What we mean when we say…
‘Alex Genn Copywriting’ is the trading name for Genn-Wyatt Ltd, so when we say ‘us’, ‘we’ or ‘Alex Genn Copywriting’, we mean ‘Genn Wyatt Ltd’.
When we refer to ‘the client’ or ‘you’, that means, unsurprisingly the person or company who is buying our services and entering into a contract with us. Make sense? Great, let’s get on with it then…
1) Our contract
When you contract with Alex Genn Copywriting (the trading name for Genn-Wyatt Ltd, hereafter referred to as ‘us’, ‘we’ or ‘Alex Genn Copywriting’) to work for you, you acknowledge that as the basis for the contract between us, these Terms and Conditions take precedence over any other terms and conditions, express or implied, and regardless of whether it is your general practice to conduct similar engagements under your own Terms and Conditions.
2) Confirming our contract and starting the job
A job is confirmed when you accept our quote or when we receive an e-mail from you telling us clearly that you are commissioning the work. If you are contracting with Alex Genn Copywriting on behalf of any group of individuals other than yourself alone, or on behalf of a company, you warrant that you are authorised to enter into a contract on behalf of that group of individuals or company.
If you use or are contracting on behalf of a company that uses a Purchase Order system, the job will be deemed to start on receipt by email of a PO number.
3) Contracting with Alex Genn Copywriting if you work for a marketing services or web development agency
If you contract with us on behalf of a marketing services or web development agency of any kind, to work on a project for one of your clients, a contract will exist only between Alex Genn Copywriting and the marketing services agency, and not between Alex Genn Copywriting and any client of the marketing services agency.
You agree to indemnify us against any claim by any client of the marketing services agency for compensation or damages brought about as a direct or indirect consequence of the use, or inability or unwillingness to use, the material which we write for you.
If you contract with us on behalf of a marketing services or web development agency of any kind, you attest that you are authorised to enter into a contract on behalf of that marketing services or web development agency.
4) Alex Genn Copywriting contracting directly with one of your clients
If you represent a marketing services or web development agency of any kind, and wish Alex Genn Copywriting to work on a project for one of your clients, but wish Alex Genn Copywriting to contract directly with that client, then a contract, subject to agreement, will exist between your client company and us, and you acknowledge that Alex Genn Copywriting is free to conduct and further develop a direct relationship with that client without reference to you, and without compensation or commission of any kind being payable. In such a case, we affirm that we will not seek to sell to your client services, other than copywriting (including written content, tone of voice and brand personality development), which they have at any time previously purchased from you.
6) Our Guarantee
Our aim is to do you an excellent job for you, for the fee that we agree, and to ensure you are pleased, so that you come back again. In any creative process, however, there can be misunderstandings. If, when you see a draft, you are dissatisfied with the work that we have written for you, please discuss it with us and we will do everything that we can to resolve your concerns.
7) Payment terms
Our terms are as agreed in the proposal we send, and/or official quote following that. We will invoice on or after the date on which we commence work on the project, and payment will fall due at 30 days unless we have expressly agreed otherwise in writing.
If the entity to be invoiced is not a UK Limited Company we may, at our discretion, ask you to pay 50% of the project fee in advance of commencement of the work. In this circumstance, the balance of the fee will be invoiced on commencement and fall due at 30 days.
You may make payment electronic funds payment directly into our account.
The existence of an ‘end of following month’ payment practice in your company’s handling of accounts payable will in no way alter your obligation to make payment on the due date shown on our invoice.
Once a project is started, the fee we have agreed between us for the full project is deemed to be incurred unless we have specifically agreed payment milestones. You have no right to withhold or reduce payment based on your critical response to, or appraisal of, the copy we write for you, and you acknowledge our right to pursue payment in full should you elect for any reason to do this.
In the event of premature commutation of the project by you for any reason, no reduction in fee will be due, and the full sum agreed between us for the work contracted will immediately become due for payment, with the immediate cancellation of any period of credit shown on the invoice.
This does not affect your statutory rights, nor your rights under the terms of our Guarantee (6, above) which protects you in the situation where, after a fair and proper process of collaboration, you feel that the copy we have delivered is not suitable for your purpose.
8) Late Payment
We are a signatory to the UK Government’s Better Payment Practice Code. Where payment is not received within 60 working days of the due date shown on the invoice, we reserve the right to charge interest. This will be applied in line with the DTi ‘Better Payment Practice’ guidelines of 8% plus the prevailing Bank of England reference rate. Under the Terms of the guidelines and associated legislation, a compensation payment may also be due.
9) Jurisdiction
In the settlement of any, and all disputes arising out of these Terms and Conditions or arising in any other way from any contract formed between us, you acknowledge that UK Jurisdiction will prevail and agree to subject yourself to and comply with settlement ordered under UK Jurisdiction.
10) Delivery Dates
We try hard to ensure that deadlines and milestones are met punctually, and almost always manage this. From time to time, however, our workload may cause us to need to put back delivery dates a little. Where this is necessary, we will always seek to agree it with you first. We reserve the right, however, to put back any milestone or delivery date by up to 48 hours, providing that we have given you notice of this at least 24 hours before the date originally agreed.
11) Security / NDAs
All our work is undertaken on a strict non-disclosure basis. This applies to all public and or electronic publishing. If you pass data, information or materials of any kind to Alex Genn Copywriting as part of a project which you wish Alex Genn Copywriting to undertake for you, or for a company who are your client, we’ll be happy to sign any NDA you wish to present in good faith, but you indemnify Alex Genn Copywriting against any action whatsoever by you or your client, associated with the accidental disclosure or loss of this information.
12) Passing over of your own copy draft
As part of the brief for your project, you may ask Alex Genn Copywriting to view a copy draft which you have written yourself, or which has been written for you by somebody else. If you send us such draft copy, you affirm that you are the copyright holder, or that you are authorised by the copyright holder to permit all or part of this material to form a part of the new copyright work which we will create for you. In such a case you indemnify Alex Genn Copywriting against any claim arising from subsequent suggestion that the new work in any way breaches any existing copyright.
In any situation where you do ask us to view an existing copy draft as part of the briefing, you acknowledge that the draft which we will write for you may bear similarities in all or part to this draft, but that in such a case the draft we write for you will be considered as an original work under the terms of our contract, without regard for the existence of the original draft.
13) Referencing other people’s content
If you send Alex Genn Copywriting research or sample copy taken from someone else’s printed collateral or site as an indication of what you want, we will make every effort to ensure that the draft that we prepare for you in no way breaches the copyright of the content owner. However, you indemnify Alex Genn Copywriting against any action arising, directly or indirectly, as a result of use of this content as reference material.
14) Your right to use the copy we write for you
When you commission us to write copy for you, you are purchasing the copyright in the work we write for you, and this is assigned to you on receipt by us of full and final payment of all fees due. The work remains the intellectual property of Alex Genn Copywriting until our fees are paid in full, at which point the ownership passes to the client.
15) Errors and literals
We make every effort to ensure that copy is free of spelling mistakes and other literals. Early drafts may sometimes contain such errors, and our practice is to ensure that these are removed before a final draft is submitted to you. However, the responsibility for checking for spelling mistakes and literals is yours, and you absolve Alex Genn Copywriting of responsibility for any costs incurred as a result of the appearance of such errors in the final published form of any collateral in which you use the copy concerned, whether or not these errors appeared in any draft of the copy supplied by us.
16) Our collaboration with other copywriters
When you contract with us to write copy for you, you acknowledge that we engage the services of other competent professional copywriters to deliver all or part of the work which you require. These writers are bound by the terms of our contract.
17) Termination of contract
Either the client or Alex Genn Copywriting may terminate the contract with one week’s notice. The client will be invoiced up to the last day the writer has worked.
18) Cancellation of bookings
If you have booked one of our writers by agreement via email, you may cancel that booking up to 48 business hours (Monday-Friday) before the start (first day) of the booking. Cancellations with less then 48 business hours (Monday-Friday) notice, will incur a cancellation fee calculated at 50% of the total number of days booked. So for example If you have booked a writer for five days you will be charged for 2.5 days, at the agreed day rate.
19) Your writer
We always try to keep the same writer on the project until it is signed off. However, we reserve the right to swap the writer, with a writer of equal ability, at any point during the project.
20) Retained relationships
This section is in addition to the above terms and is specific to: Retainer Agreements
20.1) The term of any retainer agreement shall be effective on the date of the last signature on the letter of agreement and continues for the agreed period months after that date, unless extended by the client, prior to its expiration.
20.2) Before work on a retained service commences, the client will sign and return a ‘Letter of Agreement’ or contract. This will be valid for the duration of the retained service period and will be prepared by Alex Genn Copywriting and emailed to the client. It will illustrate the duties, requirements, and expectations of both Alex Genn Copywriting and the client.
20.3) The client agrees that we will not commence work on any retained project without a signed Letter of Agreement or contract in place.
20.4) The client will sign and return the contract or Letter of Agreement to Alex Genn Copywriting via email or post, within 14 days of submission. If the client fails to sign and return the Letter of Agreement within this 14-day period, then the contract or Letter of Agreement and any prepaid retained service becomes void and any prepaid amount is forfeited by the client.
20.5) The client will pay monthly (or as agreed), in advance and upfront for retained services. We will issue an invoice for immediate payment, from the date of the last signature on the Letter of Agreement or Contract.
29.6) Extension of the initial retained period will be agreed to in writing and signed by both parties and shall commence through a new contract or Letter of Agreement.
20.7) In providing retained services to the client, Alex Genn Copywriting shall be acting as an independent contractor and not as an employee or agent of the client.
20.8) The agreement and the retained service may be terminated: By the client immediately if Alex Genn Copywriting defaults in the performance of their obligations under these terms, including failure to provide the services set forth in the contract or Letter of Agreement; or by Alex Genn Copywriting immediately, if the client defaults in the performance of its obligations under these terms and the terms of the contract or Letter of Agreement. In this instance we reserve the right to fairly charge for any time or work expended upon any project, to the date of cancellation.
20.9) If the client decides to cancel the retainer agreement within the 3-month agreement period, without any default to these terms or Letter of Agreement or contract, the client agrees to pay in full, for any committed and outstanding months, contracted within the letter of agreement.
20.10) If the client wishes to postpone completion of the project after the contract or Letter of Agreement has been signed, we reserve the right to make reasonable judgment as to the feasibility of rescheduling the retained service. If postponing any project is not feasible, we reserve the right to not refund any prepaid amount for retained services.
20.11) For retained services, we offer four sets of revisions of each project, if required. The client agrees to advise us of any first revisions within seven days of receiving the first draft.
20.12) The client agrees to provide clear and detailed instructions regarding any aforementioned revisions that the client wishes us to make. We are unable to make amendments based on vague notions of for example, “like” or “dislike” or in cases where there is not a unified position/opinion from the client, pertaining to amendments.
20.13) If the client does not approve the first draft or request any revision after seven days of Alex Genn Copywriting submitting the first draft, it will be assumed that this draft has been approved. In this instance, the project will be closed. Any subsequent revisions or change requests from the client after this time, will be considered as a new project and completed within the retainer hours.
20.14) The client agrees that any edits or revisions must take place within the scope of that described in the contract or Letter of Agreement.
20.15) Unused days/half-days within a retained month can be ‘rolled-over’ into the following month, for a limited period of up to one subsequent month only. Any unused hours after this time, will be void.
20.16) Retained time used will be recorded, detailed and forwarded to the client, with each monthly invoice provided by Alex Genn Copywriting.
20.17) Depending upon our schedule, the client can purchase at any time, any additional days at the special retainer rate, within the contracted retainer period.
20.18) Within reason, we will not deduct any small blocks of time spent communicating with the client, as may be necessary to complete the project. Any significant, regular and lengthy communication time (such as lengthy consultation calls, meetings etc), may be deducted from the retainer days at the discretion of Alex Genn Copywriting.
20.19) We are entitled to suspend accounts with outstanding balances and no further work will be undertaken by Alex Genn Copywriting for the client, until full payment is received. In this instance, future work may be subject to payment for the total contract period, being made in advance.
20.20) We may withhold any information in relation to the project if an invoice remains outstanding and unpaid.
20.21) Invoices outstanding after 30 days, will be subject to statutory interest charges, will incur debt recovery costs and may be referred to an external debt collection agency.
20.22) Copyright of any project/s completed within the retained hours of that month, that have been paid for in full, belongs to the client.
20.23) We reserve the right to swap your writer for an alternative, equally able writer, at any poitn during the project.
21) Force Majeure
Alex Genn Copywriting shall be under no liability if it shall be unable to carry out any provision of the contract for any reason beyond its control including (without limiting the foregoing) Act of God, legislation, pandemic, war, fire, flood, drought, failure of power supply, lock-out, strike or other action taken by employees in contemplation or furtherance of a dispute or owing to any inability to procure materials required for the performance of the contract. During the continuance of such a contingency the Client may, by written notice to us, elect ‘to terminate the contract and pay for work done and materials used’, but subject thereto shall otherwise accept delivery when available.
22) Single point of contact
The client agrees to nominate a single point of contact to coordinate with us.
23) Feedback
The client agrees to gather all feedback for Alex Genn copywriting into a single document. All feedback should be in a written format, using a word document and the ‘track changes’ and/or ‘comments’ facility.
24) Amendments
For non-retained work we include two sets of amendments. The cost of two sets of amendments is included in the quote for the work. Additional amends are charged at our standard day rate.
25) Interviews
Where interviews are required to support our work, the client will help us to arrange them. Up to two interviews are included in the quote for the work, unless otherwise agreed. Additonal interviews may be charged at our discretion, at our standard day rate.
