The company SEE What You Are Buying Into Ltd is hereafter referred to as 'SEE Ltd'. http://www.SEEWhatYouAreBuyingInto.com and https://admin.seewhatyouarebuyinginto.com/ are sometimes referred to the 'SEE websites' and the SEE What You Are Buying Into scheme is sometimes referred to as the 'SEE scheme'.
The following Terms set out the basis on which SEE Ltd provides its evaluation services:
- Preliminary assessment of services and client requirements
- The SQM account
- Inactive SQM accounts
- Committing to transparency
- A commitment to accuracy and completeness
- Payment of evaluation fees
- The period of evaluation
- A nominated company officer
- Preparing company responses
- Interpretation of questions, guidelines and responses
- Completing the evaluation and becoming SEE listed
- Failure to evaluate
- Complaints and disputes during evaluation
- Disputed SEE Questionnaire responses
- SEE Ltd's right to withhold services
- General issues
- Consent to Evaluation Terms
1. Preliminary assessment of services and client requirements
Responding to the SEE Questionnaire is a challenging undertaking for any business. A company (or other entity) is strongly advised to make a full assessment of the SEE Questionnaire and use the SEE Questionnaire Manager (SQM) before retaining the services of SEE Ltd. This is because a company must understand the breadth of SEE issues involved, and appreciate the amount of time and other resources it will need to respond to the SEE Questionnaire in sufficient depth, before it makes a financial commitment.SEE Ltd will set up an SQM account for any enquiring company and provide a trial, free of charge. After the trial, a company wishing to begin the evaluation process will be required to consent to these Terms, as stipulated below.
2. The SQM account
A unique SQM username and password will be provided to each designated user. Several unique logins can be provided if a company would like to have multiple users.SEE Ltd's aim is for all such SQM usernames and passwords to remain constant. However, if any SQM password or username has been forgotten or compromised, SEE Ltd will allocate a new password or username. It may also reset SQM account usernames and/or passwords for technical or housekeeping reasons, or if internal security has been breached. Clients will be informed if this should happen.
Each user is responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of his/her SQM username and password and for all activities that occur under or through that username and/or password. Users should notify SEE Ltd immediately of any unauthorised use of their SQM username or password. Users should not disclose their SQM username or password to any third party or use them for any unauthorised purpose. SEE Ltd will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from any failure by any user to keep his/her SQM username and/or password confidential. Users should not use, or seek to use, any other person's SQM username or password at any time.
3. Maintaining your SQM account
SEE Ltd will not maintain SQM accounts indefinitely. If an account has not been used for a period of time and the company does not indicate its intention to continue to use its SQM account, SEE Ltd reserves the right to delete it. Companies should not expect unused SQM accounts to be maintained for longer than three months.4. Committing to transparency
Businesses are NOT obliged to commit to making their responses to the SEE Questionnaire publicly available on this website to undergo the evaluation process.In order to become SEE listed, a company IS required to make such a commitment; this requirement is made clear under the Logo Licensing Terms.
5. A commitment to accuracy and completeness
In order to begin the evaluation process, a company must fully commit to accuracy and completeness regarding the information it submits via the SQM tool. A company is required to guarantee its responses to the SEE Questionnaire as accurate, complete and verifiable, according to the definitions and stipulations set out below.SEE Ltd will work with each client company to assess all relevant facts and items of information to present a fair and reasonable response to each question on the SEE Questionnaire. However, the ultimate burden is on the company to make sure its responses are accurate, complete and verifiable.
Companies must only submit responses that can be verified. SEE Ltd reserves the right, at its sole discretion and at any time, to request additional information to support and/or verify a client company's responses at random and without advanced notice. SEE Ltd reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to conduct the aforementioned random spot-checks via e-mail, phone or by means of a company visit.
SEE Ltd will be transparent about what it does not know and will expect the same from its client companies. SEE Ltd reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to compare claims and statements contained within SEE Questionnaire responses with evidence provided by the company in support of such claims and statements, relevant information in the public domain, private sources of information and/or the expert knowledge base of our SEE Partners.
If a client company fails to provide accurate, verifiable and/or complete responses to the SEE Questionnaire, and/or if discrepancies are discovered by (or brought to the attention of) SEE Ltd, then SEE Ltd reserves the right to investigate and take such further steps as it deems necessary, at its sole discretion, including (without limitation) withdrawing a client company from the evaluation process.
6. Payment of fees
SEE Ltd will provide its services in return for payment of the applicable fee. The fee structure (which may be revised periodically) is published on this website. Payment of the joining fee in full is required before any services can be provided by SEE Ltd.All fees are non-refundable.
Payment of the joining fee to SEE Ltd by a client company does not provide any guarantee that the evaluation process will be successfully concluded, or that a licence to be SEE listed and to carry the SEE Logo will be granted to that client company.
If a client company fails to meet the requirements for evaluation, as set out in these Terms, for any reason (including any reason that is beyond the company's reasonable control) SEE Ltd is under no obligation to refund the applicable fee, or any part thereof.
7. The period of evaluation
All organisations that join the SEE scheme are granted a period of 60 calendar days to complete and sign-off their responses to the SEE Questionnaire. During that 60-day period, each client company will have full access to the SEE Questionnaire Manager and will receive five hours of advice and support from SEE Ltd.More time to complete the evaluation can be provided if required. Any additional hours of support from SEE Ltd that are required inside and/or outside the 60-day period will be charged at the set hourly rate, currently £95 per hour. (This rate may be revised from time to time.)
Should a client decide not to complete, or otherwise fails its evaluation, it will nevertheless be charged, at the specified rate, for any hours that exceed the maximum number included in the joining fee and for any hours of support/advice that are provided by SEE Ltd during and/or after the end of the designated 60-day period.
8. A Nominated Company Officer
The client company must nominate a director or other senior individual, hereafter referred to as the 'nominated company officer', who will assume responsibility (for and on behalf of the company) for guaranteeing the validity and reliability of the company's 'boilerplate' information and its responses to the SEE Questionnaire, and for submitting consent to the Evaluation Terms and Conditions. If the evaluation process is completed successfully and the company wishes to become SEE listed, then the nominated company officer will also become responsible for signing-off on the final version of the company's 'boilerplate' information and its SEE Questionnaire responses for publication on this website, and for submitting consent to Licensing Terms and Conditions.
9. Preparing company responses
The criteria against which SEE Ltd evaluates each response are set out in the detailed answering guidelines for each question in the SEE Questionnaire. SEE Ltd will work in partnership with a client company to determine the appropriateness of its responses. However, the ultimate burden is on the company to make sure its responses are accurate, truthful and comprehensive.A client company may revise its 'primary' and 'secondary' responses within the SEE Questionnaire Manager an unlimited number of times, within the 60 day evaluation period and with five hours of support and advice from SEE Ltd. This may continue until both the client company and SEE Ltd agree to sign-off on the response.
SEE Ltd reserves the right to edit the text of any response for syntax and spelling, in order to bring a response up to publication standard. SEE Ltd also reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to reject any response from a client company and to prohibit its publication on the SEE website.
10. Interpretation of questions, guidelines and responses
The SEE Questionnaire has been constructed in a way that enables the questions, and their supporting answering guidelines, to be interpreted using the every day, ordinary meaning of the words. When necessary, important or key terms in the question have been defined to avoid ambiguity or to aid clarity. When reading the question or making a response, clients should give words their plain, ordinary and literal meaning.If interpreting the question or the answering guidelines using the plain meaning of the words leads to an outcome that is illogical or at variance with the intention of SEE Ltd, or the SEE partner, in setting the question, the language may be varied or modified so as to avoid such an outcome. Such variance or modification must always be as minimal as possible.
In order to be as complete and authoritative as possible on the diverse SEE issues addressed by the SEE Questionnaire, SEE Ltd invests considerable resources, and works closely with its SEE partners, when researching and writing the questions and the answering guidelines. Nonetheless, it is likely that unforeseen issues will arise in the interpretation of the questions and/or the answering guidelines. Responses to any problem of interpretation or meaning will be provided by SEE Ltd on a case-by-case basis, informed by a body of case history and a substantial body of question-specific examples of business practice. These resources will grow as the SEE scheme develops. These resources will also be used to assist in the development of modified and/or new questions for the SEE Questionnaire.
11. Completing the Evaluation
11.1 General Rule: Responses to all questions in all topic areas of the SEE Questionnaire must be completed (with 'boilerplate' company information provided as required) and the text of the responses signed-off, by both the client company and SEE Ltd, before the evaluation process is considered to be completed.11.2 Up until and including June 30, 2010, the following rule will apply: A client company will be listed as "meeting the minimum requirements" once ten or more questions of the SEE Questionnaire are completed (with 'boilerplate' company information provided as required) and text of the ten or more responses is signed-off, by both the client company and SEE Ltd. The status of the client company on the SEE website will change from "meeting the minimum requirements" to being SEE listed only after complying with 11.1.
11.3 The following will apply in all cases:
SEE Ltd will assess client company responses and ensure that all answers are complete and meet all the answering guidelines according to the following procedure:A) Once a client company has submitted their answer it will be reviewed by a SEE Ltd staff member (called 'Administrator 1' ) using the SQM. Each question is read and notes are used to indicate how each response meets the answering requirements. The first administrator will sign-off responses when they are considered to meet the answering criteria, and to be complete, clear and relevant.
B) Any problems or anomalies may be discussed within the SEE Ltd evaluation team and, if necessary, further clarification or action will be required from the client.
C) A second administrator (called 'Administrator 2') will also read the response, as well as the first administrator's account of how and where the answering guidelines have been satisfied. If the second administrator concurs that the answering guidelines have been properly met, he or she will sign off the company response for a second time. Any anomalies will be discussed and further clarification or action may be required from the client company.
D) A response gains an 'accepted' status only once it has been signed-off by two administrators. Any employee of SEE Ltd may sign off individual company responses.
In order to gain a SEE listing, the nominated company officer in the client company will guarantee that the responses are accurate, truthful, verifiable and complete, and that these responses will be kept up-to-date by consenting to the Licensing Terms and Conditions as published on this website.
12. Failure to evaluate
SEE Ltd reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to refuse evaluation services to any company for any reason. In reaching any such decision, consideration will be given to (but will not be limited to) the following:- Failure to provide responses that meet the requirements of the answering guidelines in the SEE Questionnaire;
- Failure to provide accurate, complete, verifiable, current and/or honest responses;
- Failure to complete all of the questions within the SEE Questionnaire; and/or
- SEE Ltd being compromised in its ability to pursue its stated company mission.
SEE Ltd also reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to publish details of any decision reached in these circumstances and any correspondence between SEE Ltd and the relevant company.
13. Complaints and disputes during evaluation
Should any complaints or disputes arise during the evaluation process, client companies should refer to SEE Ltd's policies on complaints handling and dispute resolution. In particular, SEE Ltd has a policy to deal with disputed questionnaire responses (see section 14 of the Evaluation Terms for further details), and this policy will be adhered to should a company dispute its failure to achieve evaluation. (See our Logo Licensing T&Cs for additional information regarding complaints and resolution procedures.)
14. Disputed SEE Questionnaire responses
As a client company works closely with SEE Ltd to complete its responses, it is unlikely that a dispute about evaluation would arise. However, if a client company did choose to dispute SEE Ltd's evaluation of a SEE Questionnaire response the following steps will be taken:Step 1: SEE Ltd will re-evaluate the question and response in light of the specific dispute. This may be enough to resolve the issue.
Step 2: A second SEE Ltd employee will evaluate the question and response, and discuss the issues within SEE Ltd and with the company.
Step 3: If the two parties are still not in agreement, then they may both undertake fact-checking with the assistance of external parties and/or other resources if necessary. This seeks to bring in further expertise and a different point of view.
Step 4: If the dispute is still unresolved, then both parties will have recourse to a mutually acceptable third-party to mediate. The one-off joining fee cannot cover such costs. As such, in the unlikely event that a dispute reaches this stage, the associated costs will be allocated as agreed between the parties (or otherwise as the mediator determines).
If a client company disputes SEE Ltd's evaluation of its boilerplate information, similar steps will be taken.
SEE Ltd reserves the right (at its discretion) to publish on its websites details of the issues surrounding any disputed questionnaire response, related correspondence and the decision/resolution reached in respect thereof.- 15. SEE Ltd's right to withhold services
SEE Ltd reserves the right to withhold the provision of its services for any reason. SEE Ltd will decide at its own discretion whether to engage, negotiate or in any way contract with any third party. SEE Ltd reserves the right to make public any decision it makes regarding engaging or disengaging with any of its clients or prospective clients. - 16. General issues
- 16.1 Severability/waiver - if any part or provision of these Terms is held to be unenforceable or invalid by any judicial decree, court order or equivalent decision, the remainder of these Terms shall nevertheless continue to be valid and enforceable. No waiver by SEE Ltd of any breach by you (or any other party) of any of these Terms shall constitute a waiver of any subsequent breach of the same (or any other) provision.
- 16.2 Entire agreement - these Terms (together with any other express legal notices and/or specific terms set out by SEE Ltd) constitute the entire agreement between client companies in connection with the services offered and provided by SEE Ltd and supersede any previous agreement or understanding in relation to the same. All other terms or conditions of use, implied by statute or otherwise, are excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.
- 16.3 Third party rights/assignment - a person who is not a party to these Terms has no right, under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 or otherwise, to enforce any provision of these Terms. SEE Ltd may transfer, assign or sub-contract all or any of its rights arising under these Terms to any other party at any time without further notice. No client company may assign, transfer or sub-contract any rights arising under these Terms to any other party without the prior written consent of SEE Ltd.
- 16.4 Applicable law - although SEE Ltd sells its services to clients in other countries and jurisdictions around the world, SEE Ltd is a limited company registered in England and Wales and every registration, search, transaction, process, service, posting or other activity conducted shall be deemed to have been conducted in England. English law shall therefore govern each contractual relationship that SEE Ltd is party to which arises as a result of the sale and provision of its services. Each client company hereby submits to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts in relation to any disputes or claims arising from such relationships. SEE Ltd cannot guarantee that its services are appropriate or available for sale in locations outside of the United Kingdom.
- 17. Consent to Evaluation Terms
The authorised company officer must give consent to these Evaluation Terms, following the demonstration of the SEE Questionnaire Manager tool.