Terms of service

Last updated 30 September 2026. The signed scope records the services, access arrangements and commercial terms for your engagement.

In this document, "we", "us", "Baken Digital" and "the studio" mean Baken Digital, a trading division of OTK Industries (Pty) Ltd, a company registered in South Africa. "You" means the client or the visitor, depending on context.

The supplier is OTK Industries (Pty) Ltd, registration number 2023/955560/07, trading as Baken Digital, of 18 Diemersdal Road, De Bron, Durbanville, Western Cape.

1. What these terms cover

These terms apply to the services we provide and to your use of this website. A signed quotation or proposal sits above these terms, so where the two conflict, the quotation wins for that project.

2. Quotations and scope

Our published prices are fixed for the scope described on the pricing page. A quotation is valid for 30 days. Scope is set out in writing before work starts, and anything outside it is quoted separately before we do it. We will not do extra work and then invoice you for it as a surprise.

3. Payment

• A 50 percent deposit is payable before work begins on any build. The balance is due on handover.
• Invoices are payable within 14 days of the invoice date.
• Monthly services are billed in advance on the first of each month.
• The prices shown are final. Nothing is added at invoice time.
• Managed services on accounts more than 30 days overdue may be suspended after written notice and the contractual grace period. Suspension and restoration follow the signed agreement; a client’s domain is not used as improvised leverage.

4. What we need from you

Most delays are caused by content. We will tell you exactly what we need and by when. If material is outstanding for more than 30 days, we may pause the project and reschedule it, and a rescheduled project takes its place in the queue rather than resuming immediately.

5. Revisions and approval

Each build includes one round of changes at design stage and one round before launch. Further rounds are billed at our hourly rate. Once you approve the site for launch, it is deemed accepted, and later changes fall under your care plan allowance or are quoted separately.

6. Ownership

Your business remains the legal domain registrant and owner of its business identity assets. Baken manages authorised DNS, hosting/deployment, repositories and service access while engaged. Rights to the finished deliverables and handover follow the signed agreement and payment status. Rights to unfinished or unpaid work remain with Baken as set out in that agreement.

We retain ownership of any underlying tools, components and code libraries we developed before or outside your project, and of our general know-how. You get a perpetual right to use those as part of your site.

You keep ownership of everything you give us, and you confirm that you have the right to use any text, images or logos you supply.

7. Care plans

Care plans run month to month after the included period, with 30 days’ written notice. Managed infrastructure, premium licences and service accounts are not automatically transferred. The signed agreement records the transferable deliverables, access and organised handover arrangements.

The monthly content-change allowance does not roll over. Work beyond the allowance is quoted or billed at the hourly rate, and we will tell you before we exceed it rather than afterwards.

8. What we do not promise

We do not guarantee search engine rankings, traffic volumes, enquiry numbers or revenue. Nobody honestly can, and we would rather say so here than in an argument later. We do commit to doing the work described, competently and on time.

We aim for high availability but do not guarantee uninterrupted uptime, since parts of the infrastructure are outside our control.

9. Portfolio

We publish client work, names, testimonials and results only with explicit permission. Case studies use genuine work and verified evidence.

10. Liability

Our total liability for any claim arising out of our services is limited to the fees you have paid us for the service in question in the 12 months before the claim arose. We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, including lost profit or lost business.

Nothing here limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including liability for fraud or for death or personal injury caused by negligence. If you are a consumer for the purposes of the Consumer Protection Act, 2008, nothing in these terms limits rights you have under that Act.

11. Third-party services

Your site may rely on services we do not control, such as hosting, form handling, booking engines and payment providers. We will choose reputable providers and configure them properly, but we are not responsible for their failures, outages or price changes.

12. Ending the relationship

Either of us may end a project in writing. If you end a build partway, you pay for work completed to that point and we hand over what exists. If we end it, we refund any amount you have paid for work not yet done.

Where you are a natural person contracting through the website, the cooling-off right in section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 applies to the extent the law allows. It does not apply to services that have already begun with your consent before the cooling-off period ends.

13. Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa, and the courts of South Africa have jurisdiction. If something goes wrong, talk to us first. Almost everything is fixable with a conversation.

14. Website Rescue

Website Rescue costs R9,500 once-off for an agreed work allowance. If Baken recommends replacement, the full R9,500 Rescue fee is credited towards a Baken website rebuild booked within 60 days. Access requirements, exclusions and the investigation period are agreed in writing. Additional work, complex remediation and migrations are separately scoped. Access recovery requires the client’s authority; no access controls are bypassed.

15. Search services

Search Foundation is once-off. Search Growth starts with a three-month working commitment, then continues month-to-month with 30 days’ written notice. Search Authority scope and term are agreed in writing. No service guarantees rankings, traffic or lead volumes.

Clients protected by the Consumer Protection Act keep their right to cancel a fixed-term agreement on 20 business days' written notice, subject to a reasonable cancellation charge as the Act allows.