Terms

These terms cover two things: using this website, and the standard terms that apply to client work with 1337376 B.C. Ltd. dba Acorn Websites. Your project agreement takes priority over anything here if the two conflict.

Using this website

The content on acornwebsites.com is for general information. It is not legal, financial, or technical advice for your situation. I try to keep it accurate and current, and I do not promise that it is complete or error free. Prices shown are in Canadian dollars, before tax, and can change without notice. A price on the site is not a quote. A quote comes in writing after we talk.

The text, design, and images on this site belong to 1337376 B.C. Ltd. or are used with permission. Client work shown in the portfolio belongs to those clients and is shown with their knowledge. Do not copy or reuse content from this site without asking.

Links to other websites are provided for convenience. I do not control those sites and am not responsible for their content or practices.

Quotes and scope

Every project starts with a written agreement that sets out the scope, the price, and the payment schedule. Work outside that scope is quoted as a fixed price in writing and approved by you before it starts. Nothing is billed that you did not approve. Timelines depend on you supplying content, feedback, and approvals on the dates in the plan. If your side slips, the timeline moves with it. You get a weekly update during the build.

Accepting an agreement

Paying the deposit invoice named in your agreement accepts that agreement in full. There is nothing to print out and nothing to sign. I confirm your build slot and your start date in writing once the deposit is paid.

Payment

Builds are paid in stages as set out in the agreement, usually 50% to book and 50% at launch, or 40/30/30 for larger projects. The deposit reserves your place in the schedule and is not refundable once work has started. The balance is invoiced at launch and is due within 15 days of that invoice. After 15 days a late fee of 2 percent per month applies. At 30 days past due, work pauses until the invoice is paid, while hosting and backups keep running. Hosting & Maintenance plans and retainers are billed monthly in advance. Prices are in Canadian dollars and GST is added at 5 percent. Third party costs such as domain renewal, paid subscriptions, stock photography, and ad spend are billed to you by the provider.

Hosting & Maintenance plans

A hosting and maintenance plan is required at launch and is not included in the build price. You choose your plan before the site goes live, and billing starts on launch day. Every site launches on a plan unless you tell me in writing before launch that you are taking the hosting on yourself. If you host the site yourself, you take on the hosting, the DNS, the security updates, the backups, and the monitoring. I hand you the files and the records at launch. A site cannot stay on my hosting without an active plan.

Plans are billed monthly and either of us can end one with 30 days written notice. You can prepay a year at 10 months instead of 12, invoiced once. If a prepaid year is cancelled partway through, the unused whole months are refunded. Hosting & Maintenance covers the items listed on the hosting and maintenance plans page. A change request is one edit to existing content on one page. Unused change requests do not carry forward. Extra change requests are $100 each, approved by email first. New pages and new features are quoted separately.

Where the site lives

Your domain stays registered in your own name, at your own registrar. That never moves. The DNS, the hosting, and the deployment platform run inside Acorn Websites accounts alongside my other clients. That is what keeps your hosting cost near zero and lets me fix things without waiting on a login. If your agreement ends, however it ends, I move the site, the DNS, and the records to accounts you control within 30 days, at no charge. You are never locked in.

Ownership

Everything built under your agreement belongs to you once it is paid in full. Before payment, the work remains the property of Acorn Websites. If we stop working together, I hand back your website files within 30 days. I keep ownership of my own templates, checklists, methods, and reusable code. You can use them as built into your site, and you do not own them. Third party themes, plugins, fonts, and stock images stay under their own licences. I keep the right to show the work in my portfolio.

Access

You keep my access active for the term. Tell me before you change the site yourself, so the work can be protected. If access is removed and the work stops, invoices already issued remain payable.

Your content

You are responsible for the content you give me to publish: that you have permission to use it, that it is accurate, and that it follows the law and the rules of your profession. I flag concerns when I see them. The final call is yours.

Results

A working website improves the conditions for being found. It does not control the outcome. I do not guarantee a ranking, a number of calls, a level of traffic, or a timeline for results. Search engines change how they rank businesses without notice. What I do guarantee is that the work described in your agreement gets built, tested, and launched.

Confidentiality

Each of us keeps the other's non-public information private, including logins, customer details, pricing, and financial information. This continues after the agreement ends.

Limits

I provide these services on a best-efforts basis. I am not responsible for outages, fees, data loss, or policy changes caused by third parties, including your domain registrar, the hosting platform, Google, and Canada Post. My total liability for a build is capped at the fees you have paid for that build. My total liability for a hosting and maintenance plan is capped at the hosting and maintenance plan fees you paid in the six months before the claim. These caps cover all claims, including lost orders, lost rankings, site downtime, and data loss. Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited under British Columbia law.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of British Columbia and Canada. Any dispute gets addressed first through good-faith discussion, then mediation before legal action.

Contact

1337376 B.C. Ltd., 3005 Wood Ave, Armstrong, BC V4Y 0H1. hello@acornwebsites.com. 778-692-5555.