Terms of Service

Last Revised: 03/26/2023

I. Parties & Definitions

Parties, Terminology, and Acceptance

A client is any person or entity that uses website, hosting, email, security, maintenance, marketing, lead generation, or any related services that is provided by Stephanie Byrd Photography, LLC including any services offered under our Personal Web Solutions brand name. The words “you” or “your” are explicitly understood to refer to a client. The words “us” or “we” or “our” refer to Stephanie Byrd Photography, LLC. The words “hosting” or “service” or “services” or “care plan” can apply to any service we provide that a client may use to host or store files online, design a website, host a website, maintain a website, generate leads, provide marketing services, use email services, or use for any other reasonably related purpose. A client explicitly expresses consent to these terms by any of the following actions: using any of the website related services we provide, storing any files on our hosting account or server, accepting leads, or making a payment to use any related services. In addition, we may occasionally give a client a free period of service and it is understood that this entire agreement also applies to such service whether provided for a fee or for free.

Changes

This page, as viewed at https://www.raleighweb.host/tos/, is the official record of the current terms of service. It is our general policy to give clients on a website care plan advance notice of any significant changes. However, we reserve the right to change the terms without notice and such changes become effective upon being publicly posted on this page. By using our service, clients agree to monitor this page for changes to the terms of service. Clients can easily tell if an update has been made by checking the last revision date at the top of this page. For clients on a website care plan described in Section “III”, we will always give at least 10 calendar days notice about changes to the cost of their package. If there is ever a conflict between the terms on this page and any other written advertisement or material, the terms on this page will govern with the only exception being if a contract signed by both parties overrides specific parts of these terms.

We reserve the right to change the URL where the official Terms of Service is stored as long as a 10 calendar day notice is provided to all customers who are actively being billed for ongoing monthly services.

II. General Terms of Service

A. Policies

Client Access to Website

While the website is managed on one of our care plans, clients will be given restricted access to the WordPress backend. This means that most content on regular website pages cannot be directly edited by the client. None of our plans cover the cost to repair damage caused by a client. Therefore, assigning lower level administrative roles to client users is essential for ensuring the highest levels of website security and uptime. It also prevents clients from accidentally deleting or changing much of the essential code and settings that could break the website or cause it to crash. This is actually a benefit to our clients. We want your website to be easy to use and hard to break! The type of customizations offered vary by client and need. If you have a need to edit or publish certain content, let us know before the website is built and we can build in a custom solution. We often create certain sections that the client can directly control such as a blog, an events manager, or an announcement feed. It is recommended to publish all short-term or dynamic content through these channels and use the regular pages for key information that does not frequently change. We also encourage clients to develop marketing strategies using social media and direct email that can give them additional platforms to promote short term content. We strongly prefer to send you login credentials through a fully encrypted password manager like BitWarden. If you do not accept secure transmission through one of our recommended encrypted services, we will send you the information in an non-secure email at your sole liability.

Client Access to DNS

In most cases we will host your DNS on our Cloudflare business account which clients cannot directly edit.  If you need to make changes to your DNS (such as for your email service) please email a copy of the requested changes to us.  We will make the requested changes on your behalf, typically within 3 business days.  We reserve the right to refuse changes which will compromise the security of your website or our other accounts.

Domain Name

At your request, we will control and maintain your domain name registration. It his highly recommended to allow us to help you set up your own account with our domain name registrar and then grant us administrative access to maintain it and pay for applicable renewals. This will allow you to maintain ownership of your domain name while we maintain administrative control while you are on our plan. However, we are not responsible for damage or loss of a domain name when you maintain ownership of the domain in your own account.

Website Content and Design Updates

As your business grows and changes, your website needs will also likely grow and change over time. WordPress is highly scalable and we are happy to assist with content and design changes. If your plan does not include content updates or you request a design update outside of what is provided, there will be a fee to complete this work. Just email us or arrange a phone consultation to discuss your needs and ideas. 

Resolving Conflicts and Malfunctions Caused by Software Updates

When updating the a theme, a plugin, or the WordPress Core a conflict can sometimes arise that causes the site to malfunction or crash. If you are on a care plan that includes software updates, we will restore the website from a backup file when this happens to get the site back online. We will then assess the situation. In the case of common software bugs, we often just need to wait for a fix to be released by the software developer and then apply the new update at a later time. However, sometimes software or hardware requirements change and an update may cause a permanent issue with the website that cannot be patched. If this occurs, we will alert you and describe the problem and the necessary resolution. At your discretion you may choose to have us simply stop applying updates to the affected software, or you may request us to manually fix your site at an additional cost to bring it into compliance for resuming updates. Please note that stopping updates on themes, plugins, or WordPress can lead to significant security vulnerabilities. On a case-by-case basis, we may have to terminate services for a client that will not allow us to update the site. While our care plans are designed to handle routine security and maintenance, every site should be expected to occasionally need additional structural changes and updates to stay current as they age.

Email Hosting

Unless we have a custom contract with you that explicitly provides otherwise, we do not offer email hosting with any of our standard packages. If you can provide instructions from your email host, we will make the appropriate updates in your website’s DNS to connect your domain to your email hosting service. We are happy to recommend excellent email host providers to meet your needs. If you would like, we can also refer you to an IT specialist for hands-on help selecting an email host and setting up email service on all of your devices.

Cancellation of Service

We generally require clients to use our hosting and website care plans for a short period of time after the launch of a new website. If this applies to you, it will be explicitly stated in your project’s contract. Apart from this, clients are free to cancel hosting and care plan services any time by sending us an explicit written request to cancel on a specified date. No refunds will be given for prepayment of services or for any other payments already received. If you cancel services, we are happy to continue providing the agreed upon services until the end of the term for which you have already paid. When you cancel your hosting or website care plan with us, within 15 days of receiving your written notice we we will create an Admin level User ID in WordPress for you to use to take over administrative control of the website. It is your responsibility to backup and migrate the website to your new host at your own effort and expense. Depending on your package, we may or may not be able to allow you access to the hosting control panel. We are not liable for any damages or data loss that occurs after releasing the Admin role to you or that occurs as a result of your attempts to migrate your site. We strongly recommend hiring a professional website developer to handle the transition for you. In some cases we may offer to complete the migration for you for an additional fee, but this is at our sole discretion. When we receive notice of your cancellation, we will immediately delete all API keys for software licenses that belong to us. You are responsible for obtaining and paying for your own licenses for themes and plugins after cancellation. Upon request, we are happy to provide you with a list of all premium themes and plugins used on your site that require a paid license. If your domain name is registered to our central business account, within 15 days of receiving your written notice we will unlock the domain and request the EPP code from the registrar. We cannot control how long it will take our registrar to transfer control of your domain name to your new registrar. If you have not migrated your site by the time your paid term ends we reserve the right to disable access to your site, remove it from our hosting account, and delete the backups from our accounts. However, we will always allow you at least 10 calendar days from the date we send your Admin User ID login to migrate your site before disabling or deleting the site from our hosting account. We strongly prefer to send you login and confidential information securely through a password manager like BitWarden. If you do not accept transmission through one of these services, we will send you the information in a a non-secure email at your sole liability.

Nonpayment or Breach by Client

We have amazing clients and we treat them like family! In practice, it is usually easy to tell if someone is acting in good faith or if they are trying to abuse the system. We generally try to reach out and work with our clients when an oversight happens. However, to protect our business we must reserve the right to enforce our policies and payment terms. Therefore, if a client violates our Terms of Service or fails to make a payment by the due date we reserve the right to suspend their hosting account, restrict access to their website, and suspend all other services. In the event of breach or nonpayment by a client, we may immediately terminate a client’s account. When terminating a client’s website care plan where the client owns the rights to their website, we will give the client 10 calendar to migrate their website off of our server. After that time we may delete all related files and backups from our servers. If a client has not paid the full balance due on a website build or has any other unpaid invoices owed to us, we will give the client 10 calendar days to pay the remaining balance in full. If the full balance is not paid within this time, we may – at our sole discretion – delete all related files and backups from our servers with the client forfeiting all rights to the files and content. If full payment is made within this time, we will give the client an additional 10 calendar days to migrate their site off of our servers before we delete the files and backups. If a client ever feels there is any confusion about terms or expectations, we encourage them to contact us immediately. We would much rather work out any issues up front rather than get to the point where termination becomes necessary.

B. General Use and Other Terms

Reasonable System Resource Usage

Your account may not use an excessive amount of system resources for an extended period of time. If your account is found to be utilizing an excessive amount of resources (at our sole judgment), when possible we will try to work with you to determine the cause and either take corrective action or suggest an appropriate upgrade to your tier of service. In situations that are considered extreme or if your account negatively impacts other accounts on the host, suspension may be necessary until the issue can be resolved.

Acceptable Use

You may not use any of our services to post or otherwise disseminate content that is pornographic, indecent, illegal, or deemed by us to be offensive. You may use the service for business purposes; but you may not resell hosting or email services, run a daemon or similar service, or use your account for backup or storage of files not directly related to your website.

SPAM and Unsolicited Commercial Email

We have a zero tolerance policy for SPAM and unsolicited commercial email. Any clients sending such email or allowing the server to be used for such are, at our sole discretion, subject to having accounts terminated without notice and without refund.

Support

It is your responsibility to report service outages that you would like assistance correcting. Support does not include fixing errors or damage caused by you or one of your users; fixing such issues will incur a commiserate fee.

Firewall and Antivirus Protection

We encourage you to consider use of a reputable firewall and/or antivirus application to protect your computer,  website, and email files. We would be happy to recommend such a service to you based on your needs. We are not responsible or liable for damage caused by hackers, malware, or viruses. Some of our care plans include free recovery from hacking or malware, but in no circumstances do we guarantee no loss of data.

Passwords

We strongly encourage you to use only secure passwords, and to only use encrypted login URL’s accessed over a trusted network. Using a reputable password management application and VPN are recommended for most users. We are not responsible or liable for any damage caused by a compromise of your login credentials.

Third Party Providers

Key features of your website and/or hosting services may be provided by third party providers that we have selected to fill such needs. In those cases your services are also bound by the Terms of Service from those providers. It is recognized that we do not have control over the terms offered by third parties and they are subject to change without notice. If you wish to know what third party providers we utilize for your account, we will provide this information to you upon receipt of a written request from you.

Backup

You are encouraged to keep an offsite backup of your website files and email. Note that none of our care plans include backing up email files.

Testimonials and Portfolio

You agree to allow us to quote any feedback you provide to us and use it in the form of a public testimonial. You also agree to allow us to showcase any publicly accessible portion of your website in our portfolio.

Copyright

Unless otherwise explicitly agreed to in a signed contract, we reserve the copyright for all of our work. You also agree that any ideas, content, material, or images that you send to us unsolicited may become our sole property at our discretion.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Stephanie Byrd Photography, LLC, Personal Web Solutions, and each of their respective owners, members, employees, and independent contractors from and against any and all claims, demands, liabilities, obligations, losses, damages, penalties, fines, punitive damages, amounts in interest, expenses and disbursements of any kind and nature whatsoever (including reasonable attorneys fees) brought by a third party under any theory of legal liability arising out of or related to the actual or alleged use of services in violation of applicable law or the Terms of Service by client or any person using client’s login information, regardless of whether such person has been authorized to use the services by client.

Liability

Client assumes all liability for content published or stored on client’s account. Because you have the opportunity and responsibility to proof all design and content work we provide, you maintain liability even if you have contracted us to provide such services. In the event of damages or the inability to perform in this agreement, the maximum liability of Stephanie Byrd Photography, LLC or its owners can never exceed for any reason the total sum of all payments made to us during the preceeding 60 days. Although we aim to provide a high server up time, any form of technology can fail. As such, we are not liable for loss of business due to a service outage. We strongly encourage you to back up data stored on your account. We are not liable for data loss or domain name loss. We also assume no liability for loss of data in the event that your account is terminated for any reason.

Domain Name Transfer

You may request to transfer control of your domain name anytime, but you must make the request in writing and we reserve the right to take up to 15 days to process the request. Upon fulfillment of such request, we will unlock the domain name and provide the access code to the authorized person, but it is your responsibility to complete the transfer at your time and expense.

Account Control Transfer

If you have contracted us to provide website design or development services and wish to transfer control of your account or any related accounts or services, you must submit your request to us in writing. We reserve the right to refuse transfer of control or ownership if payment has not been paid in full for any services you owe us for. We also reserve the right to to take up to 15 days to process a request that is deemed valid. Upon fulfillment of your request, we will provide you with the login information necessary to take control of your accounts; however, it is your responsibility to complete the transfer at your time and expense.

Severability

If any term of this agreement – including both the Terms of Service and any related agreement – is to any extent illegal, otherwise invalid, or incapable of being enforced, such term shall be excluded to the extent of such invalidity or unenforceability; all other terms hereof remain in full force and effect; and, to the extent permitted and possible, Stephanie Byrd Photography, LLC may (at its sole discretion) replace the invalid or unenforceable term with a term that is valid and enforceable and that comes closest to expressing the intention of such invalid or unenforceable term.

III. Website Care Plans and Packages

A. Current Packages

Complete Website Management Plan

This is a premium hosting service which includes resources for up to 5 GB of server space, 25,000 visits per month, and up to 25 GB of bandwidth per month. Commiserate overage fees will apply for use that exceeds any of these allotments. (This structure allows us to keep your site online during traffic spikes!) We will backup your site daily to a storage service affiliated with the host. Once per week we will review your plugins, themes, and WordPress Core for available software updates and will apply all appropriate updates. At our sole discretion, we may elect to delay or skip an update if we feel that a specific software update may cause a conflict or malfunction on your site. We will offer you a total of 1 hour of free support each month (allotted in 15 minute increments).  You can use this billable time to ask questions, swap out images on your website, or make minor edits to text.  Requests exceeding an hour will be billed at our prevailing hourly rate at the time of the request.

Hack-Free Guarantee:  If your site is infected with malware due to a hack, notify us and we will resolve the issue at no additional cost by either removing the malware or restoring from an uninfected backup. The method of malware removal or hack recovery is left to our sole discretion, and we may contract with a third party to provide remediation services when needed. We will attempt to minimize data loss when possible, but we cannot guarantee no data loss in all situations.

Custom Packages

At our sole discretion, we may offer a client with unique needs a custom website care package. Clients with a custom package will be given a written statement which will detail the included features, services, and cost. All terms in Section “I” and Section “II” will apply unless explicitly excluded in a signed agreement.

B. Legacy Packages

Essentials Package

We will host one WordPress website on a shared hosting service and set up one free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt or a similar provider. We will allocate up to 5GB of storage space to your site and site traffic is subject to the Unmetered Bandwidth terms as described below. We will use an uptime monitoring service to alert us if your website goes down. We will host and maintain your site’s DNS on our Cloudflare account. One time per month we will manually review your plugins, theme, and WordPress Core for available software updates and will apply all appropriate updates. At our sole discretion, we may elect to delay or skip an update if, after a careful review, we feel that a specific software update may cause a conflict or malfunction on your site. At least twice per month we will backup your website to a storage service not maintained on the hosting platform. We will maintain these “off-site” backups for at least 60 days. We will run a basic malware scan with an external scanning application at least once per month. If malware is found or your website is hacked we may, as a courtesy and at our sole discretion, attempt to fix the issue by restoring the website from an older backup copy. Data loss may occur in this scenario depending on how old the backup is. The cost of malware removal and hack recovery is not included in this tier of service. We will cover the licensing costs for use of our standard themes and plugins. A standard theme or plugin is defined as one for which our business has a developer’s license and has installed for you. If you request a feature that requires a non-standard plugin or theme this will be fully disclosed to you and billed separately if you wish to use it. At your request we will manage your domain name and cover the cost of annual renewal for a standard TLD (which is defined as a .com, .net, or .org domain name). You may request a non-standard TLD or the management of multiple domains at an additional cost if desired. We will email you a quarterly report summarizing the work we have completed on your website along with a snapshot of website traffic for that period. 

Reasonable Usage of Unmetered Bandwidth

Some legacy plans may be described as having unmetered bandwidth.  That means they do not have a predetermined bandwidth cap, but your site bandwidth usage cannot be excessive, abusive, or in anyway interfere with the operation of other websites on the server or host. If resource usage becomes excessive or abusive (at our sole judgment), corrective action may be taken by us or a third party service provider. In situations that are considered extreme or if your account negatively impacts other accounts on the server, suspension may be necessary until the issue can be resolved. On any plan (whether metered or unmetered) if you “go viral” or expect other large spikes in traffic, you should inform us as soon as possible so that we may suggest an appropriate upgrade in your level of service to handle the excess load without downtime. No refunds or credit will be given if a site is suspended for this or any other reason.