1. Who “We” and “You” Are

“SolidBox” is a brand used by a small group of independent companies who work together. Depending on what you bought, you’re dealing with one or more of these:

• Castle Consulting PLLC, doing business as SolidBox — a Texas professional engineering firm, foreign-registered in Utah, owned by Christopher J. Castle. This is the company that provides all professional and engineering services (analysis, simulation, calculations, stamped/sealed engineering, Engineer-of-Record work, and consulting).
• SolidBox – Team SolidWorks — owned by Joel Sears, operating under a franchise arrangement with Castle Consulting PLLC. This is the company that handles computer hardware and IT sales and is your main sales point of contact.
• Gilead Services — owned by Chris Smith, operating from our Salt Lake City office. This company handles hardware fulfillment, final integration, shipping, and technical support.

These are separate companies. Each is responsible only for its own work. Buying hardware from Team SolidWorks or getting support from Gilead does not make Castle Consulting PLLC responsible for it, and hiring Castle Consulting for engineering does not make Team SolidWorks or Gilead responsible for that. Which company you’re contracting with will be identified on your quote, invoice, or statement of work. In these Terms, “SolidBox,” “we,” “us,” and “our” mean whichever of these companies is providing the specific product or service in question — and only that company.

“You” or “Client” means the person or company buying the product or service.

2. When these Terms Apply and How You Accept Them

These Terms apply any time you buy hardware, engage our services, or use our website. You accept them when you do any of the following: sign or approve a quote or estimate that references them, pay an invoice that references them, use our website, or start receiving products or services from us.

Your specific quote, estimate, statement of work (“SOW”), or Master Services Agreement (“MSA”) is part of your agreement with us and is folded into these Terms by reference. If something in a signed quote/SOW/MSA directly conflicts with these Terms, the signed document wins for that specific point.

If you don’t agree with these Terms, don’t sign the quote, pay the invoice, or use the service — talk to us first.

3. Hardware and Products

Orders. All orders are subject to our acceptance. We can decline or cancel an order (for example, if a part is discontinued or mispriced), and if we do, we’ll refund anything you already paid for it.

Pricing and payment. Prices are in U.S. dollars and don’t include taxes, shipping, or handling unless we say so. Payment is due as stated on your quote or invoice. Past-due balances accrue interest at 1.5% per month (18% per year), or the most the law allows if that’s less.

Shipping and risk of loss. Unless your quote says otherwise, hardware ships FOB origin—meaning ownership and the risk of loss pass to you the moment it’s handed to the carrier. From that point, shipping damage is between you and the carrier/insurer, so tell us if you want it insured.

Warranty on hardware. Hardware is sold “AS IS,” except that we pass through to you any manufacturer warranties that can be transferred (Dell, NVIDIA, and the like). Those manufacturer warranties are your sole remedy for a hardware defect. We make no warranties of our own on the hardware and specifically disclaim the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. (Section 7 has the full disclaimer.)

Returns. Returns follow the applicable manufacturer’s return policy and may carry a restocking fee. Custom-configured machines generally can’t be returned—they’re built for you.

4. Professional and Engineering Services (please read this one closely)

This is the heart of what we do, so we’re going to be very clear about it.

Our work is professional guidance — a reference for your decisions, not a guarantee of results. We help you identify deficiencies and optimize your products using simulation and analysis tools (FEA, CFD, spreadsheet-based calculators, and similar methods) and our professional experience. We do not guarantee any particular outcome, performance, safety margin, code compliance, or business result. Our deliverables—calculations, models, drawings, analyses, and reports—are inputs to your engineering and business judgment. You remain responsible for reviewing them, deciding whether and how to use them, and for the final product.

Standard of care. We perform our services with the reasonable skill and care ordinarily used by competent professionals performing similar services under similar conditions in Texas at the time we do the work. That’s the only standard we promise—nothing more is implied. Engineering is not an exact science, and this standard does not mean our work will be perfect or error-free.

Where we’re licensed. We provide licensed/stamped engineering services only in jurisdictions where our firm and the responsible engineer are properly licensed. You are responsible for confirming what your local jurisdiction requires (permits, licensing, code adoption, third-party review) and for telling us up front where the work will be used, so the right licensed engineer handles it. If you use our work in a place or for a purpose we weren’t told about and weren’t licensed for, that’s on you.

Stamped work and Engineer of Record. When we seal/stamp a deliverable or act as Engineer of Record, that stamp covers only the specific documents we sealed, as of the date we sealed them, for the specific scope and design conditions stated in them. It does not cover: changes made after we sealed the work; other people’s designs, means, methods, or construction; field conditions or as-built work we didn’t observe; or use of the work outside its stated scope. Our professional licensing obligations are what they are under state law—nothing in these Terms changes those—but everything beyond those non-waivable duties is limited as described here.

Your responsibilities. You’ll give us timely, accurate, and complete information—data, drawings, specs, site/field conditions, loads, materials, and requirements—and timely access to your people, systems, and facilities. You’re responsible for the accuracy of everything you give us and for every decision and approval you make. We’re entitled to rely on what you provide without independently verifying it, and we’re not responsible for problems that trace back to bad, missing, or late information from you or your other consultants.

Get your own review. For anything where safety, code compliance, or significant money is on the line, you should have our work independently reviewed by your own licensed professional before you rely on it. Our services are not a substitute for your own due diligence.

5. Training, Support, and Blocks of Time

We sell training and support as prepaid Blocks of Time (also shown as “Support Blocks”), used in the increments stated on your quote. Blocks are a good-faith estimate of effort, not a fixed-scope deliverable or a guaranteed result. Unused time and expiration follow whatever your quote says. Training and support are provided with reasonable professional care and are subject to the same disclaimers and limits below.

6. Who You’re Actually Contracting With, and No Third Parties

Each product and service is provided by one specific SolidBox company (see Section 1), and only that company is responsible for it. These Terms are between you and us only. Nobody else—not your customers, not the end users of your product, not anyone downstream—gets any rights under these Terms or your agreement with us. We’re not responsible to anyone you didn’t tell us about, and our work is for your use, not for the benefit of any third party, unless we agree otherwise in a signed writing.

7. What We Don’t Warrant

HARDWARE is sold “AS IS” except for transferable manufacturer warranties, which are your sole remedy. SERVICES are provided with the standard of care described in Section 4 and nothing more.

To the fullest extent allowed by law, we disclaim all other warranties, express or implied—including the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and any warranty of specific results. We don’t warrant that our products or services will meet all your requirements, be error-free, or achieve any particular outcome. No warranty is created by our course of dealing, our marketing, or anything our people say informally—only what’s in a signed writing counts.

8. The Most We’re Responsible For (limitation of liability)

Here’s the honest limit, and it’s the thing that lets a small firm help you at small-firm prices:

To the fullest extent allowed by law, none of the SolidBox companies (or our owners, employees, agents, or subcontractors) will be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive, or exemplary damages—including lost profits, lost data, business interruption, downtime, or claims made against you by anyone else—even if we were warned those were possible.

And for everything else, the total amount you can recover from us for any claim—no matter how it’s framed (contract, negligence, or anything else)—is capped at the amount you actually paid to the specific SolidBox company for the specific product or service that the claim is about. This cap is the total across all claims, and it applies even if a limited remedy fails its basic purpose.

Any claim, demand, action, or proceeding arising out of or relating to these Terms, any quote, SOW, product, or services provided by SolidBox must be commenced no later than one (1) year after the cause of action accrues, regardless of any longer statute of limitations that might otherwise apply.

The only things this section doesn’t limit are the things the law won’t let us limit—for example, liability for gross negligence, willful misconduct, fraud, or bodily injury/death caused by our own negligence, and any non-waivable duties under our professional engineering license. We’re not trying to dodge those, and we’re not pretending we can.

9. You Cover Us for Your Side (indemnification)

You agree to defend and cover (indemnify) the SolidBox company you dealt with—and its owner, employees, and agents—against claims, damages, losses, and reasonable attorneys’ fees that come out of: (a) your data, designs, specs, or instructions; (b) how you use, modify, or integrate our deliverables into your products or projects; (c) your breach of these Terms; (d) claims brought by your customers or other third parties relating to your product or business; or (e) your violation of any law or third-party right.

What you are not being asked to cover is our own screw-ups. You are not indemnifying us for losses caused by our own negligence, gross negligence, or willful misconduct—Texas law (including the Texas Anti-Indemnity Act for construction-related work) wouldn’t enforce that anyway, and we’re not asking for it. This section is about making sure our help on your project doesn’t turn your risks into our problem.

10. Who Owns What (intellectual property)

You keep everything you owned before we started—your data, your designs, your IP. We keep our pre-existing tools, templates, methods, spreadsheets, FEA templates, CFD models, scripts, automation, design standards, calculation methods, workflows, and know-how, plus anything we develop on our own.

Deliverables we create for you are licensed to you for the specific project they were made for, once you’ve paid in full. They’re not a general-purpose license to reuse our work on other projects, resell it, or hand it to another engineer to modify, unless your signed agreement says so. You give us a limited license to use your materials as needed to do the work.

11. Payment, Invoicing, and Taxes

You’re responsible for all applicable taxes (other than taxes on our income). We can pause work or withhold deliverables if an invoice is past due. Fees are non-refundable except where a quote or SOW specifically says otherwise.

12. Confidentiality

Each of us will keep the other’s confidential information in confidence and use it only for the work. This doesn’t cover information that’s public, that you already had, or that we’re legally required to disclose.

13. Termination

Either of us can end an engagement for a material breach the other doesn’t fix within 30 days of written notice. We can stop work immediately for non-payment. If things end, you pay for all work done and products delivered up to that point. The sections on disclaimers, liability limits, indemnification, IP, and governing law survive.

14. Governing Law, Where Disputes Go, and Waiver of Jury Trial

These Terms are governed by Texas law, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Any action or proceeding arising out of or relating to these Terms, SOW, quote, product, or services provided by SolidBox shall be brought exclusively in the state courts of Val Verde County, Texas, or, if federal jurisdiction exists, the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, Del Rio Division. Each party irrevocably submits to the exclusive jurisdiction of those courts and waives any objection based on improper venue, lack of personal jurisdiction, or forum non conveniens. EACH PARTY WAIVES ANY RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL IN ANY ACTION OR PROCEEDING ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS.

15. The Rest of the Fine Print

Force majeure. Nobody’s liable for delays caused by things outside their reasonable control (natural disasters, pandemics, strikes, supply-chain failures, etc.) except that a force majeure event does not excuse payment obligations.

Entire agreement. These Terms plus your signed quote/SOW/MSA are the whole deal. Changes have to be in writing.

Severability. If a court throws out one part, the rest still stands.

Assignment. You can’t assign your agreement without our OK. We can assign ours to an affiliate or successor.

Notices. Use the contact info on file or on your quote/invoice.

Changes to these Terms. We may update these Terms, and the current version lives at www.mysolidbox.com/terms. The version that applies to your project is the one posted when you accepted your quote.

Attorneys’ Fees. The prevailing party in any litigation related to these Terms or our services shall be entitled to an award of its attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in the litigation.

By signing or approving a quote, paying an invoice, or using our products, services, or website, you’re confirming you’ve read and agreed to these Terms—including the warranty disclaimers (Sections 4 & 7), the limitation of liability (Section 8), and the indemnification (Section 9).