• Note: We give priority to 'serious clients', i.e. clients who definitely want what we have to offer. We do NOT persuade people to order what they do not want, or people who are in any way reluctant about what we have to offer.
• We also give priority to clients who want a website immediately, usually in less than two months.
• We are looking for long-term relationships with our clients. We doing everything we can (including through using our extended networking contacts) to help our clients to prosper. We care about your success in business.
• We do NOT compete on price.

Reasons for this provision:

• There is no point in starting work on a site unless we are sure that it can be completed without interruption.
• We cannot even inspect or measure the information received before we start working on a site because inspecting information without immediately incorporating it into the site consumes time for which we have not budgeted. We therefore rely on the client to assure us that we have 90% of the contents.
• The cost of sites exceed the budget (at the client's expense) if we have to abandon work on a site because we are waiting for input from the client. That is the reason why we need 90% of all contents before we start.

A special point for schools

Information to be brought to this meeting if the client is a school:

At this meeting, schools should supply at least the following information which is commonly found on schools' websites:

• prospectus
• list of future events, including term dates and holiday days, several years ahead if available
• list of past events, if you want a record of how active you have been during the past year
• awards if any
• list of staff
• list of governors
• one piece of children's work (text, poem, drawing, etc) for each of the classes pages
• anything else that the school wants to put on the website

In preparation for this meeting the client will download two letters required for making the website publicly accessible:

- letter to a hosting company booking the required webspace
- letter to Nominet (the Internet's registration agency) to arrange for the tagging of the client's domain name to the hosting company

These letters have to be printed on the client's notepaper and to be signed by the competent decision maker (Headteacher, in the case of schools).

Click here to download the letters.

RTC will collect the signed letters.

Armed with these letters RTC will obtain the authorisation form from Nominet, which RTC will send to the client for signature.

Terms of payment

1. One third of the agreed sum is payable on account before work can start.
   
2. The remainder is payable on completion of work, which is normally within less than 60 days after start of work.
   
3. If the school fails to submit all required materials by the due date (see below), the balance is payable 60 days after start of work (date of payment on account and receipt of contents).
   

   In plain language: If the client is at fault for the delay of completion, the client has to pay the balance before completion of the project.

4. If RTC fail to complete the site within 60 days (in spite of having all the agreed information from the client), the client is not obliged to pay the remainder until the site is completed.
   

   In plain language: If RTC is at fault for the delay of completion, the client does not have to pay the balance before the project is completed.

Justification: The purpose of these terms is to give the client a motive to submit contents at the agreed times so that the project can be completed speedily, as is intended by both sides.

The client accepts the formal offer using his normal order form or by letter.

The order or acceptance of offer should be accompanied by the following items:

• all information (contents: texts, images) that was not available at the meeting and any other missing papers. RTC should by then have 90% of the contents of the website.
• the letters addressed to Astrohosts and to Nominet
• one third of the agreed sum.

As soon as all these items are received and as soon as a time-slot is available, RTC can start work.

At this stage the client can easily detect gaps in the contents of the site and will supply all the missing information (this is the remaining 10%).

The client informs RTC of all changes and corrections that have to be made.

Often the best method for doing this is by telephone, with RTC making the corrections while the client is on the phone and the client checking the results immediately.

RTC sends a statement requesting payment of the balance of the agreed fee.

Charges for updates are usually made on a time-basis.