Terms & Conditions

These generic terms and conditions apply to all work and services undertaken by SO53 Ltd (hereafter also referred to to as "SO53", "We", "us" and 'our'). By hiring us you (hereafter also referred to as 'client', 'client', 'customer', 'customers' or 'your') are agreeing to these terms and conditions.

Standard Monthly Website / Online Shop

• Payment for setup fees are required up front before work commences and are non-refundable.
• Domain name registrations and renewals are not included and are billed separately.
• We expect our customers to provide their own website content and made available as soon as possible from the start of the project. A delay in the provision of content may result in the delay of any agreed deadlines. SO53 can assist with website content but maybe subject to additional cost.
• The customer will be asked to provide photos and images they wish to use on their website. Where applicable SO53 can source copyright free graphics.
• Custom graphic design is not included but can be provided at additional cost.
• Monthly maintenance includes all page edits and page additions. All copy provided will be optimised for search engines where possible.
• Set up costs are based on the creation of up to 10 pages for the initial website launch. If more pages are required for launch then our published setup cost is subject to change. Costs will be advised prior to commencement of work.
• Monthly maintenance is provided on a fair use basis, typically 1 hour per month. This is operated at the discretion of SO53.
• Monthly payments are payable via Direct Debit and charged on the 1st of each month.
• Non-payment will result in the website being taken offline until payment is made.
• Ongoing search engine analysis, review and performance monitoring for your website is NOT included but can be provided at additional cost.
• Online shop - the installation and setup of additional modules beyond the standard installation to meet client requirements may incur one off fees, and additional monthly costs to support the additional modules maybe also incurred. Any extra costs for additional modules will be agreed before they are installed.
• The monthly/annual plan cost is subject to change in line with any increase in service / infrastructure costs, typically 3% annually. SO53 will give a minimum of 30 days notice prior to any increase.

Bespoke Website Design and Maintenance Payment Terms

• Typically, a minimum of 50% initial payment is required before undertaking any work for new clients.
• The initial payment is non-refundable.
• We expect our website design customers to provide their website content at the start of a project. A delay in the provision of content may result in the delay of any agreed deadlines and may incur additional costs to the project.
• Additional work will be charged at our standard hourly rate set at a minimum of 1 hour or for an agreed fixed price.
• Payment terms are subject to our discretion.
• We expect our invoices to be paid by the date due that is shown on all our invoices. Failing to pay by the date due will result in the withdrawal of our services and support.
• Bad debts will be reported to the credit agency and this will affect your credit rating.
• Late payers may have their websites disabled or work removed until payment is made.

Hourly rate

The majority of our custom website design projects are charged on a per hour basis. This rate is revealed to clients on request of a quotation or estimate. Our hourly rate is typically adjusted yearly. We do offer fixed pricing for certain projects and this can be discussed during negotiations.

Meetings

We are available for meetings via Video chat. In person face to face meetings can be made on a case by case basis. Once a project has started we believe most if not all communications can be done via phone/email or video chat. Additional meetings are subject to our discretion and maybe subject to consultation fees.

Web Hosting / Managed Servers

• We offer standard web hosting services on our cloud hosting environment for all our websites as per our prices.For more demanding requirements or if you require a dedicated solution we can offer Managed Servers providing fixed and guaranteed resources.
• Standard hosting accounts will be setup within 24 hours of payment, although typically a lot sooner. VPS hosting accounts may take up to 24-72 hours depending on requirements.
• Your hosting account is available for legitimate commercial or personal use.
• We do not allow Adult, Warez, illegal MP3 Sites or IRC Bots.
• You may not store more data in your account than your alotted server space.
• You must not use your hosting account as an online backup solution. You should use services like Dropbox.com, Google Apps instead. If it is found that you are storing data in your account that is not for the purposes of your website(s) hosted in your account you will be asked to delete the data immediately.
• You must not divulge your account password to any unauthorised person, and you should take reasonable precautions to ensure that it is not discovered by other people.
• Backups of all website data (excluding email, see 'Email Backups' below) are typically made on a daily basis and made available to you via your hosting account control panel. SO53 shall not be held liable for loss or deletion of data. It is strongly recommended that you keep an independent regular backup of all data stored in your web space.
• We shall not be held liable for any loss or damages caused by the use or misuse, unavailability or removal of services.
• When your account is closed, all files (including web pages, etc.) will be deleted.
• We reserve the right to cancel your account at any time without notice.
• We reserve the right to amend and update these Terms of Service at any time without notice.
• To protect your privacy we never distribute your name or e-mail address to any third parties.
• Users must NOT participate in any bulk mailing from SO53 servers. Any account that participates in bulk mailing activity will be suspended immediately without notice.
• By logging into your account, or uploading files to it, you are indicating your acceptance of these Terms.
• You will be responsible for the content of your pages, including obtaining the legal permission for any works they include and ensuring that the contents of these pages do not violate UK law.
• You will be held responsible for and accept responsibility for any defamatory, confidential, secret or other proprietary material available via your page(s).
• We reserve the right to remove material deemed inappropriate from your web pages, without prior notice.
• We reserve the right to suspend a customer's account, without notice, where it is deemed, at our sole discretion, that such accounts are monopolising server resources. Accounts suspended for this nature will only be reinstated if the customer can give credible assurance that further use of their account will not attract the same or similar levels of activity again. Should such activity re-occur from the same customer account we reserve the right to delete that account, without notice, from our servers.

Fair Use Policy - Web Hosting

We operate a fair use policy for website hosting space and bandwidth usage and therefore do not set a specific limit on how much space or bandwidth you may consume*. However, should your account monopolise server resources (e.g. Memory, CPU and drive space utilisation including email usage) you may be ask to switch to a VPS hosting solution.

* The fair use policy does not apply to VPS accounts where limits do apply. Additional space, CPU, memory and bandwidth can be purchased where applicable.

Email Backups

Email is NOT backed up and customers must make their own provisions to backup their email. Please contact us for more information on how to do this if you are unsure.SO53 shall not be held liable for loss or deletion of data.

Website Migrations

We can migrate your website from your current host. In order for migrations to go smoothly you must provide us with all necessary access we request, preferably full access to your current host's hosting control panel for your website. Whilst most migrations are generally straightforward things do not always go to plan which may require website coding and/or server updates to support your website on our platform. Should this be the case we may have to charge you additional costs to make such changes and we would advise you of those costs before proceeding. We will attempt to migrate all website code and data we are given access to and you will be able to check your data and site functionality before we finalise the migration. You must make sure your current host account remains accessible and active throughout the migration process until we confirm it's ok for you to organise its closure. We cannot be held responsible for any loss of data during this process.

Email Migrations

We can migrate your email accounts from your current host. In order for migrations to go smoothly you must provide us with each you email account you wish to migrate, its password, your current host's email server settings and any forwarding or email alias requirements. We will attempt to subfolders in addition to your main inbox. You should also refrain from creating any new subfolders in your email account until the migration is complete. You must make sure your email accounts with your current host remain accessible and active throughout the migration process until we confirm it's ok for you to organise its closure. We cannot be held responsible for any emails lost during the migration process.

Uptime

We have an excellent uptime record, often achieving 100% availability month on month, however, life is not perfect so this may not always be the case. Should there be any unplanned downtime we will, with best endeavours, get everything back online as quickly as possible.

*excluding planned and pre-advised maintenance where downtime is necessary.

Cancellation and Refunds

We offer a 30 day money back guarantee on all new sign ups to our hosting services. The money back guarantee does NOT include the following:

• Domain registration/transfer fees.
• Accounts suspended during this period.
• Software License fees.

We reserve the right to cancel the service at any time. Refund requests, which can not total more than one month's hosting period (or equivalent to), are to be sent to payments@so53.co.uk and will only be processed in the cases of service non-performance where SO53 is clearly at fault. Refund requests for problems beyond SO53's control will be refused. For example:

• Domain transfer failure.
• Failure of any third party script or program that's not supported by SO53.
• A customer's lack of experience in dealing with web basics and communication protocols.

To cancel your web hosting account, you must raise a cancellation request via your Client Area or submit a support ticket with your registered email address requesting the specific items in your account you wish to cancel. Please note: if you cancel a domain name which is linked to a hosting account with us, we will not automatically cancel the hosting account unless explicitly told to do so. Similarly, if you cancel a hosting account which is for a domain name registered with us, we will not automatically cancel the domain name unless explicitly told to do so.

Domain Name Registrations - Contact Information Verification

As per ICANN 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement, SO53 require customers to verify the contact information for their domain. This policy came into effect as of 1st January 2014. Shortly after the registration of a domain name the customer will receive a contact information verification email which must be action by the customer accordingly. Failure to verify the contact information could result in the customer's domain name being suspended until verification has been completed.

Web Hosting, Domain Name Renewals and Contact Information

Renewal notices for web hosting accounts are issued to the user, by email, no earlier than 7 days before expiry of the client's hosting period. Accounts will be suspended 7 days after the invoice due date if payment is not received unless different payment terms have been agreed in writing. Where an account is suspended due to non-payment and the customer does not wish to renew their account, SO53 reserves to right to charge an administration fee should the customer wish to retrieve data from their account.

Renewal notices for domain name registrations are issued to the user by email up to 90 days prior to expiry date. VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: Should you allow the domain to expire, and not renew within 14 days of the expiry date you may not be able to renew the domain. If your domain can be renewed after it's expiry date you may also be subject to a £95 restoration fee.

Please note if payment is not received within 30 days after the expiry date of the customer's hosting period their hosting account and all files (including email) in their hosting space WILL BE DELETED WITHOUT FURTHER NOTICE.

It is the customer's responsibility to ensure that their billing and domain name contact details remain up-to-date.

Customers must ensure that the email address held in our order system database is current. To view or change billing details the client can login into their billing account at this url: https://my.so53.co.uk/login.

SO53 will cannot accept an incorrect email address held in the order and domain name system systems as reason for non-payment and/or non-renewal of services and/or domain names.

Indemnification

Customer agrees that it shall defend, indemnify, save and hold SO53 harmless from any and all demands, liabilities, losses, costs and claims, including reasonable solicitors fees asserted against SO53, its agents, its clients, officers and employees, that may arise or result from any service provided or performed or agreed to be performed or any product sold by customer, its agents, employees or assigns. Customer agrees to defend, indemnify and hold harmless SO53 against liabilities arising out of:

• any injury to person or property caused by any products sold or otherwise distributed in connection with SO53 servers.
• any material supplied by client infringing or allegedly infringing on the proprietary rights of a third party.
• copyright infringement.
• any defective products or services sold to customer by SO53.

Disclaimer

SO53 will not be responsible for any damages your business may suffer, SO53 makes no warranties of any kind, expressed or implied for services we provide. SO53 disclaims any warranter merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This includes loss of data resulting from delays, non-deliveries, wrong delivery, viruses and any and all service interruptions caused by SO53 and its employees.

These terms are subject to change at our discretion.