Terms of Service

Last updated: 10 April 2025 · Questions: support@neelnetworks.com · Governing law: Mumbai, India

Please take a few minutes to read these terms before engaging us for any design, development or digital service. They set out clearly what you can expect from us and what we will need from you.

These Terms form a binding agreement between Neel Networks (“we”, “us”, “our”), a web design and development company registered and operating from Mumbai, India, and you (“the Client”), the individual or business engaging our services.

By requesting a quotation, signing a proposal, making a payment, or instructing us to begin work in any form — including by email — you confirm that you have read, understood and accepted these Terms. If anything here is unclear, please write to us before proceeding and we will gladly explain it.

• They apply to every service we provide, including website design and development, eCommerce, mobile applications, SEO, AIO, AEO and GEO optimisation, AI solutions, graphic design, UI/UX design, website maintenance, prepaid support hours and any other digital service.
• They apply whether you are an individual, a sole trader, a partnership, a private or public limited company, or any other legal entity, and wherever in the world you are based.
• They apply to services delivered under the Neel Networks brand (neelnetworks.com) and under our local-market brand, Mumbai Web Services (mumbaiwebservices.com).
• A project is formally accepted when you pay the advance, instruct us in writing to commence, or sign a proposal or Statement of Work. Any one of these constitutes acceptance of these Terms.

The deliverables, features and scope for each engagement are set out in a written proposal, quotation or Statement of Work shared with you before work begins. Where a Statement of Work differs from these Terms, the Statement of Work takes precedence for that project.

Our services include, among others:

• Custom website design and development
• WordPress and WooCommerce development
• Shopify and other eCommerce platforms
• MERN stack and Laravel web applications
• Mobile applications for iOS and Android
• AI solutions, chatbots and language-model integrations
• UI/UX design and graphic design
• SEO, AIO, AEO and GEO optimisation
• Website maintenance and prepaid support hours
• Domain and hosting provisioning, governed by our separate Domain & Hosting Terms

Everything we deliver is built from scratch. We do not use unlicensed themes, templates or copied code, and every third-party framework, library or plugin we include is properly licensed.

Quotations

All quotations are issued in writing and remain valid for 30 days from the date of issue unless stated otherwise. A quotation is based on the scope described at the time of enquiry, so a change to that scope may lead to a revised quotation.

Payment structure

Our standard structure is set out below. Individual arrangements may differ and will always be confirmed in writing.

Payment methods

We accept bank transfer (NEFT, IMPS or SWIFT), UPI, PayPal, Wise and other methods by arrangement. Payment should be made in the currency shown on your quotation.

Late payment

If a payment is not received within 7 days of its due date, we may pause work until the balance is cleared. We will always let you know before pausing anything. A delay beyond 30 days may lead to cancellation of the project, in which case our Refund Policy applies.

Taxes

All prices are exclusive of applicable taxes. Indian clients may be liable for GST. Clients elsewhere are responsible for any taxes due in their own jurisdiction.

Work does not commence, and completed work is not handed over, until the applicable payment has cleared. This protects both of us and keeps the project moving.

Most projects follow the stages below. Complex or bespoke work may vary.

1. Briefing and discovery. We gather everything we need about your business, your goals, your audience and your design preferences.
2. Design. Full designs are prepared and shared with you for review and approval.
3. Development. Approved designs are built, and the content you provide is put in place.
4. Review and testing. The completed work is shared on a staging environment for your review, testing and sign-off.
5. Final revisions. Agreed changes are made. Anything outside the agreed scope is quoted separately.
6. Launch. Following final payment and your sign-off, the website goes live.
7. Post-launch support. Your free year of support begins from the date of launch.

Written approval at each stage, normally by email, constitutes formal sign-off. Verbal approvals are not binding, and we would encourage you to keep your own record of every approval given.

Revisions included

Each project includes the number of revision rounds stated in your quotation or Statement of Work. A revision refines the approved design or content; it is not a new requirement or a redesign.

Work outside the agreed scope

Anything requested beyond the original scope — new pages, new features, structural changes after design approval, or a change of platform — is treated as a new request and quoted separately. We will always seek your written approval before starting any such work, so there are never unexpected charges.

Growing scope

Substantial additions after a project has begun may extend the timeline and require a revised payment schedule. We will tell you promptly and agree the revised scope and cost with you before proceeding.

Where unlimited design revisions are offered, this means unlimited revisions within the agreed scope, not unlimited redesigns or added features. Our team will always make clear what is and is not included before work begins.

Estimated timelines are given in good faith, based on the scope agreed at briefing. Most standard websites are delivered within 7 to 15 working days. Larger projects such as eCommerce stores, custom web applications and AI solutions take longer, as set out in the Statement of Work.

If matters are delayed on your side

Timelines depend on content, feedback and approvals reaching us on time. If we do not hear from you within 5 working days at any stage, we are unable to guarantee the original delivery date. A delay beyond 30 days may mean the project is paused and rescheduled.

If matters are delayed on our side

If we are unable to meet a committed date for reasons within our control, we will tell you promptly and give you a revised timeline. We are not able to accept liability for consequential losses arising from a reasonable delay.

Events beyond control

Neither party is in breach of these Terms where a delay or failure to perform results from circumstances beyond reasonable control, such as natural disasters, government action or widespread internet outages.

Your ownership on full payment

Once payment for a completed project has been received in full, all intellectual property rights in the final delivered work — design files, code and any written content we created specifically for you — pass to you. You own the finished deliverable outright.

Our own tools and frameworks

We retain ownership of our proprietary tools, methods, frameworks, code libraries and any pre-existing intellectual property used in delivering your project. Open-source software such as WordPress, WooCommerce or React remains subject to its own licence.

Materials you provide

You confirm that all materials you give us — images, logos, text, trademarks and data — are yours or that you hold the rights to use them, and you agree to indemnify Neel Networks against any third-party claim arising from material you have supplied.

Our portfolio

Unless you ask us in writing before the project begins not to, we may include completed work in our portfolio, case studies and marketing material, including our website and social channels. We are always happy to honour a request for confidentiality.

Before full payment

Intellectual property does not transfer until all outstanding amounts have been received. Files shared during a project for review do not constitute a transfer of ownership.

A good project is a partnership. To deliver on time and to the standard we would like, we ask that you:

• Provide complete and accurate briefing information at the outset, including business details, brand assets and content requirements
• Supply the content we need — text, images, logos and documents — within the agreed timeframes
• Give feedback and approvals promptly, ideally within 5 working days at each review stage
• Nominate a single point of contact with authority to make decisions, as feedback from several people in different directions is the most common cause of delay
• Provide the access we need, such as hosting logins, existing CMS access or third-party API keys
• Ensure everything you provide is lawful and does not infringe anyone else's rights
• Take a backup of your existing website before any migration, redesign or maintenance work begins

Both parties agree to keep confidential any proprietary, sensitive or commercially valuable information shared during a project, including business strategy, pricing, customer data, access credentials and unreleased products.

• Our undertaking. We will not disclose your confidential information to anyone without your written consent, except where the law requires it, and access within our team is limited to those working on your project.
• Your undertaking. You agree not to disclose or publish our internal processes, pricing structures, tools or unreleased work.
• Non-disclosure agreements. For particularly sensitive projects we are glad to sign your NDA, or to provide our own standard template.
• Personal data. We handle personal data in accordance with our Privacy Policy and applicable data protection law. We never sell, rent or share personal data for marketing purposes.

One year of support, included

Every website and web application we deliver includes one year of free support from the date it goes live. This covers:

• Fixing any bug arising from our own code
• Minor content updates — text, images and simple layout adjustments
• Technical questions about the website we delivered
• Security monitoring guidance for WordPress and other CMS-based sites

What free support does not include

• New features, new pages or structural redesigns
• Problems caused by changes you or a third party have made to the code
• Problems caused by third-party plugin updates or platform changes outside our control
• Ongoing SEO management or content creation

After the first year

Support continues through prepaid support hours or a monthly maintenance plan, and we will set out the options for you at the point of delivery.

Domain and hosting

Free domain and hosting included with qualifying packages is governed by our Domain & Hosting Terms, which form part of this agreement.

Our warranties

• All work is produced by our own team or under our direct supervision.
• We hold the right to use every tool, framework and asset included in what we deliver.
• What we deliver will function as designed and specified at the time of launch, in modern web browsers.
• Any bug in our own code will be corrected during the free support period at no charge.

Business outcomes

We cannot warrant particular business results — visitor numbers, search rankings, revenue, enquiries or conversion rates. These depend on market conditions, competition and your own activity as much as on the work we deliver. We will always give you our honest view of what is realistic.

Third-party services

We are not responsible for the performance, availability or pricing of third-party platforms such as WordPress, Shopify, Google, payment gateways or hosting providers. Where we integrate them we do so in good faith, but we cannot warrant their continued operation.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Neel Networks is not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive damages, including loss of profit, data, business or goodwill, even where we have been advised that such loss is possible.

Limit of our liability

Our total liability to you, whether in contract, tort including negligence, breach of statutory duty or otherwise, will not exceed the total fees you have paid for the particular project or service giving rise to the claim in the 6 months before the claim.

Data

We would strongly encourage you to keep your own backups of website files and databases. We take great care in all our work, but we are not liable for data loss caused by server failure, third-party platform issues or changes made on your side.

Security

We follow sound security practices throughout our development work. No website can be guaranteed entirely free of vulnerabilities, and we are not liable for a breach arising from something outside the code we delivered, such as the hosting environment or plugins installed by others.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded.

If you end the project

You may end a project at any time by giving us written notice. In that event:

• All work completed up to the date of termination is billable and payable in full.
• The advance is not refundable.
• Where the work completed exceeds the advance paid, we will invoice the balance, payable within 14 days.
• Where the work completed is less than the advance paid, a partial refund may be made at our discretion, less costs already incurred such as design time, third-party tools, domain or hosting.

If we end the engagement

We may end a project or stop providing services where:

• Payment has not been made within 30 days of its due date
• Instructions given to our team are abusive, threatening or unlawful
• We are asked to produce content that is unlawful, defamatory or infringing
• Continuing would require us to act against the law

In any of these cases we will invoice for the work completed to that date, and the terms above apply.

Abandoned projects

If a project becomes inactive because we have not been able to reach you for more than 60 consecutive days, we may treat it as abandoned and close it, and the advance is forfeited. Should you wish to restart later, we will gladly issue a fresh quotation.

These Terms are governed by the laws of India, and the courts of Mumbai, Maharashtra have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising from them or from any engagement.

Resolving a dispute

In the first instance both parties agree to attempt a resolution through good-faith discussion. Either party may begin that process by writing to the other, describing the dispute and the outcome sought. If it is not resolved within 30 days of that notice, either party may proceed to formal action.

Clients outside India

Clients based outside India accept that, by engaging us, they submit to the jurisdiction of the Mumbai courts for disputes arising from our services. This does not affect any mandatory consumer protection available under local law.

We may amend these Terms from time to time, and the current version is always published on this page.

• For a project already underway, any material change is communicated to you by email at least 14 days before it takes effect, and continuing to work with us after that date constitutes acceptance.
• For a new project, the Terms in force when the project commences apply.

We aim to reply to every legal or compliance query within 2 business days.