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Terms & Conditions - Hosting
(for all other Ts&Cs see relevant online signup pages)
1. Interpretation
1.1 Definitions
Unless otherwise stated, the following definitions apply to this
document:
- "we", "us", and "our" are references
to Norfolk Internet;
- "you", "your" and "customer" are
references to the person paying for services from Norfolk Internet
having entered into this agreement;
- "services" are web hosting, domain registration, reseller
rights, outsourced support, email and other services or facility
provided by us to you;
- "server" is the computer equipment operated by us in
connection to the services provided;
- "order" means a request made by the customer to us for
services to be supplied subject to these conditions;
- "charges" are the charges payable by the customer for
the provision of services details of which can be found on http://www.norfolkinternet.co.uk
and may vary from time to time.
1.2 Include
The words "include" and "including" are to be
construed without limitation.
1.3 Headings
The headings in this document are for convenience only and shall
not affect the interpretation of these conditions.
2. Ordering process
2.1 Order acceptance
We have not accepted a customer application and order until account
setup and you receive the 'welcome' email including all details
specific to your account. Until this time, we reserve the right
to refuse, cancel or reject any order made by the customer. In such
cases, a full refund will be made using the same method as payment
was originally made.
3. Refunds
3.1 Money back guarantee
3.1.1 Where money back guarantees are offered, customers are entitled
to a full refund within 14 days of the initial order being placed.
This will be issued in the same method as originally used by the
customer. Cases involving offline methods of payment will be refunded
using a personal cheque or other online method.
3.1.2 Any money back guarantee does not apply and
will not be issued if more than 50% of allocated data transfer has
already been used on the web hosting account. This money back guarantee
does not apply to domain name registrations or if the account has
breached these terms and conditions prior to cancellation.
3.2 Account cancellations
No refunds will be issued for account cancellations made on either
a monthly or yearly payment schedule, as server resources are allocated
in advance. No refunds are issued for domain registrations. After
cancellation, all files and emails stored within the account are
deleted - it is the responsibility of customers to retrieve and
store their files for any possible future use.
4. Misuse
4.1 Spam / Unsolicited Mass E-mail
The sending of Unsolicited Commercial Email (SPAM) through our servers
promoting any website or through third party servers promoting a
website hosted by us can result in the suspension or termination
of the customers web hosting account without refund. Mailing lists
may be operated as long as individuals choose to subscribe to receive
mailings via clear 'opt in' methods and a strict removal procedure
is published in all mailings. 'Safelists' and other advertising
related mailing lists may not be operated. Any complaints received
are taken seriously and will be investigated. Please see notes on
Mailing Lists below.
4.2 Chat Rooms
These are not allowed. Chatroom scripts will be disabled and the
account suspended in serious or repeat cases.
4.3 Account Use
Under no circumstances must our servers be used for the hosting
or communication of, reference to or linking to any of the following:
4.3.1 nudity, pornography, anything of a sexual, lewd, or obscene
nature;
4.3.2 violations of any copyright or any other right of any third
party;
4.3.3 threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory statements;
4.3.4 promotion of illegal activities (hacking, cracking, etc);
4.3.5 information or software containing or about any kind of virus;
4.3.6 hate speech or hate propaganda;
4.3.7 the collection of personal information for illegal purposes;
4.3.8 content deemed by us at our sole discretion to be harmful
to us;
4.3.9 It is a condition of service that hosted websites do not contain
material of an adult nature, online gaming or chatrooms. We have
procedures in place to identify and remove inappropriate material
immediatley.
4.4 Banned scripts
We do not allow the use of the following scripts on our servers:
- UltimateBBS
- IkonBoard
- All versions of YABB forum
- Proxy scripts
- IRC scripts
- Anonymizer
- Chat rooms
- FormMail
Please ask in advance of installation if you are
unsure of the ban-status of any third-party script, as rogue installations
are removed.
4.5 Resellers
In the event that a resold account is in breach of our misuse terms,
we reserve the right to suspend this account without informing the
reseller. The end user will not be contacted by us and every effort
will be made to inform the reseller (our customer) of our actions
and reasons.
5. Billing
5.1 Payment schedules
The customer agrees to supply appropriate payment for the services
received from us in advance of the time period during which such
services are provided.
5.2 Invoices
These are issued when services are ordered or work is completed
to customers' satisfaction and must be paid within 7 days of issue.
A reminder will be sent after 30 days. Failure to settle will result
in service being suspended after 45 days from issue of invoice.
Files may be automatically deleted when an account is closed, in
which case refunds will not be offered for unused periods.
5.3 Bank charges
Customers are responsible for the provision of sufficient funds
in their account and we will not be held responsible for any charges
incurred as a result of overdrawing of the bank account or credit
card or as a result of failed transactions.
5.4 Suspension
In addition to 5.2 above, we additionally reserve the right, at
our discretion, to suspend any account after 7 working days have
passed without due payment being received. Any added time for payment
will be at our sole discretion. An administration fee may be levied
at £25 per hour (or part thereof) for time spent pursuing
payment.
5.5 Currencies
All invoices and payments are processed in GB Pound Sterling (£)
Prices shown in any other currencies on this website or other promotional
material is to be treated as a guide only and may be inaccurate
due to changes in the exchange rates. All customers are advised
to check amounts using accurate recent exchange rates before ordering.
6. Backups
6.1 Regularity and policy
Unless a specific feature of an account, backups are made by us
purely on an occasional basis, however, no guarantees are made of
any kind as to the regularity or integrity of these backups. All
customers are strongly advised to regularly download their own backups
from their control panel where a zipped archive is provided daily
of all account files and databases.
7. Resource Use
7.1 CPU & Memory
All accounts are monitored for their use of server resources. If
any account is using a high amount of server resources we will contact
the customer to discuss the issue with them. In serious cases where
an account is using a considerably large amount of system resources
(memory, CPU etc.) the account may be suspended or script disabled
without notice to maintain the smooth running of the server.
7.2 Data transfer and webspace allocations
Customers can request a package upgrade or temporary resource increase
at the costs available to view on our website at http://www.norfolkinternet.co.uk.
It is the sole responsibility of the customer to contact us in advance
of requiring extra resources to prevent account suspension. In some
cases, accounts are automatically suspended when their resource
limits have been reached and manual unsuspension is required by
us.
8. Customer Responsibility
8.1 Contact Information
The customer is responsible for keeping their contact details up
to date with Norfolk Internet. We cannot be held responsible for
communication mixups or missed payments as a direct result of the
customers failure to update their details.
8.2 Sensitive data
Customers are responsible for keeping their usernames, passwords
and other sensitive data safe. If a breach is suspected, the customer
is required to request a change of login details by contacting support
staff.
9. Contact procedure
9.1 If a breach of these terms and conditions is found we will,
at our sole discretion, determine whether it is a serious or minor
breach. If a serious breach of these terms is found we reserve the
right to suspend the account(s) of the customer in question or disable
any part of the account before contacting them. We will however
make an attempt to contact the customer prior to suspension in the
event of a minor breach using the email address we have on record
for your account. If no reply is received within 3 days we will
escalate the status of the breach to a serious breach and may suspend
the account(s).
9.2 In the event that a resold account is the subject
of the breach we will make every effort to contact the reseller
before taking action. In serious cases we may have to suspend or
disable all or part of the account before contacting the reseller.
10. Limitation of Liability & General Terms
10.1 We are not responsible for any claimed damages, which may result
from servers going offline, or being unavailable for any reason.
This includes damages which may result from the corruption or deletion
of data. The customer agrees to indemnify and hold us, our suppliers
and our employees and agents harmless from any claims, damages,
including but not limited to consequential damages resulting from
the use of the service which damages the customer or any other party.
10.2 We will cooperate fully with investigations
of violation of systems or network security at other sites and will
cooperate with law enforcement authorities in the investigation
of possible criminal violations. Customers who violate these terms
may incur in criminal or civil liability.
10.3 For clients with multiple accounts and resellers,
we reserve the right to suspend all accounts should the main account
owner violate these terms and conditions in a manner deemed by us
to be extremely serious.
10.4 In the event that we are unable to contact
a reseller account holder to pursue payment, we reserve the right
to contact their customers to inform them of the situation. We also
reserve the right to contact a reseller's customers if they are
'abandoned' by the reseller account holder.
10.5 We will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes
a violation of these terms and conditions. The failure by a customer
to meet or follow any of the above terms and conditions is grounds
for account suspension or deactivation.
11. Modification
11.1 We reserves the right to add, delete, or modify these Terms
and Conditions, our hosting packages, prices and website at any
time with notice provided via WWW and announcements in our forum
and/or customer control panel(s). All customers are encouraged to
check this document at least once a month to ensure they are aware
of any changes.
Updated 9 July 08
IMPORTANT INFORMATION - MAILING LISTS
For the purpose of this information, a "mailing
list" is defined as sending an identical email to a batch of
email addresses either via a specific mailing list application (eg
DadaMail), other online application (eg forum script), Outlook/home
computer email software (eg putting multiple addresses in the To:
field), or similar. A common use for mailing lists is to keep customers
informed of new products, registered website users informed of new
website features, and things of this nature.
We do allow the use of email mailing lists though
there are some conditions in place.
Firstly, we do not allow 'safe lists' or other
similar schemes whereby advertisers trade email contacts. In addition
to this, the vast majority of email address lists available for
sale on the internet as 'legitimate opt-in lists of contacts who
have agreed to be sent advertising emails' are fake and will lead
to large numbers of spam reports so we do not allow the use of these
purchased lists - all addresses on a mailing list must agree to
be sent emails specifically with the website sending the emails
(see below).
We recommend the use of an application called Dada
Mail due to it's large number of features, ease of use and server
resource usage (eg ability to 'batch send'). Operating mailing lists
using a basic home made script or a non mailing list application
(eg forum application 'Email All' feature) is not recommended due
to the lack of options and flexibility with these methods.
Anyone operating a mailing list should first pay
careful attention to our terms and conditions in this area where
we set out some rules relating to:
- Absolutely no spam (unsolicited bulk email)
- All subscribers to the mailing list must have
specifically agreed to be on the list and receive mailings via
opt-in methods (opting in with the site sending the emails)
- All mailings must contain clear and concise
unsubscription instructions
- All mailings must contain a passage detailing
why the email is being sent and why they are listed
We require that anyone operating a mailing list
follows the points below to minimise problems with mailings:
Double Opt-In
An opt-in method of list subscription is where the subscriber asks
to be put on the list by, for example, entering their email address
in a website form to become subscribed.
We require that list administrators employ double
opt-in methods whereby the subscriber has to authorise being added
to the list after submitting their email address. This usually takes
the form of an automated email being sent to the address submitted
where a link needs to be clicked to confirm the subscription.
Not only does this get extra confirmation from
the client, it also ensures that the email address is valid (avoiding
problems with email bounces when sending to the list) and also that
the email address is owned by the person subscribing (avoiding problems
with people entering addresses not owned by them on website forms).
List administrators are also asked to keep evidence/logs of the
date and method that subscribers agreed to be included in the mailing
list.
Unsubscribe Instructions
All emails sent to the mailing list must contain clear instructions
for unsubscription. We require that subscribers are offered the
ability to unsubscribe via an online web link (most mailing software
is capable of this) and not by replying to the email with a special
subject line as most do not feel comfortable replying to an email
they consider as unwanted.
In addition, we ask that the instructions for unsubscribing
to the email are shown clearly (not in tiny text) both at the top
of the email and at the bottom (or just at the top at least).
Email content
We ask that emails sent to mailing lists do not primarily focus
on advertising websites owned/operated by the client but not hosted
with us. To advertise these websites a mailing list should be operating
on the server/provider they are hosted on.
We also ask that all emails contain an opening
paragraph detailing who the email is from, why it is being sent
(eg because the subscriber asked to be kept informed via the list)
and what the email is about (eg advertising new product line). We
ask that websites are clear on the volume of mailings (eg weekly,
monthly, etc) and content of mailings (eg announcements only, sales,
etc) so that the subscriber can see this before subscribing.
Also, in order to help greatly if spam complaints do occur, we ask
that the subscribers email address is included as test somewhere
within the email so we know who the complaint is from. This can
be put in the email headers, within the content or embedded within
the unsubscribe link (preferred method).
Single Opt-Out
We ask that those operating mailing lists allow unsubscriptions
(opt-out's) with no email confirmation or other additional tasks
required by those unsubscribing. If a subscriber clicks the unsubscribe
link in the mailing their email address should then be removed from
the database with no email confirmation required.
Example
An example of a mailing list email which compilies with the above
requirements is shown below:
Joe Bloggs,
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This email is being sent to you (email@address.com) because you
are subscribed to the 'New Products' mailing list operated by The
Online Clothing Company after submitting the subscription form on
our website (http://www.clothingcompany.com) and verified the email
address.
If you wish to unsubscribe,
please click here: http://www.clothingcompany.com/listunsubscribe.php?email=email@address.com
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** mailing list email
content here **
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The operator of this mailing list can be contacted as shown below:
The Online Clothing Company,
Address, Phone Number
If you wish to unsubscribe
from future mailings, please click here: http://www.clothingcompany.com/listunsubscribe.php?email=email@address.com
To alter your subscription
options please click here:
http://www.clothingcompany.com/listoptions.php?email=email@address.com
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The guidelines above should result in no
(or very few) problems relating to spam reports being sent by receivers
of email they consider as spam which by law we are required to investigate
with utmost urgency. Despite the above we maintain the right to
suspend any mailing list which generates a large number of abuse
complaints in order to keep the server from being blacklisted and
causing email problems for all other clients.
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