Our Terms, Your Privacy

Terms and Conditions

By purchasing a resume package, you are agreeing to the terms outlined in this agreement.

Refund Policy

Project cancellation by the client prior to writing commencing and within 60 days of the initial order may result in a partial refund of payment that ensures Top Margin and Gayle Howard will be compensated for time spent preparing in advance of and for time spent in conducting preparatory writing work.  The exact refund amount will be determined by Top Margin based on a reasonable estimate of the time already spent on the project (including consultation time) and work completed at the time of cancellation.

Top Margin retains the right to cancel any project at any time (with an explanation provided in writing to the client) and agrees to issue a refund to the client as a result of Top Margin initiating this cancellation.

Clients shall hold Top Margin and Gayle Howard harmless for any project that is cancelled prior to completion.

No refunds will be issued after 60 days from the initial order date if the client has a change of mind. The client can commence or continue with their project at any time up to five years from the date of purchase, and will also be permitted to transfer ownership to another person if that arrangement is provided in writing. The owner of the credit then becomes the friend or family member, and no further claims for service or assistance can be made by the original purchaser after the written confirmation.

Consumer Rights to Service Refunds

Australian Consumer Law says: When am I not entitled to a refund?

• changed your mind or found the service cheaper elsewhere.
• insisted on having a service provided in a particular way, against the provider’s advice
• failed to clearly explain your needs to the provider.”

Liability Disclaimer: Top Margin is not liable for information obtained from a client that is inaccurate or incorrect. Top Margin does not research or investigate any information given by the client and assumes the client has been truthful in all areas. Top Margin’s liability is limited to the completion of contracted work. The client will indemnify and hold Top Margin and Gayle Howard free and harmless from any obligations, costs, claims, judgements, or legal fees arising from, growing out of, or in any way connected with the services rendered to the client under the terms of this agreement.

Employment Disclaimer: Top Margin does not guarantee job placement, nor employment success. Our clients’ successes are directly dependent upon the effort, commitment and diligence they put into fully integrating the documents Top Margin has composed with best-practice job search strategies. Outcomes and successes are affected by many external variables including market volatility, local and national economies, market saturation for a particular industry, and a client’s level of experience, adaptability to workforce changes, skill sets, or continued motivation.

Timeliness: After the client supplies the requested information to complete a resume and other career communication documents contracted, Top Margin will provide an estimated timeframe when the first draft will become available for the client’s review, feedback and edits. All work will be completed in a timely manner subject to acts of God, equipment failure, or other circumstances beyond Top Margin’s control.

Project Deadlines/Timeframes: Unless other arrangements are made, the client agrees to finalise the resume and other contracted documents and services (or accept work as written) within 30 days from the date of receipt of the first draft.  The client also agrees that he or she is solely responsible for meeting this deadline and that Top Margin or Gayle Howard is neither liable nor responsible for incorporating any changes requested by the client after the expiration of the 30-day window.

Deadlines for Pricing: Top Margin advises that estimates and prices are good for 60 days from the time of order placement. Current prices and services apply if an order is “shelved” and resumed after 60 days.

Edits: Up to two sets of edits (based on original material provided) are included in the quoted fee. Edits do not include new content. Discretionary edits or more than two sets of edits or additional writing will mean reworking the documents and additional consultation fees may apply. Additionally, a significant departure from the original draft provided will incur additional fees as this constitutes a completely different document and is viewed by Top Margin as a different résumé.

Proofreading: Clients receive proofreading instructions with the first draft copy of the resume and other documents such as cover letters and e-notes, and are asked to check all data for accuracy and completeness. If corrections are needed, clients are asked to raise them with the resume writer. Top Margin is explicitly not responsible for errors or omissions that are missed during the client proofreading process. Top Margin assumes no liability after the resume has been proofread by the client and the electronic ‘Final Release’ form has been signed.

Updates: resume updates are capped at three years from the time the resume was written by Top Margin to the time of enquiry. Top Margin will update your resume at the discounted update price based on the following criteria. a) you are a client of Top Margin and we wrote your resume in the past three years. b) You complete update worksheets only for the sections that are to be updated. c) Top Margin will update the original document we wrote. We will not update a document that you have updated yourself over the years. If either a) b) or c) differ from your situation please contact us for a quotation.

Currency Transactions: This site transacts services in Australian dollars worldwide.

Client Responsibility: It is the responsibility of the client, and in the client’s best interests, to supply Top Margin with all requested information and to work collaboratively to complete a custom package that reflects each individual’s style, strengths, and career history. Top Margin relies on active client participation in this process to achieve the best outcome possible for all concerned.

Electronic Files:  Top Margin cannot guarantee the compatibility of computer files with client systems or that documents will retain their original formatting features. Top Margin is a professional resume writing and career development firm, and is unable to help with computer training services. Due to the varying nature of computer word processing software and the page alterations that can take place from computer to computer, based on printer and computer recognition, Top Margin cannot guarantee that documents will appear perfectly on every computer or printer. While Top Margin takes every step to ensure client satisfaction, some issues are beyond Top Margin’s control and require the client to research and find solutions independently which may include the client purchasing the correct software to conduct their job search.

Payment Policy: By commissioning work by Top Margin, the client acknowledges that fees are for personalized services and as such are non-refundable. Full payment is required before writing commences.

Protected Property Rights: Top Margin retains intellectual property ownership of all work produced. Each piece is carefully composed to ensure individuals are marketed effectively against strict and unique criteria based on distinctive personal and professional characteristics. Clients may use documents at their discretion with the exception of plagiarism. Plagiarism is defined by providing career documents to other persons/entities for their use (whole or part) or for the purpose/intent of plagiarism, which is prohibited by law and subject to legal action. This policy protects the integrity and quality of Top Margin’s professional writing, each client’s right to have an individually crafted resume, and a potential third party from an unsuccessful marketing strategy not tailored specifically to their skills and experience. Clients may edit their own documents and distribute via any form of electronic transmission. Prior to May 2018, the client further understands that unless otherwise specified, Top Margin reserves the right to use the client’s career documents as samples in print and/or online, with all identifying client information (client name, company names, titles, dates and any personally identifiable facts and achievements) amended to protect client anonymity. Clients reserve the right to refuse the use of anonymous samples by striking this phrase in this agreement. Subsequent to May 2018, clients will be approached in writing to secure their permission to fictionalize documents.

 

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Your Privacy

Who we are

Our website address is https://www.topmargin.com

What data we collect and how we use it

This site uses order forms for customers to request information, products and services. We request visitors’ contact information (like their email address and name) so we may answer requests for information. When we provide free promotions such as ebooks, we request an email address so we may send these free materials to you and we also ask if you would like to join our newsletter list where we send very infrequent newsletters and special marketing offers. An official opt-in email will be sent to you to ensure you are still interested in receiving these infrequent messages, and you may opt out at any time by clicking an unsubscribe link.

As a resume development service, it is necessary for Top Margin to ask our clients personal and professional information—such as their education, employment history, company names, achievements, contact details, and data typically included in a resume used for seeking employment. This information is used solely to create documents that the client has entered into an agreement with us to create on their behalf. As a client service in case of loss of originals, we keep these documents permanently by maintaining physical, electronic and procedural safeguards in connection with the collection, storage and disclosure of your personally identifiable customer information. Documents are only accessed on the client’s request to email originals due to loss, or to update resume documents with fresh information. If you would like your resumes deleted permanently so no document exists at all, please contact Top Margin via the contact page, and we will perform that task immediately and confirm deletion.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Who we share your data with

If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Our site is encrypted

We use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software to encrypt the information you enter on our site in order to protect its security during transmission to and from our site. When storing information, we protect its security by encryption of critical data. When we process credit card information and payments, the credit card is subject to tokenisation and strong security measures. Financial information is not collected or held on our website or by topmargin.com or Gayle Howard the owner of this site. Information given by customers is transacted solely through financial services organisations such as PayPal, Stripe and PIN Payments.

Third-parties

Top Margin does not share your information with any other person or business including when we are asked for samples from potential buyers. We also do not provide our clients’ names or email addresses as references for our services to any potential new client requesting this information. We do not update social media sites such as LinkedIn with resume data, but instead, send a Word template for you (the client) to edit and maintain your own online profile. We do not send resumes to recruiters or employers unless the client provides written agreement for us to do so in the event of a job vacancy that suits their skills and experience.

Online information will only be used to respond directly to the user’s request and will not be used for any other purpose. We do not collect personally identifiable offline contact information nor do we publicly post or distribute to third parties any personally identifiable information.

Resume Samples 

Our site includes heavily fictionalised resume samples that bear little to no resemblance to the original document presented to the client at the time of writing. Formats, employment history, names, dates, achievements and any personally identifiable information has been removed or changed on these sample resumes.

Prior to 2018, Top Margin would enter resume writing competitions once a year for the professional association, Career Directors International. Competition rules requested resume samples that were again, heavily fictionalized so that the name of the client, dates, employment history, dates, education and country as well as format, would be unrecognisable from the client’s original document. From May 2018, clients will be approached in writing to approve of us using these heavily fictionalised documents and only with their written permission, and showing them what we intend to use, will this practice continue. Some of these fictionalized resumes are displayed on the Career Directors International website as a multiple-time award winner.

Cookies

A cookie is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored in your web browser on your computer, mobile or other handheld devices, while you are browsing a website. Our site uses cookies to identify you. Cookies can store your account identifier, ordering status, personalisation or website tracking. They can also be used for technical purposes such as keeping track of your current shopping session and enabling you to proceed to checkout and pay for your order or to save information which has already been entered (languages choices, and your region), so that we can offer improved and more personalised services, products and other relevant communication tailored to you. These cookies will last for one year. If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser. When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

Links to other sites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this website, you can contact us.