Terms & Conditions

1. Introduction

These Terms & Conditions apply to services supplied by Website Design Office (Pty) Ltd.

By requesting, purchasing, renewing or continuing to use a Website Design Office service, the customer agrees to these Terms & Conditions together with any applicable quotation, invoice, service description and related Website Design Office policies.

2. Our Services

Website Design Office provides digital and internet-related services which may include:

• website design and development;
• e-commerce website development;
• custom web application development;
• mobile application development;
• domain registration and management;
• domain registrar transfers;
• website and application hosting;
• business email hosting;
• DNS management;
• website maintenance and support; and
• related technical and digital services.

The exact scope of a service will be determined by the applicable quotation, proposal, package or written agreement.

3. Quotations and Proposals

Quotations and proposals issued by Website Design Office are based on the information and requirements available at the time they are prepared.

Work outside the agreed scope may be quoted or charged separately.

Unless otherwise stated, quotations remain subject to availability, technical feasibility and any validity period stated on the quotation.

4. Acceptance of Work

A project or service may be regarded as accepted when the customer approves the quotation or proposal, makes a required payment, requests commencement of work, submits a domain operation, or otherwise instructs Website Design Office to proceed.

5. Customer Responsibilities

Customers are responsible for providing accurate information and all content, instructions, approvals, access credentials and other material reasonably required for Website Design Office to perform the agreed service.

Project timelines may be affected where customer information, content, approvals or feedback are delayed.

Customers must ensure that they have the necessary rights and authority to provide any content, trademarks, photographs, documents, software, data or other material supplied to Website Design Office.

6. Website Design and Development

Website Design Office will develop websites and applications according to the agreed scope and functionality.

Changes or additional functionality requested after the scope has been agreed may constitute additional work and may require an additional quotation.

Development timelines are estimates unless a specific delivery deadline has been expressly agreed in writing.

7. Customer Review and Approval

Customers should review work presented for approval and notify Website Design Office of required corrections within a reasonable period.

Once a website, application, design or other deliverable has been approved and placed into production, later changes may constitute maintenance or additional development work.

8. Domain Registration

Domain registration is subject to availability and the rules of the applicable domain registry.

A requested domain is not guaranteed until the applicable registry confirms successful registration.

The customer or person recorded as the Registrant remains the domain holder. Website Design Office acts as the registrar or domain-management service provider.

9. Domain Transfers

A domain transfer may only be requested by the Registrant or by a person authorised to act on behalf of the Registrant.

Supported ZA transfers may require registry voting or approval through the ZA Registry Consortium (ZARC).

The customer is responsible for completing any registry approval or voting process required for the transfer to proceed.

Website Design Office cannot guarantee completion of a transfer where the applicable registry, current registrar, Registrant contact, domain status or another technical or regulatory condition prevents the transfer.

10. CIPC Domain Transfers

Website Design Office provides a dedicated transfer facility for customers who have registered eligible domain names through the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC).

Customers can request a transfer through:

www.websitedesignoffice.co.za/cipc-domain-transfer/

Submission of the transfer form confirms that the person requesting the transfer represents that they are the Registrant or are authorised to act on behalf of the Registrant.

11. Domain Ownership

Website Design Office does not acquire ownership of a customer's domain merely because the domain is registered, transferred, renewed or managed through Website Design Office.

Registrar transfer and domain ownership are separate processes.

12. Domain Renewal

Customers are responsible for paying renewal charges before the relevant due dates.

Website Design Office may issue renewal notices as a convenience, but the customer remains responsible for maintaining awareness of the services they wish to renew.

Failure to renew a domain may result in suspension, expiry, redemption, deletion or eventual registration of the domain by another party according to the applicable registry lifecycle.

13. Hosting and Email Services

Hosting and email services are provided subject to the capacity, technical limits and intended use of the applicable package.

Website Design Office may implement reasonable technical measures necessary to protect server performance, security and the availability of services to customers.

14. Service Availability

Website Design Office aims to provide reliable services but does not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free access to internet-connected systems.

Services may occasionally be affected by maintenance, network failures, upstream provider failures, registry maintenance, cyber incidents, equipment failures or circumstances beyond our reasonable control.

15. Backups

Website Design Office may maintain backups for operational and disaster-recovery purposes where applicable.

Unless a specific backup service has been expressly agreed, customers should maintain independent copies of important business information, website content, email and other critical data.

Backups should not be treated as a substitute for appropriate customer-side record keeping.

16. Security

Customers must take reasonable care of passwords, account credentials and authorised access to their services.

Website Design Office may reset credentials, restrict access or temporarily suspend affected services where reasonably necessary to respond to a security incident or compromised account.

17. Acceptable Use

Website Design Office services may not be used for illegal, fraudulent, malicious or abusive activities.

Detailed requirements are contained in our Acceptable Use & Abuse Policy .

18. Fees and Payment

Customers must pay the fees stated in the applicable quotation, invoice, service package or agreement.

Website Design Office may require full payment, a deposit, milestone payments or recurring payments depending on the service.

Work may be delayed or services may be restricted where payments remain overdue.

19. Recurring and Annual Services

Domains, hosting, email and certain support services may be billed on a recurring or annual basis.

Renewal fees may differ from the original setup or introductory fee and will be charged according to the applicable service pricing at the time of renewal unless otherwise agreed.

20. Suspension for Non-Payment

Website Design Office may suspend or restrict a service where an amount remains unpaid beyond the applicable due date.

Suspension of a service does not necessarily cancel amounts already due.

Domain services remain subject to registry expiry and deletion procedures even where the associated account has been suspended.

21. Refunds

Refund eligibility depends on the nature of the service and the work already performed.

Fees already incurred for domain registrations, registry transactions, third-party services, completed development work or other non-recoverable costs may not be refundable.

Where Website Design Office agrees to a refund, any reasonable costs already incurred in providing the service may be deducted where appropriate and legally permissible.

22. Third-Party Services

Some Website Design Office services depend on independent third-party suppliers or platforms, including domain registries, data centres, hosting infrastructure, payment providers, software vendors and other technology services.

Website Design Office is not responsible for changes, interruptions or restrictions imposed independently by a third-party provider, although we will provide reasonable assistance where the issue affects a service supplied by us.

23. Third-Party Software

Websites and applications may use third-party software, plugins, frameworks, APIs, libraries or platforms.

Those components may be governed by their own licences and terms and may change independently of Website Design Office.

24. Intellectual Property

Unless otherwise agreed in writing, Website Design Office retains ownership of its pre-existing tools, reusable code, development methods, libraries, frameworks, technical systems, templates and know-how.

Rights to customer-specific project deliverables will be determined by the relevant quotation, proposal or agreement.

Third-party software, themes, plugins, libraries, fonts, photographs and other licensed material remain subject to their respective licence terms.

25. Customer Content

The customer remains responsible for information and content they instruct Website Design Office to publish or process.

The customer warrants that they have the necessary rights to use materials they supply to Website Design Office.

26. Search Engine Rankings

Where Website Design Office performs search-engine optimisation or related website work, we may improve technical and content factors intended to assist search visibility.

Website Design Office does not guarantee a particular Google ranking, search position, volume of traffic, number of enquiries or commercial result because search engines and their algorithms are controlled by third parties.

27. Website and Application Compatibility

Website Design Office aims to develop solutions compatible with reasonably current mainstream browsers, devices and technologies relevant to the agreed project.

Future browser, operating-system, software or third-party platform changes may require later maintenance or development.

28. Maintenance and Updates

Unless ongoing maintenance is included in an agreed service, maintenance performed after completion of a project may be charged separately.

This may include content changes, software updates, new functionality, redesigns, troubleshooting and work resulting from changes to third-party systems.

29. Support

Website Design Office will provide support appropriate to the services purchased by the customer.

Support relating to systems, hosting, domains or software not supplied or managed by Website Design Office may require additional investigation and may be separately chargeable.

30. Abuse, Security and Takedown Matters

Website Design Office may investigate credible reports of phishing, malware, spam, fraud, unlawful activity or other abuse involving services under our control.

Procedures for these matters are described in our:

• Acceptable Use & Abuse Policy
• Complaints & Takedown Procedure

31. Privacy

Personal information collected by Website Design Office is handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy .

Domain-registration information may also be processed by the applicable registry and other parties required for administration of the relevant domain namespace.

32. Limitation of Liability

To the extent permitted by applicable law, Website Design Office will not be liable for indirect, incidental or consequential loss arising from the use or interruption of a service.

This may include loss of profits, revenue, business opportunity, anticipated savings or data where such losses were not directly caused by intentional or unlawful conduct by Website Design Office.

Nothing in these Terms is intended to exclude liability that cannot lawfully be excluded under South African law.

33. Customer Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, a customer may be responsible for claims, losses or costs resulting from unlawful content, infringement or unauthorised activities carried out through services under the customer's control.

34. Service Suspension

Website Design Office may temporarily suspend or restrict services where reasonably necessary because of:

• non-payment;
• a serious security incident;
• malware or phishing activity;
• material violation of these Terms;
• abuse of infrastructure;
• a valid legal or regulatory requirement; or
• a mandatory domain-registry instruction.

35. Termination

Either party may terminate ongoing services in accordance with any notice requirements contained in the applicable quotation, package or agreement.

Termination does not remove obligations or amounts that arose before the termination date.

36. Transfer or Release of Customer Services

Where a customer terminates services, Website Design Office will reasonably assist with legitimate domain-transfer or service-release procedures subject to outstanding contractual, technical and registry requirements.

37. Force Majeure

Website Design Office will not be responsible for failure or delay caused by circumstances outside its reasonable control, including major telecommunications failures, power failures, natural disasters, cyberattacks, governmental restrictions, registry outages, data-centre incidents or similar events.

38. Changes to Services

Website Design Office may make reasonable technical or operational changes to its services where necessary for security, performance, compatibility, regulatory compliance or continued operation.

39. Changes to These Terms

Website Design Office may update these Terms & Conditions when reasonably necessary to reflect changes to services, technology, registry requirements or applicable law.

The latest published version will apply to ongoing services subject to applicable law and any specific written agreement with the customer.

40. Applicable Law

These Terms & Conditions are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa.

41. Disputes

Customers are encouraged to contact Website Design Office directly where a disagreement arises so that the matter can first be addressed in good faith.

Domain disputes may additionally be subject to specific registry dispute-resolution policies or other procedures applicable to the relevant domain namespace.

42. Related Policies

These Terms should be read together with:

• Domain Registration & Transfer Policy
• Acceptable Use & Abuse Policy
• Complaints & Takedown Procedure
• Privacy Policy

43. Contact Information

For service, contractual, domain, billing or policy enquiries, contact: