Terms

Terms of service and cancellation policy

Effective October 5, 2026. These terms apply to every website Tidepool Web builds and every monthly care plan we provide. Your signed proposal lists your exact prices. If your proposal and these terms ever disagree, your proposal wins.

What we provide

Tidepool Web designs and builds websites, then hosts and maintains them for a monthly fee. Your proposal describes the pages and features in your build, the number of revision rounds, and which monthly care plan you are on.

Build fee and payment

• The build fee is quoted in your proposal. A deposit, usually 25% or 50% of the build fee, is due before work starts.
• The rest of the build fee is due when your site launches. We launch once the balance is paid.
• We accept card and bank (ACH) payments through Stripe. Payments are processed by Stripe, and we never see or store your full card or bank numbers.

Monthly care plan

• Monthly care begins the month your site goes live and is charged automatically each month to the card or bank account you save.
• It covers hosting, your SSL certificate, nightly backups, security updates, uptime monitoring, holiday hours, domain renewal up to $50 a year, and the monthly edit time included in your plan.
• Unused edit time does not roll over to the next month. Larger work, like a new page or a redesign of a section, is quoted before we start.
• We may change monthly prices with at least 30 days' written notice. A price change never applies during your minimum term.

Minimum term

Monthly care plans have a 12-month minimum term starting from the month your site goes live, unless your proposal says otherwise. After the minimum term, your plan continues month to month.

Cancellation

• After your minimum term, you can cancel at any time with 30 days' notice by email. Your plan ends at the close of the billing month after the notice period.
• If you cancel before your minimum term ends, the remaining monthly payments for the minimum term are due.
• When you cancel, we hand over your text, photos, and other content you provided. You can also buy the finished site files for a one-time buyout fee, quoted on request, so you can move them to another host.
• We can cancel a plan with 30 days' notice. If we do, we give you your content and the site files at no charge.

Refunds

• Deposits pay for design and build work that starts right away, so they are not refundable once work has begun. If you cancel before we start any work, we refund your deposit in full.
• If you cancel during the build, you pay only for the work completed so far, and we refund any amount paid above that.
• Monthly care payments are not refunded for partial months.
• If you think you were charged in error, email us within 30 days of the charge and we will fix it.

Late or failed payments

If a monthly payment fails, Stripe retries it automatically and we let you know. If a payment is more than 30 days past due, we may pause your site until the account is current. We restore it as soon as payment is received.

Who owns what

• Your domain name is registered in your business's name and belongs to you.
• Your text, photos, logo, and other content you provide belong to you. You confirm you have the right to use anything you send us.
• The site design and code are owned by Tidepool Web and licensed to you while you are on a monthly care plan, or permanently once you pay the buyout fee.
• We may show your site in our portfolio unless you ask us not to.

Your part

You are responsible for the accuracy of the content on your site, including prices, hours, and any claims about your business. Builds stay on schedule when we get your photos, text, and feedback promptly. If a project is paused waiting on you for more than 60 days, we may close it and bill for the work completed.

Uptime and liability

We work to keep your site online and secure, but no host can promise 100% uptime. Our total liability for any claim is limited to the amount you paid us in the three months before the claim. We are not responsible for lost profits or indirect losses, or for outages caused by third parties such as hosting providers, domain registrars, or payment processors.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. We will email active clients about changes at least 30 days before they take effect. Changes never shorten a minimum term or raise a price during it.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Questions

Email us at hello@tidepoolweb.com, or request a call.