Terms of service

Legal

Plain language, because that is how we work. These terms apply to every purchase from DarkTiger Studios LLC ("the studio"), whether made on this site, by invoice, or by a Stripe payment link. Last updated September 24, 2026.

1. What you are buying

Each service is described on the page where it is sold and, for website builds, in a written scope that you approve before work starts. The scope is the agreement. Anything not in it is a separate line item, quoted before it is built.

2. Payment

Fixed-price services (Website Fix, Search and AI Foundations) are paid in full before work starts. Website builds are paid 50 percent as a deposit before work starts and 50 percent before the site goes live on your domain. The Care Plan is billed monthly in advance. Payments are processed by Stripe; the studio never sees or stores card numbers.

3. Timelines

Stated timelines start when payment has cleared and we have everything we need from you: content, photos, logo, and access to any accounts named in the scope. Days you take to respond do not count against the timeline.

4. What you own

On final payment you own the finished website built for you: its pages, its content, the design files and the code written specifically for your project. The studio keeps its pre-existing tools, templates, components and build system and grants you a licence to use them as part of your site for as long as the site exists. Third-party items such as fonts, stock photos, plugins, open-source packages and connected services stay under their own licences and transfer to you to the extent those licences allow. Your domain, your Google Business Profile, and your Google Search Console and Analytics are registered in your name from day one. The site itself is built under the studio's hosting and code accounts and transferred to accounts in your name on final payment, or, if you keep a Care Plan, held under the studio and transferred to you at no charge within five business days of your request. If you would rather have your own hosting and code accounts from day one, say so at scoping and we build there instead. We never hold your passwords; where we work inside an account of yours we do so as a named collaborator that you can remove at any time. Third-party tools, fonts and licensed photography stay under their own licences.

5. What we promise

Every site we build is run through the studio's delivery gate before handover and must pass with zero failures; a repair is run through the gate before and after, and you get both reports. Where a service page states a measured result, for example a mobile performance score, that is what we deliver and we show you the measurement. We do not promise search rankings, lead counts, revenue, or that any AI assistant will cite you; those depend on search engines, AI companies and your market, not on the site alone.

6. Revisions and acceptance

Builds include the number of revision rounds stated in the scope. A round is one consolidated list of changes. Work is accepted when you say so in writing or when the site goes live at your request, whichever comes first.

7. Your responsibilities

You confirm that you have the right to use everything you give us: text, images, logos, and customer data. You are responsible for the accuracy of business information on your site and for keeping your own accounts secure. You are responsible for what your site says and collects: the accuracy of your claims, licences and disclosures your trade requires, your privacy notice where the law requires one, and how you use the customer data your site gathers. We build every site to pass automated accessibility checks at launch and hand you the report; keeping the site accessible and compliant as you change it afterwards is your responsibility unless a Care Plan covers it.

8. Cancellation

See the refunds and cancellations page. In short: before work starts, a full refund; once work has started, the deposit covers the work done; the Care Plan cancels any time with no further charges, and the site transfers to you free.

9. Care Plan specifics

The Care Plan covers hosting, updates, backups, monitoring, the monthly gate report and the stated hours of edits. It does not cover new pages, redesigns, or recovering from changes made by someone other than the studio; those are quoted separately. If you leave, we transfer the hosting project and the code repository to accounts in your name and hand over a full copy of the site and transfer every account the studio was invited into, within five business days.

10. Limits

The studio's total liability for any service is limited to the amount you paid for that service. We are not liable for lost profits or indirect losses, or for outages at hosting, domain, payment or email providers we do not control. You agree to cover any claim against the studio that arises from content, data or instructions you supplied, or from how you run your business, to the extent the claim is not caused by our own breach of these terms. Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited under New York law.

11. Disputes

Talk to us first: hello@darktigerstudio.com. Most problems are a misunderstanding about scope and are fixed in a day. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, and any dispute will be heard in the courts of Albany County, New York.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. The version that applies to a purchase is the one dated on this page when the agreement took effect, and we keep dated copies. For website builds, the scope names the version.

13. Which document governs

For website builds the written scope governs what is built, the price, the revision rounds, the dates and what each side provides. These terms govern the general legal provisions. The refund policy governs refunds and cancellations. The scope, these terms and the refund policy together are the whole agreement; earlier proposals and conversations are not part of it. Changes to an agreement are made in writing, and email counts.

14. Authority

The person who approves a scope, pays, or replies "agreed" confirms that they are authorised to make the agreement for the business named in the scope.

15. Change orders, stalled projects and cancellation after work starts

Anything outside the scope is a change order, quoted in writing before it is built; an approved change order may move the price and the dates. If you cancel after work has started, the deposit covers the work done and you receive the files for the work you have paid for. If we hear nothing from you for 30 days after asking for something the project needs, the project pauses; after 60 days it closes on the same basis, and restarting is a new scope. A site is accepted when you say so in writing, when it goes live at your request, or ten business days after we tell you it is ready for review and hear nothing, whichever comes first.

16. After launch

For 30 days after a site goes live we fix anything in the delivered scope that does not work as agreed, at no charge. New pages, new features and changes of mind are change orders or Care Plan hours.

17. Late payment

A balance not paid within 14 days of the site being ready is late. We may pause work and hold the launch until it is paid. A site already live may be taken offline after 14 days' written notice of non-payment and restored within one business day of payment.

18. Third-party costs, portfolio and confidentiality

Domains, stock photography, paid plugins, on-site photography and any other third-party cost are listed in the scope and passed through at cost, or bought in your name. We may show the finished site in our portfolio and name you as a client unless you tell us not to, in writing, at any time. We keep your business information, logins and customer data confidential and use them only to do the work.

19. General

Neither side is responsible for delay caused by events outside its reasonable control, such as a provider outage, a natural event or a public emergency, and dates move by the length of the delay. If any part of these terms cannot be enforced, the rest still applies.