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Terms & Condition

Our shared service delivers a powerful, proven platform that’s perfect
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Terms & Conditions of Service

This agreement is made between iStartHosting, a project of parent companyregistered in Wyomin USA  (“iStartHosting” which expression shall include all or any of its subsidiaries, agents, successors and assigns), and you the customer (“Customer” which expression shall include its permitted successors and assigns).

When registering an account or signing up for a service with iStartHosting, you’ll be agreeing to our ‘Terms & Conditions of Service’ as set out below.

Terms & Conditions of Service

Billing and Charges

All of our Shared hosting packages carry a 30-day money-back guarantee! If you are dissatisfied for any reason at all then just let us know why and if we can’t help, we’ll issue a full hosting refund! Please note that VDS orders, dedicated server orders, and domain costs are not refundable.

Payments

Renewal invoices are generated 30 days in advance and sent to your registered e-mail address on file. It is your responsibility to ensure this e-mail address is kept up to date and can receive emails from us.

It is important that we receive payment on time. All services must be paid for by the due date shown on the invoice unless a written adjustment has been agreed upon. Failure to complete payment after this time will result in an automatic reminder when the invoice is overdue, and automatic account suspension should the invoice remain unpaid for more than 3 days. This applies to all hosting accounts and virtual servers. Domain names expire on the day immediately after their renewal date.

If an invoice is unpaid, the related service will be suspended until such time that payment is received and you inform us by email that you have paid. At this point, we will use all reasonable endeavors to restore service within 24 hours.

We reserve the right to alter our prices at any time and will notify you of any alteration by providing you with a written notice. Notice of any price alteration will be sent via email to the email address that we hold for you in our account. If you have already purchased a particular service then the price alteration will only become effective when the service reaches the end of its current term.

You warrant that you are lawfully authorized to make payment using the payment card or facility you disclose to us. In the event where you are not the named cardholder, you acknowledge that you and the named cardholder both accept these terms and conditions and are jointly and severally liable for any payment(s) due. You hereby indemnify us in the event that the cardholder or issuer declines any transaction for payment, including our costs in recovering the outstanding amount due.

If you attempt a chargeback or dispute a transaction with your bank, we reserve the right to suspend all services provided to you with immediate effect. Services will remain suspended and until such time as the chargeback has been fully reversed in our favor.

If not specifically stated to the contrary, our services are intended to be used for the purposes of hosting websites and e-mail. Batch processing, video encoding/transcoding, web crawling/spidering, archiving, and online backup systems, and any system for purposes other than hosting a website are not permitted on our shared hosting servers. However, you may use such tools on a dedicated server. We reserve the right to enact defensive movements to maintain the stability of our systems for all clients.

If you believe your website may be susceptible to high or otherwise abnormal usage you must contact us to discuss the suitability of your hosting environment.

Cancellation, refunds, termination, and disputes

Cancellation notices for all services must be given at a minimum of 24 hours in advance of the next billing date, with the exception of dedicated servers for which we require a cancellation notice a minimum of 30 days before the next billing date. Refunds will be given for every whole unused prepaid month. Refunds will be paid back to the payment source you paid with him.

A breach of any of our terms and conditions will result in immediate termination with no refund. Any disputes should be expressed in writing via a valid written contact method as listed on our contact page.

Client Conduct

Under no circumstances will we tolerate threatening or abusive behavior towards our staff. Should this occur, we reserve the right to terminate the hosting agreement with immediate effect.

Should the client, during the course of a telephone conversation, email, or support ticket, make reference to “legal action” or say anything we might reasonably understand to imply or infer that the client may intend to pursue a legal claim against us, we reserve the right to refuse telephone support going forward. Any further correspondence must then be sent by email or support ticket.

Should we feel that your needs would be better served by another provider, we reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to terminate the hosting agreement. Where it is reasonable to do so, we will provide 30 days’ notice of termination and provide a backup of all website content and email.

Rights on Termination

Termination of this agreement does not affect your pre-existing liability, if any, or affect our right to recover damages or pursue any other remedy in respect of any breach of this agreement by you.

In the event of us terminating this agreement due to breach of these conditions by you, we shall be entitled to the balance of all payments which would but for such termination have accrued up to the earliest date on which this agreement could have been terminated by you.

A change of details

We have the right to change any username or password allocated to you for the purpose of essential network maintenance, enhancement modernization, or other work deemed necessary to the operation of the Internet.

Similarly, we have the right to alter the hosting environment your site runs into one with like-for-like features, as long as reasonable notice is given and there is no disruption to service. The only reason we would do this is if it represented an ‘upgraded’ environment for you, the end-user.

Domain registration, renewal, transfer, and restoration

Some hosting packages include a free domain registration or transfer for a .be / .biz / .cc / .co.uk / .com / .de / .eu / .info / .ltd.uk / .me.uk / .net / .org / .org.uk domain name. All other extensions are excluded from this offer due to their additional cost but please contact us for a reduced price if you wish to order with a different extension. The registration period is one year.

Hosting package renewals do not include a further free domain renewal, transfer, or registration.

We will always register, transfer and renew domain names in our client’s name – never in our own. You are always in control of every aspect of your domain name(s) and can manage your domain’s WHOIS data through iStartHosting. It is your responsibility to keep this data correct.

All domain registrations are bound by our Registrant Agreement and relevant 3rd Party terms. Please see below.

Account Support / Emergency Contact

We provide support via e-mail and phone. To provide efficient service and comply with data protection laws, any requests for changes to your account (including billing changes, password changes, or any other technical changes) must be submitted by ticket or e-mail from your registered address.

30-Day Guarantee

Our no-quibble 30-Day Money Back Guarantee iStartHosting has established a reputation for reliability, performance, support, and value for money. At iStartHosting we work hard to provide you with the best possible service and we’re so confident in this that we offer a no-quibble, 30-day money back guarantee. If you are unhappy for any reason within the first 30 days of opening your shared hosting account, you are free to cancel and receive a full refund including the time already used, less domain registration fees which are non-refundable.

We would however appreciate it if you got in touch with us before deciding to cancel so that we can address any problems you might be having.

Please note that refunds can take 7 working days, and this policy does not cover accounts that have violated our acceptable usage policy.

Acceptable Usage Policy

Zero Tolerance towards Abuse

Customers are responsible for all scripts, data, and other objects on their accounts. Abusive scripts are scripts that interfere with our systems and/or the accounts of other customers, cause harm to any other computer system or user, or engage in any type of fraudulent activity. Any account found to be the source of abusive scripts will be immediately suspended and investigated, and subject to action as detailed under Illegal Content below. We will always notify customers and, where necessary, fully co-operate with the authorities.

You must not use the service for the transmission of illegal material. You agree to refrain from sending or receiving any materials which may be deemed to be offensive, abusive, indecent, defamatory, obscene, menacing, or otherwise as prohibited by current and future statutes in force. You agree to refrain from sending or receiving any material which may be in breach of copyright (including Intellectual Property Rights), confidence, privacy, or other rights. If you are in any doubt as to the legality of what you are doing or propose to do, you should take independent legal advice.

In Brief

All content uploaded to your hosting service, including dedicated servers, must conform to USA law. It is the user’s sole responsibility to ensure this. Storage, distribution of or transmission of illegal materials may lead to investigation and possible prosecution by the relevant authorities.

  • You must not gain or attempt to gain unauthorized access to any computer systems for any purpose. Such action may lead to criminal prosecution under the Computer Misuse Act.
  • You must not send data to the internet using forged addresses or data which is deliberately designed to adversely affect remote machines (including but not limited to denial of service (DDoS), worms and viruses, trojans, and ping storms).
  • You must ensure that local PCs and network-connected servers are not configured to allow open relay and must not participate in the sending of unsolicited bulk email (commonly referred to as ‘spam’ ,’UBE’,’UCE’ ).
  • You are prohibited from running ‘port scanning’ or other software intended to probe, scan, test the vulnerability of or access remote systems or networks except in circumstances where the remote user has given express permission for this to be done. We may ask for evidence of such permission.
  • You must take all reasonable steps to ensure that your password and login credentials remain confidential.
  • Open proxy servers are not permitted under any circumstances and will result in immediate termination of service.
  • Sites must not contain ‘hateful’ material or content which seeks to incite hate.
  • Sites must not contain images, videos, depictions or descriptions of pornography that is unlawful in the UK or which is deemed to be distasteful at our sole discretion.
  • Sites must not contain ‘warez’, copyrighted music/videos, or links to such content. It is the sole responsibility of the user to ensure that they have the right to distribute any content displayed on their website.
  • Sites must conform to UK copyright law.

We undertake to take action required under the provisions of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and will fully cooperate with the appropriate UK authorities.

Acceptable Email Usage

We have a zero-tolerance policy against spam and the sending of bulk, unsolicited e-mail is prohibited at all times. Customers who abuse the email service will be notified that their behavior is unacceptable and may have their accounts suspended, terminated, or blocked at our sole discretion.

  • You agree not to send emails that might cause annoyance, inconvenience, or anxiety to a recipient.
  • You agree not to send any emails likely to cause distress or any material which is offensive, indecent, obscene, menacing, or in any way unlawful.
  • You agree to have a clear opt-out policy in all newsletter communications.
  • You must not use our mail services or network to send email to any user who does not wish to receive it.
  • You must not use our mail services or network to send unsolicited emails, in bulk (commonly known as ‘spam’) or individually.
  • You must not use our mail services or network with the intent to deprive others of service (‘mail bomb’).
  • You must not use false mail headers or alter the headers of mail messages in such a way as to conceal the identity of the sender.
  • You must not use any email address that you are not authorized to use.
  • You must ensure that any email servers connected to our network and operated by you are not configured to allow ‘open relay’.
  • You must take full responsibility for your own email reputation, iStartHosting can not guarantee a positive reputation.

Web Usage

Web usage includes the use of web space provided with client accounts, web hosting on our servers and the use of web services and space on customer colocated servers. We cannot and do not proactively monitor content on any web space maintained by customers (whether customer space, web-hosted, or colocated services) and cannot and do not guarantee that such sites are free of illegal content or other materials that may be considered unacceptable.

You undertake sole responsibility for the content of web pages owned and/or operated by you – whether, on client pages, web-hosted space, or colocated servers – within our domain or other domains hosted within our network. You undertake the sole responsibility to ensure that all materials on any website owned or operated by you contain material that you have created or have permission to use. You undertake sole responsibility for any dispute involving Copyright or Intellectual Property Rights associated with your site or service. You must not use your website or web service to promote or distribute any material or content that is illegal (under any current or future legislation). You should be aware that the internet is a global communications network and what may be legal in the USA may be illegal elsewhere and leave you liable to prosecution in another country. Legal adult content as defined by USA law is allowed on our servers however you must inform us as we will host your site on a separate IP to prevent any SEO implications for other clients.

We may undertake an investigation of content services if potential abuse is brought to our attention and we reserve the right to remove any web page on our servers at any time and for any reason. Any accounts found to be abusive, contain illegal content, or otherwise break our terms of service will be liable for immediate termination with no refund.

Service Level Agreement

An Industry-Leading SLA

We endeavor to provide a 99.5% service uptime, excluding planned or emergency server maintenance or conditions beyond our reasonable control. All customers will be notified of planned maintenance as far as possible in advance through our status page and, should the maintenance last for longer than 30 minutes, via e-mail.

Should we break this SLA in any calendar month with unscheduled service unavailability (as verified by our network monitoring) we will upon request credit a full week’s cost to your client account. No hidden catches – we value our service and clients extremely highly.

Our SLA is rescinded if you have overdue invoices on your account, or if you have paid the invoice for the period of the disruption late.

iStartHosting makes no guarantee to defend a customer’s website from a denial of service attack unless that service has been specifically offered and agreed upon.

In the event of a problem with your server, we shall ensure that a qualified engineer will be dealing with the problem within 15 minutes of being notified. In the rare event that your problem cannot be resolved within 15 minutes, you will be notified. When notifying you we will provide you with the details of the problem along with an estimation of when the issue will be resolved. We shall keep you regularly updated until the moment the problem is resolved. An engineer’s report shall be sent to you within 12 hours of the problem being resolved.

Disclaimer, Limitation of Liability, and Copyright

Our Liability

We are unable to assert fitness for any specific purpose and as such the Company cannot be held liable for any form of consequential loss or damage caused directly or indirectly by use of our service, misuse of our service, downtime, service issues, data loss or any other event.

Our maximum aggregate liability to you under or in connection with this agreement in respect of any direct loss, whether such claim arises in contract or in tort shall not exceed a sum equal to twice the fees paid by you for the services in relation to which your claim arises during the [12/24 month] period prior to such claim.

None of the clauses herein shall apply so as to restrict liability for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence, the negligence of our employees, or our sub-contractors. We will not be liable for any interruptions to services arising directly or indirectly from:

  • Interruptions to the flow of data to or from the internet
  • The effects of the failure or interruption of services provided by a third party
  • Factors outside our reasonable control
  • Your actions or omissions
  • Problems with your equipment and/or third-party equipment
  • No action or proceedings against us arising out of or in connection with this agreement shall be commenced more than one year after services rendered, and both parties acknowledge that this clause constitutes an express waiver of any rights under any otherwise applicable statute of limitations.

In the event of any preventable disruption to service, we will credit your account as described in our Service Level Agreement. Our liability will not exceed the total amount paid for the service. If you have sensitive or mission-critical data to host, you must seek your own insurance and independent legal advice.

Our backups are intended as a convenience service and are not guaranteed or intended to replace your backup procedures. It is your sole responsibility to ensure you have a backup of all your important data.

Third-Party Services

Some of the services we provide (domain names, SSL certificates) are fulfilled by a third-party provider. For instance, an SSL certificate is provided by a root certificate provider (e.g. Thawte, Let’s Encrypt, Comodo, Verisign, Geotrust…), and domain names are provided by the organization in charge of that namespace (e.g. Nominet for UK domain names). Whilst we always pass your orders on to these third-party entities in a timely fashion, we, unfortunately, cannot be held liable for any failings on their behalf.

We will however be happy to chase them, and in most cases, we can offer a goodwill refund at our discretion should you be dissatisfied with a time delay.

All third-party software and hardware shall be sold subject to your acceptance of the relevant supplier’s software license for such third-party software. Where possible, we shall forward to you any and all representations and warranties we receive from the respective third-party software supplier.

Assisted Migration

Our Assisted Migration service is intended as a help for you to migrate to us. It is provided on a best-effort basis. We will endeavor to migrate your site as successfully as possible but the client accepts that this might not always be possible. If we are unable to migrate your site, we may, at our sole discretion, provide a refund of the fee paid for the hosting service, less domain registration/transfer fees, SSL certificates, and other associated services.

As an incentive to move your website to us we may, at our sole discretion, credit you with up to six months of free hosting service upon production of a valid invoice showing an equivalent payment to your previous provider. This credit will be applied to your existing due date.

Force Majeure

We will not be responsible for any failure to provide any services or perform any obligation because of any act of God, strike, lock-outs, or other industrial disputes.

Notice

Any notice or communications required or permitted to be delivered by us to you shall be deemed to have been given if delivered by email in accordance with the contact information that you have provided.

Assignment

You shall not assign, transfer, charge or deal in any other manner with this Agreement or any of its rights under it nor purport to do the same without our prior written consent.

We may at any time, assign (absolutely or by way of security and in whole or in part), transfer, mortgage, charge, or deal in any other manner with the benefit of any or all of any other party’s obligations or any benefit arising under this agreement.

Amendment in Writing

We may update or amend these terms and conditions from time to comply with the law or to meet our changing business requirements.

Whole Agreement

This agreement, and any documents referred to in it, constitute the whole agreement between the parties and supersede any previous arrangement, understanding, or agreement between them relating to the subject matter they cover.

Nothing in this clause operates to limit or exclude any liability for fraud.

Severance

If any provision of this agreement (or part of a provision) is found by any court or administrative body of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, unenforceable, or illegal, the other provisions shall remain in force.

If any invalid, unenforceable or illegal provision would be valid, enforceable, or legal if some part of it were deleted, the provision shall apply with whatever modification is necessary to give effect to the commercial intention of the parties.

Governing law and Jurisdiction

This agreement and any disputes or claims arising out of or in connection with its subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) are governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England.

The parties irrevocably agree that the courts of England have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim that arises out of or in connection with this agreement or its subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims).

Communications Forwarding

Communications received with respect to a particular domain name registration will be handled as follows: (i) We will forward to you or a Contact all correspondence received by registered mail or traceable courier. This information may be opened, scanned and emailed to you or your Contact. Regular postal mail will be discarded or returned to the sender at our discretion. (ii) Email correspondence will be forwarded, only if submitted via the contactprivacy.com website, to the address as it appears in Tucows records. (iii) A voice mail message will advise all callers that inbound messages will not be accepted; calls will be directed to the contactprivacy.com website where written messages will be forwarded according to your instructions. (iv) We will only be responsible for forwarding communications where our details have appeared in the whois and when your Whois Information is accurate, complete, and up to date.

Right to Suspend and Disable

We shall have the right, at our sole discretion and without liability to you or any of your Contacts, to suspend or cancel your domain name and to reveal Registrant and Contact Whois Information in certain circumstances, including but not limited to the following: (i) when required by law; (ii) in the good faith belief that disclosure is necessary to further determination of an alleged breach of a law; (iii) to comply with a legal process served upon Tucows; (iv) to resolve any and all third party claims including but not limited to ICANN’s or a Registry’s dispute resolution policy; (v) to avoid financial loss or legal liability (v) to avoid financial loss or legal liability; (vi) if we believe that you or one of your Contacts is using the Whois Privacy Service to conceal involvement with illegal, illicit, objectionable or harmful activities; or (vii) to transmit SPAM, viruses, worms or other harmful computer programs.

You understand and agree that, in the event that we receive a formal complaint, a notice of claim, or UDRP, that we will have the right to disable the Whois Privacy Service pending the final disposition of the matter.

Pre-Registration Terms & Conditions Acceptance of Standard Terms By using iStartHosting’s pre-registering service the customer acknowledges and agrees to iStartHosting’s standard Terms & Conditions and Disclaimer, Limitation of Liability, and Copyright Policy.

Cancellation Notice Cancellations for pre-registered gTLDs are not permitted once a prepayment has been made. pre-registrations can be canceled at any point before a prepayment is made.

Refund Policy When a prepayment is required to process a pre-order and the desired domain is not successfully registered, a full refund will be issued. It is the duty of the customer to ensure up-to-date card details are stored.

Guarantees Pre-registering for a new domain extension with iStartHosting’s pre-registering service does not guarantee a successful registration. iStartHosting endeavours to secure your desired domain and are in no way liable for unsuccessful gTLD registrations.

Requirements The exact requirements for registering new gTLD’s are yet to be announced. The introduction of requirements is subject to individual registries and is likely to be simultaneously announced to release dates. Registration is at the discretion of the registry in accordance with their terms and conditions. iStartHosting endeavours to communicate this information as soon as it is made available to them.

Payments By using iStartHosting’s pre-registration service the customer acknowledges and agrees that it is their duty to ensure up-to-date payment details are provided during prepayment. Pre-orders will not be successful without a successful prepayment being made.

  1. Company Address and Contact Details
    5582 Park Haven Pl
    Fort Worth, TX 76137

  2. How long will you take to get back to me?
    Within office hours, near instantly. Outside of office hours, we aim to respond and resolve within 4 hours. Every email gets a response within 12 hours. Anything sent by post will be responded to within 3 working days.

  3. Abuse, phishing, spam contact
    All reports will be acknowledged within 3 working days. support@iStartHosting.com

  4. How to raise a Format Complaint
    Please email support@iStartHosting.com you will receive a response within 3 hours. You can also call +1(307)227-6542 and ask for Dom. Business Continuity Plan All of our employees are capable of working remotely and no sensitive or business critical information is stored ‘on-premise’. We use a hosted VoIP provider which means calls can be re-routed in the event of any problems with our main office. In the event of a critical failure in one of the clouds hosting providers we use, we would revert to our backup systems using an alternative provider. In a worst-case scenario, our main website and customer panel could be up and running within an hour of a critical failure.

  5. Data Quality Policy
    It is a requirement that you provide us with a valid name and address when purchasing a service from iStartHosting. Our online ordering system will not let users order items without providing a valid name and address, and our merchant provider will check the details (cardholder name and address) against those provided for the registration at the time of ordering. We will validate personal users using billing data (name match the card on file, address digits given to match the card given),

In circumstances where we don’t have access to cardholder information where the validity of the data provided is in question we would ask for two copies of ID out of:- Passport Driving license Recent Utility Bill or bank statement(not for a mobile phone)

For businesses, we can validate data using the official companies house register (company name, address). Alternatively, the business can provide a utility bill, bank/merchant statement, or a letter from IRS dated within the last three months to provide verified proof of name and address.

Verified/validated data will be stored in our online ordering/billing system which is a PCI compliant solution, but the copies of identification used to perform the validation would be destroyed once the validation process has been completed.

If we are unable to contact a registrant where there was a problem with data verification, we would place a data lock on the domain name manually once all attempts to contact the registrant had failed. This will be within 30 days of originally being notified.

Renewal policy
Renewal reminders are sent by our automated billing system 30 days before the renewal date by way of a pro-forma invoice for the domain renewal. We will then send another reminder 3 days before the renewal date. Providing the customer has consented (either during the order form, or subsequently in our panel) the system will attempt to charge the card on file and then renew the domain name automatically on the renewal date. If the automated renewal fails for any reason (card details not correct, insufficient funds) the customer would receive a notification to let them know to log-in to renew the domain at this time.

3rd Party Domain Terms Domain names are usually subject to the registration terms and conditions set by the relevant registry as well as the registration terms of iStartHosting.

Where possible links to the relevant 3rd party terms and dispute resolution policies are included below, if you have any queries regarding these please raise a support ticket and we’ll be glad to assist where possible.

Nominet – .uk Domain Registration Terms Terms & Conditions of Domain Name Registration – The contract you enter into with us when you register a .UK domain name. Nominet Terms

Rules of Registration – The rules for the registration and use of domain names within the .UK domain and its sub-domains. These rules form part of our terms and conditions and are part of your contract with us as the Registrant of a domain name. Rules of Registration