Field Locker Terms & Conditions of Business

1. Interpretation

"Client" means the person who has commissioned a Survey to be carried out by Researchers @ Crown Ltd T/a FIELD LOCKER and in the case of a corporate person shall include its subsidiaries and holding companies (as these terms are defined in Section 736 of the Companies Act 1985).

"Contract" means the agreement made between FIELD LOCKER and the Client subject to the Conditions for the carrying out of a Survey which shall include the provision of electronic files containing all presentations (written or oral) and data files as agreed in the Contract.

2. Governing law

This Contract shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law and each party will submit to the jurisdiction of the English Courts in respect of any dispute or matter arising out or connected with this Contract.

3. Incorporation of conditions and formation of a Contract

3.1 These Conditions shall prevail over and take the place of any other terms and conditions contained or incorporated in or referred to in any document of or communication from the Client.3.2 No other agreement, representation or promise of any kind shall form part of, vary, supersede or operate as a waiver of these Conditions or any of them unless expressly accepted by FIELD LOCKER in writing.

3.3 These terms and conditions shall be deemed to be incorporated into the Contract together with other matters as are contained or referred to in FIELD LOCKER's quotation accepted by the Client. FIELD LOCKER's quotation shall be exclusive of value added tax and shall remain valid for 60 calendar days from the date of the quotation.

3.4 In the absence of written acceptance FIELD LOCKER’s quotation shall be deemed to have been accepted by the Client’s agreement (whether oral or in writing) to the commencement of any work by FIELD LOCKER outlined in that quotation.

3.5 If at any time after acceptance (or deemed acceptance) of the quotation the Client wishes to alter any of the terms of the Contract FIELD LOCKER reserves the right to make such additional charge as FIELD LOCKER deems in its sole discretion deems reasonable.

3.6 Unless the Quotation expressly states otherwise, the Price is quoted exclusive of Value Added Tax or any equivalent sales tax in any jurisdiction which shall be payable in addition by the Client upon presentation of a valid Value Added Tax or equivalent invoice.

4. Terms of payment

4.1 UK registered clients - An invoice for 50% of the full agreed amount, exclusive of any incentives and incentive administration costs, plus VAT shall be issued by FIELD LOCKER to the Client on commission of the project. A second invoice for 50% of the full agreed amount, (or the balance of the full agreed costs if the specification has changed from the originally fully agreed amount) exclusive of any incentives and incentive administration costs, plus VAT shall be issued by FIELD LOCKER to Client on delivery of the agreed deliverables and submission of the FIELD LOCKER completion email. All invoices are payable within 30 days of the date of invoice unless written agreement has been provided by the Managing Director. A maximum £10,000 credit limit is applied in the first 12 months, from thereon in a max credit limit of £30,000 will be applied unless written agreement has been provided by the Managing Director.
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4.1.1. Non-UK registered companies - For the first project, if data is to be collected on Client platform/links, the project will be invoiced 100% on commission payable on immediate terms. If FIELD LOCKER are to collect data on their platform/links then 50% invoiced on commission, payable on immediate terms. Final 50%/balance invoiced on completion, payable on immediate terms and payable before data is provided to the client from FIELD LOCKER. For all subsequent projects with the same registered co. if FIELD LOCKER are to collect data on their platform/links then 50% invoiced on commission, payable on 30-day terms. Final 50%/balance invoiced on completion, payable on 30-day terms. A maximum £5,000 credit limit is applied in the first 12 months, from thereon in a max credit limit of £10,000 will be applied unless written agreement has been provided by the Managing Director.
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4.2 In all instances and Client locations, The Client shall be liable to reimburse FIELD LOCKER in advance for any outlays of cash or monies such as respondent incentives, incurred when carrying out the survey. Field Locker would issue an invoice for 100% of the full agreed amount including any incentive administration costs, plus VAT, on immediate terms. No incentives would be purchased until any such invoices had been received by FIELD LOCKER from the Client, which could delay the start and subsequent agreed timings of any project.

4.3 If a project has a quoted fieldwork period of 8 weeks or more, then FIELD LOCKER would agree a payment schedule with the Client before any work is commenced. This agreement would ensure any invoices are issued by Field Locker to the Client no further than 4 weeks from the 1st invoice issued on a rolling basis or until the term of the contract is ended.
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4​.4. In the event that payment is not received within the agreed payment period, FIELD LOCKER may charge interest at the rate of 1% of the total outstanding monies owed per calendar week, from the first date of the agreed term having expired, until settled in full.

4.5 If as a result of any act or omission of the Client (including but not limited to late delivery of products or materials by the Client to FIELD LOCKER as agreed in the Contract) FIELD LOCKER incurs additional costs in carrying out the Survey (for example, because it becomes liable to pay postponement or cancellation fees to its interviewers or sub-contractors or if the scope of the project is different to that on the agreed commissioned brief) the Client shall be liable to reimburse FIELD LOCKER in respect of such additional costs as, in its sole discretion, it deems reasonable.

4.6 If the Client cancels or terminates the Survey, the final payment due from the Client will be the reasonable proportion of the total fee for carrying out the Survey agreed by FIELD LOCKER at the date of cancellation or termination plus any other losses reasonably incurred by FIELD LOCKER as a result of such cancellation or termination by the Client.

4.7
Postponement fees:
Once a project is commissioned and a start date confirmed & booked in then anything under 72 hours’ notice to move or cancel the start date may result in postponement/canx fees unless we can reallocate the team into other projects (which we will try to do in the first instance)
Postponement/canx fees = £12.50 per hour
Timings/Schedule provided in the FIELD LOCKER quote/proposal will detail the expected hours allocated to your project per day. This will mean:
Under 24 hours’ notice in writing to the Managing Director or the assigned FIELD LOCKER project Client Manager = 3 days x expected daily hours
25-48 hours’ notice = 2 days x expected daily hours
49-72 hours’ notice = 1 days x expected daily hours
73+ hours = no fees

4.8. FIELD LOCKER will only invoice in GBP. All invoices settled by a Client outside the UK or paying in non-Sterling currencies is liable to ensure FIELD LOCKER receives, after all bank charges, the invoiced GBP totals.

5. Project Specifications
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5.1.1 Survey Duration - We will happily time draft q’aires & provide guidance & recordings for analysis purposes but cannot guarantee interview lengths pre field as different audiences/question sets can react differently once in field.
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5.1.2 Survey Structure & cost implications - A quantitative project commissioned by the CLIENT that contains more than 0.3 open ended questions per expected 1 minute of survey duration (rounded to the nearest whole number) may be considered semi-structured or qualitative in nature, unless previously detailed in the FIELD LOCKER quotation. This may result in additional costs to accommodate transcription time post interview. E.g., 15-minute survey x 0.3 = 4.5 open ends. Rounded to 5: so, 6 or more may incur additional costs. Expected survey duration is either the duration stated in the proposal or a FIELD LOCKER timing confirmation as provided by a Client Manager pre fieldwork from a draft or finalised survey document, whichever is provided latest. A question is deemed as one closed single code or multi code question, one open end question or one statement within a bank of scales/rating questions. e.g., 5 statements under one question label in the CLIENT provided survey document would be considered 5 questions for this purpose.
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5.2.1 Verbatim deliverables for self-completion - Where verbatims are captured using self-completion methodologies (e.g. Online/Email surveys) FIELD LOCKER will endeavour to spellcheck verbatims but cannot be held responsible for lack of comprehension, nor for back coding verbatims into pre-existing code frames, without additional proof reading or coding costs, which can be provided by a Client Manager upon request.

5.2.2 Verbatim deliverables for interviewer led completion - Where verbatims have been captured as part of an interviewer led survey (e.g. CATI or F2F), and coding as a deliverable has not been agreed by the CLIENT, then FIELD LOCKER will ensure all verbatims typed into 'other' are checked & data-coded back into any pre-existing code frames, except where the coded question has 11 or more response options, without incurring additional coding costs. 11 or more responses per question would be considered unfeasible during a live interviewer to assess the verbatim and code accurately within the pre-existing code frame. Additional coding costs may be charged where this occurs or where verbatim coding has been requested by the CLIENT, but not previously agreed in the proposal. Coding costs can be provided from the Client Manager upon request.

6. Ownership and use of reports

6.1 Copyright in all Reports and other documents prepared and supplied by FIELD LOCKER pursuant to the Contract shall remain vested in FIELD LOCKER.

6.2 Reports and other findings made by FIELD LOCKER in the performance of the Contract are supplied to the Client on the understanding that:

6.2.1 They shall only be divulged to officers and employees of the Client or the Client's advertising agencies or PR consultancies

6.2.2 Save as provided in 6.2.1 above their contents shall not be divulged to any third party without the prior agreement of FIELD LOCKER.

6.3 If FIELD LOCKER's name is to be quoted in any published or widely circulated document in connection with findings from one of its surveys or reports, then FIELD LOCKER's written agreement to the contents of such document must be obtained before it is published or circulated by the Client.
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6.4 No PII (Personably Identifiable Information) shall be collected within a survey without prior agreement from FIELD LOCKER including for quality control, incentives/reports/prize draws or follow on/future research purposes. All PII is collected in line with our privacy policy.

7. Sub-contracting by FIELD LOCKER

7.1 FIELD LOCKER may at its discretion sub-contract the fieldwork or data processing of the data collected in the course of the carrying out of the Survey or other parts of the execution of the work to be carried out under the Contract to third parties.

7.2 FIELD LOCKER will ensure that any sub-contractors selected by it conform to the Code of Conduct and that a Service Level Agreement under ISO20252 guidelines is completed and signed before any work would commence.

7.3 The Client will not issue any instructions to a sub-contractor selected by FIELD LOCKER.

7.4 If the Client wishes FIELD LOCKER to employ a particular sub-contractor to carry out the Survey, FIELD LOCKER's responsibility for the work carried out by that sub-contractor shall be limited to a review function, the scope of which shall be defined in writing and agreed between FIELD LOCKER and the Client before the start of the fieldwork by that particular sub-contractor.

8. Warranties and limitation of liability

8.1 FIELD LOCKER shall use all reasonable skill and care in the carrying out of the Survey and unless prevented by unforeseen circumstances or any circumstances beyond its reasonable control shall deliver the data or presentation to the Client by the date specified in the Quotation or otherwise agreed through the course of the Survey. All other conditions, warranties or obligations implied by statute or common law are hereby excluded.

8.2 FIELD LOCKER does not exclude or restrict its liability for death or personal injury to the extent that it results from the negligence of FIELD LOCKER, its employees or agents.

8.3 FIELD LOCKER shall not be liable for any loss or damage arising from: -

8.3.1 the interpretation or use by the Client or any third party of the contents of the presentation (oral or written) or any other findings resulting from the Survey supplied to the Client; or

8.3.2 Any act of or failure to act by the Client; or any act or omission of any sub-contractor used by FIELD LOCKER at the insistence or request of the Client pursuant to Clause 7.4.

8.5 The Client warrants: that the individuals to whom the data relates have been informed by the Client that they may be contacted by a third party for market research purposes, and that such individuals do not object to the use of their personal data for such purposes.

8.6 The Client acknowledges that it is in a better position to foresee and evaluate any loss it might suffer in connection with the Survey and that it is able to insure against such loss to such extent as will be sufficient having regard to the particular circumstances of the Client and the provisions of this clause.

9. Indemnity

The Client shall indemnify FIELD LOCKER and keep FIELD LOCKER indemnified from and against all and any claims, losses, costs, damages, liabilities, demands and expenses suffered or incurred by FIELD LOCKER arising out of or connected with any claim brought against FIELD LOCKER by a third party in connection with the performance of the Contract, unless such claims, losses, costs, damages, liabilities, demands and expenses are attributable to the negligence of FIELD LOCKER or its employees or agents. The Client will be responsible for the insuring of goods or products supplied to FIELD LOCKER for Survey purposes.

10. Force majeure

FIELD LOCKER shall not be liable for failure to perform its obligations hereunder due to force majeure, which for these purposes shall mean fires, floods, storms, acts of God, riots, strikes, lockouts, wars, national or local governmental control, restriction or prohibition,

11. Confidentiality

11.1 FIELD LOCKER agrees to keep confidential all information of a confidential nature which it obtains from the Client in connection with the Contract unless: -

11.1.1 FIELD LOCKER already had that information; or that information is or comes into the public domain otherwise than by breach of this clause; or FIELD LOCKER is required or requested to divulge that information by any court, tribunal or governmental authority with competent jurisdiction; or that information is disclosed on a confidential basis for the purposes of obtaining professional advice.

11.2 Under the Code of Conduct, all material relating to the Client remains confidential to those engaged in the service of FIELD LOCKER. The Code of Conduct also states that FIELD LOCKER is entitled to destroy questionnaires, recorded interviews and other primary records one year after the presentation to the Client of the results of a Survey, without reference to the Client. This will be done unless FIELD LOCKER receives instructions in writing to the contrary from the Client within the stated period.

12. Data protection

12.1 FIELD LOCKER warrants and undertakes that it has and will continue to have full legal authority to process data and that it will only process data in accordance with the applicable data protection laws in the UK and the terms of this Contract. The Field Locker ICO registration number is Z723150X

12.2 FIELD LOCKER warrants that it has in place and undertakes to maintain throughout the term of this Contract, appropriate technical and organisational measures against the accidental, unauthorised or unlawful processing, destruction, loss, damage or disclosure of data and adequate security programmes and procedures to ensure that unauthorised persons do not have access to the data or to any equipment used to process data.

12.3 The Client undertakes to comply with all applicable data protection laws in the UK. Clients must be appropriately registered under all relevant Data Protection acts and appropriately authorised to provide FIELD LOCKER with customer records.

12.4 It is the responsibility of the Client to ensure all sample lists, databases and records with unique respondent identifiers provided by, or through, the Client, comply with all applicable data protection laws in the UK.

12.5 FIELD LOCKER will securely delete all primary data records, (for example sample lists, data & screener data collected, unique respondent identifiers) in accordance with our ISO20252 Quality Management Policy, after 12 months from the completion of the project.

13. Termination

13.1 Either party may terminate this Contract forthwith at any time by giving the other written notice if the other:

13.1.2 Commits a material breach of any of the terms of this Contract and, where such a breach is capable of remedy;

13.1.3 fails to remedy the same within 13 days after receipt of a written notice from the other requiring it to be remedied:

13.1.4 is unable to pay its debts within the meaning of Section 123 of the Insolvency Act 1986;

13.1.5 takes, or there is taken in respect of the other, any step, action, application or proceeding in relation to the whole or any material part of its undertaking for a voluntary arrangement or composition or reconstruction of its debts; or winding up, dissolution, administration or receivership (administrative or otherwise).

13.2 If the Client has commissioned a survey to be carried out by FIELD LOCKER which amounts to a continuous project then unless the Client and FIELD LOCKER have agreed a termination date for the Continuous Project FIELD LOCKER shall continue to carry out interviewing until the Project is terminated by the Client giving to FIELD LOCKER prior written notice equal to a period being 25% of the period of the Continuous Project or three months, whichever is the shorter.

14. Severance

If any of these Conditions is rendered or held to be void or unenforceable in whole or in part, then it shall be void or unenforceable only to the extent that it is shown that it would not be lawful or reasonable to allow reliance on it and the remaining conditions shall continue to be of full force and effect.

15. Notices

Any notice to be given by either party under these Conditions shall be sent by first class mail or email to quotes@fieldlocker.co.uk.