The terms, in plain English

1. Who we are

Nearby Social is run by Hugo Swanepoel, a sole proprietor trading as Nearby Social, based in South Africa. We’re not a registered company, so there’s no company registration number, and we’re not VAT registered, so no VAT is added to our prices.

2. What these terms cover

These terms apply when you use this website or buy a service from us. Your written quote sets out exactly what you’re getting and the price. If your quote and these terms say different things, the quote wins for that point. These terms work together with our Refund policy, Cancellation policy, Delivery policy and Privacy policy.

You can save or print this page at any time, and we’ll happily email you a copy of these terms (with your quote, or whenever you ask).

3. Our services

Full descriptions and prices are on our Services & pricing page.

• Social media packages (monthly): planning, writing, graphics and posting on the platforms in your package, a monthly content calendar and a short monthly report.
• Website build (once-off): a mobile-friendly website (home, services, about, and contact with an enquiry form), written in your voice.
• Hosting & care (monthly): keeping your site online and secure, plus small monthly updates like opening hours, prices, a photo or a few lines of text. Bigger changes are quoted first.

We use digital tools, including AI tools, for some behind-the-scenes work like drafting ideas and graphics. A real person plans, checks and edits everything, and you approve it before it goes out.

4. Getting started

1. We send you a written quote, with a link to these terms. Read both, ask anything, take your time. Please read section 13 (our liability) before you say yes. If something’s wrong, we’ll correct it before you pay.
2. When you’re happy, you accept it with a written “yes” (email or WhatsApp) or by paying the first invoice.
3. Your invoice comes with a secure Payfast payment link.
4. Once it’s paid, your 5-business-day cooling-off period starts. If you change your mind in that time, just tell us and you get a full refund, no reason needed. Work (planning, design and content) starts after those 5 business days, and your first month’s 30 days count from the day work starts.

5. Prices and paying

• Our South African prices are in Rand (ZAR). No VAT is added because we’re not VAT registered.
• International clients: your price is agreed in US dollars in your quote, and each invoice is in rand at that day’s exchange rate (rounded up to the nearest R10), because Payfast works in rand. We agree this with you upfront, so a small change in the rand amount from month to month isn’t a price change. Your bank converts the amount and may charge its own fees.
• You pay through Payfast, using the options on the Payfast payment page (such as card or instant EFT). Payfast handles card details on its own secure pages; we never see or store them.
• Social packages: each service month runs from your work-start date (for example, the 12th to the 11th of the next month). We invoice about 7 days before each new service month, and it’s paid in advance.
• Website build: 50% deposit to start, the balance before go-live.
• Hosting & care: monthly in advance.
• If an invoice isn’t paid: that month’s work doesn’t start, and a website doesn’t go live until the balance is paid. If a hosting invoice is still unpaid 14 days after a reminder, we may pause the site after giving you 7 days’ written notice. We don’t charge late fees or interest.
• Price changes: we’ll give you at least 30 days’ written notice before a new price applies to you, and you’re free to cancel instead.
• You get an emailed invoice for every payment, and Payfast emails you a receipt. Keep these as your record. We keep your quote, your acceptance and your invoices for 5 years, and you can ask us for a copy any time in that period.

Payments and security

• Card payments are processed for us by Payfast, a secure payment gateway approved by South African banks. Payfast uses encryption on its own payment pages, and your card details are never entered on or stored by our website.
• We keep your contact and billing details separately from card details, which only Payfast handles.
• The merchant outlet country is South Africa, and the transaction currency is South African Rand (ZAR).
• We (not Payfast) are responsible for everything about the sale: the services, customer support, resolving any dispute, and delivery.

6. Your part

• Give us accurate information about your business, services, prices and offers.
• Approve or comment on content within a reasonable time. We’ll always say when we need it.
• Only send us photos, videos, logos, music and reviews you have the right to use. If people can be recognised in photos, make sure they’ve agreed (for children, a parent or guardian must agree). Photos of patients or clients, including before-and-after photos, need that person’s written consent, and some professions limit or ban them in advertising, so check your rules first.
• Don’t send us customers’ personal information we don’t need, and never patients’ health information.
• Tell us about any advertising rules in your profession (for example health, legal, financial or property rules), and check that claims in your posts are accurate before you approve them. You know your industry best, and you give the final OK.
• Give us access through proper team or partner access, never your passwords.

7. Approvals and changes

• Nothing is posted or published without your approval.
• Each monthly batch includes two rounds of changes. Small tweaks after that are fine; a whole new direction for the month may be quoted as extra work first.
• Website builds include two rounds of changes on the draft site before go-live.
• Posts you haven’t approved by the end of a service month roll over into the next month once, then expire. Details are in our Refund policy (section 1).
• Want a live post taken down? Just ask.

8. What we don’t promise

We promise consistent, honest, on-brand work that you’ve approved. We can’t promise a number of followers, likes, leads, customers or sales, or that anything will go viral. Results depend on things we don’t control, like platform algorithms, your market and your prices.

9. Your accounts and platforms

Your social media pages, Google Business Profile, domain name and website accounts belong to you. We work through the access you give us, and when we stop working together you remove our access (we’ll remind you, and remove ourselves where we can). Platforms like Meta and Google set their own rules and can change features or reach, or suspend accounts. We aren’t responsible for their decisions, but we’ll help where we can.

10. Who owns what

• Your material (logos, photos, text you send us) stays yours. You let us use it only to do your work.
• Content we make for you: once you’ve paid for the month (or for the website in full), the final approved captions, graphics and website copy are yours to use as you like, for any purpose, for as long as you like. We give you a full, permanent and free licence to them, and we won’t use them for anyone else. If you ever need a formal signed transfer of copyright (for example when selling your business), ask and we’ll sign one at no cost.
• AI-assisted material: some drafts and graphics start with AI tools, then a real person edits them. The law on who owns AI-assisted material is still developing, and some of it may not be protected by copyright in every country. We don’t use AI to copy other people’s work, and we check that nothing we deliver knowingly copies someone else’s content.
• Things we license: stock images, fonts, music, templates and design tools stay under their own licences. We only use material licensed for commercial use, and we’ll tell you if a licence limits how you can reuse something.
• Drafts and ideas you didn’t use stay ours.
• Our portfolio: we only show your work, name, logo or results in our portfolio or marketing with your written permission.

11. Keeping things confidential, and your customers’ information

We keep your business information private and only use it to do your work. We only share it with the services we use to deliver that work (listed in our Privacy policy), or where the law requires it.

Sometimes your customers’ personal information reaches us, like a customer in a photo, a review, or a comment on your page. For that information you’re the “responsible party” under POPIA and we’re your “operator”, and these terms are our written agreement on it:

• We only use it on your instructions, to do your work, and keep it confidential.
• We keep it secure (limited access, strong passwords, two-step verification, no shared passwords) and don’t put it into AI tools.
• If we believe it has been accessed by someone who shouldn’t have it, we’ll tell you straight away.
• When we stop working together, we return or delete it, except what the law says we must keep.

12. Stopping, refunds and delivery

• Cancelling: 30 days’ written notice for monthly services. Details: Cancellation policy.
• Refunds: a month that has started isn’t refunded; website deposits are handled fairly depending on how far the work has got. Details: Refund policy.
• Delivery: everything we supply is digital, and nothing is shipped. Details: Delivery policy.
• Cooling-off: after you sign up and pay, you have 5 business days to change your mind for a full refund, no reason needed. We only start work after that. If the law gives you a cooling-off right as well (section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, or section 16 of the Consumer Protection Act), you keep it. See the Refund policy.

14. Things outside our control

If something outside our reasonable control (like illness, a natural disaster, long power or internet outages, or a platform switching off a feature) stops us delivering on time, we’ll tell you as soon as we can, and we’ll agree a new date or refund you for work we couldn’t deliver.

15. Privacy

How we handle personal information is explained in our Privacy policy.

16. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms now and then; the date at the top shows the latest version. If a change affects a service you’re already paying for, we’ll tell you in writing at least 30 days before it applies to you, and you can cancel instead.

17. If something goes wrong

Please tell us first. Most things are sorted out with a quick message.

• How to complain: email nearby.social.primary@gmail.com or WhatsApp +27 78 040 6698 and tell us what went wrong and what you’d like us to do. We’ll confirm we’ve got it within 2 working days and aim to sort it out within 10 working days. We keep a record of every complaint.
• If we can’t agree: either of us can suggest mediation. You can also take it to the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud or the National Consumer Commission.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa, and South African courts have jurisdiction. If you’re a consumer outside South Africa, you keep any protections your own country’s law gives you that can’t be excluded by contract.

18. Contact

Email nearby.social.primary@gmail.com or WhatsApp +27 78 040 6698. Formal legal notices can be sent to our address in section 1.

Our other policies: Privacy policy · Refund policy · Cancellation policy · Delivery policy