Terms of Service

1. Who we are and when these terms apply

SodaStack LLC ("SodaStack", "we", "us") is a New York limited liability company that designs, builds and hosts websites for small businesses and organizations. These terms apply when you buy from us through Self Checkout on sodastack.co, when you sign a proposal or statement of work we send you, or when you use this website. Buying through Self Checkout means ticking the box that says you accept these terms; that tick is your signature. If a signed proposal says something different from these terms, the proposal wins for that project.

2. What we sell

Our packages and their prices are on the pricing page at the time you buy, and that page is part of these terms. In summary:

• Web Design, Basic tier: up to 5 pages on one of our finished themes, branded with your colors, fonts, logo, images and copy. No custom development. Available as a subscription ($99 per month) or as a one-time build ($500, plus the Handoff Kit below).
• Web Design, Pro tier: a bespoke design built on our Pro base theme, with up to 9 pages (by default Home, About, Services, Work, Blog, Contact, Pricing, FAQ, Team); content types built for your business; working email delivery for your forms and a payments plugin where you take payments; Google Analytics 4 on an account you own; SSL and an uptime check verified at launch; a weekly check of your Google Business Profile; and a monthly written report. Scoped and quoted in a written proposal — $199 per month, or $1,000 one-time plus the Handoff Kit. Not sold through Self Checkout.
• E-commerce: a Shopify store build, scoped and quoted in a written proposal. Not sold through Self Checkout.
• Add-ons such as extra pages or additional plugins are quoted in writing before we build them and are never charged without your approval.
• What counts as a page: a top-level editable page reachable from your site's navigation. These do not count toward a tier's page count: the blog or news index and individual posts; individual products in a store and the category pages that list them, however many you add; legally required pages such as a privacy policy; and pages a theme needs in order to work — Donate, Order, Shop, Cart, Checkout, My Account. Pages beyond the tier are the Extra pages add-on, quoted before we build them.

3. Subscriptions, renewal and cancellation

A Web Design subscription includes hosting, SSL, daily backups, software updates, an uptime check, blog and analytics setup, and a monthly allowance of content update requests, for as long as it runs. Pro adds a weekly check of your Google Business Profile and a monthly written report. These are the terms every subscription carries:

• A content update request is one change to existing content on an existing page — copy, an image, or a blog post — sent by the account holder and handled within two business days. Each tier states its monthly allowance; unused requests do not carry over. New pages, features and integrations are quoted separately. Requests must come from a person: automated, scripted or bulk submissions are not accepted and do not count toward the allowance.
• It renews automatically every month and is charged to the card on file until you cancel. You agreed to that when you subscribed, and we say it again here so there is no surprise.
• Cancel any time by emailing sales@sodastack.co from the address on the account. We confirm in writing within two business days. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing period already paid for; there are no refunds of a month already charged.
• Customer Care is our name for these commitments: update requests and cancellations handled within two business days, and on Pro the weekly profile check and the monthly report. It is not a help desk, a guarantee of uptime, or a promise of any response outside business days.
• The Client Onboarding Fee is $1,000, charged once per customer, ever. It is waived in full when you commit to 12 months at signup. It is charged with your first payment if you subscribe month to month, and it is non-refundable.
• If you took the 12-month commitment and cancel before the 12 months have been paid, the waived onboarding fee of $1,000 becomes due and is charged to the card on file. No further monthly charges are made after that. This is the whole cost of leaving early.
• Before a 12-month commitment renews for a further term, we email you a reminder at least 15 days beforehand with the price and how to cancel.
• When a subscription ends we give you an export of your site's content and, for 30 days, help you move it to a host of your choice. After that the site is taken down and its hosting deleted.
• If a payment fails we retry and email you. If it is still unpaid after 14 days we may take the site offline until it is settled, and after 60 days we may end the subscription.

4. One-time builds and the Handoff Kit

The one-time path means we build the site and hand it to you, and you host and maintain it yourself afterwards.

• The Handoff Kit ($1,000) is due at signing and is non-refundable once work has started. It covers the transfer, training for whoever will run the site, a live walkthrough, and a good-to-go check.
• The build fee ($500 for Basic) is billed when you approve the design. Through Self Checkout both are charged together at purchase.
• The transfer completes when the build fee has cleared. From then the site, its content and its administrator access are entirely yours, and our responsibility for it ends except as stated under Ownership below.

5. Self Checkout, and what expedited turnaround means

Self Checkout lets you choose a Basic plan, a theme and your colors, and pay, and your project opens the moment payment clears. Because you did the intake yourself, we can move faster, and we promise this:

• Expedited turnaround: we target launching your site within 10 business days after two things are true: we have received your content through the link we send you, and your WordPress site exists with the access we need. Days waiting on your content or access do not count. If we miss the target for reasons within our control, we credit you one month of subscription, or 10% of a one-time build fee.
• Cooling-off: you may cancel a Self Checkout purchase for a full refund within 3 days of paying, provided we have not yet started work. Email us. After that the terms in sections 3 and 4 apply.
• Your colors are checked for readability when you choose them. If a color you insist on fails that check, we may substitute the nearest readable shade and will tell you.
• We will not begin building until we have your content. If nothing arrives within 30 days of purchase we will email you twice; after 60 days we may pause the project, and a subscription continues to bill because hosting has been provisioned for you.

6. Your content, and what we will never do with it

You provide the logo, images, copy and facts about your business. We set them into the theme. The rules we work by:

• You confirm you own, or have the right to use, everything you give us, including photographs, logos, testimonials and any personal information about your customers or staff. If a third party claims otherwise, that is between you and them, and you cover any cost to us that results.
• We never invent facts on your behalf. If you leave something blank, it stays blank rather than being made up. Reviews and testimonials on your site are only ever ones you actually received.
• The stock photographs bundled with a theme are placeholders. They may remain on your site only if you choose to keep them, and they are licensed for that use.
• You review the site before it goes live. Launch happens when you approve it in writing, or 14 days after we send the review link if we hear nothing, whichever is first.
• We may decline to publish content that is unlawful, defamatory, infringing, deceptive, or that we reasonably believe would expose either of us to liability, and we will tell you why.

7. Ownership

• Your content is yours, before, during and after. We claim nothing in it.
• Your domain is yours. It is registered in your name and billed to you by the registrar, never bundled into our fee, and we do not register it on an account of ours. If you leave, it goes with you: we release any access we were given, we charge nothing to do it, and we will not hold a domain, its DNS or its transfer code against an unpaid invoice or anything else.
• Our themes are WordPress themes released under the GPL. You may use, modify and keep the theme your site runs on, and we keep the right to use the same theme, its design and our tooling for other clients.
• For a one-time build, everything on the site transfers to you when the build fee clears. For a subscription, the site is yours to take with you when it ends, as described in section 3.
• We may show the finished site in our portfolio and in our marketing, naming you as the client, unless you tell us in writing not to. We will never show a site that is not yet live.

8. Payments, taxes and chargebacks

• Payments are processed by Stripe under its own terms. We never see your full card number.
• Prices are in US dollars and do not include sales tax. Where tax applies, it is added at checkout or on the invoice.
• If you dispute a charge with your card issuer instead of writing to us first, we may suspend the service while it is resolved. Please email us; almost everything is faster to fix that way.

9. What we promise, and the limits

We promise to do the work described with reasonable skill and care, on the timeline stated, and to fix at no charge anything that does not match what you approved. Beyond that:

• Hosting is provided through third-party providers. We keep daily backups and restore promptly, and an uptime check tells us when the site is unreachable — but a check is not a guarantee: we cannot guarantee uninterrupted uptime, search rankings, traffic, sales or any particular business result.
• Except for the promises above, the services are provided as is, and we make no other warranties, express or implied.
• Our total liability to you for any claim arising from a project is limited to the amount you paid us for that project in the 12 months before the claim. We are not liable for indirect, consequential or lost-profit damages. Some states do not allow these limits, in which case they apply to the fullest extent allowed.
• You will cover any loss we suffer that results from content you supplied, your use of the site, or your breach of these terms.

10. Ending things, and disputes

• Either side may end a project for a serious breach that is not fixed within 14 days of written notice. Work done to that point is paid for.
• These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York. Before either of us goes to court we agree to try, for 30 days, to sort it out directly by email or a call. After that, any claim is brought in the state or federal courts in Nassau County, New York, and both sides consent to those courts.
• If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest stands.
• We may update these terms. The date at the top changes when we do. Changes apply to purchases made after the change; a running subscription keeps the terms it was bought under until it renews, and we email you before a renewal if the terms have changed.