Terms and Conditions
Please read these legally binding terms and conditions to avoid misunderstandings and provide clarification for us both in the unlikely event of a dispute.
These terms and conditions supersede any other terms and conditions, implied or expressed, and regardless of whether it is your general practice to conduct similar engagements under your own terms and conditions.
1. Confirmation of a job
A job is confirmed when I receive an e-mail from you telling me clearly you are commissioning the work. If you are contracting with me on behalf of any group of individuals other than yourself alone, or on behalf of a company, you certify you are authorised to enter into a contract on behalf of that group of individuals or company.
2. Contracting with me if you work for a marketing services agency
If you contract with me on behalf of a marketing services agency of any kind, to work on a project for one of your clients, a contract will exist only between me and the marketing services agency, and not between me and the agency’s client.
3. Contracting me to work directly with one of your clients
If you represent a marketing services agency of any kind, and want me to work on a job for one of your clients and in doing so contract directly with that client, then subject to agreement, a contract will exist between your client company and me. You acknowledge my right to conduct business and further develop a direct relationship with that client without reference to you and without compensation or commission of any kind being payable.
4. Indemnity
You agree to indemnify me against any claim for compensation or damages brought about as a direct or indirect consequence of any work (including copywriting and marketing advice) I do for you and/or your organisation and/or any client of the marketing services agency.
5. My fee
Unless otherwise agreed, the agreed fee includes attending your briefing (if deemed necessary), writing and submission of the first draft, discussion, evaluation and integration of up to two sets of revisions, submission of final draft.
If, after 60 days following delivery of the first draft, subsequent amendments have not reached the third or, as the case may be, final draft, I reserve the right to charge you my fee.
Fees will not include unforeseen additional meetings and any associated travel expenses incurred, or, any copy amendments as a result of changes to the initial brief.
6. My satisfaction guarantee
I aim to do an excellent job at the fee we agree so we can have a great working relationship and you will return again and again. As all judgements are subjective however and misunderstandings can arise, if, when you see the draft you are dissatisfied, I need you to discuss it with me immediately so that I can do everything possible to resolve your concerns.
If however, following collaborating with me through at least three additional draft submissions after you have informed me in writing of your dissatisfaction, you still regard my work to be completely unsuitable for your purpose when measured against the requirements of your brief, the contract between us will be cancelled and no payment will be due. This is without prejudice, and no liability or admission of inability or failure to complete the contract on my part is implied.
In such circumstance, I retain the copyright of all the material I have prepared for you, and you undertake to make no use whatsoever of any material in any draft.
You also agree to absolve me of all responsibility for any loss of income or for any damages or costs incurred by you or by any third party as a result of any delay.
7. Payment terms
My standard trading terms are that I will invoice on or after the date on which I start work on the project, and payment will fall due at 30 days unless we have agreed otherwise in writing. All invoices will be sent electronically unless agreed otherwise.
The existence in your organisation of any extended payment practice for accounts payable will in no way alter your obligation to pay by the due date shown on invoice.
Where we have not previously worked together or for any other reason I may at my discretion ask you to pay up to 50% of the fee in advance of starting work. In this circumstance, the remaining balance of the fee will be invoiced on commencement and fall due at 30 days.
You will make payment by cheque to the payee and address shown on the invoice or through BACs payment directly into The Creative Booth’s account. You or your accounts department will have taken any necessary steps to obtain the details required to facilitate this.
You have no right to withhold or reduce payment based on your critical response to, or appraisal of, the copy I write for you, and you acknowledge my right to pursue payment in full should you elect for any reason to do this. This does not affect however my guarantee, as detailed in section 6.
If a project is cancelled after confirmation has been received, but before the first draft has been submitted, a cancellation fee of 50% of the total agreed fee will be due. If it is cancelled after the submission of the first draft, the agreed fee will be payable in full.
8. Late payment
The Creative Booth is a signatory to the UK Government's Better Payment Practice Code. Where payment is not received within five working days of the due date shown on the invoice, we reserve the right to charge interest. This will be applied in line with the DTi 'Better Payment Practice' guidelines of 8% plus the prevailing Bank of England reference rate. Under the Terms of the guidelines and associated legislation, a compensation payment may also be due.
9. Delivery dates
In the unlikely event that the agreed delivery dates need to be moved back, I reserve the right to put back any milestone or delivery date by up to 48 hours, providing I have given you notice of this at least 24 hours before the date originally agreed.
10. Non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements
While I am happy to sign whatever confidentiality or non-disclosure agreements you or your organisation deem necessary, you agree to indemnify me against any action whatsoever by you or a third party, associated with the accidental disclosure or loss of this information.
11. Passing over of your own copy draft
As part of the brief for your project, you may ask me to view a copy draft which you have written yourself, or which has been written by someone else for you. In doing so, you affirm you are the copyright holder, or that you are authorised by the copyright holder to permit all or part of this material to form a part of the new copyright work which I will create for you. In such a case you indemnify me against any claim arising directly or indirectly from subsequent suggestions that the new work in any way breaches any existing copyright.
In any situation where you ask me to view an existing copy draft as part of the briefing, you acknowledge the draft which I will write for you may have similarities in all or part to this draft, but that in such a case the draft I write for you will be considered as an original work under the terms of our contract, without regard for the existence of the original draft.
11. Copyright
I will assign copyright of all materials I write to you following full payment of all fees due.
I reserve the right to use selected extracts of my work for self-promotion or advertising purposes unless specifically forbidden to do so by a confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement.
If, as part of your brief to me, you include materials written by someone else, you confirm you are authorised to send me the material for my use either as reference material or to form part of a new piece of work, and you indemnify me against any action arising, directly or indirectly, as a result of use of such content.
12. Errors and literals
I take great care to ensure copy is free of spelling mistakes and other literals but errors may still occur. You acknowledge it is your responsibility to conduct final proofreading and indemnify me against any costs arising from the appearance of such errors in any printed or published form.
While I make every attempt to make sure that my work complies with the law, it is your responsibility to submit all copy for legal review.
