Customer Service
Customer service is really easy – just contact us if you need any help. You can email Cynthia at cynthia@rowboatmedia.com or call us at 202.996.8141.
You can also send us snail mail to: 3916 N Potsdam Ave #5221, Sioux Falls SD 57104.
Payments
Rowboat Media LLC takes the following payment methods for custom websites, WebMistress Service subscriptions and any coaching/information products:
Your charges will show up on your credit card statement as ROWBOAT MEDIA.
Periodic Payments
Unless otherwise stated, any service performed that is being paid for with periodic payments – either over a fixed term or unlimited subscription (like the WebMistress Service), will be handled by automatic credit card subscription. This makes it easy for us to keep rates reasonable instead of having to add a significant amount for the overhead involved in manual billing and collections work.
By signing up for a periodic payment plan, you agree to let us charge the same card automatically at the appropriate interval. You can change the card being used at any time upon request – just email us and we’ll send you a secure shopping cart link to update your information.
Cancellations and Refunds
Custom Website Design Services – All Custom Work
We take retainers on our custom website design services. In the event you experience severe circumstances and need to cancel your project, if we have not yet begun work on your project, refunds can be considered upon request. If we HAVE begun work on your project, in most cases, your entire deposit is nonrefundable. Final payment is due before launch of our designs on any hosting account other than our own – which means that those on our 12-month payment plans must choose our hosting option until the project is paid in full.
Abandonment Policy
Retainers are also nonrefundable for clients who fail to contact us or respond to our communications for a period of 30 days, and we reserve the right to consider a project abandoned by client and cancel the project after 30 days of noncommunication. Email is considered a good-faith effort to communicate.
Clients who abandon their projects via noncommunication can reinstate them by paying a reinstatement fee of no less than $1500. We are not an escrow company and cannot be expected to “hold a credit on file” for disappearing clients for a number of years.
WebMistress Service – Hosting Not Included
Refunds: WebMistress Service is billed in advance for 30 days at a time, and is non-refundable.
Cancellations: If you are hosting with a third party, you can cancel your WebMistress Service at any time. If it is a PayPal subscription, you do this from inside your PayPal account. If you are using another payment method, just send us an email with a request to cancel and we will expedite. Be advised that if you cancel your service and wish to re-subscribe at a later date, your subscription will be subject to a $150 setup fee.
Rates: There may be a $10/month surcharge for hosting with a provider other than WPEngine. We reserve the right to update our rate structure and/or list of included services at any time, with at least 30 days notice to all subscribers.
WebMistress Service – Hosting Included
Refunds: WebMistress Service/Hosting is billed in advance for 30 days at a time, and is non-refundable.
Cancellations/Transfers:
We’ve all felt stuck with a webhost because it was just too scary or too much of a hassle to change.
Because we’re all about the non-scary and hassle-free experience, we’ll actually pay the transfer charges to set you up with your own, independent WPEngine hosting account within 30 days of your notification that you wish to cancel with us. The process will be seamless, after you provide us with the login information for your new account.
If you choose to leave us and go with a host that isn’t WPEngine, then know that you have 30 days to have the new company grab your stuff and move it before your site goes down. We’ll also be happy to give that company all the access they need to do their job, with your authorization – but we don’t provide in-house support for those moves – you’re on your own there in working with your new hosting company.
Rates: We reserve the right to update our rate structure and/or list of included services at any time, with at least 30 days notice to all subscribers.
Downloadable Information Products
Rowboat Media LLC may, from time to time, offer downloadable information products at a fixed price. Since information, once received, cannot be “returned,” such products are considered non-refundable unless otherwise expressly stated in the individual product offer. If a refund policy is stated, contact us at cynthia@rowboatmedia.com to arrange for a refund.
Warranties
We cannot guarantee 100% server uptime for hosting, or that our products are 100% free of defects and will survive third-party upgrades to platforms like WordPress, Thesis, and any plug-ins used. What we do offer is passionate customer service and the promise to make sure your website runs properly at the time it is launched, on the existing software, on Windows and Mac platforms, and on current versions of major web browsers. You can insulate yourself from issues caused by further software evolution by subscribing to the WebMistress Service – otherwise, upgrades requested are charged at an hourly rate.
Rowboat Media LLC is not responsible for any loss of income, demonstrable or perceived, due to website downtime.
We also do not guarantee that you will receive business from your website or that it will achieve first page SERP ranking.
Unfortunately, the days of “if you build it, they will come” are over, and online marketing becomes more competitive daily. We create a clean, fast-running, visually appealing design on an easy to use content management system, with the current best practices in SEO baked in – including custom metadata fields for each pre-launch page and local SEO signals like schema.org for your contact information, and we provide advice on how to take that site and run with it in terms of publishing content, marketing it, and the like.
A website is a tool for marketing, not a magic wand. Each business is also a living organism of its own, dependent upon its owner, the viability of the business itself, and the vagaries of the economy. Simply put – your mileage may vary.
Termination
Rowboat Media LLC reserves the right to terminate an unlaunched project at any time for any reason at our discretion with a refund of client’s retainer.
Right of Refusal
Rowboat Media LLC reserves the right not to accept a project or a support client for any reason at any time.