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Terms and Conditions of Use

January 11, 2008

Note: Throughout this document the term “you” refers to the customer and “we” or “our” refers to Valcato Hosting. “Service” refers to any service provided by Valcato Hosting, including web site hosting, dedicated servers, SSL certificates and domain registration.

Valcato Hosting provides quality hosting Services to clients from all around the world. The following terms and conditions have been put in place to ensure that this quality is maintained.

We have written these conditions in plain English so you don’t need to be a lawyer to understand them.

Introduction

All Services provided by Valcato Hosting may be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage, or presentation of any information, data or material in violation of any United States Federal, State or City law, or the laws of the United Kingdom or European Union is prohibited.

This includes, but is not limited to: material to which you do not own the copyright (or have the copyright-owner’s permission to publish), material we judge to be threatening or obscene, unlicensed software or files, or material protected by trade secret and other statute.

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Valcato Hosting from any claims resulting from the use of the Service that damages the subscriber or any other party.

Examples of non-acceptable content or links:

  • Pirated software
  • Illegal MP3s
  • Malicious software
  • Adult content
  • Warez sites
  • Child pornography

Valcato Hosting will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of these terms.

Commercial Advertising and Bulk Email

The use of any Service for the sending of unsolicited email is strictly prohibited, as is the use of unsolicited email for advertising any account or Service provided by Valcato Hosting.

An initial limit of 100 outgoing email messages per hour is enforced on all web hosting accounts and can be increased on demand at no extra cost. Messages which exceed this limit in any 60-minute period will not be delivered.

Server Abuse

Any attempts to undermine or cause harm to a Valcato Hosting server or customer of Valcato Hosting is strictly prohibited. Valcato Hosting will pursue legal action to the fullest extent for all abuse of the Valcato Hosting Network.

Additionally; actions that cause prolonged or repeated strain on the processor, RAM or any other components of a server, thus causing a disruption in service for other customers is strictly prohibited.

Software & Services

cPanel and Fantastico

It must be noted that cPanel and Fantastico are external programs that are licensed and provided by Valcato Hosting for use by its clients. Valcato Hosting can take no responsibility for their correct or reliable function, though we are able to provide limited technical support and advice.

Chat Rooms & IRC

You may install and operate your own chat room script on Valcato Hosting shared servers, however these tend to be large system hogs and may fall into the usage limitations clause. We do provide an HTML based PHP chat room that runs without hindering the performance of the machine for others.

The use of IRC and all related applications or services is not permitted; this includes all IRC bots, proxy servers and clients.

Background Processes & Programs

Valcato Hosting may allow client’s programs to run continually in the background, these are considered on a case-by-case basis and an extra charge may be incurred based on system resources used and operational maintenance needed.

By default, any long-running processes will be terminated automatically without notice.

Data Security & Backups

You are responsible for protecting data of a sensitive nature (passwords etc.) and under no circumstances should confidential information such as credit card numbers be stored on any web hosting account or dedicated server.

All web hosting accounts are backed up on a regular basis. While we do our best to ensure that no data will be lost in the event of hardware failure or other disaster, we make no guarantee about this and web hosting customers are strongly encouraged to keep their own backup copies of all data.

Dedicated server customers are fully responsible for managing their own backups. Valcato Hosting does not provide a standard backup service for dedicated servers, however we can provide a custom backup solution on request at additional cost.

Suspension & Removal

A breach of these terms and conditions may result in the suspension or termination of Service. Normal policy is a warning first, then account suspension followed by removal in extreme circumstances. You will remain liable for the payment of your services. If Valcato Hosting suspends or removes your account(s) for violating policy, you will forfeit your right to a refund as defined below.

Serious offences, such as the intentional sending of spam or “phishing” will result in the immediate removal of the account without warning or appeal.

Non-Payment

Valcato Hosting is a pay in advance service; full payment must be made before any service is provided. In the event of non-payment for web hosting accounts, Valcato Hosting will suspend and remove the account(s) in accordance with the following procedure:

  • Payment 7 days overdue — A reminder email will be sent to the address stored in the Account Control Panel informing you that if payment is not received by the next day the account will be suspended.
  • Payment 8 days overdue — The account will be suspended and a reminder email sent to the address stored in the Account Control Panel informing you of this.
  • Payment 14 days overdue — A reminder email will be sent to the address stored in the Account Control Panel informing you that if payment is not received by the next day the account will be terminated.
  • Payment 15 days overdue — The account will be removed and an email sent to the address stored in the Account Control Panel informing you of this.

For dedicated servers, the following procedure applies:

  • Payment 1 day overdue — A reminder email will be sent to the address stored in the Account Control Panel informing you that payment has not been received.
  • Payment 3 days overdue — We will attempt to contact you by telephone to inform you that payment was not received.
  • Payment 7 days overdue — A reminder email will be sent to the address stored in the Account Control Panel informing you that if payment is not received by the next day the server will be disconnected.
  • Payment 8 days overdue — The server will be disconnected and a reminder email sent to the address stored in the Account Control Panel informing you of this.
  • Payment 14 days overdue — A reminder email will be sent to the address stored in the Account Control Panel informing you that if payment is not received by the next day the server will be permanently cancelled.
  • Payment 15 days overdue — The server will be permanently cancelled and an email sent to the address stored in the Account Control Panel informing you of this.

Non-payment for domain registration and SSL certificates will result in the expiration of the Service. SSL certificates will become invalid. Domains will cease to function and may become available for registration by third parties.

Billing

Credit and Debit Card

For your convenience Valcato Hosting operates a subscription billing policy; on an account’s anniversary your credit or debit card is automatically charged. Charges for dedicated servers are made on the tenth day of each month. All payments are non-refundable, unless an error has been made on our part, or the 30 day moneyback or 99.5% uptime guarantees apply.

The amount charged is dictated by the services to which you are subscribed, and can be viewed at any time via the Account Control Panel.

Paypal

For your convenience Valcato Hosting uses Paypal’s subscription facility; on an account’s anniversary your Paypal account is automatically charged. All payments are non-refundable, unless an error has been made on our part, or the 30 day moneyback or 99.5% uptime guarantees apply. PayPal is not available as a payment option for dedicated servers.

The amount charged is defined when the subscription is established (usually upon creation of the account) and cannot be modified without the creation of a new subscription.

Price Changes

Valcato Hosting reserves the right to change the price charged for our standard hosting plans, for both new and existing customers. All price changes will be announced at least two months in advance of the change taking effect for existing customers — price changes will be immediate for new accounts. Existing customers will be charged the new amount for all payments made on or after the date specified in the announcement.

Cancellations

Your credit/debit card or Paypal account will continue to be charged for Services until such time as an account cancellation request is submitted via the Account Control Panel.

Please allow 24 hours for an account cancellation request to be processed. You will have the option of having your Service cancelled immediately or at the end of your current payment term.

Privacy

Your privacy is important to us and we will do everything to protect it, for more information refer to our Privacy Policy.

Domain Registration

If you are registering or transferring a domain name you must also agree to the Domain Name Registration Agreement.

Uptime Guarantee

Valcato Hosting strives to maintain a 99.5% server uptime service level, excluding scheduled maintenance which has been communicated to customers in advance. This uptime percentage is a monthly figure and is calculated solely by Valcato Hosting or authorised/contracted outside monitoring services.

If Valcato Hosting fails to meet its 99.5% uptime guarantee a partial refund will be made available upon request, on a case-by-case basis.

Money Back Guarantee

We are proud to offer a 30-day “no questions asked” money back guarantee, however we cannot offer refunds if your site breaks these Terms and Conditions.

To qualify for a refund you must submit an account cancellation request clearly stating that you wish to be refunded, within 30 days of your account setup date. This should be done via the Account Control Panel.

This only aplies to web hosting accounts. We do not provide refunds for other Services, such as domain registration, SSL certificates or dedicated servers.

Plan2

In order to qualify for a discounted Plan2 plan it is necessary to have at least one hosting plan on your account at full price. Should all full price plans be cancelled or terminated then a discounted plan shall revert to its full price.

The discount is for the use of the account owner only, passing on or reselling the discount is not permitted.

Changes to this Document

Valcato Hosting reserves the right to change these Terms and Conditions from time to time, usually without warning, though major changes likely to affect your account will be communicated via our website or e-mail. Continued use of our Services implies acceptance of updated Terms and Conditions.

A log of major changes made to this document follows: