Terms and Conditions of Service and Privacy Policy

Please read our terms and conditions BEFORE you commit to working with us.
If there's anything you don't understand, please get in touch.

General

  • Our services are based on collaboration, mutual respect and timely responses.
  • If delays are to occur, we will inform you and, likewise, we expect you to inform us. 
  • In the event of considerable delays, we reserve the right to terminate any assignment - see below.

Payment Terms

  • Payment is required in full in advance.
  • Coaching payments must be made 5 working days in advance - see below.
  • Prices are valid for 14 days from the date of quotation and are subject to change at our sole discretion.
  • Regardless of deadlines, work will not commence until payment is received.
  • If the CV or other service is required urgently and requires attention out of normal office hours, we may charge a premium.
  • Where we do undertake work in advance of payment, copyright remains with us until payment is made in full.
  • If there is a price increase during the process of undertaking your assignment and where there has been extensive delay on your part (28 days or more) we reserve the right to request payment of the price differential.
  • If you, the Client, fail to respond to us for a period of 14 calendar days, for whatever reason, the Contract will be deemed to have terminated and no refund will be made - see "Cancellation and Refund Policy" below.
  • Once the process has started and we have produced and sent to you the first draft, if you fail to respond to us within 14 calendar days, we reserve the right to impose additional charges. This is in respect of "reading in" to re-familiarise ourselves with your position. Alternatively, at our sole discretion, we may terminate the Contract with no refund due - see "Cancellation and Refund Policy" below.
  • If payments are reversed by the bank for any reason whatsoever, you, the Client, will reimburse us for the cost of any related bank changes. 
  • We will also require you, the Client, to reimburse us for the costs of pursuing payment of the debt subject to a minimum fixed charge of £50 plus any associated court and legal costs.

Additional charges may be incurred for the following:

  • Rush jobs
  • Out of hour consultations
  • Researching the job market where it was not included in the original price
  • Particularly complex CVs
  • Upgraded service where work experience and target roles transpire to be at a higher level than originally discussed and agreed
  • CVs that are longer than two pages
  • If your existing CV is longer than 2 pages or in excess of 950 words and you want us to analyse this
  • If your target job or target industry changes after the CV writing process has already started
  • Providing hard copies on quality paper
  • Providing copies on USB sticks or other storage devices
  • Postage or courier costs

Career, Interview Skills and Job Search Coaching Appointments

  • All coaching fees are payable by bank transfer.
  • Payment must be made at least 5 working days (Monday to Friday) in advance.
  • Coaching appointments will not be confirmed until payment has been received in full.
  • If you wish to cancel a face-to-face coaching appointment, we require a minimum of 48 hours notice (business days - Monday to Friday).
  • If you wish to cancel a telephone or Skype coaching appointment, we require a minimum of 24 hours notice (business days Monday to Friday).
  • Where a client fails to give adequate notice, no refund will be made and additional costs may be levied subject to a minimum charge of £75.
  • We reserve the right to cancel or reschedule coaching appointments at our sole discretion.

Meetings and Telephone Appointments

Face to Face Meetings
Where face-to-face meetings are agreed, we will meet with you at a specified time and place. 
Face-to-face meetings cost extra and this will be agreed at the outset.
  • If you wish to cancel a face-to-face meeting, we require at least 48 hours notice (business days).
  • If you fail to give the required notice of cancellation or fail to attend a face-to-face meeting, no refund will be made
  • If you wish to reschedule a meeting (having failed to give adequate notice of cancellation), an additional fee will be payable - subject to a minimum of £75.
  • If you are late for a face to face meeting, we reserve the right to curtail the meeting in line with the agreed timings, at our sole discretion.
Telephone or Skype Meetings
We work on an appointment system and, with the exception of general enquiries, we schedule appointments with all clients.
  • If you wish to cancel a telephone or Skype appointment, we require at least 24 hours notice (business days).
  • If you fail to give the required notice of cancellation or fail to attend a telephone appointment, where you have paid in respect of the telephone appointment no refund will be made.
  • If you wish to reschedule a telephone or Skype appointment, having failed to give notice, an additional fee will be payable, subject to a minimum charge of £75. 
  • If you are late for a telephone or Skype appointment, we reserve the right to curtail the appointment in line with the agreed timings, at our sole discretion.

Cancellation and Refund Policy

  • In the event of cancellation by the Client, if we have already sent you a questionnaire or started working on your CV, cover letter, LinkedIn profile or other service, we reserve the right to charge £75 for the questionnaire plus £75 per hour for any time spent talking with you or working on your CV or other service.  This is in addition to any charges in relation to meetings or or appointments - see above.  These charges will be deducted before any refund is made.
  • Once we have sent you a first draft, refunds will not be granted under any circumstances.
  • If you, the Client, fail to respond to us for a period of 14 calendar days or more, for whatever reason, the Contract will be deemed to have terminated and no refund will be made.
  • Once the process has started and we have produced and sent to you the first draft, if you fail to respond to us within 14 calendar days but you wish to continue, we reserve the right to impose additional charges. This is in respect of "reading in" to re-familiarise ourselves with your position. Alternatively, at our sole discretion, we may terminate the Contract and no refund will be made.
  • If we agree to issue a refund, we will require you to provide bank account details. These details should match the account from which the original payment was made.  If you provide alternative bank details, we may decline to refund the payment.
  • Where you have provided incorrect bank details, we do not accept responsibility for any loss incurred by sending the refund to the wrong account.

Disclaimer

  • We rely on the information provided by you to be true. 
  • We will not accept responsibility for any information which is subsequently found to be false or misrepresented.
  • We will discuss timescales with you at the outset and will do our utmost to meet deadlines, but we do not accept any responsibility for missed deadlines for whatever reason.
  • We will do our best to ensure accuracy but the ultimate responsibility for proofreading and checking the accuracy of the content lies with you, the Client.
  • We will rectify errors free of charge provided we are notified of errors within 5 working days, Monday to Friday This only applies to errors made by us and does not extend to general amendments or updates.
  • Whilst we will do our utmost to produce a Compelling CV that will help you to gain interviews, we do not accept responsibility for unsuccessful job applications for whatever reason.
  • We will use recognised fonts and formatting that are widely used in industry across all software.  We do not accept any responsibility for changes to the formatting that are made by you or made by us at your request.
  • We reserve the right to decline any client and/or any assignment at our sole discretion.
  • We reserve the right to refuse to undertake work which we deem to be offensive or to have illegal undertones, or for any reason whatsoever.
  • We reserve the right to withdraw from the assignment, subject to cancellation costs as above.

Privacy

  • We are totally committed to protecting the privacy of our clients.
  • We never share your information with third parties unless you have authorised us to liaise with your employer, career adviser, parents, partner, etc, or if we are legally compelled to share your information with a statutory body under the law of England and Wales.
  • We may promote or mention you on social media or case studies on a no-names basis.
  • We won't keep your information for longer than is necessary.
  • We dispose of documentation securely, by in-house shredding and/or incineration.
  • If you have any concerns about your privacy or how we treat your confidential information, please contact us.

The use of Cookies on our Website

  • Cookies are basically small text files that help the server keep track of user activity. 
  • We use Google Analytics to track the number of visitors and the pattern of visitor activity on our site.
  • The data collected is anonymous.  No identifying or personal information is accessed by us and your privacy is not compromised.
  • If you don't want to accept cookies you should instruct your browser (via its settings) to not accept them.

Security

  • We do not open unsolicited links. 
  • We will endeavour to keep your personal information secure at all times.
  • Although we operate anti-virus software, you, the Client, are ultimately responsible for checking any electronic communications for computer viruses and the like.
  • If you receive any communications from us that look suspicious, don't open the email or click any links - instead, get in touch with us by phone or email to ascertain whether we sent the communication.

Any other questions?

  • Please raise any questions with us before work commences.

We reserve the right to amend these terms and conditions at our sole discretion.

Compelling Careers and Compelling CVs are trading names of Barbara Patrick.