L e t S i t e s : Frequently Asked Questions

How do I pay my invoice?
    For payments in EUROS, we are happy to accept cheques drawn on a FRENCH bank account or a compte postale at La Poste.
    For payments in UK POUNDS, we can only accept cheques drawn on a UK bank account.
    All cheques (whether UK cheques in pounds or French cheques in euros) should be payable to C. ELLIS.
    PLEASE NOTE THAT WE CANNOT ACCEPT "EUROCHEQUES".

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Can I pay in UK pounds?
Yes. Although all our invoices are in euros, we always show a sterling equivalent. The sterling equivalent is fixed for the invoice in which it appears and so will be unaffected by any movements (up or down) in the exchange rate. The rate used is the official Reference Rate published on the European Central Bank website [ www.ecb.int ] for the invoice date (or the most recent rate on a non-trading day) plus a margin of 5%.
For example, the official rate on the ECB website for 09/04/03 was EURO 1 � = � 0.6902 GBP. An invoice for 100 � dated 09/04/03 would therefore show a sterling equivalent of (100 x 0.6902) + 5% = �72.47. It is entirely up to you whether you decide to pay this in euros (100 � with a French cheque) or sterling (�72.47 with a UK cheque).

How much TVA is included?
At the time of writing, the rate of TVA applicable to all our transactions is 19.6%. Please note that TVA is ALREADY INCLUDED in all prices shown on our website - there is nothing further to pay.

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What if the rate changes?
Should a change on the applicable rate of TVA oblige us to change our prices, no such change (up or down) will be applied to any transaction already in progress. Any revised prices will be published on our website as soon as practicable.

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Can I get the TVA back?
    (1) If your French letting business is registered for TVA with the French tax authorities, then obviously yes.
    (2) If you are VAT-registered in another EU country and your French lettings business is part of the activity of that non-French business then we are permitted to invoice you zero-rated for TVA on production of satisfactory evidence of your VAT status. Please make this clear at the time of ordering if this applies to you.
    If you do not fall into one of the above categories - sorry, no!

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Pricing policy

Is the Renewal price guaranteed?
Like any other business, we reserve the right to modify our prices at any time. We do, however, feel that it would be unfair for someone signing up to find that the Renewal price had increased before their first year was up.
For this reason, we guarantee that your first Renewal fee will be at the price shown when you signed up - even if our prices have increased in the meantime.

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Postage

What conditions apply when you post things to us?
Anything (such as photographs, CD-ROMs or floppy-disks) that has to be sent back to you by post will be sent by "Poste Economique" - i.e. by ordinary second-class mail. We undertake to take every reasonable care with the packaging and handling but apart from that it is expressly understood that all post will be at your risk and that we may not be held liable for the consequences of any loss or damage incurred in transit. Should the loss or damage be proven to be as a result of our negligent packing or handling then under no circumstances shall we be liable for a sum which exceeds the physical cost of the item(s) concerned. For photographs, this shall be limited to the cost of the film and its development and printing; for a CD-ROM or floppy-disk, this shall be limited to the cost of the blank CD-ROM or floppy-disk.

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Can you send it 1st Class or Registered/Insured Post or by courier?
Yes, of course. The prices shown on our website include ordinary second-class post in appropriate packaging. If you would like us to use first-class post, registered post, registered+insured post or a courier service, we are happy to do so, and will simply invoice you with the additional cost to us. Please note, however, that French tax rules mean that we are obliged to add TVA at the ruling rate to any such postage invoiced.

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Bilingual Websites

What is a bilingual website?
A bilingual website is essentially two separate websites - one in English, the other in French. Visitors coming to your web address will see the first page in English, but with a French flag button which they can click to take them to the French version of the website.
While the images on the French version of the site will be the same as on the English version, everything else will appear in French. The French version of the site also has completely different navigation buttons, titlebars, information pages, maps...

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Who does the translation into French?
    As soon as the English version of the site has been built and approved, our staff translator will translate every aspect of it for the French version.
    Our translator is a French national who is fluent in English. We believe it is vitally important that the translation be done by someone who has French as their first language. Whilst we could do it ourselves, we are convinced that however fluent an British person might be in French, the finished result will always seem somehow a bit "foreign" to a French reader - even if it is grammatically perfect.
    The same goes for the English versions of bilingual sites built for our French clients, by the way - these are always translated by a British translator, even if the French client is totally fluent in English.

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Can I do my own translation into French?
If you want to - but this will not affect the price. As specialists in bilingual websites, we automatically get our translator to check thoroughly any French translation submitted - which can take just as long as translating it from scratch. And it is not just your visible text, location and contact information which has to be translated for the French version of the site - there are also many technical details to be changed, such as the 'mouseover' and 'alternate' text for each of your images, and the programmed information used by browsers and search engines.

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The Web Server

Where is my website hosted?
Your website is physically stored on our UK-based Windows server. The server is housed in a specialist data centre in an advanced climate-controlled environment under constant CCTV surveillance. In the event of a fire the entire data centre is flooded with halon gas. As an additional security measure, an exact copy of your site is maintained on our in-house server in St-Jean-de-Luz.

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Upgrading your website

Can I move up to a bigger package - or go bilingual?
Of course. To upgrade to a bigger package, you simply need to let us have the additional text and photos. Moving up to a bilingual version of your existing site is as easy as emailing us to ask us to do it. As soon as the new site is in place, we will invoice you for the difference in the current Setup charges for the old and new packages (see the Price List page for details). Should you wish to move up to our VIP package - where your site will be individually designed exclusively for you to your own specifications - we will ask you for 50% of the upgrade cost in advance (this is in line with normal industry practice for individually-designed websites).

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Changing the style of the site

Can I change the style of my site?
Yes. For a modest charge (see the Price List page for details) we can rebuild your entire site in any of the other LetSites styles (go to the Samples page to see the range of styles available).

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Individual colour scheme & typeface

Can I choose my own colours and/or typeface?
Yes. If you want a totally individual look for your site - but your budget does not run to a completely made-to-measure site under our VIP package - you can take one of our standard styles, but choose your own colour scheme and/or typeface. (An additional charge applies - please see the Price List for details.)

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PDF : Portable Document Format

What is PDF?
PDF (Portable Document Format) is a way of formatting textual and graphical data so that it is guaranteed be displayed or printed exactly as the author intended, irrespective of the characteristics of the printer, screen or operating system being used.
Less formally, it's a way of putting documents such as a Booking Form or your Terms and Conditions onto your site so that visitors can download them to print at home using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. To see what this means in practice, have a look at the "How to book" page on the sample site at www.bicary.com - you'll see a PDF symbol for the Booking Form and another for the Conditions - if you click on one, it'll open in Acrobat from where you can view/print it.

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CD-ROMs

What is "Your site on a CD-ROM"?
This is a "virtual visit" of your website recorded onto a CD-ROM. It can be used to send out as an "electronic brochure" to potential guests who do not have the internet - or who have a slow or unreliable connection. As long as they have a PC with a CD-ROM drive & a browser (such as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator) installed, they can explore your site to their heart's content without ever connecting to the internet.
Obviously, what is on the disk can only be a "snapshot" taken at one particular moment, so it won't reflect any changes made to the site - for this reason, the Availability Chart won't be included, and neither will the Tariff.

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Can I make my own copies?
Yes, of course - you just need access to a CD-ROM writer. We are happy to give you permission to duplicate our copyright material for this particular purpose, provided you undertake not to modify the content of the CD-ROM in any way whatsoever - in other words, you can only make exact copies of the original CD-ROM with nothing added and nothing taken out.

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Gadgets

What is a gadget?
    A "gadget" is an animated text presentation which you can place on any page(s) of your website to promote special offers, new features etc. To see the range of gadgets available, simply click the Gadgets button on the Client Control Panel.
    If you would like us to place a gadget on your website, just let us know what sort you�d like and what you�d like it to say. To install a gadget on an English-only site costs just 25� TTC (setup + rest of current period), then 15� a year service charge.
    Although you would normally have a gadget on just one page we can, if you like, install the same gadget on several different pages of your site (there is an additional charge of 5� per extra page).
    You can change the message(s) - or turn the gadget off temporarily - at any time at no extra cost.

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Statistics

What sort of statistics do I get?
    Our statistics software was designed and developed in-house in consultation with our clients, and aims to provide a range of information which is relevant to property letting businesses. The information is of three types: counters, graphs and live reports.
    Counters: We provide one counter which records the number of individual visits since the site went online, and a second "trip" counter, which you can reset to zero at any time. Unlike many counters, which are unable distinguish between genuine visitors and simple page "hits", our counters work in conjunction with information from the server and so accurately reflect the number of genuine visits.
    Graphs: We provide graphs of visits to the site by day of each month, month of the year, time of day and day of the week.
    Live reports: The live reports tell you how many visitors are on the site at that moment, and allow you see which pages of the site they have visited so far. They also provide information about each visitor's internet connection and browser.

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How do you know when a visitor is no longer "current"?
Actually, we don't! Because a visitor doesn't actually "do" anything to "leave" the site, it is logically impossible to distinguish between someone who has gone to another site, someone who has turned their computer off altogether, and someone who has simply been looking at the same page for a long time. What we do is to detect how long it has been since the visitor last requested a new page, and if that is more than a predetermined time, we consider them to have "left".

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Personal Information

What personal information do LetSites hold on their computers?
    All the information we hold about you is visible in the Personal Info section of the Control Panel.
    Details in the "FIXED" section cannot be changed.
    Details in the "PRIVATE" section are used solely by LetSites for administration purposes. They are between you and LetSites and will never be visible to any other person. LetSites undertake never to divulge any of these "Private" details to any other person under any circumstances.
    Details in the "PUBLIC" section are visible on your website and are thus publicly available without restriction.

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How do I change my personal details?
    (If you are not already logged in, go to www.letsites.com, log in to the Control Panel, click on Personal Info and then on the blue HELP button to bring you back to these instructions.)
    To the left of the information display are three control buttons:
    - the red ESCAPE button takes you back to the Control Panel without updating the database
    - the amber RESET button undoes all the changes you have made so far in this session
    - the blue HELP button brings you back to these instructions
    Simply select anything which is incorrect, make the necessary changes and then click the UPDATE button at the bottom of the form to send the changes to the Personal Information Database.
    Please note that you cannot change anything in the "FIXED" section.
    PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL when changing anything in the "PUBLIC" section - the new details will be visible to anyone visiting your site WITHIN A SECOND of your clicking the UPDATE button!

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