Dedicated Hosting (dedicated servers and VPS) – Terms Of Service
HostPlate.com provides the Dedicated Hosting Service that is subject to the following agreement. Dedicated hosting in this terms and conditions refers to both VPS (Windows and Linux) and dedicated servers. In case of a difference in terms applying to VPS and dedicated server on a single subject, VPS or dedicated term is pointed out.
When signing up for a Dedicated hosting account with the Hostplate.com, the Customer agrees to abide by the rules and provisions explicated in these Dedicated Terms of Service, as well as all their coherent policies mentioned herein.
The Customer of our Services should also be aware that when signing up for a Dedicated server hosting account with Hostplate.com, he/or she agrees to position data on our servers and make it accessible to the wide internet public. In this respect, the Customer understands and agrees that it is beyond the power of Hostplate.com to restrict any public access to this data and guarantee the security of the Customer’s files. The Customer, therefore, is completely in charge of protecting his/her web content on our Dedicated servers and should consider carefully each piece of information before uploading it to his/her newly allocated Dedicated server space. We highly recommend that Customers avoid publishing online personal data that could be abused.
I. SERVICE AGREEMENT; ENTIRE AGREEMENT
The Provider shall provide its Services to You – the Customer – under the Terms and Conditions explicated in this Service Agreement. The Agreement is intended to keep the integrity of both Hostplate.com and the Customer and to protect both parties from liability. This Service Agreement will be enforced to ensure the speed, power, performance, and reliability of our Services.
The Service Agreement and any other policies or agreements mentioned in this document, constitute the whole act of convention between Hostplate.com and the Customer.
II. RULES FOR ACTIVATION AND MONTHLY PAYMENT BASIS OF THE DEDICATED SERVER HOSTING SERVICE
Upon submitting of the online order form, the Customer agrees to abide by our Order Verification Policy and the following provisions:
1. The payment of the Dedicated server hosting service is set up on a monthly basis. The Customer agrees to pay for the rendered Dedicated server hosting services in advance for each monthly service term.
2. Non-Payment of the service shall result in a immediate service disconnection. Customers failing to secure payment by the time of the due date will incur service interruption. The data hosted on the Dedicated server will be kept for 8 days, after that it will be permanently deleted.
3. Setup fees and monthly service fees are non-refundable. The Customer agrees to a no-refund policy in advance.
III. SERVICE GUARANTEES; DATA BACKUP
1. SERVICE GUARANTEES
The Provider guarantees 99.9% network uptime and server stability. This, however, does not refer to problems stemming from:
1. Server Hardware Breakdown;
2. User error(s) or purposeful interruption(s) of the user service (e.g. if the client shuts his/her own server down, Hostplate.com is not responsible for the downtime);
3. Failure due to software that is not explicitly supported by Hostplate.com. If a hardware crash provoked by the Customer consequently happens, the Provider is beyond the control and responsibility for the resulting downtime.
2. DATA BACKUP
Due to the specificity of the Dedicated server hosting service, providing Customers with fully independent and self-managed hosting environment, the DATA BAKCUP of all Customer’s website contents and databases is solely Customer’s responsibility, as well.
IV. SERVICE ACTIVATION AND CONTINUANCE TIMESCALES
1. SERVICE ACTIVATION
For newly signed up clients – the Services are activated only after our Sales Department gets in touch with the Customer over the phone to verify the payment details (this is required due to the high fraud activity spreading online, and in order to be prevented fraudulent account usage). The payment verification procedure is obligatory and if we fail to approve a transaction within 48 hours of the payment submission, the funds will be credited back to the payer and the order will be canceled.
For existing customers – the services for existing Customers, including upgrade services and renewals, are activated immediately after our Sales Department receives the according service payment.
2. SERVICE Delivery
HostPlate commits to deliver services in consideration of delivery time mentioned for each product on our website. We are not obliged to provide any information in regard of a service delivery status or prioritize a service delivery unless the commitment time has been passed. To be specific and to prevent further confusion, delivery time for Windows VPS is up to 24 hours. For Linux VPS the delivery is instant once billing status is changed to completed. For dedicated servers, the delivery varies from 1 business day to 5 business days. Customer is responsible to check delivery time of each product/service we offer on our website. In case of unexpected events such as power outage that might delay delivery time of a service/product, HostPlate is entitled to put maximum effort to satisfy customer by for example prioritizing the order but that would not entitle customer to cancel or refund for example dedicated servers which once are under process, are not refundable.
3. CONTINUANCE TIMESCALES
Dedicated Server Accounts – The newly-created Dedicated server hosting accounts with the Provider are valid for 1 month. They can be renewed on a monthly basis, i.e. for another month that will be added to the official expiration date of the Dedicated server account.
CANCELLATION, REFUND & MONEY-BACK; CHARGEBACKS
4. CANCELLATIONS
In order to cancel a Dedicated server account, the Customer must send a support ticket to the Provider’s Sales Department via his/her Dedicated management account and provide any authentication credentials requested by Hostplate.com. Any other form of cancellation request will not be accepted.
5. REFUNDS
Dedicated server hosting accounts – The Dedicated server accounts are set up on a monthly prepay basis. Customers may cancel their accounts at any time, however they will not be entitled to a refund for the unused period of the prepaid month, since these services do NOT include Money Back Guarantee. Any incentives offered to the Customers upon sign-up will be also canceled.
VPS hosting, on the other hand, is entitled to 7 day money back guarantee. Customer needs to request for the refund only through the first 7 days after the service is delivered by email. Limited accounts may not be approved for a refund request as that would provide a loophole in the system for abusive purposes. Each customer and account is limited to request for refund only one time. Approve or reject of a refund request for a customer is under the sole direction of Hostplate.com and may not be appealed.
6. CHARGEBACKS
Chargebacks are not considered as a way of refunding. Any Customer who initiates a credit card chargeback in response to a bill or order placed with Hostplate.com will be subject to full investigation.
When signing up for a Dedicated server hosting account with Hostplate.com, the Customer agrees to the terms and conditions explicated in this document (and its coherent policies). Thus, Hostplate.com, as well as Hostplate.com’s authorized retailers (PayPal, AlertPay), will resort to these documents as an evidence for the Customer’s agreement, especially in the event that a Customer sends a chargeback inquiry based on points that he/or she first accepted, but is trying now to refute.
If/When a chargeback report is received, the first step of Hostplate.com’s Customer Care team will be to try to contact the Customer. Meanwhile, the Customer’s Dedicated server account will be suspended (in order to protect our system from fraudulent activity and misuse) and will remain suspended until the reasons for the chargeback have been clarified and decision has been taken for according action.
If the chargeback has occurred due to some misunderstanding, a reverse payment procedure will be initiated with the authorized retailers and eventually the Dedicated server account will be re-activated.
If the Customer has sent a chargeback request based on groundless argumentations (according to Hostplate.com’s own judgment and these Dedicated Terms of Service), then a dispute will be started with the authorized retailers in which the Dedicated Terms of Service of Hostplate.com will serve as evidence of the Customer’s agreement. The retailers then, taking into consideration all provisions in these legal documents, will decide whether the Customer has had sufficient grounds for the chargeback or Hostplate.com has the right to a reverse payment.
In case that the chargeback originates from a fraudulent user (end-client) and no reverse payment procedure can be activated, then the respective Dedicated server account will remain suspended.
V. HOSTING RESELLER TOOLS
A collection of free hosting reseller tools: a free domain reseller account is available with each Dedicated Server hosting package. All bonuses are given per customer’s request.
VI. CUSTOMER RESPONSIBILITIES; ACCOUNT REGISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT
In consideration of their use of the Service, Customers agree to:
1. Provide true, accurate, current and complete information about themselves as prompted by the registration form of the Service. Maintain and promptly update their registration data to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. If the Customer provides any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, or Hostplate.com has reasonable grounds (at its sole discretion) to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, Hostplate.com has the right to suspend or terminate the Customer’s account and refuse any and all current or future use of Hostplate.com (or any portion thereof). If untrue details are used in order to avoid VAT the customer can be held responsible by the respective national tax collecting agency.
2. When introducing any changes to their contact details, Customers are obliged to notify Hostplate.com in the course of 10 business days after the changes become valid even though we are automatically notified by the system and all changes are registered and accessible. The introduction of changes should be done online through the customers’ Dedicated Management Account, not via e-mail.
3. Customers will receive a password and account designation upon completing of the registration process of the Service. Customers are responsible for keeping the confidentiality of their passwords and accounts, and are fully responsible for all activities that occur under that password or account. Customers agree to: a) immediately notify Hostplate.com about any unauthorized use of their password or account or any other breach of security; b) ensure that they safely exit (log out from) their account at the end of each session. Hostplate.com cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage of account information arising from Customer’s failure to comply with this provision.
4. If a Dedicated server hosting account is registered with details different than those of the person who paid for the account, and in the case of any dispute, Hostplate.com will take the side of the person who paid for the account and shall not provide access to any other person, since – a hosting account owner is and will be considered to be the credit card /PayPal account holder.
5. The client is obliged not to delete the provider’s SSH key, which provides root access to the server. The root access will be used by the provider in 2 cases only:
0. When there is a problem with the server and, as a result, certain services do not run properly – the provider may fix it as he sees fit.
1. When there is a report from a third party concerning some sort of abuse, for example, spam, the provider can identify the spammer and suspend him, of which case the client who is in charge of the server will be duly informed. The client, on the other hand, is obliged not to let problems of such kind happen again, whether or not involving that particular abuser. If there are repeated abuse reports – the provider will charge the client EUR 20 for each report, because the latter is obviously unwilling to assist in terminating the abuse actions on the given server.
The client is also obliged not to terminate the SNMP service activated by the provider to keep track of the used IPs on the server. Upon a termination of the SNMP service -the provider will inform the client and the client will have to reactivate the service in 48 hours. If the client does not cooperate – the provider can suspend the client’s access to the server at his own discretion.
VII. NO UNLAWFUL OR PROHIBITED USE
1. SERVER USAGE
Hostplate.com expressly bans the use of any Dedicated server hardware or software for trying to illegally access another hosted machine or network. Customers may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to any of Hostplate.com’s Services, other accounts, computer systems or networks connected to any of the Hostplate.com’s Services, through hacking, password mining or other means of close nature. Customers may not obtain or attempt to obtain any materials or information through any means not intentionally made available by Hostplate.com’s Services. If you still have inquiries over the matter, feel free to contact any of our Customer Care representatives.
2. HOSTED CONTENT
Server content MUST comply with the parameters stated in this TOS. Web content requirements exclude the publication of illegal content or content considered inappropriate otherwise. If any of Hostplate.com’s Services are used for the illegal purpose of SPAM or UCE, they will be instantly terminated. Customers are solely responsible for the content of their messages. Using Hostplate.com’s Services in connection with surveys, contests, pyramid schemes, chain letters, junk e-mail, spamming or any duplicative or unsolicited messages (commercial or other) is prohibited. In this light, Hostplate.com expressly forbids any breach of Sweden’s laws.
3. CUSTOMER AGREEMENT
As a condition for Customer use of Hostplate.com’s Services, you – the Customer, agree that you will not use the Services for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these terms, conditions, and notices. Hostplate.com’s Dedicated servers can be used explicitly and only for legal purposes, and each attempt for taking indecent advantage of the servers, inconsistent with the rules, will be immediately counteracted. Hostplate.com reserves the right at any time to disclose any information, as Hostplate.com deems necessary, to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, or to edit, refuse to post or to remove from the Services any information or materials, in whole or in part, in the sole discretion of Hostplate.com.
VIII.E-COMMERCE CUSTOMER WEBSITES
When buying a Dedicated server for the purpose of creating an e-commerce online store or related e-commerce activities website, the Customer agrees to be fully responsible for the development, operation and maintenance of his/her web site/ online store and e-commerce activities within that website. The Customer is the only one in charge of approving, processing and filling client orders and taking care of client requests or complaints. The Customer is also the only one in charge of the payment or satisfaction of any and all taxes related to his/her web site and online store. The Customer bears the responsibility for ensuring the security and confidentiality of any clients’ data (including, without limitation, customer credit card numbers) that he/she may receive in connection with his/her web site or online store.
Each Customer is in charge of all products and services, as well as all contents and materials appearing online, including:
o the accuracy and relevance of Customer Content, and content and material showcased in the Customer store or on its products;
o certainty that the Customer Content and content and materials appearing in the Customer store or on its products do not violate or infringe upon the rights of any person;
o certainty that the Customer Content and the content and materials appearing in the Customer store or on its products are not calumnitous or somehow illegal.
Each Customer guarantees to Hostplate.com that he/she owns the right to use the Customer Content and its material, including all text, graphics, sound, music, video, programming, scripts and applets. Each Customer warrants to Hostplate.com that the use, reproduction, propagation and transmission of the Customer Content and any information and materials contained inside do not, and will not:
o infringe or abuse any copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or any other proprietary right of a third party;
o break any criminal law or manifest false advertising, unfair competition, vilification, privacy intrusion; violate a right of publicity or violate any other law or regulation.
Each Customer empowers Hostplate.com to reproduce, copy, use and propagate all and any part of the Customer Content for ensuring and operating the Services. Hostplate.com is granted the right to estimate, at its own discretion, the extent to which these operations may be carried out.
IX. REFUSAL OF SERVICE
0. SERVICE DENIAL
Hostplate.com will thoroughly scrutinize all received orders and decide, to its own discretion, which of them do not comply with the officially stated requirements for use of Hostplate.com’s Dedicated servers. Hostplate.com reserves the right to refuse Service to unlawful parties.
1. SERVICE DISCONTINUANCE
Hostplate.com reserves the right to discontinue the Service provision to any subscriber that Hostplate.com deems, at its sole discretion, has violated any condition of the Service explicated in this Terms of Service and/or the Acceptable Use Policy.
X. MISCELLANEOUS
0. NOTICES
Notices, including notices concerning breach of this Agreement will be sent either to the e-mail address provided by the Customer at sign up, OR mailed by first class mail to the postal address that the Customer has on file with Hostplate.com. In both cases, delivery shall be deemed to have been made five (5) days after the notice has been sent. Notices from the Customer to Hostplate.com should be sent to the address provided on Hostplate.com’s website.
1. COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
Hostplate.com guarantees highest level of Customer Care service round the clock. If you feel dissatisfied with any aspect of the Service, feel free to make use of our complaints procedure detailed below.
In order to file a complaint, please send us an email to admin@hostplate.com, specifying the nature of the problem you are experiencing. Please, provide as many details about your particular case as possible. The more we know about the situation, the better, prompt and adequate our resolution will be.
Here are our steps of addressing every single complaint:
0. Hostplate.com will confirm receipt of your complaint in writing, confirming that the complaint will be addressed without delay. The Provider reserves the right to refuse to investigate a complaint that is obviously frivolous, abusive or offensive.
1. An Hostplate.com’s Customer Care representative will review your situation, look for an appropriate solution and inform you of the timeframe within which a response should be expected.
2. If Hostplate.com’s Customer Care representative can’t resolve your complaint within the pre-announced period, your complaint will be escalated to a Customer Care manager.
3. If the Customer Care manager can’t resolve your complaint, as well, it will be forwarded to the Company Director, who will investigate the case to ensure that all necessary measures have been taken and will respond in writing within two working days, and reply with a solution within five working days.
2. TORTUROUS CONDUCT
Any way of indecent treatment towards an Hostplate.com’s Customer Care employee will be considered as totally inappropriate and unacceptable. Each Customer is expected to communicate in an utterly polite and professional manner with the Hostplate.com’s employees regarding any request for help or consultation via e-mail, chat, phone or through our Ticket Desk Support System. Each Customer is expected to avoid any form of emotional outburst or inappropriate language, or any other attempt to be undermined the importance of good ethics in communication and human relations. Any act of close nature, or other type of offensive, abusive, disrespectful or condescending behavior – oral, written, or delivered by a second party – to members of the Provider’s Customer Care stuff will be interpreted as a breach of this TOS. The Provider reserves the right to assess at its sole discretion which behavior is to be considered as a violation of the hereby stated rule and agreement, and to undertake according actions.
3. CUSTOMER CARE SERVICE
Technical Support
Due to the specificity of the Service, Customers are fully in charge of the management and maintenance of their Dedicated servers. However, if they need assistance or want to leave this task to our highly qualified administrators department, they can avail of our Fully Managed Support service available at a monthly fee of EUR 350. Additional software installation and troubleshooting, which are not included in the Managed Support Package will cost EUR 29/h.
4. 100TB Servers
SPECIAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS 100TB SERVICE
Customer acknowledges that Hostplate.com has in this Quote Sheet / Order Form offered the Customer a limited end-user server rate for specified Hostplate.com products and services, subject to the additional special terms of service contained herein, and agreed to by the customer as a condition for the provision of the Service by Hostplate.com.
1.Change of Service.
This Service is a special limited time offering by Hostplate.com and may be cancelled, modified, or withdrawn at any time, after 14 daysí written notice emailed to the Customer.
2. No transferability.
The Service is provisioned to end-user Customers only; and may not be resold, shared, or loaned to any 3rd party.
3.Fair Use Policy.
The Service is provided to end-user Customers for normal, fair, and reasonable
use. Bandwidth usage is to be reasonably consistent throughout every month, without irregular bandwidth usage patterns, either individually or as part of a group of Customer servers. In the event Hostplate.com, in its sole discretion, determines that the Customer is not using the Service according to this Fair Use Policy, Hostplate.com will be entitled to: (a) impose limits on the speed of the data the Customer may transmit and/or receive on any or all Customer servers with this Service, (b) re-price any or all Customer servers with this Service to the regular bandwidth rate; or (c) suspend or terminate the Service to any or all servers provided to the Customer, at Hostplate.comís sole option.
4. No CDN or Media Streaming.
Customer shall not be entitled to use the Service for the purpose of (i) operating Content Delivery Network and/or (ii) Streaming Media Services except with Hostplate.com’s prior written consent, which consent may be granted or withheld at Hostplate.com’s sole
discretion.
5.Notice of Breach.
Whenever reasonably possible, in the event of a Customer breach of any Special Terms and Conditions for this Service, Hostplate.com will email the Customer allowing 24 hours to cure the breach, before Hostplate.com takes any action. If the breach re-occurs in the same month, Hostplate.com may take any action permitted in ∂3, without further notice to the Customer.
