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Terms of Service

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Terms & Conditions

Interpretation

In these Terms and Conditions

“Firmus Hosting” and “we” mean a division of Harrison Carloss Ltd, Three Counties House, Festival Way, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, ST1 5PX, Registration number: 2242163.

“Customer”, “Subscriber” and “you” mean the party named in the order form.

Domain Registration terms of service

Users and customers of Services provided by Firmus Hosting must accept the terms and conditions of business set out below.

We make no representation that the domain name you wish to register is capable of being registered by or for you or that it will be registered in your name. You should not assume registration of your requested domain name(s) until you have been notified that it has been registered.

The registration and use of your domain name is subject to the terms and conditions of use applied by the relevant naming authority; ICANN in the case of .COM/NET and Nominet in the case of domain names ending with .UK you shall ensure that you are aware of those terms and conditions and that you comply with them. You shall have no right to bring any claim against us in respect of refusal to register a domain name. Any administration charge paid by you to us shall be non-refundable notwithstanding refusal by the naming authority to register your desired name.

We shall have no liability in respect of the use by you of any domain name; any dispute between you and any other person must be resolved between the parties concerned in such dispute. If any such dispute arises, we shall be entitled, at our discretion and without giving any reason, to withhold, suspend or cancel the domain name. We shall also be entitled to make representations to the relevant naming authority but will not be obliged to take part in any such dispute.

We shall not release any domain to another provider unless full payment for that domain has been received by us. All charges payable by you for the Services shall be in accordance with the scale of charges and rates published from time to time by us on our web site and shall be due and payable in advance of our service provision.

Terms of service – General

Without prejudice to our other rights and remedies under this Agreement, if any sum payable is not paid on or before the due date, we shall be entitled forthwith to suspend the provision of Services to you.

You shall indemnify us and keep us indemnified and hold us harmless from and against any breach by you of these terms of business and any claim brought against us by a third party resulting from the provision of Services by us to you and your use of the Services.

If you fail to pay any sums due to us as they become due, we may suspend the Services and/or terminate this Agreement forthwith without notice to you.

If you break any of these terms and conditions and you fail to correct the breach within seven (7) days following written notice from us specifying the breach, we may terminate this Agreement forthwith.

If you go into insolvent liquidation or suffer the appointment of an administrator or administrative receiver or enter into a voluntary arrangement with your creditors, we shall be entitled to terminate this Agreement forthwith.

On termination of this Agreement or suspension of the Services we shall be entitled immediately to block your Web Site and to remove all data located on it. We shall be entitled to delete all such data but we may, at our discretion, hold such data for such period as we may decide to allow you to collect it at your expense, subject to payment in full of any amounts withstanding and payable to us.

Refund Policy

The charges paid to us by you are non‑cancellable and non‑refundable. If you are unhappy with any aspect of our service, please contact our support department who will attempt to rectify the situation.

Refunds are not available for any web hosting or domain name registrations including .COM, .NET, .CO.UK, .UK. SSL Certificates, Setup fees, Domain Transfer In fees, Domain Transfer Out fees, or any other products or services provided by Firmus Hosting.

No refunds will also be made if we terminate your hosting or other services due to violation of our Terms and Conditions, except as may be provided therein. This does not affect your statutory rights.

Credit on your account cannot be refunded and must be used for purchases and renewals.

Service Level Agreement Conditions

Firmus Hosting guarantees uptime per calendar month of the following:

For shared hosting and associated services: 99.9%

If your service drops below these levels of uptime in any given month you are welcome to request a service credit by contacting the support team. Service credits are calculated on a pro-rata basis for any downtime of 1 hour, we will credit the value of 1 days hosting fees for the affected services and issued at the sole discretion of Firmus Hosting. You must request an SLA credit within 7 days of a service issue.

The SLA conditions do not include:

– Any planned maintenance work, notified in advance.

– Downtime relating to third party networks and systems beyond the control of Firmus Hosting

– Downtime arising from a client’s own negligence or misconfiguration

– Downtime as a result of a client’s misuse of the service

– Emergency maintenance deemed critical for the security or performance of your server or our network.

– Force Majeure events

– Outages or issues not made known to us via support channels within 7 days

– Issues arising from customer configuration, code or software error

– Events beyond our control, such as major DDoS attacks or hacking attempts where your services are targeted.

– Instances where our terms of service are breached, including your payment obligations to us.

The maximum monthly SLA credit that will be issued is equal to the monthly service fee paid by the customer.

SLA credits are issued to your Firmus Hosting account to be used against future service fees, purchases or invoices.

SLA credits will not be issued in the form of cash payment or bank transfer.

Delivery of Services

Immediately upon successful payment you will receive an automated receipt from our systems. Please print and retain a copy of this and retain in a safe place for future reference.

Your registered customer email address will be on this receipt and should be used for any enquires to Firmus Hosting.

Please note that we aim to deliver all goods as soon as signup is complete. If we will be unable to adhere to this you will be informed via email or telephone.

All orders are delivered electronically via email. If you have any questions about your order please contact us.

Web Hosting

These Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policies (“Terms and Policies”) are an essential part of your relationship with Firmus Hosting. By using your Firmus Hosting account, you agree to all of the Terms and Policies set out in this document.

General Terms and Policies

The Service is provided to authorised persons or organisations (referred to in this document as “Subscriber”, “Customer” or “you”). Any use of the service is subject to any restrictions listed below. By using the Service, you agree to be bound by all of these Terms and Policies. If you do not agree to be bound by these Terms and Policies, you must cancel your account immediately and you may not thereafter use or attempt to use the Service.

Coverage – If you are an individual Subscriber, these Terms and Policies apply to all persons who gain access through your account. If you are a commercial Subscriber, these Terms and Policies apply to all your employees, agents and/or customers. In either instance, a violation of these Terms and Policies by anyone using your account will be treated as a violation by you.

Prices and Charges – Firmus Hosting provides the use of cPanel and domain control panels to you free of charge, but if through misuse or through abuse on your part we incur any charges, we reserve the right to pass these charges on to you.

Term – Firmus Hosting services are available on a monthly rolling basis with hosting payments required in advance of the subscription period.

Backups – Firmus Hosting carries out one full backup per day. Backup sets are encrypted and sent securely to an offsite location where they are retained for 7 days. Backups are supplied as for our use in the event of a failure for disaster recovery. The backup service provided by Firmus Hosting should not be considered as the only source for backups of customer assets. Clients are strongly encouraged to maintain their own backups as part of an effective business continuity plan. Backups supplied are not guaranteed, and Firmus Hosting are not liable for consequential loss due to loss of backup data.

Support – If you need to contact support, the recommended channel for contact is by creating a support ticket via your customer portal or by sending an email to support@firmushosting.com.

Support is generally limited to enquiries and assistance regarding your hosting account and the features and functionality that we provide. Whilst we can (and often do) go above and beyond this remit, we cannot provide assistance with matters of site design or development. Firmus Hosting cannot make changes to your site. For clients who have reseller accounts, we do not provide support to your end-users.

For work that falls outside the remit detailed above we reserve the right to charge a professional services fee. The current rate for this is £85 +VAT per hour as per our rate card. Any work undertaken that is subject to this fee will be discussed and agreed in advance with you.

Migration – A migration service is offered at extra cost. Customers must be able to supply Firmus Hosting with full access to the source server where data is to be migrated from.

If access cannot be sufficiently provided to Firmus Hosting and/or depending on the complexity of the work involved there could be additional charges payable. Best efforts are applied to ensure the least possible disruption from migrations. Firmus Hosting are not liable for any consequential loss due to service disruption during migration work. Customers are encouraged to test all migrated sites prior to making services active.

Grounds for Suspension and Termination

You agree to comply with these Terms and Policies. Any violation of either, these Terms and Policies or the other rules, regulations or policies noted above may serve as cause for Firmus Hosting to suspend or terminate your account. You agree that Firmus Hosting has the right, with or without notice, to suspend or terminate your account upon the first or subsequent occurrence of any of the following

* Using the Service in a way, which constitutes violation of any applicable statute, law, court order, tariff, regulation, or treaty (including, but not limited to, intellectual property, communications, privacy, criminal and international law)

* Using the Service in a manner intended to abuse or violate the privacy or property rights of others, including but not limited to sending of unsolicited bulk e-mail (“spamming”); this ground for suspension or termination is separate from and in addition to the fees which will result from such activity. You agree to pay a clean-up fee of £85 +VAT per hour if any of our server IP addresses appear on a blacklist as a result of spam from your account.

* Using the Service in an attempt to break security, or so as to actually break security of any computer network (including the Service itself), or to access an account, message, or file which does not belong to you.

* Using the Service in such a way as to forge or misrepresent headers, addresses, or other identification in electronic mail or websites, or using any other method to disguise the sender’s identity or location. This includes the hosting of Proxy Server applications.

* Uploading, linking to or storing warez, cracks or other pirated software.

* Assisting in or directly distributing copyrighted material.

* Excessively using the Service in such a way as to limit the bandwidth or server resource available to others.

* Providing fake or incomplete contact details, including name, postal address and telephone number.

* Using the Service for unauthorised relays through any third party systems.

* Attempting, in any way, to interfere with or deny service to any user or any host on the Internet.

* Performing a chargeback on any transactions past or present will result in account suspension until resolved. If a chargeback is issued we reserve the right to remove your account and deny any future business.

* Using the Service for mail bombing, which includes any instance where multiple messages are sent to a specific destination with the intent to render the recipient and/or the electronic system serving that recipient dysfunctional.

* Using the Service to add or attempt to add addresses to any mailing list (yours or a third party’s) without the explicit positive consent of the addressee(s).

* Attempting to cancel, supersede, or otherwise interfere with email other than your own.

* Engaging in harassment, whether through language, frequency, or size of messages, either with email or website content.

* Using the Service to engage in syn flood attacks, which are defined as overburdening a recipient computer system by sending a high volume of spurious data which effective impedes or totally disables functionality of the recipient system(s), or any other methods of denial-of-service attacks.

* Furnishing false data on your sign-up form, contract, or online application, including providing fraudulent credit card or other payment information.

* No bill credit will be given for a period of suspension. In the event of termination of your use of the Service under this section, Firmus Hosting may at its sole discretion retain any or all amounts you have paid for use of the Service as liquidated damages for your actions.

* Security – You agree not to access or attempt to access private areas of the Service. You agree to notify Firmus Hosting as soon as you become aware of unauthorized use of your account and/or any breach or attempted breach of security on the Service.

* Intellectual Property – Firmus Hosting does not undertake to examine or review messages, files, or other materials, which are accessible through, pass through, or reside on the Service. Complaints regarding alleged copyright infringement can be sent to support@firmushosting.com.

* Continuing a specific identification of the allegedly infringing material and the location(s) on Firmus Hosting facilities where the materials are to be found. Upon receipt of such written notice, Firmus Hosting will expeditiously remove or block access to the allegedly infringing material, and provide notice to the person who had posted that material. If Firmus Hosting receives a notification from that person indicating that the claim of infringement was based upon mistake or misidentification, Firmus Hosting will send you a copy of that notification. Unless you notify Firmus Hosting of appropriate court action to restrain the alleged infringement, the challenged material will then be restored or otherwise made accessible again.

* Liability – You agree that use of the Service is at your own risk. Except for information, products, or services clearly identified as being supplied by Firmus Hosting, neither Firmus Hosting nor any of its affiliate controls, provides, operates, or is in any way responsible for any information, products, or services accessible through the Service. Firmus Hosting neither endorses nor is responsible for the accuracy of third-party material(s), and you agree that Firmus Hosting is not responsible for any loss or damage caused by your use of, or reliance on, such material(s). You understand and agree that you have sole responsibility for your posting of any information or material to any site or newsgroup on the Internet, including but not limited to postings to Websites, whether residing on Firmus Hosting equipment or not, postings to newsgroups, and participation in any on-line chat sessions. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Firmus Hosting and its employees, and other customers and subscribers from and against any claims, losses, costs, liability, damages or expenses arising out of your postings.

* You agree that, should you use the Service to send or receive voice communications, Firmus Hosting is not acting as a telecommunications carrier or telephone, that there is no representation made by Firmus Hosting as to the suitability of the Service for such use, and that all risk of connection, transmission quality, and accuracy of communications is solely on you, and that Firmus Hosting has no liability of any sort for the failure or lack of quality of such use of the Service.

* You agree to be liable for any damages or loss of service which results in damages to Firmus Hosting as a result of any spamming or other violations of the above. These damages include, but are not limited to, system shut downs, retaliatory attacks or data flooding, and loss of peering arrangements. You agree that Firmus Hosting may pursue any such claims against you in Court.

* You agree that in no event will Firmus Hosting have financial liability to you.

* Warranty – Firmus Hosting MAKES NO EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, REGARDING THE SERVICE, OR ANY SOFTWARE OR OTHER MATERIAL AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SERVICE, REGARDLESS OF WHAT YOU MAY HAVE TOLD Firmus Hosting ABOUT YOUR INTENDED USE OF THE SERVICE. NO ORAL ADVICE OR INFORMATION GIVEN BY Firmus Hosting OR ITS EMPLOYEES SHALL CREATE A WARRANTY OR OTHERWISE ALTER THE PROVISIONS OF THIS SECTION.

* THE SERVICE AND ANY SOFTWARE PROVIDED TO YOU BY Firmus Hosting ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS, AS AVAILABLE” BASIS; Firmus Hosting DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THEY WILL BE ERROR-FREE AND/OR UNINTERRUPTED, OR THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED. Firmus Hosting DOES NOT GUARANTEE THE SECURITY OR BACK-UP OF ANY OF YOUR DATA WHICH MAY BE STORED ON THE SERVICE.

Content

You understand and agree that information and access available through the Service may include controversial, sexually explicit, or other material that may be offensive to you or users for whom you are responsible. Firmus Hosting has no responsibility for or control over such materials, and you take sole responsibility for using any available screening software or other methods of limiting access (specifically including the access of minors) to any material you may find objectionable.

Privacy

Firmus Hosting will not provide names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, or other personally identifiable information on any Subscriber to any third party without prior permission from that Subscriber, or as required under an appropriate court or administrative directive, including a facially valid subpoena, or as necessary to render the Service. Firmus Hosting may provide aggregate data on Subscribers to third parties in the operation of Firmus Hosting business.

Disputes

You agree that any dispute between you and Firmus Hosting arising out of your use of the Service on in any way based upon your subscription to and/or use of the Service which cannot be resolved between you and Firmus Hosting will be submitted by the aggrieved party for binding arbitration under the auspices of the English law.

Governing Law

These Terms and Policies are governed in all respects under English laws.

Cancellation Procedure

Cancellation requests must be submitted through the client area. To do this, click the icon next to the package you wish to cancel then press ‘Request Cancellation’. You must then complete and submit the form.

Choosing an immediate cancellation means your service will be terminated with 24 hours of submitting the form.

It is your responsibility to ensure any subscriptions you have setup are cancelled.

No other forms of cancellation are accepted.

Cancellations must be submitted before the invoice for that billing cycle is due. Failure to do so will result in the invoice being due. Cancellation requests can only be submitted if the account has no due invoices.

Complaints Procedure

Customer satisfaction is the single most important part of our service, and we strive to make sure all our customers benefit from the highest standard of hosting possible, and have prompt and high quality engagements with our team when needed.
We always like to hear feedback from our customers, positive and negative, but if, for any reason you’ve had an experience that does not live up to the standards we set, we want to hear from you.

If you’ve been unable to resolve any issues with the support team, or your account manager, then you are able to submit a formal complaint by emailing support@firmushosting.com. Your complaint will go directly to a company manager, who will acknowledge receipt of your complaint. A full review and investigation will then be started, with a full report provided once complete.

If you’re not an existing customer of Firmus Hosting, but have a complaint relating to, but not limited to, activity on our network, copyright infringement, or domain ownership disputes, then you may contact us via email at hello@firmushosting.com. Your complaint will be handled promptly by our team.

Discount Vouchers

Only one voucher can be used per transaction.

If the order value is lower than the value of the voucher, the remaining amount is lost.

Discount vouchers are restricted to one per customer.

Vouchers can be redeemed against the purchase of any shared hosting service.

Amendments

These Terms and Policies may be amended in any respect at any time by Firmus Hosting upon the posting of the amended Terms and Policies on the terms of use section of the Service. Your continued use of the Service will be deemed consent to any such amended Terms and Policies. If you do not wish to continue to use the Service as a result of any such amended Terms and Policies, you may provide notice of your wish to terminate your use of the Service to Firmus Hosting.

Support Agreement

All support must be opened either by ticket using registered contact details. End user support (where you, our customer, is not the recipient) is not provided.

If you suspect a server-side fault, you must first conduct necessary due diligence to rule out your application/configuration/code being at fault. If we investigate an issue following a support request and identify this issue is caused by your application/configuration/code (ie. not a server-side issue), then the time spent on such will be charged for at per our standard fees.

This scope is not designed to be restrictive- we’re often happy to go above and beyond- but to help you understand what the support service covers and what it does not.

Examples of what we do support:

– Service and system monitoring

– Outages and incidents.

– Operating system configuration (notwithstanding exceptional deviations from our standard deployment practices)

– Server software management (performance adjustments, automatic restarts, and routine configuration)

– SSL certificate installation

– Site migration (when purchased)

– Backup creation/restoration (except in the case of excessive restore requests)

– Service issues and troubleshooting- including email, site and database issues where the problem is deemed to be server-related.

– Firewall management

We are unable to support the following:

– Code changes, development work, and the like that are not related to the server’s own software or configuration.

– Control panel configuration and management; tasks that clients are able to complete themselves (such as creating email or FTP accounts) are not covered.

– FTP, SSH, or email clients: It is the client’s responsibility to set up and configure these.

– End user support queries (for example, in the case of reseller accounts, your resold client’s queries).

– Day to day administration tasks associated with running your site (such as creating WordPress users)

– Site migrations or moves not purchased as an addon

Professional Services:

Support that falls outside the scope defined above may be chargeable under our Professional Services fees. This is provided only at our discretion by prior agreement with you.

Examples of work which may be chargeable:

– Account creation (email/ftp etc.)

– Creating site clones or copies

– Code diagnosis or fault resolution

– Application-level changes, such as adding URL redirects, cron jobs or similar.

– Site-level configuration, such as fixing mixed-content issues or converting a site to HTTPS.

– Consultation services.

Unsupported configurations:

If you ask us to implement an unsupported configuration, such as deploying an EOL (End-of-life) PHP version, you accept that such configurations may be offered on a best-effort basis, and our usual guarantees may not apply. Unsupported configurations may not interoperate cleanly with other services we offer.

Fees (Rate Card):

Standard rate: £92 +VAT per hour