Terms & Conditions of Service
Billing and Charges
All of our shared hosting packages carry a money-back guarantee! If you are dissatisfied for any reason at all then just let us know why and if we can’t help, we’ll issue refund of your last invoice and give you 30 days to find another provider. Please note that VDS orders, dedicated server orders, and domain costs are not refundable.
Payments
Renewal invoices are generated 21-30 days in advance and sent to your registered e-mail address. It is your responsibility to ensure this e-mail address is kept up to date and can receive emails from us.
It is important that we receive payment on time. All services must be paid for by the due date shown on the invoice unless a written adjustment has been agreed. Failure to complete payment after this time will result in an automatic reminder when the invoice is overdue, and automatic account suspension should the invoice remain unpaid for more than 3 days. This applies to all hosting accounts, VDS and Dedicated servers. Domain names expire on the day immediately after their renewal date. As such we strongly recommend renewing a minimum of 48 hours before the expiration date.
If an invoice is unpaid, the related service will be suspended until such time that payment is received and you inform us by email that you have paid. At this point we will use all reasonable endeavours to restore service within 24 hours.
Unless otherwise stated, all payments must be received in UK Pounds sterling. If you pay by foreign bank transfer, then you must be responsible for all foreign currency charges.
We reserve the right to alter our prices at any time and will notify you of any alteration by providing you with a written notice. Notice of any price alteration will be sent via e mail to the e mail address that we hold for you in our account. If you have already purchased a particular service then the price alteration will only become effective when the service reaches the end of its current term.
You warrant that you are lawfully authorised to make payment using the payment card or facility you disclose to us. In the event where you are not the named cardholder, you acknowledge that you and the named cardholder both accept these terms and conditions and are jointly and severally liable for any payment(s) due. You hereby indemnify us in the event that the cardholder or issuer declines any transaction for payment, including our costs in recovering the outstanding amount due.
If you attempt a chargeback, Direct Debit indemnity, or dispute a transaction with your bank, we reserve the right to suspend all services provided to you with immediate effect. Services will remain suspended and until such time as the reversal has been fully completed in our favour .
Overusage
Account usage is checked frequently. All accounts will receive notification when bandwidth usage is nearing the account’s limit. Overusage will result in automatic account suspension unless a prior agreement has been reached. Usually the cheapest option is to upgrade to the next package where available, otherwise our standard charges are 40p per GB per month for additional bandwidth usage and £2 per month per 250MB disk usage. Upon suspension please contact us to arrange upgrade pricing.
If not specifically stated to the contrary, our services are intended to be used for the purposes of hosting websites and e-mail. Batch processing, video encoding/transcoding, web crawling/spidering, archiving and online backup systems and any system designed to consume CPU or disk resources for purposes other than hosting a website are not permitted on our shared hosting servers. However you may use such tools on a VDS or dedicated server. We reserve the right to enact defensive movements to maintain the stability of our systems for all clients.
If you believe your website may be susceptible to high or otherwise abnormal usage you must contact us to discuss the suitability of your hosting environment.
Cancellation, refunds, termination and disputes
Cancellation notices for all services must be given at a minimum of 48 hours in advance of the next billing date, with the exception of VDS and Dedicated servers for which we require a cancellation notice a minimum 30 days before the next billing date. For shared hosting, an account credit will be granted for each whole unused month. No cash refunds will be granted unless a payment has been taken in error. Refunds for prepaid dedicated servers and VPS will only be granted where there is a genuine irreconcilable problem with the service and at management’s discretion.
A breach of any of our terms and conditions will result in immediate termination with no refund.
Setup fees are non-refundable. Any disputes should be expressed in writing via a valid written contact method as listed on our contact page.
Client Conduct
Under no circumstances will we tolerate threatening or abusive behavior towards our staff. Should this occur, we reserve the right to terminate the hosting agreement with immediate effect.
Should the client, during the course of a telephone conversation, email or support ticket, make reference to “legal action” or say anything we might reasonably understand to imply or infer that the client may intend to pursue a legal claim against us, we reserve the right to refuse telephone support going forward. Any further correspondence must then be sent by email or support ticket.
Should we feel that your needs would be better served by another provider, we reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to terminate the hosting agreement. Where it is reasonable to do so, we will provide 30 days notice of termination and provide a backup of all website content and email.
Rights on Termination
Termination of this agreement does not affect your pre-existing liability, if any or affect our right to recover damages or pursue any other remedy in respect of any breach of this agreement by you.
In the event of us terminating this agreement due to breach of these conditions by you, we shall be entitled to the balance of all payments which would but for such termination have accrued up to the earliest date on which this agreement could have been terminated by you.
Setup fees are non-refundable. Any disputes should be expressed in writing via a valid written contact method.
A change of details
We have the right to change any username or password allocated to you for the purpose of essential network maintenance, enhancement modernisation or other work deemed necessary to the operation of the Internet.
Similarly, we have the right to alter the hosting environment your site runs in to one with like-for-like features, as long as reasonsable notice is given and there is no disruption to service. The only reason we would do this is if it represented an ‘upgraded’ environment for you, the end user.
Domain registration, renewal, transfer and restoration
Some hosting packages include a free domain registration or transfer for a .be / .biz / .co.uk / .com / .de / .eu / .info / .ltd.uk / .me / .me.uk / .net / .org / .org.uk domain name. All other extensions are excluded from this offer due to their additional cost but please contact us for a reduced price if you wish to order with a different extension. The registration period is one year.
Hosting package renewals do not include a further free domain renewal, transfer or registration.
We will always register, transfer and renew domain names in our client’s name – never in our own. You are always in control of every aspect of your domain name(s) and can manage your domain’s WHOIS data by contacting us. It is your responsibility to keep this data correct.
Account Support / Emergency Contact
We provide support via e-mail and phone. To provide efficient service and comply with data protection laws, any requests for changes to your account (including billing changes, password changes or any other technical changes) must be submitted by ticket or e-mail from your registered address.
Service Level Agreements
An Industry Leading SLA
We endeavour to provide a 99.9% service uptime, excluding planned or emergency server maintenance or conditions beyond our reasonable control. All customers will be notified of planned maintenance as far as possible in advance through our status page.
Should we break this SLA in any calendar month with unscheduled service unavailability (as verified by our network monitoring) we will upon request credit a full week’s cost to your client account. No hidden catches – we value our service and clients extremely highly.
Our SLA is rescinded if you have overdue invoices on your account, or if you have paid the invoice for the period of the disruption late.
We, or our provider, make no guarantees to defend a customer’s website from a denial of service attack unless that service has been specifically offered and agreed.
For Virtual Private, Dedicated and Complex Hosting Customers
On our virtual servers, dedicated servers and complex hosting, our SLA is increased as follows:
- Power: 100%
- Network: 100%
- Server Uptime: 99.9%
We guarantee that in the remote event of a server hardware failure that cannot be fixed, the hardware will be replaced within four hours of the problem’s diagnosis. Hardware is defined as the processor(s), RAM, hard disk(s), motherboard, NIC card and other related hardware included with the server. This guarantee excludes the situations where there is a requirement to rebuild a RAID array and the reload of certain operating systems, processors and applications. It does not include any bespoke server hosting solutions. Our parts and labour warranty covers all parts and labour costs involved in the event of a related parts failure. Any failed component shall be replaced by us at no cost to you.
In the event of a problem with your server, we shall ensure that a qualified engineer will be dealing with the problem within 15 minutes of being notified. In the rare event that your problem cannot be resolved within 15 minutes you will be notified. When notifying you we will provide you with the details of the problem along with an estimation of when the issue will be resolved. We shall keep you regularly updated until the moment the problem is resolved. An engineer’s report shall be sent to you within 12 hours of the problem being resolved. We will reboot your servers (physically or remotely) 24 hours a day without any cost to you.
Our Liability
We are unable to assert fitness for any specific purpose and as such the Company cannot be held liable for any form of consequential loss or damage caused directly or indirectly by use of our service, misuse of our service, downtime, service issues, data loss or any other event.
Our maximum aggregate liability to you under or in connection with this agreement in respect of any direct loss, whether such claim arises in contract or in tort shall not exceed a sum equal to twice the fees paid by you for the services in relation to which your claim arises during the [12/24 month] period prior to such claim.
None of the clauses herein shall apply so as to restrict liability for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence, the negligence of our employees or our sub-contractors. We will not be liable for any interruptions to services arising directly or indirectly from:
- Interruptions to the flow of data to or from the internet
- The effects of the failure or interruption of services provided by a third party
- Factors outside our reasonable control
- Your actions or omissions
- Problems with your equipment and/or third party equipment
No action or proceedings against us arising out of or in connection with this agreement shall be commenced more than one year after services rendered, and both parties acknowledge that this clause constitutes an express waiver of any rights under any otherwise applicable statute of limitations.
In the event of any preventable disruption to service we will credit your account as described in our Service Level Agreement. Our liability will not exceed the total amount paid for the service. If you have sensitive or mission-critical data to host, you must seek your own insurance and independent legal advice.
Our backups are intended as a convenience service and are not guaranteed or intended to replace your backup procedures. It is your sole responsibility to ensure you have a backup of all your important data.
Third Party Services
Some of the services we provide (domain names, SSL certificates) are fufilled by a third party provider. For instance, an SSL certificate is provided by a root certificate provider (e.g. Thawte, Comodo, Verisign, Geotrust…), and domain names are provided by the organisation in charge of that namespace (e.g. Nominet for UK domain names). Whilst we always pass your orders on to these third party entities in a timely fashion, we unfortunately cannot be held liable for any failings on their behalf.
We will however be happy to chase them, and in most cases we can offer a goodwill refund at our discretion should you be dissatisfied with a time delay.
All third party software and hardware shall be sold subject to your acceptance of the relevant supplier’s software licence for such third party software. Where possible, we shall forward to you any and all representations and warranties we receive from the respective third party software supplier.
Assisted Migration
Our Assisted Migration service is intended as a help for you to migrate to us. It is provided on a best-effort basis. We will endevour to migrate your site as successfully as possible but the client accepts that this might not always be possible. If we are unable to migrate your site, we may, at our sole discretion, provide a refund of the fee paid for the hosting service, less domain registration/transfer fees, SSL certificates and other associated services.
As an incentive to move your website to us we may, at our sole discretion, credit you with up to six months of free hosting service upon production of a valid invoice showing an equivalent payment to your previous provider. This credit will be applied to your existing due date.
Force Majeure
We will not be responsible for any failure to provide any services or perform any obligation because of any act of God, strike, lock-outs or other industrial disputes.
Notice
Any notice or communications required or permitted to be delivered by us to you shall be deemed to have been given if delivered by e mail in accordance with the contact information that you have provided.
Assignment
You shall not assign, transfer, charge or deal in any other manner with this Agreement or any of its rights under it nor purport to do the same without our prior written consent.
We may at any time, assign (absolutely or by way of security and in whole or in part), transfer, mortgage, charge or deal in any other manner with the benefit of any or all of any other party’s obligations or any benefit arising under this agreement.
Amendment in Writing
We may update or amend these terms and conditions from time time to comply with law or to meet our changing business requirements.
Whole Agreement
This agreement, and any documents referred to in it, constitute the whole agreement between the parties and supersede any previous arrangement, understanding or agreement between them relating to the subject matter they cover.
Nothing in this clause operates to limit or exclude any liability for fraud
Severance
If any provision of this agreement (or part of a provision) is found by any court or administrative body of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, unenforceable or illegal, the other provisions shall remain in force.
If any invalid, unenforceable or illegal provision would be valid, enforceable or legal if some part of it were deleted, the provision shall apply with whatever modification is necessary to give effect to the commercial intention of the parties.
Governing law and Jurisdiction
This agreement and any disputes or claims arising out of or in connection with its subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) are governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England.
The parties irrevocably agree that the courts of England have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim that arises out of or in connection with this agreement or its subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims).
