performing or from failing to perform any agreed-upon services to the extent that The Tresa Group acts diligently to remedy the cause of the delay or failure to perform. If any term, provision, covenant, or condition of these terms of service is held by a court of competent jurisdiction or by an arbitrator in a binding arbitration proceeding to be invalid or unenforceable, the rest of the terms of service shall remain in full force and effect and shall in no way be affected or invalidated. If by limiting the invalid or unenforceable provision, it would become valid and enforceable, then such provision shall be deemed to be written, construed, and enforced as so limited.
You agree that any disputes arising from these terms of service shall be governed, construed, and interpreted in accordance with the laws of the State of California. You also agree that if any action is brought under these terms of service, the prevailing party shall be entitled to recover its actual costs and attorney fees and all other litigation costs, including expert witness fees, and all actual attorney fees and litigation costs incurred in connection with the enforcement of a judgment arising from such action or proceeding.
8. Arbitration. You hereby agree that any disputes arising from these terms of service shall be submitted to binding arbitration in accordance with the rules of the American Arbitration Association. You further agree that if you or any owner, manager, employee, or agent of The Tresa Group is required to make a physical appearance before an arbitrator, that appearance will take place within the physical boundaries of the County of Sonoma, State of California. Judgment may be entered on the arbitrator's decision in any court of competent jurisdiction. The prevailing party shall be entitled to recover its actual costs and attorney fees and all other litigation costs, including expert witness fees, and all attorney fees and litigation expenses incurred in connection with the dispute being arbitrated.
9. Limitations of Warranties and Liability.
EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY SET FORTH IN THESE TERMS OF SERVICE, THE TRESA GROUP DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL EXPRESS WARRANTIES, WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY. THE TRESA GROUP WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OF BUSINESS OR PROFITS, OR FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, OR SIMILAR DAMAGES, OR, OTHER THAN AS SET FORTH IN THIS AGREEMENT, FOR CLAIMS OF DAMAGES MADE BY ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER, REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF ACTION, WHETHER IN CONTRACT OR IN TORT, INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE, EVEN IF IT HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. YOU AND THE TRESA GROUP JOINTLY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY REFLECTS AN INFORMED, VOLUNTARY ALLOCATION BETWEEN YOU AND THE TRESA GROUP OF THE RISKS (KNOWN AND UNKNOWN) THAT MAY EXIST IN CONNECTION WITH THE SERVICES THAT YOU ARE REQUESTING THE TRESA GROUP TO PERFORM FOR YOU. IN NO EVENT WILL THE TRESA GROUP’S LIABILITY EXCEED THE TOTAL PRICE THAT YOU HAVE OR WILL PAY TO THE TRESA GROUP FOR SERVICES RENDERED TO YOU. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS OF WARRANTIES AND LIABILITY, DO NOT ASK THE TRESA GROUP TO PERFORM ANY SERVICES FOR YOU.