Terms of Service

By signing up, you agree to the following Terms of Service for the use of Lightning Sites services:

This Agreement is between Sites At Scale LLC (93-2217296), trading as Lightning Sites, ACN: 619 507 149, ABN: 68 619 507 149, (hereafter referred to as “Service Provider”) and all its subscribers (hereafter referred to as “Client”) unless the context requires otherwise.

The Service Provider, and/or its assignee does not guarantee any type of profit or response from said services.

The Client shall irrevocably indemnify the Service Provider and/or its assignee from and against any and all losses, claims, expenses, suits, damages, costs, demands or liabilities, joint or several, of whatever kind or nature which the Service Provider and/or its assignee may sustain, and/or to hold the Service Provider and/or its’ assigns harmless to which the Service Provider and/or its assignee may become subject arising out of or relating in any way to the use of the services provided under this Agreement, including, without limitation, in each case attorneys’ fees, costs and expenses actually incurred in defending against or enforcing any such losses, claims, expenses, suits, damages or liabilities.

The Website Terms of Use of this agreement is governed by and will be construed according to the laws of Queensland, Australia.

1. Services

1. The Service Provider agrees to provide the Client a WordPress website and management service.
2. The subscription service and the website platform setup for the Client is available for the Client to use, so long as the subscription payments are made or if the Client arranges a buyout of the service. Please see section fifteen (15) for cancellation details.

2. Service Fee

The Client agrees:

1. To pay the fees that shall be charged to his account as a result of using the Lightning Sites service, including but not limited to:

1. 1. Subscription fees;
   2. Fees for supplemental services or features;
   3. Additional website customization; and
   4. Purchases made through the use of the Service.
2. That subject to any applicable law, fees and charges, Lightning Sites services are non-refundable unless the pricing terms for the applicable service expressly states otherwise.

3. Effective Date

1. This Agreement and the Client’s use of Lightning Sites’ services shall become effective on the date the order is submitted by the Client;
2. Unless amended or termination notice is submitted by the Client, in accordance with the provisions laid out in Section Fifteen (15), this agreement shall continue to exist and bind the parties under the same terms and conditions as herein agreed.

For account cancellation, refer to the CANCELLATION POLICY found in section fifteen (15).

4. Method of Payment

1. The Client shall provide a valid credit card prior to and during any time the Client receives Lightning Sites Services.
2. Any Client subscribing on a monthly basis will have their credit card charged the full monthly service fee in advance, which shall be recurring as long as the Client stays on the service.
3. Receipts for the payment transactions will be emailed directly to the Client through Stripe.com, the secure payment merchant of the Service Provider.
4. The Client acknowledges and agrees that the Service Provider will not require any additional authorization for any recurring payments or automatic billing options.
5. The Client shall be liable for any fees the Service Provider will incur in its efforts to collect any unpaid balances if payment is not made more than fourteen (14) days past due,
6. Any billing problems or discrepancies must be brought to Lightning Sites’s attention within sixty (60) days from the date the Client is billed. If the Client does not bring them to the Service Provider’s attention within sixty (60) days, the Client agree to waive his right to dispute such problems or discrepancies with the Service Provider.
7. Any billing-related questions or to stop a recurring payment from being charged to the designated payment method email, sales/billing support on hello@lightningsites.com.

5. Account Termination

The subscription shall be terminated on the following grounds:

1. Service fees are unpaid after more than 30 days;
2. Violation of these Terms Of Service;
3. Website is used for purposes the Service Provider believes to be illegal or offensive including but not limited to pornographic content, terrorist activities, etc.

The Service Provider shall exert earnest effort to notify the Client before terminating the subscription.

6. Warranties

1. The Service Provider makes no warranties to the Client of any kind, expressed or implied with respect to the services, and/or the Service Provider’s subcontractors and affiliate’s services provided.
2. The Service Provider expressly disclaims any implied warranty or merchant ability of fitness of the service for a particular purpose.
3. The Service Provider shall not be liable for any damages suffered by the Client, whether indirect, special, incidental, exemplary, or consequential, including, but not limited to, loss of data or service interruptions, resulting from:
   1. The use or the inability to use the service;
   2. Cost of procurement of substitute goods and services resulting from any goods, data, information or services purchased or obtained or messages received or transactions entered into through or from the service;
   3. Unauthorized access to or alteration of your transmissions or data;
   4. Statements or conduct of any third party on the service;
   5. Or any other matter relating to the service.
4. The Service Provider shall take all reasonable precautions to ensure database is secure and protected, the Client understands and agrees that the service provider is under no obligation to export, extract, retrieve or store our Client’s data except for through the weekly backups of the Clients website which is stored on a ‘best effort’ basis and taken automatically via Amazon S3 (third party hosting provider).

7. Terms

The Client agrees to:

1. Submit necessary contents to build the ordered website in a timely manner.
2. Use the website in a manner that is legal, ethical and in conformity with community standards;
3. Respect the privacy of other users in such manner that he shall not intentionally seek data or passwords belonging to other users, nor will he modify files or represent himself as another user unless explicitly authorized to do so by that user;
4. Respect the legal protection provided by copyright law, trade secret law, or other laws protecting intellectual property; and
5. Accept notifications of service changes, commercial email and similar offers presented via email.
6. In the event of a serious violation of the TERMS OF SERVICE, the Service Provider shall reserve the right to terminate your account immediately. Every effort will be made to inform the Client prior to account termination.

8. Assignment

1. This Agreement is personal to the Client, and in case of assignment wherein the Client allows someone to use his account, the Client agrees to:

1. 1. Seek the prior written consent of the Service Provider;
   2. Remain liable to the Service Provider for any fees due under this Agreement.
2. The Service Provider retains its right to assign this Agreement at any time.

9. Submission of Content

1. The Client shall submit the necessary contents to build the ordered website in a timely manner.
   1. That the Lightning Sites development team will not start the website build unless the mockup designs have been signed off conclusively by the client.
   2. That any changes to the mockup designs can be catered up to two rounds of revisions only. *A ’round of revision’ means when a design draft is presented, the client has a specified number of days (1 week) to provide feedback. Once all of the comments, ideas and questions are consolidated and the Lightning Sites’ UI/UX designers provide a new version, then that is the end of the first round of revision.
   3. Revision requests exceeding the complimentary two rounds will incur a flat fee ($80 per additional round) prior to action.
   4. Changes to the original design mockup that has been signed off conclusively by the client will incur a flat fee to be quoted by the UI/UX designers prior to action.
   5. Changes to the original design mockup that has been signed off conclusively means additional time for build completion and the guaranteed delivery timelines will no longer apply.
   6. Respectively, once an original design mockup has been signed off and already built and incorporated into the development website; any requested design deviations will incur additional project fees outside the initial setup paid.
2. Our guaranteed delivery timelines of (15) fifteen business days for Custom Builds and (20) twenty business days for Bespoke Builds will no longer apply should the Client fail to submit the required contents within (3) three weeks after the planning meeting. In such cases, the Client’s order goes back into the queue to await another available developer and the Service Provider will no longer be responsible for the delay.
3. Should the Client fail to submit the necessary content within 6 months after the planning meeting or from the date of the order (if there was no planning meeting conducted due to the fault of the Client), the order shall be placed on hold; or if Client requests to put the project on hold for whatever purpose it may serve, then the Client will be required to pay a restart fee of $500  or the difference between current pricing packages and the amount previously paid (if applicable), whichever is higher.

10. Change of Terms and Conditions

1. The Service Provider reserves the right to change the terms and conditions of this Agreement as needed.
2. The continued use of the services after said changes constitutes acceptance of those new terms and conditions. This includes, but is not limited to, the right to change our subscription rates at any time.
3. Non-acceptance to the new terms and conditions, the Client may terminate this Agreement in accordance with the cancellation policy provided under Section fifteen (15).
4. The Service Provider shall give thirty (30) thirty days notice prior to changing subscription rates.

11. Notification of Account Changes

The Client agrees to:

1. Provide information relating to the use of this service as deemed necessary or desirable by the Service Provider.
2. Notify the Service Provider of its address, email address, telephone number or billing information changes.

12. Notices

All notices, requests, demands, and other communications under this Agreement shall be in writing and shall be deemed to have been given on the date of delivery:

If delivered personally to the party to whom notice is to be given;

If sent by electronic mail with a cc: to sender;

Or on the third day after mailing by express mail.

1. This Agreement may be executed in one or more counterparts. Each shall be deemed an original, but all of which together shall constitute one and the same instrument.
2. If an organization is the subscriber, the individual signing up for Lightning Sites services, represents that he or she is duly authorized to enter into this Agreement on behalf of that organization.
3. In the event of a dispute, the parties agree to submit the matter to the Community Dispute Resolution Service or any recognized Arbitration Board located within the Service Provider’s state and county, before instituting litigation.

13. Payment, Refunds, Upgrading and Downgrading Terms

1. A valid credit card is required for paying accounts.
2. The service is billed at the beginning of each month of subscription and is non-refundable. There shall be no refunds or credits for partial months of service, upgrade/downgrade refunds, or refunds for months unused with an open account.
3. For Clients in Australia, the fees include the GST. However, for international Clients, all fees are exclusive of any tax and other duties.
4. For any upgrade or downgrade in plan level, the credit card supplied by the Client will automatically be charged the new rate on the next billing cycle provided (7) seven days notice has been allocated to the upgrade/downgrade.
5. Clients who have upgraded to the Complete Concierge Service may not downgrade their subscription within a 6 month period after the said upgrade. Therefore a request to downgrade from any subscription level will only be possible after the 6th month on previous level has been achieved.
6. Clients who have upgraded to Website + Changes may not downgrade their subscription within a 3 month period after requesting an upgrade. Therefore a request to downgrade from any subscription level will only be possible after the 3rd month on previous level has been achieved. Clients may opt to further upgrade though within the said 3 month period recognising that there is a 6 month commitment to that new Complete Concierge Service subscription level.
7. Clients are eligible to a full cash refund within 30 calendar days of their website setup purchase if they are dissatisfied with the quality of service provided.
8. After the 30-day period, clients will no longer be eligible to receive a full cash refund. However, clients who choose to discontinue their website build after the 30-day period may be eligible for a credit, subject to a non-refundable administrative fee of $250, under the following conditions:
   1. The website build has not commenced;
   2. The client must NOT have initiated the process of domain mapping to make their website live, as this constitutes acceptance of the services as fully completed; and
   3. The credit may only be redeemed for other products or services offered by Lightning Sites.
9. This refund and credit policy exists to protect Clients against the potential of poor work quality. As such, refunds will not be granted for any other reasons including but not limited to; change of mind, closing or liquidation of business, or financial hardship.
10. Several types of products are exempt from this guarantee including:
    1. G-Suite setups;
    2. Active Campaign setups; and
    3. Additional third-party integrations billed to the customer separately to the website set-up.
11. To request for refund, submission must be made via email to hello@lightningsites.com.

14. 24 Month Refresh Policy

1. 25% of the monthly subscription* is saved as credit which can be accessed by the client after 24 months. *To a maximum accrued credit value of $93 per month where monthly subscriptions exceed current Concierge subscription rate.
2. Payments for additional support services, such as bespoke hourly support or additional project fees are not included in the computation of credit.
3. Credit can be used to either purchase support hours (billed at $60/hr) to refresh the Client’s current website, or to put towards purchasing a rebuild of the website through one of our website build packages (current pricing available is kept up to date at www.lightningsites.com/pricing). For example, a Client who has spent $3,000 in support payments over the previous 24 months would have $750 worth of credit available ($3,000 “Total Money Spent” / 25%) to use on their website refresh . They could choose to purchase 12 hour and 30 minutes ($750 “Credit” / $60 “Hourly Rate”) of development time to refresh the existing website or utilize the credit to order a new build from www.lightningsites.com/pricing with a $750 discount.
4. Application for a refresh of the website can be made through the designated request form here.
5. All 24 Month refresh or rebuild requests will be queued and catered from when the next website developer becomes available.
6. By requesting a refresh or rebuild of their website the Client agrees to reset the timeline for buying out their website as described in section fifteen (15); Cancellation & Termination.

15. Account Terms

The client agrees that:

1. He/She must be 13 years or older to use the service.
2. He/She or his assignee when approved by the Service Provider, is a human being; Accounts registered by “bots” or other automated methods are not permitted.
3. He/She shall provide his legal full name, a valid email address, and any other information requested in order to complete the signup process.
4. He/She is the owner of the credit card supplied. If another person or company owns the credit card provided, he undertakes to have the proper authority to validly use the same and assumes all legal responsibility thereto towards the real owner thereof or to Lightning Sites, should reimbursement is necessary.
5. Login may only be used by one person – additional logins for the same account can be requested by contacting hello@lightningsites.com.
6. He/She is responsible for maintaining the security of the account and password. The Service Provider cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage from the failure of the Client to comply with this security obligation.
7. He/She is responsible for all Content posted and activity that occurs under his account (even when Content is posted by others who have accounts under the Client’s account).
8. He/She shall not use the Service for any illegal or unauthorized purpose.
9. He/She must not, in the use of the service, violate any laws. (including but not limited to copyright laws).

16. Cancellation and Termination

1. The Client is solely responsible for properly cancelling his account using the Cancel Subscription Form. A phone, email, social media message or any other request to cancel the Client’s account is not considered cancellation.
2. Lightning Sites is a subscription service. To use the platform setup for the Client at the commencement of this service, the Client must continue to pay the subscription fee or arrange a buyout of the website platform.
3. The buyout fee for the first 24 months of service is $2,000 and can be arranged by emailing us at hello@lightningsites.com. However, the fee drops to $1,000 after 24 months and is reduced to nil after 36 months. The buyout process includes website migration to a hosting server of your choosing. However, should the Client opt to avail of the 24 month refresh (section 13) the buyout fee resets to $2,000 and will diminish in the same timeline outlined above.
4. The Content of the Client’s website will be immediately deleted from the Service upon cancellation. This information cannot be recovered once the account is cancelled unless otherwise arranged through written notice via Lightning Sites.
5. If the Client’s cancellation of service is made seven days (7) before the end of the Client’s current paid up month, cancellation will take effect immediately and there shall be no additional charges thereafter.
6. The Service Provider, in its sole discretion, has the right to suspend or terminate the Client’s account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Service, or any other Lightning Sites service, for any valid reason at any time. Such termination of the Service will result in the deactivation or deletion of the Client’s Account or his access to the Account, and the forfeiture and relinquishment of all Content in the said Account.
7. The Service Provider reserves the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason at any time.

17. Modifications to the Service, Subscription and Prices

1. The Service Provider reserves the right to modify the service (or any part thereof), that includes modifying Monthly Subscription pricing,  provided Clients are notified a minimum of 30 days before subscription or pricing increases.
2. Should the Service Provider decide to discontinue the service permanently, it shall ensure that Client has continued use for their website and agrees to notify the Client at least 60 days beforehand.
3. Prices of all Services, including but not limited to monthly subscription plan, are subject to change upon 30 days’ notice. Such notice may be provided at any time via email and by posting the changes to the Lightning Sites’ website.
4. The Service Provider shall not be liable for any modification, price change, suspension or discontinuance of the Service.

18. Copyright and Content Ownership

1. The Service Provider claims no intellectual property rights over the material provided by the Client for use on their website.
2. The written content, photos, user data and materials uploaded on the Clients website remain the Client’s property. However, by setting the pages to be shared publicly, the Client agrees to allow others to view and share the Content.
3. The Service Provider does not pre-screen content provided by the Client, and will not be liable for any copyright disputes the Client may have resulting from content posted on their website. By supplying the content to the Service Provider the Client confirms that they own the right to publish such content.
4. The Service Provider does not pre-screen content provided by the Client and will not be liable for any copyright disputes the Client may have resulting from content posted on their website. but Lightning Sites and its designee have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to refuse or remove any. Content that is made available by the client via the Service.
5. The look and feel of the website produced for the client is copyright ©2014-2021 Lightning Sites, All rights reserved. Client shall not duplicate, copy, or reuse any portion of this website without the express written permission of the Service Provider.

19. General Conditions

1. The subject headings of the articles and sections in these terms are for convenience only, and shall not affect the construction or interpretation of any of its provisions.
2. If any portion of this Agreement is found invalid or unenforceable, that portion shall be severed and the remainder of this Agreement shall remain in force.
3. This Agreement constitutes the entire Agreement between the Service Provider pertaining to its subject matter and supersedes all of our prior agreements, representations, and understandings.
4. No waiver shall be binding unless executed in writing by the party making the waiver.
5. The Client’s use of the Service is his sole risk. The service is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis.
6. Technical support is only provided to paying account holders and is available via email, our Online Customer Portal and Telephone.
7. Verbal, physical, written or other abuse (including threats of abuse or retribution) of any Lightning Sites customer, employee, member, or officer will result in immediate account termination.
8. The Client understands that the technical processing and transmission of the Service, including its Content, may be transferred unencrypted and involve
   1. transmissions over various networks; and
   2. changes to conform and adapt to technical requirements of connecting networks or devices.
9. You must not transmit any worms or viruses or any code of a destructive nature.
10. Whilst Lightning Sites promises to always work to provide the best service possibly, they provide no warranty or guarantee that;
    1. The service will meet your specific requirements and expectations;
    2. The service will be completely uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free;
    3. Leads, sales, revenue numbers or any other specific business results will be achieved through the use of our service.

Questions about the Terms of Service should be sent to hello@lightningsites.com.