Clearly, what we all want is a happy outcome for all involved.
Here, find all the standard terms and conditions that apply to all transactions with us. These terms and conditions are the "ground rules"; unless stated in writing by us, all these terms and conditions apply to all transactions unless explicitly expressed otherwise, in writing. Note that while we are a very young organization, these terms and conditions were formulated from decades of lessons learned in other enterprises; we hope you will find them fair, and if you have any issues, we are certainly prepared to discuss then with you, and possibly accept your suggestions.
This page contains:
- Background on our perspective; why we have these terms and conditions.
- Service Work
- Purchases of Engines or other components unassociated with an automobile in our workshop.
- Quotations, Deposits and Payments
- Pickup and Delivery
- Standard Rates including parts, storage, both prepaid and for unpaid bill.
- Marketing - our use of images or other materials we create during our work.
- Intellectual Property
- Severability
Background
Long years of hard-earned lessons, not just in the bicycle business but in other areas, has brought an understanding of how important it is to have written ground rules for everyone. This helps ensure a positive outcome. Among the hard-earned lessons, one regards accommodating a customer who changes their mind midstream. Others have to do with payment schedule. Sometimes we're flexible, but sometimes we will not budge at all. Some "hard rules" are fixed because they were learned the hard way.
By all means, please do talk to us about what you would like our agreement(s) to look like from a legal point of view, but you must do so before we begin work or money changes hands!
Service Work
"Time and materials," paid upon pick up of service item or completion of job, and sometimes with an advance payment for parts, or other good cause. A deposit may be required in some circumstances. Unpaid balance at completion triggers daily storage fee starting on the third day following completion.
In some circumstances, completion may be delayed for any of a number of reasons, including having to wait for parts, etc. If, for any reason, the duration exceeds 30 days and there is a bill outstanding, even though there is work outstanding, at our discretion we may ask you to make a payment up to the then-current balance total within 5 business days. Late or unpaid balance triggers daily storage fee and possible work termination until balance is paid in full.
Components not associated with a vehicle in our workshop
Our overall policy is that everything is paid on a "time and materials" basis.
Your motor or other major component
When we're rebuilding your unit we expect a deposit of half any estimate provided upon delivery of unit to us. We begin work when you provide funds. Storage for nonpayment may apply; in this circumstance, we provide two weeks grace period following receipt of your unit unless otherwise agreed in writing.
A major component we provide
In most cases, we will sell you a unit outright. However, under some circumstances we may sell you a "core," which is then treated as a unit you brought us. If sold outright, it is sold on an as-is basis unless otherwise agreed in writing. If you wish us to do any work on such a unit, the initial purchase price must be paid in full first, then the component will be treated as a unit you brought us.
Changing Plans: These machinery are systems.
All the pieces have to work together. Where flat-fees or set-price apply, unless agreed otherwise in advance, once the unit's parameters are set and work begins, any change to the project will be counted as a new unit and a new flat-fee or set-price will apply. There may be times when we have not yet performed some particular steps in which we may permit a change without additional fee, but that choice remains our option. At our option, we may treat some situations as a maintenance task, adding time-and-materials to the finished cost.
Examples: Consider that you have a bike we are building for you to your specifications. If, for example, we're still working on fabricating a luggage rack, and you want to change the specifications. If that change is a simple add-on, we may be OK with it. However, it might be that the change is better accommodated by starting over. In either case, it remains our discretion how we'll handle your request. Or consider that you said you wanted certain lighting, and we have ordered the parts and you change your mind. It's not fair to stick us with the challenge of your indecision. The best way to consider this is that once work begins or parts ordered, we're performing the task you asked us to do, and how accommodating we are of your change request remains at our option...
Quotations, Prepayments (deposits), and Payments
Quotations
Quotations for prices on parts we are to supply are subject to change until purchased by us for your project, and are good for 30 days thereafter or less if we so state. For long-running projects, payment of the total then-current balance in full shall deem previously obtained commodity parts as paid for by the customer, however, such standing is lost should the customer fail to maintain a paid-up status on the work in question. (This means that the price for a part may change if the bill is not kept current.) For non-commodity parts, even if the bill was paid up at the time the parts were secured, the parts may be retained by us should the project be canceled or should the balance not remain current according to the terms and conditions contained within this agreement.
Our quotations on work on objects not yet presented to us typically make assumptions about what will be received before it is actually received, and therefore we rely upon our customer's assurances about the quality and condition of what we are to receive. Our customers are therefore responsible for any errors or omissions in conveying accurate information to us used in any quotation and explicitly authorize us to spend the time on any remedial action in determining the actual state of affairs at their expense. We reserve the right to update our quotations for a reasonable period following receipt of items or following discovery of problems during work to provide the necessary time to examine and evaluate the accuracy of and make update to our quote or estimate. However, it is explicitly recognized that some issues may remain hidden. When we recognize this risk and articulate it to our customers, the upper bound of the hidden risk is the valuation of the quotation or estimate without regard to any other dollar or time figure cited.
Prepayments
For custom designs or service work, we generally require a deposit (prepayment); any such deposit for non-service work or subcontracted service work is nonrefundable. Also nonrefundable are funds provided for service work which has been initiated. In the case of "packaged" services (such as the installation of a head-set), the deposit becomes nonrefundable when any portion of the packaged service begins. In the case of deposits that are made to execute an outright purchase from us made in multiple installments, deposits are deemed defaulted if the purchase is not completed within 30 days as provided by California law unless otherwise arranged, in writing.
Payments
At this time, we only accept the following forms of payment, and only under the following terms:
- Cash - US currency is gladly accepted; we may accept others at our discretion, please inquire.
- Cash Deposit - In the USA, we likely have an account with a financial institution with a branch near you. On many occasions the easiest, cheapest, and fastest way to make payment is to bring cash to such a branch and make a deposit. Please be certain to only deposit cash! When cash is deposited, unless there is an error by the clerk, payment is received immediately, and you receive credit by us as soon as we are notified. If you deposit a check into our account, everyone will be unhappy due to the necessary delay; please see the note about Personal Checks below.
- Money Order - Money Orders from the U.S. Government are accepted and may be obtained at U.S. Post Offices. However, it may take us more than one business day to confirm they are valid and cash them, so the official time of receipt may be delayed some.
- Wire Transfer - All fees are to be paid by the payee. There are sometimes fees on the recipient end and these must also be covered by the payee. Just because you paid all fees on your end does not mean you paid all fees on our end! We have had issue with this so many times, we must conclude that many banks lie to their customers when they say the they are covering all fees. So, when we tell you, sorry, there are fees on our end your institution did not cover that you must, we expect you not to argue with us. This fee is usually between $15 and $30 per wire transfer; perhaps consider including a small bit extra to cover this. Also note that wire transfers often take much longer than they should, and, we have learned, it always depends on the behavior of the sending institution. (There are often contractual time windows. Consumers should be aware that many banks deliver funds at the very end of the time window.) We consider the date and time of receipt as that indicated by our financial institution. In summary, note that wire-transfers involve a time delay, typically cost a fair amount of money, and often have hidden fees that must be borne by you, the customer.
- "Cashier's Checks" - So, called "Cashier's Checks," sometimes known as "counter checks," are supposed to be guaranteed fund-checks. However, after past difficulty with such checks, we require that our financial institution confirms your check behaves like one legally before we accept it. So, expect a delay for that confirmation to occur. Further, should we accept it, in the event that there is any period of repudiability, payment will have been considered made on the first business day follow what our financial institution says the last day of any repudiation period.
PERSONAL CHECKS ARE NOT ACCEPTED
Due to way too many problems with personal (or business) checks, your check will not be accepted; please do not ask.
The first issue is simply "insufficient funds" or otherwise a "bad check"; we have received too many. It costs us money to fight such things - it's not only the delay in receiving payment. We have accepted literally tens of thousands of dollars worth of unpaid personal and business checks, and don't want any more.
But bad checks are not the only reason we don't accept personal or business checks; there is also the issue of repudiation. We have had a few unscrupulous clients give us their check, it initially clears, they then make an illegitimate claims against us, their bank takes ALL the money from us, gives them back a chunk of or all of the money, and then some short period of time later they later say, "oh, no problem, my error! They were not at fault, pay them!" and the funds are again released to us. This is in effect what amounts to a temporary loan from us for the duration of them getting over whatever financial difficulty they were having. We have had this happen often enough that this is a significant reason why we do not accept personal checks.
Please do not consider our refusal to accept your personal check to have anything to do with you - it doesn't, it has to do with hard-learned lessons of business. We have often heard from customers, "Oh, but this is ME, I wouldn't give you a bad check!" only to have them give us a bad check or pull the repudiation trick cited above. (Worse is when people say, "How dare you impugne my reputation! I'm offended!") So, please, save us the unpleasantry of having to refuse your check, and save yourself the embarrassment that you weren't able to convince us to take your check, and just don't offer us your personal check.
In the event that you make payment into our account at a bank branch somewhere via a personal check, WOW it's virtually certain will we all be unhappy. The big problem in such a circumstance is that it is basically the same thing as you forcing us to take your personal check. Firstly, there will be a delay in our receipt of funds, and, depending on the amount or other circumstance, it may be a dramatically longer delay than you expect. Further, if we are expecting a cash payment - which is what a cash deposit is - and you then cause this delay via a personal or business check, the discrepancy from our expectation vs reality will not make us happy people. In addition, in this circumstance you have just guaranteed yourself a maximal delay.
Under no circumstances will a product or our work leave our premises prior to payment in full.
Pickup and Delivery
We may be able to arrange shipment, which will be worked out in advance. Otherwise, we expect our customers to drop off and pick up all items, or arrange with others to do so.
Customers are responsible for all transportation of all items to and from our facilities, or an alternate facility we designate, as appropriate, and all fees related thereto.
Customers are responsible for all aspects of all items before they get to or after they leave our facility. We are not obligated to secure insurance, nor are we liable for any issues in packaging.
Our highest published service rate shall apply to any and all activities spent assisting customers with either the packaging or unpacking of goods to be either received or shipped, including, but not limited to, crating, uncrating, meeting with shipping agents, etc.
Standard Rates
Parts
As we are not a parts-house, we generally buy parts at retail. We also are not in the business of discovering the absolute cheapest price on the planet - we have better uses for our time. Therefore, we ask customers to expect our modest mark-up, or provide us with any special parts they want installed. Note that our mark-up must necessarily include our time, shipping and whatever modest expenses, so small items have a higher overhead per piece and they will typically have a higher markup.
Hourly Rates
Design work: $125.00
Service work: $100.00
These rates may be superseded at any time and new values will apply to agreements made subsequent to any change. On multi-month long projects, we reserve the right to alter our rates, and in such instance, the new rate will only apply to work performed after the change.
Storage Rates
Storage due to unpaid balance: $10/day. This applies to vehicles on-site for service which are awaiting pickup or otherwise for payment of bill as outlined elsewhere in this document.
For vehicles on-site specifically for storage which do not have payments due (other than for storage), the following rates shall apply whenever no rate was explicitly specified in writing.
Bicycle storage, per month (or part-month):
- Indoors, normal price: $35, Prepaid: $25
Tricycle storage, per month (or part-month):
- Indoors, normal price: $70, Prepaid: $50
NOTICE: California law provides that a lien may be placed on a vehicle and possibly conduct a lien-sale for nonpayment of storage after only 30 days. Our policy is more generous: We will give you at least 90 days. It's not our job to remind you, and this is why we offer a very generous prepayment option.
Marketing, Documentation, Changes, Errors and Omissions
Our use of images or descriptions we create during the performance of our work
We retain the right to use any and all images and text we create during the performance of our activities, including images and descriptions of your project, in any way we see fit, whether for advertising, marketing, licensing, outright sale (such as posters, book content, etc.), or for any other purpose, without compensation or remuneration to you of any kind, and without consulting with you or seeking your permission. For example, we may leave an ad up indefinitely that pertains to your project as a means of attracting new customers. In engaging with us, you thereby release any and all claims you might have otherwise had on any images or other such materials created by us.
Changes, Errors and Omissions
We retain the right to alter any aspect of our work, whether tangible or intangible including descriptions, and work-product in any form, until a transaction pertaining to that work is complete. Errors or omissions are always possible, no one is perfect, and we strive for perfection, however, by engaging with us you agree to indemnify us against any such errors or omissions and hold us harmless insofar as is allowed by law.
Insofar as there is any intellectual property (IP) created by our work for you, such as any design or technique, by engaging with us you acknowledge that any such property belongs to us and explicitly waive any and all rights to it unless otherwise agreed to in advance.
If any provision of these Terms and Conditions or any additional agreement between us is held invalid, illegal, or otherwise unenforceable, such provision shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make such provision, valid, legal, and otherwise enforceable, and the validity, legality and enforceability of the remaining provisions shall not be impaired thereby.