Terms of service

Agreement

• These terms, your quote and your invoices form the full agreement between you and Quantum Labs (Pty) Ltd ("we", "us"). If they differ, the accepted quote applies first, then these terms.
• You accept these terms when you accept a quote in writing (including by email or WhatsApp), pay a deposit or any fee, or let us start work. No other terms apply unless we agree to them in writing.
• Only a director of Quantum Labs can agree to change these terms, and only in writing.

Quotes and prices

• A quote is valid for 14 days from its date. After that the price may change.
• Prices on our website are starting prices for the package described. The final price is the one on your accepted quote.
• Prices are in South African Rand. If we are registered for VAT, VAT is added at the current rate.
• We may correct an obvious pricing mistake on a quote or invoice before work starts.
• Specials (such as the Black Friday Month special) apply only to quotes accepted in writing and paid by deposit by the end date shown. They cannot be combined with other discounts, cannot be exchanged for cash, and free hosting months start when the website goes live. Ad spend is never included.

Payment

• Once-off projects (websites, shops, apps and set-up fees): a 50% deposit is due before we start. The balance is due before the website or shop goes live. Nothing goes live, is transferred or is handed over until it is paid in full.
• Set-up fees for ads are paid in full before we start.
• Monthly services (Website care, ads management and social media) are billed in advance and are due on the 1st of each month. The first month is paid before the service starts.
• Payment is by EFT using the reference on your invoice. A payment counts only once it reflects in our account.
• Unpaid amounts carry interest at the prescribed rate of interest from the due date until paid. A late-payment admin fee of R250 is charged on each overdue invoice.
• If we have to hand your account over for collection, you pay the reasonable collection and legal costs, as the law allows.

Suspension for non-payment

• If a payment is overdue, we send one written reminder. If it is still unpaid 7 days later, we may suspend your website, shop, email, hosting or ads management without further notice.
• Restoring a suspended service costs R350, and is done once all overdue amounts reflect.
• If an account stays unpaid for 30 days after suspension, we may end the service. Your files and data are then kept for a further 30 days, after which they may be permanently deleted.
• We are not responsible for any loss you suffer while a service is suspended or ended for non-payment.

Scope, changes and timelines

• We do only the work listed on your accepted quote. Anything else is extra and is quoted before we do it. Ad hoc work is charged at R450 an hour.
• Each package includes the rounds of changes stated for it. Further changes are charged as extra work.
• Delivery times start once we have your deposit and everything we need from you: text, photos, logo, product details, logins and approvals. Delays on your side move the delivery date.
• If you do not give us what we need for 30 days, we may invoice the balance for the work done so far. If a project is inactive for 60 days because of you, we may close it. Restarting a closed project is quoted again.

Approval and sign-off

• When you approve a design or tell us to go live, that part is signed off. Changes after sign-off are extra work.
• After launch you have 14 days to report anything that does not work as agreed. We fix those faults free of charge. After 14 days, fixes are charged unless your Website care plan covers them.
• Faults caused by you, by someone else editing the site, or by plugins, themes or updates installed by anyone other than us are not covered.

Online shops and product images

• Each shop package includes up to 100 product images, loaded from the photos and details you supply. Extra images are R250 for each further 50.
• You supply product names, prices, descriptions, stock levels and photos in a usable format. Writing or editing product descriptions, editing photos and loading data from untidy sources are extra work.
• You are responsible for your prices, stock, delivery, refunds, returns, tax, and for complying with the Consumer Protection Act and the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act in your own shop.
• Payment gateway, courier and Shopify fees are between you and those companies.

Google, Meta and social media services

• Our fees cover setting up and managing your ads or posts. Ad spend is never included. You pay your ad budget directly to Google or Meta, on your own payment method.
• You own your ad accounts and give us access to manage them. We never pay for your ads on our own card.
• Google and Meta decide whether ads are approved, what clicks cost and whether accounts are restricted. We are not responsible for their decisions, policy changes, outages or billing.
• Set-up fees are not refundable once set-up has started.
• Monthly management continues until you cancel with 30 days written notice. If a fee is unpaid, we may pause your ads.
• You approve ad wording and offers, and you are responsible for honouring every offer and price shown in your ads.

Your responsibilities

• You confirm that you own, or have permission to use, everything you give us, including text, images, logos, product data and customer lists.
• You are responsible for what your website, shop and ads say, and for complying with the laws that apply to your business, including the Protection of Personal Information Act.
• You keep your logins safe and must tell us at once if you think one has been misused.
• You indemnify Quantum Labs against claims from anyone else that arise from your content, your products, your offers or your use of the services.

Third-party costs

Costs charged by other companies are not included unless your quote says so. These include domains after the first year, paid plugins and themes, Shopify plans, payment gateway fees, courier fees, app store accounts, email beyond what your package includes, and all ad spend.

Ownership

• Until everything owed for a project is paid in full, the design, code and content we created stay ours, and we may take the work offline.
• Once it is paid in full, you own your website content and design, and your domain name is registered to you.
• We keep ownership of our own tools, code libraries, templates and know-how, and give you a permanent licence to use them as part of your website or shop.
• We may show your logo, website and non-confidential results in our portfolio and marketing. If you do not want this, tell us in writing and we will remove them within 14 days.

Cancellation and refunds

• You may cancel a project in writing at any time. You pay for all work done up to the cancellation date. The deposit covers this first, and any shortfall is invoiced.
• Deposits are not refundable once work has started, except where the law requires a refund.
• Where the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act gives you a 7-day cooling-off right (an online agreement where work has not started at your request), you may cancel within that time and get your deposit back.
• Monthly services need 30 days written notice. Fees already paid for a month are not refunded.
• Nothing in these terms takes away rights you have under the Consumer Protection Act where it applies to you.

Results and the Lead Promise

• We cannot guarantee search rankings, ad results, sales or leads, because these depend on things outside our control, such as Google, Meta, your market, your prices and your competitors. The only results promise we make is the Lead Promise below, on the conditions stated.
• Lead Promise. If you are on a Google Ads Medium or Large package and your tracked leads in month 3 are not higher than in your first full month, we manage your ads free of charge until they are, for up to 3 months.
• The Lead Promise applies only if, for the whole period: all our fees are paid on time; your ad spend is at least R3,000 a month; lead tracking stays in place; you reply to leads within 1 working day; you make the website and offer changes we recommend in writing; and you do not pause or change the ads without us.
• Leads mean quote forms and other enquiries recorded by the tracking we set up. The Lead Promise covers our management fee only. It never covers ad spend, set-up fees or other services, and it cannot be exchanged for cash.

Hosting, email and backups

• We use reputable hosting providers, but we cannot guarantee uninterrupted service. Maintenance, provider outages, load shedding and internet failures may cause downtime.
• Backups are included only on Website care plans. If you are not on a care plan, you are responsible for your own backups.
• Each website includes one business email address. Extra addresses and storage are charged.
• You may not use our hosting for spam, illegal content or anything that harms our servers or other clients. We may suspend a service at once if it is used this way.

Limitation of liability

• To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, including lost profit, revenue, leads, data or goodwill.
• Our total liability for any claim is limited to the fees you paid us in the 3 months before the claim arose.
• We are not liable for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control, including load shedding, provider outages, natural events and actions by Google, Meta or other platforms.

Confidentiality

We keep your logins, business information and customer data confidential and use them only to provide the services. You keep our prices, proposals and methods confidential and do not share them with competitors.

Disputes and law

• If something goes wrong, tell us in writing first. We will reply within 5 working days and try to resolve it.
• These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. You consent to the jurisdiction of the Magistrates Court with jurisdiction over our business address, even if a claim exceeds that court's normal limit.
• A certificate signed by a director of Quantum Labs showing the amount you owe is proof of that amount unless you prove otherwise.

General

• If any part of these terms is found invalid, the rest still applies.
• If we do not enforce a right straight away, we have not given it up.
• We may update these terms. The version in place when you accepted your quote applies to that project. Changes to monthly services take effect after 30 days notice.