Full Terms (services)

TERMS FOR SUPPLY OF SERVICES

This document describes the terms which cover the purchase of services by you from us. If buying goods and services at the same time then each is a separate contract. It is in addition to our general terms.

Length of on-going service

All of the ongoing services we offer (for example: Internet services; telephone services; maintenance; etc.) are provided for each billing period as agreed (typically monthly, but other billing cycles are available) on an automatically renewing basis. You receive an invoice at (or just before) the start of the period and at that point we have agreed to provide service for the period and you have agreed to pay for service for that period. In some cases this can be adjusted later where there is a notice period of termination, but where there is no notice period we operate on a no-refund basis. I.e. we have made an agreement with you at the start of the period to provide service and be paid for that whole period.

If you do not ask us to terminate service we will start a new period on your next billing date.

Starting service, and minimum terms

When you order service, we will try and provide it as soon as possible unless you say otherwise. If you need a service provided on a specific date, please make this clear with your order. We will then try to provide the service on that date or as close as possible. Service provision dates cannot be guaranteed and the date is not a formal part of our agreement, so we have no liability if we fail to meet a specific date. You will only be billed for each separate service from the date it is in fact provided (even if you are not using it yet).

Your initial bill for an ongoing service will be for at least 28 days service and may be as much as a whole billing period plus 27 days so as to align with the billing cycle. If the service has a notice period, then when you give us notice we will bill (or credit) so that you are charged only for the notice period. Where there is no notice period we operate on a no-refund basis for invoices already issued. Most services have no minimum term, but the notice period or initial invoice is effectively a minimum term.

Some services also have a minimum term. If terminating service before the minimum term then you are at that point charged for service to the end of the minimum term (or end of notice period if later).

Once you have placed an order for the service, as a consumer, the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 permit you to cancel that order, with no penalty, within 7 working days of placing the order. However, this only applies up until the point we have provided the service, which may be before 7 working days from placing your order.

In the case of broadband orders (new or migration) we consider one of the services we are providing is one of arranging for broadband to be installed and as such that service is provided once we have submitted the necessary orders to our installers to connect your service and they have accepted that order from us. This will usually be within a few hours of placing your order. Please bear in mind the service may be provided before the point you happen to start using the service. This also applies in the same way to arranging for an installation of a telephone line.

Migrating a service to us

In some cases you can move a service from another provider to us. If you do this then you will be terminating the contract you have with your previous provider for that service. We recommend you always check carefully with your previous provider whether you are liable for any termination charges, minimum notice charges, minimum term charges or any other costs as a result of terminating service with them. We are not liable for any costs you have to your previous provider resulting from migration.

How well the Internet service works (Service Level Agreement)

We will ensure, with reasonable skill and care, that the service works as we have said it will. If we expect a problem or have to suspend part of the service for some operational reason, then we will let you know in advance if possible – usually via our web site and/or newsgroups or social media.

The Internet is a large network of interconnecting computers managed by different organizations. We cannot be responsible for anything not in our control. We will not refund or compensate you for any break in service or any consequential costs that may arise because the service did not work when you needed it.

It is also important to note that we cannot guarantee the speed (transfer rate, packet loss or latency) of the Internet. In some cases (such as broadband) the speed of the link to your site is measured at your modem/router, but this speed is subject to other factors and contention, within the BT network and the Internet itself. Such matters are beyond our control and as such we accept no liability.

Fixing faults

Faults can be within our equipment or within back-haul networks or lines that we contract suppliers (such as BT) to provide to us. Most Internet service faults are outside our control. Our suppliers for some lines aim to rectify faults within 40 hours but we do not guarantee this. We will endeavour to arrange for line faults to be rectified as quickly as possible and follow all escalation procedures as appropriate with suppliers. We may choose to work on faults outside normal office hours, but do not guarantee to do so.

You will have to co-operate with our support staff and carry out simple steps. If equipment is supplied as part of the service (e.g. a modem/router) you must be prepared to test using that equipment even if you normally use something else. If you don’t help us do these basic checks then the fault repair process stops waiting for you, and you continue to be liable to pay for the service even though it is not working.

If an engineer is arranged, you have to ensure that he has access during the agreed time slot. You must also follow any directions we give you in dealing with the engineers. Failure to do so could mean that we are charged when we would not be, and in such cases we will pass on these charges to you.

If, after notifying us of a fault, we are unable to rectify the fault after 5 working days you may opt to terminate service. If you do so within 14 days of reporting the fault we will refund pro rata the amount charged for service for the period from date the fault was reported, and not charge the normal notice period or cease charge. This is your full recourse for us failing to fix a fault promptly. This does not apply where service is suspended for a breach of these terms, and the 5 working days does not include any time whilst we are waiting for you to perform tests or reply to queries.

Filtering Internet Access

We don’t provide a filtering service to restrict or limit access to anything on the Internet. When you take services from us you are opting out of any filtering services. The Internet has a lot of good and useful things, but it also has a lot of unpleasant and offensive things. Don’t blame us for what you find on the Internet. If you want to filter access to the Internet for yourself or others using the service then there are a range of products available for most computer systems to provide that filtering, and it is up to you to obtain and install these.

Superhero Broadband unfiltered

We do not have, in our network, any equipment installed to filter access to any part of the public Internet for our customers as a whole. We will give 12 months notice if we ever add any such filtering.

Restricting, Suspending and Terminating service

If you have not paid us within terms or are in breach of any other terms or our acceptable use policy, then we may take steps to restrict, suspend or terminate your service as we see fit. Until your service is terminated, you must still pay the full price for the use of the service as if it was working normally.

Restriction of service means that we make some parts of the service unavailable or operate at a lower speed. This would normally only be done where the restriction will help reduce the effect of some breach of terms (such as a breach of our acceptable use policy). However, if we are unable to contact you, we may use this as a means to get your attention.

Suspension of service means that we stop your service working, however, we still have the service available to be resumed quickly. Before resuming service we will normally require you to bring your account fully up to date (pay us), or make assurances that a breach of our acceptable use policy has been addressed (e.g. virus checking your computers).

Termination of service means we stop supplying your service completely. At this point you are no longer liable for further ongoing charges, but must still pay any outstanding invoices, minimum term charges and any termination charges that apply. For some services, such as domains, termination may allow others to take the domain from you. If you wish to reconnect after termination you will have to ensure your account is up to date, and pay any connection charges that apply and may have to wait for several days before service can be reconnected.

Abuse of the Internet

Our Acceptable Use Policy specifies the rules you must follow. The service can be suspended or terminated without refund, if you do not follow the rules in the AUP, at our sole discretion. We will try to give you a warning of any issues relating to the AUP and an opportunity to rectify such problems to continue service – however severe breaches may result in immediate suspension without advance warning.

Liability for use of the Internet

We provide a service which allows information to be passed to and from your computer systems. In using the service you must accept that we have no responsibility for the information carried, even if it is held on our servers in transit (for example as news or email), or is placed on our servers (such as web pages, and bulletin boards). If you take offence to any information you receive, you should take up the matter with the sender, or choose not to receive the information (e.g. to not visit offending web sites, etc). Wherever practical we will assist you in locating the sender if you require help. We will also co-operate with the police or other authorities in providing information to trace any criminal offence that may be committed via our services.

You must take responsibility for your use of the Internet. If anything you do, or fail to do, results in any liability for us, then you will compensate us completely. This includes any liability for anything you place on any of our servers (e.g. web, email, news). This includes compensation for all consequential losses, loss of time, loss of reputation, loss of future or expected profits, etc, as well as any fines or consequences imposed on us or our Directors and company officers or staff personally, if we or they are found liable for your actions or inaction.

Who can use the Internet service

The service is provided to you as the customer, but you can provide Internet access service to third parties if you wish. You remain responsible for all charges for usage of the service, whoever uses it. If you provide services to someone else, even if free of charge, you may become a Communications Provider as defined by the Communications Act, and this may change some of the aspects of the contract you have with us. Please tell us if you are a communications provider so that we can correctly record your legal status. We will show this on each invoice we send you for ongoing services.

You must ensure that any passwords we supply for use with the service are kept confidential, and must notify us immediately if you realise they have been compromised.

In any event, you are responsible for all those that do make use of the service using your connection, account or domain, in any way that could adversely affect Andrews & Arnold Ltd, and we advise that you ensure all users are aware of these terms and the acceptable use policy.

Changing the service

We have a policy of continuous improvement, and may, from time to time, add, modify or remove parts of the service. We may temporarily disconnect service for system maintenance or to make changes to the service we provide. We will publish details of such changes on our web pages in advance or by email. We will not pay any compensation for such changes even if they require periods of service suspension. If you do not like the change we have made you have the option not to renew the on-going service for the next period.

If we make a change that requires any change to the configuration of your computers or systems, then you are responsible for making those changes in order to continue using the service. Where possible we will allow the previous configuration of your system to operate at the same time as the new configuration, for a period of time. This will allow you to make necessary changes at your convenience.

You may be allocated IP addresses for use of the service. These do not belong to you, but we may register your details with IP management authorities (RIPE). We may change your allocated IP addresses for operational reasons and you must make or arrange the necessary changes at your site to accommodate such changes at your cost.

Some services, such as broadband, are sold as shared services. We require customers to make responsible use of a shared service, We reserve the right to manage the way in which the service is shared to ensure the best operation for our customers as a whole.

Third party terms

In provision of the service you may be bound to terms of third parties. This is because some of the contracts we enter in to require us to impose terms on those using the services. In some cases a separate contract is formed between you and a third party – e.g. a domain registration, where we act simply as an agent in registering a domain. These include :-

Any terms imposed by our Internet transit providers – please ask us for a copy. We may change providers from time to time.

Any terms imposed by British Telecommunications plc – please ask us for a copy.

Any terms imposed by Internet registries, including RIPE for IP addresses, and Nominet for UK domains.

Nominet DNSSEC terms

Nominet have a number of terms, and in the case of Nominet we act as your agent in dealing with Nominet for UK domain regsitration. Nominet have new terms specifically for DNSSEC:-

The way in which DNSSEC works and the affect that its use can have on the stability of domain name records;

That Nominet accepts no liability in relation to the operation or use of DNSSEC records and that registrants accept all risk in relation to the use of DNSSEC in relation to their domain names; and

That Nominet will take reasonable steps to correct any error in the DNSSEC records, where such an error is as a result of a mistake on Nominet’s part, but will otherwise accept no liability for the error

To the extent that you register domain names for yourself, you also confirm that you understand and accept the risks of using DNSSEC and that Nominet accepts no liability in relation to the operation or use of DNSSEC

You agree to indemnify Nominet in relation to all liabilities, costs, expenses, damages and losses (including any direct or indirect consequential losses, loss of profit, loss of reputation and all interest, penalties and legal and other professional costs and expenses) suffered or incurred by Nominet as a result of your failure to notify your customers of the above information.

Agents

Anyone buying services from us for use by someone else (e.g. an IT consultant) must ensure the end user is aware of, and bound by, such third party terms by which we are bound. Such persons must also adhere to the principles of any code of practice (e.g. OFCOM broadband migration CoP) in the same way we would, passing on any requests to us promptly. For example, in the same way we work, any such person may not withhold a migration code for broadband or refuse an IPS tag change for a UK domain just because money is owed to them by the customer. If they do, then we reserve the right to deal directly with their customer in such matters.

Termination

Terminating your service is stopping providing the service after we have started providing it. Stopping an order before we have provided it is cancellation and described below. Note that we may have started providing a service before you have chosen to start actually using it.

Some service have a notice period for termination (e.g. 30 days). You can order termination at any time and we will aim to provide services to the end of the notice period. Even if service is stopped before the end of the notice period (e.g. migrated away or because phone line stopped on broadband service) charges still apply to the end of the period. If you give us notice when you have already been invoiced for service beyond the end of the notice period we will credit that extra charge. If you terminate service without notice (e.g. terminate phone line for broadband) then that is taken as giving notice at that point and a charge for the notice period applies. If you request a migration code then that is giving notice. If you do not use the migration code then charges resume and service continues. Only one period of notice can be in force concurrently on any service.

Where there is no notice period for termination we operate on a no-refund basis for the invoices already issued. This applies on some of our older broadband services as well as low cost services such as domain and email.

Terminating a broadband service could mean that it is several days before another service provider can provide service as it will take time for BT to process the request we make to them to terminate the circuit to your premises. If you terminate the associated phone service then the broadband will be terminated – we get no advance notice of this from BT and we have no option to cancel this, even if you manage to stop the phone line cease going through. If you have an associated telephone service which we provide that is also terminated when you cease your broadband.

In some cases there is also a charge for disconnecting a service. This is published on our price list and order pages.

You have to tell us when to stop

Because you have to pay for on-going services until you ask us to stop, it is important to ensure we have received and actioned your request to terminate. If you ask us to terminate service then it will be for you to prove that we received and actioned your request in the event of a dispute. Normally this is not a problem, but if we have not actioned your request and you cannot prove we said that we would, then charges apply based on the date we did finally receive your request. This is particularly relevant if you post a request to terminate an on-going service. We recommend you request termination using our on-line ordering system as this provides immediate on-screen confirmation and a digitally signed email confirming your request so that you have clear proof. The on-line system also automates the whole process to avoid human error.

Important

If you cannot show we received and actioned your request to cease a service you still have to pay until we do. If you continue to receive invoices and pay them for a service you think you have ceased, this is taken as confirmation that you accept that you did not, in fact, cease the service, and so they will not be refunded. You have to dispute invoices promptly.

Migrating service away from us – TBD

You can migrate a broadband service away from us using a migration code. You can order a migration code on our main web pages. This is issued free of charge. Only when the migration has been completed is your service with us terminated.

When you order the migration code on a service with a termination notice period you are invoiced to the end of the notice period (or credited if already invoiced beyond that point). If the migration code is not used then billing resumes as normal when the migration code and notice period expires. If you decide to obtain a new migration code after the previous one has expired then a new notice period starts at that point.

If you want to leave us, we recommend that you migrate broadband service to another provider if possible, rather than terminating service, as this avoids termination costs and delays.

Cancelling the service

Cancelling an order is asking us not to provide your service before we have actually provided it. Once we have provided service, even if you are not yet using the service, you cannot cancel your order but you may terminate your service as described above, or in some cases migrate the service.

We cannot guarantee the date that we will provide a service, especially if it relies on the work of a third party. We will keep trying to provide your service if at all possible until you ask us to cancel the order. If we have still not provided the service by 7 days after the agreed date then we will not make any cancellation charge if you cancel at that point.

If you cancel a service for any other reason then we will make a cancellation charge. This cancellation charge is never more than the charge we would make for terminating service the day after it was provided. For broadband we expect payment of the first period invoiced for the service or notice period, and all connection/setup/cease charges. If you are considering cancelling the service, please ask us to quote for the cancellation charge that would apply in your case.

Cancelling an order for broadband service could mean that it is several days before another service provider can provide service as it will take time for BT to process the request we make to them to cancel the circuit to your premises.

Backups

You are responsible for ensuring that you have backups of your web site or other data you store on any of our servers. In the event of any data being lost or restored from our backups we will notify you as soon as practical (within 2 working days) so that you can check your web site is up to date and upload any necessary files. We are not responsible for data lost for any reason. If you are unhappy with the service we provide, you have the option not to renew the service in the next period.

Data Protection

Contact details for fixed IP address assignments are published in the RIPE database and can be checked via http://www.ripe.net/. Contact details for domain registrations may be published on various whois servers by the registry.

It is a formal condition that you accept that such details may be published and fully indemnify us against any claim related to publications of such details. Where practical we will co-operate with your requests to publish alternative or restricted contact details.

Firewalls

Connecting to the Internet, whether by modem, ISDN, or broadband, means that your computer is part of a world wide network of computers. It is possible that your computer is providing file shares, or other services on the Internet connection which may allow it to be hacked . You are responsible for the security of your computers. We are not responsible for any breach of security via the Internet. We recommend you ensure your machine is configured correctly, or has firewalling software or a separate firewall to protect you from the Internet. This is particularly important if you have a permanent connection such as broadband.

Network attacks

There may be cases where traffic to your service is caused by a third party, which may be some sort of denial of service attack against you or making use of your equipment by some means to cause problems for someone else. Such attacks are rarely targeted at you without some cause. Use of your computer systems or routers to cause other people problems is usually only possible if you have systems that allow this or that are not suitably protected.

In any case you are liable for all usage charges related to your service, even if these relate to packets sent to you that you did not want, or packets send from your systems as a result of compromised computer systems, viruses, etc. This is an unfortunate side effect of the fact that we provide an unfiltered service to you.

We will try and advise you of any unusually high usage by email or other means, but cannot guarantee to do so. We may also be able to offer advice on configuration of your network, within reason. We will try and help you diagnose the cause of any problems while they are happening if you ask.

It is important to realises that, even if we supplied equipment you are using and even if we configured it, the Internet changes over time. What may be normal practice now can become a means to create a denial of service attack in the future. You are responsible for all use of your connection however it is caused.

If we detect a denial of service attack directed to your line we may suspend that line for a short period to cause the attack to give-up, or take other action as we deem appropriate at the time. In rare cases we may filter traffic to or from the Internet to protect our network and customers, as we see fit. We may publish details of any such actions and will always provide details on request.

Engineering

Any quote for engineering work, consultancy, training, or software development is firm quote for an hourly or daily rate, but an estimate of the time it will take to carry out the work. Should the work look likely to exceed the estimate we will discuss options with you, and you can opt to pay for additional time or stop development at that point. Any work carried out must be paid for at the agreed hourly or daily rate. As stated above we limit liability to the pro-rata amount paid for any work carried out which is unsatisfactory.

Software

In some cases we supply software developed or modified by us. Unless agreed otherwise, in writing, we retain all rights to the software including rights to source code. Your purchase is simply for a licence to make use of the software in accordance with our instructions. As with all software it is impossible to guarantee 100% reliable operation. Any defects notified within a 1 year warranty period will be rectified with reasonable skill, care and speed but no consequential liability can be accepted for any losses due to such a failure. Rectifying a problem may simply mean changing the instructions for use. You must provide us with any remote access and passwords we may require to rectify problems and test changes on your systems. Some systems include third party software which may be subject to it’s own licence conditions. Any free software which may be included is separate and is not provided as part of any contract with you, and for which no liability can be accepted by us. For any software which is included that is published under a GNU public licence, or similar, we have an obligation to supply source code on request – just ask.