SDAS | Terms and conditions

Purchases - Books, Software and Training

Survey Design and Analysis Services Pty Ltd (SDAS / the Company) is the distributor of Stata software, Stata Press books, StataCorp’s NetCourses and NetCourseNow, Circle System’s Stat/Transfer, and Provalis Research’s ProSuite, QDA Miner, WordStat, WordStat for Stata and SimStat in Australia, Indonesia and New Zealand.

SDAS operates the following websites: www.sdas.au, www.sdas.com.au, www.sdas.co.id, www.sdas.co.nz, www.stata-au.com, wwww.stata-nz.com, www.stata-id.com, www.surveydesign.com.au, www.surveydesign.co.nz, www.techtips.surveydesign.com.au and www.sugm.net.au, referred to here as "the SDAS Website".

Purchase terms - StataCorp (Stata)

By accepting the Stata End-User Licence Agreement (EULA), you, the purchaser, are entering into a licence agreement with StataCorp LLC of College Station, TX, USA.

All purchases of perpetual and term licences of Stata software are made conditional on the acceptance of the Stata End-User Licence Agreement. This Agreement is between the Customer and StataCorp LLC, solely.

When purchasing maintenance for Stata you are entering into a maintenance agreement between you, the purchaser, and StataCorp LLC.

Purchase terms – Circle Systems (Stat/Transfer)

By accepting the Stat/Transfer End-User Licence Agreement (EULA), you, the purchaser, are entering into a licence agreement with Circle Systems Inc of Seattle, WA, USA. All purchases of perpetual and term licences of Stat/Transfer software are made conditional on the acceptance of the End-User Licence Agreement. This Agreement is between the Customer and Circle Systems Inc, solely. Purchase of annual leases are made conditional on the completion of the relevant licence agreement documents provided as part of the annual lease process and are a contract between the lessee and Circle Systems Inc.

Purchase terms – Provalis Research / Recherches Provalis Corp. (QDA Miner, WordStat, WordStat for Stata, SimStat)

By accepting the End User Licence Agreement (EULA) for Provalis Research products, you, the purchaser, are entering into a licence agreement with Provalis Research Corp of Montreal, QC, Canada. All purchases of Provalis Research software are made conditional on the acceptance of the End User Licence Agreement. This Agreement is between the Customer and Provalis Research, solely.

Order processing

Orders are processed Monday to Friday from 9:00a.m. to 5:00p.m. Eastern Australian Standard Time / Australian Eastern Daylight Time. Orders are processed in the order they are received and are processed either the day they are received or the next business day.

For Stata single user licences: Orders placed, for which we have verified payment, before 4:00p.m. on business days will receive their licence the same business day. Orders placed after 4:00pm will receive their licence before 10:00a.m. the following business day. Student and academic licences are only emailed to the verified student or academic email address provided at the time of placing the order.

For Stata network and volume licences: Licences will be delivered the next business day.

For Stat/Transfer: Deliveries via download are made within 1 business day of the order being processed.

For Provalis Research products: Deliveries via download can be accessed immediately upon order via a free download, with activation codes being delivered within 2 business days. For orders made after 5:00p.m. on Friday, activation codes will not be delivered until the following Tuesday.

Payment

Orders will only be processed upon receipt of either upfront payment or an approved institutional purchase order. The preferred method of payment is via direct deposit or OSKO to the SDAS bank account. When making a deposit please include the first four letters of your last name or company name and your invoice number or online order number. Once we have received payment your order will be released for processing.

The Company also accepts MasterCard, Visa Card and PayPal. American Express payments can be made through electronic invoicing. Credit card payments greater than A$1,000 incur an additional charge of 1%.

The Company does not accept cheque payment except under prior arrangement for approved organisations. Where an organisations have approval from SDAS to pay using cheques the cheques must be drawn on an Australian Bank and be payable in Australian Dollars (unless otherwise stated).

The Company accepts purchase orders from Australian, Indonesian and New Zealand Government agencies, institutions and listed companies for institutional purchases only under prior arrangement. Terms are 14 days.

Australian Goods and Services Tax (GST)

The Company collects Australian GST on all sales within or associated with Australia. Sales to Indonesian, New Zealand or other locations outside of Australia are Australian GST exempt. The Company is based outside of New Zealand and supplies the goods from outside New Zealand, therefore we do not collect New Zealand GST. SDAS does not collect any sales tax or duties on behalf of the Government of Indonesia. Any taxes, duties, tariffs or import charges must be paid by the buyer directly to the Government of Indonesia, where applicable.

International sales

International sales may be subject to local country taxes, customs and duties that are levied by local authorities upon arrival of goods into the country. Any additional charges for customs clearance must be borne by you, the purchaser. The Company has no control over these charges. Customs policies vary widely from country to country. Please contact your local customs office for further information.

When ordering from SDAS, you are considered the importer of record and must comply with all laws and regulations of the country into which the products are received.

Note: All international deliveries are subject to inspection by customs authorities and packages may be opened. While The Company takes care to package goods securely, SDAS is not responsible for actions to inspect goods by customs authorities.

Pricing

Prices displayed on the SDAS Website are shown by default in Australian Dollars (A$): including taxes for Australian purchases; excluding taxed taxes for purchases outside of Australia. Selecting a different country such as Indonesia or New Zealand will change the currency to our preferred currency for that country (US$ for Indonesia and NZ$ for New Zealand). Prices are subject to change without notice, unless provided on a formal, valid quote, for the quoted period.

Delivery

SDAS offers software delivery via download, sent to the specified customer email address. If a DVD or book is ordered, SDAS ships goods by Australia Post. All products purchased from the SDAS are made pursuant to a shipment contract. This means that the risk of loss for such products pass to you upon our delivery to Australia Post. If you have received your Order Confirmation Email but your products have not arrived within the time specified in the Order Confirmation Email, please contact us and we will do our best to assist you however claims for non-delivery are to be arranged through the shipping provider, usually Australia Post.

Note that during peak delivery periods (e.g. new software releases and at Christmas please allow an additional day before raising a query. If your order has not been received within the specified time, please check your Australia Post tracking number at https://auspost.com.au/.

Returns

Returns - Stata software

StataCorp are confident you will be pleased with Stata’s features, but if you feel that Stata is not right for you, you may take advantage Stata's convenient return policy, which The Company also makes available to our Stata customers.

Returns – Stata student licences

Purchasers of Stata student licences may exchange or return your order within seven (7) days from the date on which the goods were shipped to you, for a full refund. Refunds will be paid using the same method as which payment of the original invoice was made. If you wish to exchange a product, please note that you may be required to pay an additional sum if the replacement product is more expensive than the original item purchased.

Returns – Stata academic, government, not-for-profit and commercial licences

You may exchange or return your order within thirty (30) days from the date on which the goods were shipped to you, for a full refund. Refunds will be paid using the same method as which payment of the original invoice was made. If you wish to exchange a product, please note that you may be required to pay an additional sum if the replacement product is more expensive than the original item purchased.

Returns delivery costs

If you are returning goods for exchange or return, you are responsible for the cost of returning them to us.
We will not refund the original delivery charge in the case of exchanges or returns.
You will also be liable for the delivery costs incurred by us in sending you any replacement product as exchange.
In the case of returns, you will only be refunded the value of the goods ordered.
We will only pay the return costs and subsequent re-delivery costs (if applicable) if the return is a result of our error or the goods are faulty.

Returns – Stata Press Publications

Print: Refunds / credits will not be issued if you have simply changed your mind. Damaged goods must be reported within 30 days of receipt of item(s). The Company will replace the damaged item(s) at no charge.

Electronic: Refunds/credits will not be issued if you have simply changed your mind. Stata Press eBooks are nonreturnable and nonrefundable after activation.

Returns – Stat/Transfer

Refunds / credits will not be issued if you have simply changed your mind. Stat/Transfer sales are nonreturnable and nonrefundable after activation. You may exchange or return your order within thirty (30) days from the date on which the goods were shipped to you if you have not activated the software. If you wish to exchange a product, please note that you may be required to pay an additional sum if the replacement product is more expensive than the original item purchased.

Returns – QDA Miner, WordStat, WordStat for Stata and SimStat

Refunds / credits will not be issued if you have simply changed your mind. Provalis Research products are nonreturnable and nonrefundable after activiation.

This returns policy does not affect your statutory rights.

Electronic communications

When you visit the SDAS Website or send emails to SDAS, you are communicating with us electronically. We will communicate with you by email or by posting notices on the SDAS Website. For contractual purposes, you consent to receive communications from us electronically and you agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures and other communications that we provide to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing. This condition does not affect your statutory rights.

Electronic marketing communications

Periodically the Company distributes commercial electronic messages (emails) to persons with whom a business relationship has been established^*. These emails may be developed by the Company and distributed by the Company, or developed by one of SDAS’s software licensors and distributed by SDAS on their behalf. These messages contain commercial information including: information relating to special offers for the software that SDAS distributes; training programs available either through SDAS or other training providers; books related to the products SDAS sells; tips, help and guidance for use of the software; and notices of forthcoming conferences or user groups being held. You may unsubscribe at any time by visiting https://www.surveydesign.com.au/subscription.html.

^*A business relationship is created (and thus inferred consent is given) when a person or organisation purchases software, software maintenance, training, books or manuals from SDAS. This applies even when the software is purchased through a reseller or the software is purchased directly from the software licensor, and SDAS is directed by the software licensor to manage the business relationship, such as customer contact and distribution of marketing information. Business relationships also exist where organisations provide SDAS users' details for the purpose of on-going management of the relationship with the users.

^**On all marketing emails sent to you from or via SDAS, a statement will be included advising you the (original) email address to which the email was sent. Occasionally customers establish automatic forwards for their email addresses, of which SDAS is unaware. In order to unsubscribe, you will be required to advise the email address to which the email was originally addressed. SDAS will endeavour to match the unsubscribed email address with the customer, however, this is not always possible if an email has been automatically forwarded. If SDAS receives an unsubscribe request for an email address that is not recorded in the customer database, such as an automatically forwarded email address, SDAS will note that forwarded email address as unsubscribed and contact you to determine the original email address. If SDAS cannot clearly identify the original email address, you may continue to receive marketing emails from SDAS until the original and forwarding email addresses have been correctly identified and unsubscribed.

SDAS does not search the Internet, emails or directory listing to harvest email addresses; however, when emails sent to email addresses existing in the SDAS customer database bounce, SDAS may search publicly available Internet records to update the SDAS database to maintain current customer records.

Sharing your contact details

As part of providing you with the software sold by SDAS, we are required to provide the developers of the respective software customer contact information for their purposes of creating software licences. The respective software vendors (Circle Systems Inc., Provalis Research Inc. and StataCorp LLC) may choose to send you electronic marketing communications directly - not via SDAS. Where the respective vendor sends you marketing communications it is a relationship between you and the respective software vendor.

Terms and Conditions for Training Services

Preamble

The Company provides Stata statistical software (Stata / the Software), books, consultancy, information, technical support and training related to Stata. The Software and books are provided on an “as-is” basis, while consultancy, information, technical support and training are provided under a “best-endeavours” approach. SDAS also advertises training and conferences relating to Stata. Some of these advertised training programs and conferences may be provided by SDAS, some may be provided by StataCorp, and some may be provided by independent organisations and contracted consultants. The Registrant means the person or organisation who places an order with the Company for training services and attends training.

These terms and conditions are specific to the training services provided by SDAS. This includes SDAS Stata Webinar Series, SDAS in-person training, free Stata workshops and the SDAS Stata Certificate Program. Training services (either free or paid) provided by others is subject to their own terms and conditions. The full Terms and Conditions for SDAS training can be found at surveydesign.com.au/terms.html.

Registration and Payment
1. Registration for all training events is required. Paid training requires full payment prior to the commencement of the training.
2. Where payment is required, payment must be made by one of the methods of payment approved by the Company. These are direct deposit, OSKO, PayPal, Credit Card or institutional purchase order (for agreed entities).
3. By registering, Registrants agree to comply with these terms, including the Cancellation and Refund Policy.
4. Registered Registrants must have access to an appropriately licensed and current release of the Stata software during the training. The Company is not responsible for providing software licenses to Registrants. The Company can assist Registrants with new licences or temporary licences for the training in line with the evaluation licence requirements imposed on the Company by StataCorp.
Cancellation and Refund Policy
1. For paid training (both in-person and web-based), full refunds are available for cancellations made at least 14 days before the scheduled event.
2. For cancellations made between 7 and 14 days prior, Registrants may reschedule for a future date without penalty, but no refunds will be provided.
3. No refunds will be issued for cancellations made less than 7 days before the event.
4. If a participant needs to withdraw, due to unforeseen circumstances, from a paid training event after it has started the Company will work with the participant to arrange for them to attend a later session.
5. Refunds will not be issued following the start of the training for a change of mind or general absenteeism.
6. The Company reserves the right to cancel or reschedule training sessions. In the event the Company must cancel a session, Registrants will be notified and offered a new date or access to a recorded version if applicable. Where the Company is unable to schedule a new date or access to recording a refund may be given.
Disclaimers and Liability
1. Survey Design and Analysis Services Pty Ltd (SDAS) is not a registered training organisation (RTO) under the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA).
2. Training materials are provided on a "best endeavours" basis, and while the Company strives for accuracy, errors may exist in the materials. The Company will attempt to correct any identified material errors, update all material and notify the Registrants.
3. As Stata is a large and broad software package that is continuously updated, there may be aspects of the software that are not covered in the training. There may also be alternative methods to achieve analytical outcomes in Stata that are not explored during the sessions.
4. The Company cannot be held liable for decisions made by Registrants based on the training. Registrants acknowledge they use the software and apply the training that they received from the Company at their discretion and risk, and any actions taken following the training and as a result of using Stata are their own responsibility.
5. The Company is not liable for technical issues that prevent access to webinars or online training. Registrants are responsible for having adequate internet access and the correct Stata software installed for the duration of the training.
Intellectual Property and Usage
1. All intellectual property rights to training materials remain with the Company. Copyright information will be clearly stated on any distributed material.
2. All training documents, including handouts, recordings, code and datasets provided by the Company shall be treated as strictly confidential and shall not be disclosed, distributed or shared with any third party, either for free or commercial purposes, without the Company’s prior written consent or used by the Registrant other than for the purposes authorised by the Company.
3. Violation of these terms may result in legal action, including seeking damages for breach of intellectual property rights.
Recordings and Recording Access
1. The Company will record online training only. Recordings will be performed using Zoom. Recordings include the presentation by the presenter, any material displayed by a participant where the participant chooses to share their screen with the meeting, and chat within the “everyone group” and audio from the meeting.
2. When entering the on-line meeting Registrants are requested to enter the name under which they registered. This ensures that the Company, and the meeting host can effectively communicate with all persons. The Company reserves the right to eject any unregistered and unidentified users from online meetings.
3. It is strictly prohibited for Registrants to share on-line meeting registration details.
4. All Registrants to online training are expected to switch on their cameras. The Company reserves the right to eject any unresponsive Registrants to requests to switch on their camera from the online meeting.
5. All Registrants agree to abide by the meeting rules and acknowledge that use of profanity or disrespectfulness to either the presenters or other participants may result in them being ejected from the meeting and barred from further participation. Ejection from the room for inappropriate behaviour may result in full forfeiture of their registration fee.
6. Registrants may not perform their own recording of the webinars or on-line training. Detection of attempts to record may result in the ejection of the Registrant from the meeting.
7. For free webinars, Registrants attending the webinar may receive access to a recording via our YouTube channel youtube.com/@sdas_anz. The recording will be unlisted, and Registrants are strictly prohibited from sharing the link.
8. Paid on-line training attendees will be provided with access to recordings during the course. Registrants must have a registered Google or YouTube account to access them. Google accounts can be created at https://accounts.google.com/. See https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/161805?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop to learn how to create a YouTube account.
9. Access to these recordings will be revoked at the conclusion of the training.
10. Any distribution or sharing of the recordings, without prior written consent from the Company, is strictly prohibited.
Assessments
1. Webinars and in-person classroom based training do not have assessment components. While exercises may be conducted in the classes or made available as "homework" these are not assessed and the completion of these is solely at the decision of the Registrant.
2. Assessment are an integral component of the Certified Stata Analyst Program and the Stata Analyst Methods modules. The assessments for the core modules comprise three assignments and a final project. To receive the Certificate of Achievement for the completion of a core module or a methods module Registrants must achieve a grade of 60% across all assessments.
3. If participants find it challenging to complete the assignments and require additional consultations or have been impacted by unforeseen adverse circumstances then they must get in touch at csa@surveydesign.com.au to discuss a possible extension to their submission deadline. Extensions are not automatic and can only be provided on a case-by-cases basis. Regardless, the maximum extension that can be awarded to any assessment or the final project cannot exceed four weeks past the last online session of that module, after which the participants would need to pay a A$150 fee to continue receiving feedback and consultations and be allowed to retake the assignments for another month.
Module Exemptions - Core Modules only
1. Registrants who have used Stata for more than 2 years and who believe that they have adequate knowledge of Stata to be able to pass the assignments and final project for Core Modules without attending the Core Modules classes can apply for an exemption which, if successful, will also contribute to their designation as a SDAS Certified Stata Analyst.
2. To receive a Certificate of Achievement by Exemption Registrants must apply for the exemption version of the module. Following receipt of payment, and at an agreed time, Registrants will be provided with an exemption project. Exemption projects must be completed and returned to SDAS within 14 days of receipt by the Registrant. Registrants receiving a grade of 60% or above will receive a Certificate of Achievement - by Exemption for that module. Registrants who do not achieve the passing grade of 60% will be able to receive a discount on the regular version of the module. The discount will be equivalent to 50% of the fee paid for module exemption (for example if a module exemption fee was $150, then the discount on the module will be $75.
Certificates
1. Certificates of Attendance will not be issued for free webinars or free in-person workshops.
2. Certificates of Attendance can be requested for paid in-person training where Registrants have attended the training and signed the sign-in sheet to confirm their attendance for the entirety of the training session(s). These certificates confirm attendance but do not reflect the Registrant’s participation or proficiency in the Software. Nor do they meet the accreditation standards outlined by the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA).
3. For paid online training, Registrants can choose to complete assessments after specified modules. These assessments may include quizzes, assignments, or practical exercises. To receive a Certificate of Professional Achievement, Registrants must achieve a passing score on the assessments, as determined by the Company. The specific passing criteria will be communicated to Registrants at the start of the course.
4. The issued certificate reflects the attainment of assured quality learning as delivered by the Company, but does not constitute a license or certification to practice any specific profession or skill.
5. Registrants are responsible for submitting their assessments within the deadlines provided. Extensions may be granted at the Company's discretion in cases of extenuating circumstances.
6. Where an employer (or other seeking verification of a certificate) seeks validation of a certificate they can contact the Company on 02 6247 0177 providing the name of the Registrant and the certificate number. Information provided will be confirmation that it is a valid certificate, course undertaken and confirmation that the Registrant received a passing grade. No further information will be provided.
Course Delivery – Online Training
1. Paid online training will be delivered as a series of online lectures and tutorials, which may include live and pre-recorded content.
2. For paid online training, Registrants are required to attend both the lectures and tutorials as part of the course structure to maximise their learning experience and fulfil the requirements for receiving any certificates.
3. The Company will provide reasonable notice of the schedule for live sessions. Registrants are responsible for attending at the scheduled times. Recordings of live sessions may be provided at the Company's discretion – refer to section 5 – Recordings and recording access.
4. Course materials and content will be made available through the Company's online platforms, and Registrants are responsible for ensuring they have access to the required technical setup to attend.
5. Registrants for both online webinars and paid online training are required to use Zoom for attending sessions. The Company will provide Zoom access details before the sessions.
Course Delivery – In-person
1. In-person training may be provided at certain venues across Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand or elsewhere at a venue advertised at the Company’s website.
2. Additional terms and conditions may be applied by the hosting venue.
3. Registrants are prohibited from recording in-person training without the explicit written permission from the Company.
4. In-person training will comprise lectures and demonstrations of the Software. Registrants may have the opportunity to participate in exercises using the Software.
5. The Company will provide reasonable notice of the schedule for in-person sessions. Registrants are responsible for attending at the scheduled times.

Other terms and conditions

Disclaimer and limitation of liability

The SDAS Website is provided by Survey Design and Analysis Services on an “as is” and “as available” basis. The SDAS Website is hosted on servers physically located in Australia. Survey Design and Analysis Services makes no representations or warranties of any kind, expressed or implied, as to the operation of this Website or the information, content, materials, or products included on this Website. It is expressly agreed by you that your use of this Website is at your sole risk. Survey Design and Analysis Services does not warrant that this Website, its servers, or e-mail by us are free of viruses or other harmful components, however we take actions to minimize the likelihood of viruses and malware on the website by applying information security controls, running virus protection and taking back-ups of the server. Survey Design and Analysis Services will not be liable for any damages of any kind arising from the use of this Website, including, but not limited to direct, indirect, incidental, punitive, and consequential damages. Laws of certain countries or states do not allow limitations on implied warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain damages. If these laws apply to you, some or all of the above disclaimers, exclusions, or limitations may not apply to you, and you might have additional rights.

Alteration of service or amendments to the conditions

Survey Design and Analysis Services reserves the right to make changes to our website, policies, and these terms and conditions of sale at any time. Your usage of the website and your orders will be subject to the policies and terms and conditions of sale in force at the time that you use the Website or that you order products from us.

Events beyond our reasonable control

Survey Design and Analysis Services will not be held responsible for any delay or failure to comply with our obligations under these conditions if the delay or failure arises from any cause that is beyond our reasonable control. This condition does not affect your statutory rights.

Survey Design and Analysis Services

Terms and conditions