Terms & Conditions

Terms & Conditions – these belong to Somerset Web Services Ltd hereafter referred to as SWS in this document.

This document defines Terms and Conditions for services and products provided by SWS. Customers indicate acceptance of these Terms and Conditions by placing an order with SWS.

1 DEFINITIONS

1.1 In this Agreement the following words and expressions shall have the following meanings:

1.1.1 “SWS” is a reference to Somerset Web Services Ltd, registered in England and Wales, Company Registration No. 9007899, VAT No. 186 5337 76

1.1.2 “Domain Recovery Fee” means a charge for recovering an expired Domain Name that is held under retention by a Domain Name registrar

1.1.3 “Downtime” means any service interruption in the availability to visitors of the Website

1.1.4 “Intellectual Property Rights” means patents, trade marks, design rights, applications for any of the foregoing, copyright, topography rights, database rights, rights in know-how, trade or business names and other similar rights or obligations, whether registrable or not in any country

1.1.5 “IP address” stands for internet protocol address which is the numeric address for the server

1.1.6 “ISP” stands for internet service provider

1.1.7 “Server” means the computer server equipment operated by SWS in connection with the provision of the Services

1.1.8 “Services” means web hosting, domain name registration, email and any other services or facilities provided by SWS

1.1.9 “Spam” means sending unsolicited and/or bulk emails

1.1.10 “Virus” means a computer programme that copies itself or is copied to other storage media, including without limitation magnetic tape cassettes, memory chips, electronic cartridges, optical discs and magnetic discs, and destroys, alters or corrupts data, causes damage to the user’s files or creates a nuisance or annoyance to the user and includes without limitation computer programs commonly referred to as “worms” or “trojan horses”

1.1.11 “Visitor” means a third party who has accessed the Website

1.1.12 “Website” means the customer Website

1.1.13 “Website Recovery Fee” means a charge to cover the costs for restoring a Website from a backup copy.

1.2 Product specifications and details may be found at www.somersetwebservices.co.uk

1.3 Words denoting the singular shall include the plural and vice versa and words denoting any gender shall include all genders

1.4 The headings of the paragraphs of this Agreement are inserted for convenience of reference only and are not intended to be part of or to affect the meaning or interpretation of this Agreement

2 CHARGES AND PAYMENT

2.1 Payment methods include cheques, bank transfers, direct debit, cash or via Credit/Debit card.

2.2 The Charges are exclusive of VAT, which, if payable, shall be paid by the Customer.

2.3 For certain products and services SWS requires full payment in advance. Delivery of such services will take place after payment has been received.

2.4 At the discretion of SWS, credit may be offered for certain services. Where credit has been offered a deposit of 50% of the ex-VAT charge may be requested. Delivery of the product or service will commence after the deposit has been received.

2.5 If appropriate, SWS may make enquiries on the Customer’s company, proprietor or directors of the Customer’s company with credit reference agencies. These agencies may record that a search has been made and share this information with other businesses.

2.6 Pro-rata refunds will not be issued for services that are cancelled before the end of the term.

2.7 Should your chosen payment method fail, SWS will expect payment of invoices using any other payment facilities.

2.8 All services will renew until cancelled by the customer. SWS emails an invoice to the customer’s primary email address prior to renewal of services. It is the customer’s responsibility to cancel services prior to renewal as no refund can be made once renewal has occurred. Customers must notify us at least 72 hours before a service is renewed if they wish to cancel that service. The cancellation process must be fully completed by you before your account is cancelled.

3 LATE PAYMENT

3.1 If Payment is not received by the invoice Due Date SWS will have the right to de-activate any Hosting or email services provided.

3.1.1 We will make a maximum two further attempts to contact you for payment.

3..1.2 If we have not received payment within 30 days of the invoice Due Date, any Hosting service will be automatically de-activated which will cause loss of access to emails and visibility of your website.

3.1.3 To re-activate a de-activated Hosting, SWS will, subject to our confirmation, attempt to recover a backup copy of your website within a period of a maximum of 60 days from the invoice Due Date after receipt of payment of a £35+VAT Website Recovery Fee in addition to full payment of the outstanding invoice.

3.2 Late Payment for Domain Name renewal may risk loss of ownership of your Domain Name. Refer to section 4 Domain Name Registration and Renewal.

3.3 Late Payment for Hosting may cause interruption of service. Refer to section 5 Hosting Renewal.

4 DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATION AND RENEWAL

4.1 Domain Names are not deemed to be successfully registered until they appear in the relevant whois database of the top level domain name registrar. In the event that a domain name is unavailable when we attempt to register it SWS will provide a full refund for that Domain Name.

4.2 Domain Names will be purchased on behalf of the customer. The customer will own the Intellectual Property Right for the Domain Name providing full payment has been received. The customer will be set to the Domain Name Owner. Normally, all other technical details will be set to SWS to ensure reliability and continuity of Domain Name registration, support and service.

4.3 Renewal of Domain Names. SWS will make the following efforts to contact you before renewal of a Domain Name:

4.3.1 Your Domain Name registration and ownership is at risk if we do not receive payment on time.

4.3.2 We will contact you by email with an invoice for payment of renewal normally at least one month prior to Domain Name expiry.

4.3.3 Renewal Payment is due 7 days before Domain Name expiry, the invoice Due Date.

4.3.4 If you do NOT wish to renew the Domain Name you must inform us within 5 days of receipt of the invoice.

4.3.5 If we do not hear from you and payment is not received by the invoice Due Date, we will make a maximum two further attempts to contact you by a telephone number if you have previously supplied one.

4.3.6 If we have not received renewal payment by the Domain Name expiry date, the Domain Name will NOT be renewed and the Domain Name will become potentially available for registration by others.

4.3.7 In the case where a Domain Name has expired, SWS will, subject to our confirmation, attempt to recover the Domain Name within a period of a maximum of 30 days of Domain Name expiry after receipt of payment of a £35+VAT Domain Name Recovery fee in addition to the respective invoiced amount.

4.4 Please refer to any further specific Terms and Conditions from individual Domain Name registrars.

5 HOSTING RENEWAL

5.1 Renewal of Hosting. SWS will make the following efforts to contact you before renewal of a Hosting package:

5.1.1 Your Hosting is at risk if we do not receive payment on time.

5.1.2 We will contact you by email with an invoice for payment of Hosting renewal normally at least one month prior to Hosting expiry.

5.1.3 Renewal Payment is due 7 days before Hosting expiry, the invoice Due Date.

5.1.4 If you do NOT wish to renew the Hosting you must inform us within 5 days of receipt of the invoice.

5.1.5 If we do not hear from you and payment is not received by the invoice Due Date, we will make a maximum two further attempts to contact you by a telephone number if you have previously supplied one.

5.1.6 If we have not received Hosting renewal payment by the Hosting expiry date, the Hosting will be de-activated which will cause loss of access to emails and visibility of your website.

5.1.7 To re-activate a de-activated Hosting, SWS will, subject to our confirmation, attempt to recover a backup copy of your website within a period of a maximum of 30 days after Hosting expiry after receipt of payment of a £35+VAT Website Recovery fee in addition to the respective invoiced amount.

6 RIGHTS TO WEBSITE

6.1 The customer retains the Intellectual Property Rights for a bespoke, CMS or eCommerce Website, unless otherwise stated. These rights do not extend to any third-party licensed software components within the website where rights cannot be granted.

6.2 The Intellectual Property Rights for a bespoke, CMS or eCommerce Website, unless otherwise stated, remain vested with Somerset Web Services until full payment for the Website is received.

7 THE WEBLITE PACKAGE

7.1 WebLite website component

7.1.1 Rights to the Structure and Design of a WebLite website are owned by Somerset Web Services. Content is owned by the customer. The WebLite product is sold on an annual licensed basis. No ownership of a WebLite website is conferred to the customer. For avoidance of doubt, this means a WebLite website must not be copied onto a third party hosting system.

7.2 WebLite Domain Name component

7.2.1 A Domain Name registered as part of a WebLite package is owned by the Customer who is set as the Registered Domain Owner.

7.3 WebLite Hosting component

7.3.1 No FTP access is available for the hosting component of a WebLite package.

8 RIGHTS TO LICENSED SOFTWARE

8.1 If the Customer requires use of software owned by or licensed to SWS (“Somerset Web Service’s Software”) in order to use the Services, SWS grants to the Customer and its employees, agents and third party consultants and contractors, a royalty-free, world-wide, non-transferable, non-exclusive licence to use SWS Software in object code form only, in accordance with the terms of this Agreement. For the avoidance of doubt, this Agreement does not transfer or grant to the Customer any right, title, interest or intellectual property rights in SWS Software.

8.2 In relation to Somerset Web Service’s obligations under this Agreement in connection with the provision of the Services, the Customer grants to SWS a royalty-free, world-wide, non-exclusive licence to use the Customer Software and all text, graphics, logos, photographs, images, moving images, sound, illustrations and other material and related documentation featured, displayed or used in or in relation to the Website (“the Content”). For the avoidance of doubt, this Agreement does not transfer or grant to SWS any right, title, interest or intellectual property rights in the Customer Software or the Content.

8.3 The Customer undertakes that he or she, or through any third party, will not sell, lease, license or sublicense SWS Software.

8.4 SWS may make such copies of the Customer Content as may be necessary to perform its obligations under this Agreement, including back up copies of the Content. Upon termination or expiration of this Agreement, SWS shall destroy all such copies of the Content and other materials provided by the Customer as and when requested by the Customer.

9 DATA TRANSFER

9.1 Web hosting accounts include a certain amount of data transfer, if you exceed this amount in any one month your account will be deactivated until you have upgraded to an account that has more data transfer included.

9.2 Web hosting accounts are prohibited from hosting file distribution websites (including but not limited to music, video and software, with the exception of commercially sold products of such nature), adult content orientated websites, hosting banners, graphics or cgi scripts for other websites, storing pages, files or data as a repository for other websites or personal computers, giving away web space under a domain, sub domain or directory.

10 SERVER USAGE

Should your account use more than 5% of the Server’s processing power and as a result have a detrimental effect on other customers we will discuss with you alternative solutions for your hosting requirements.

11 WEBSPACE USAGE

Unlimited web space is available for genuine web site content, content must be linked into web pages. Customers are prohibited from using the server as a file/backup repository. Customers are expected to employ good house keeping when maintaining their account.

12 SERVICE LEVELS AND DATA BACKUP

12.1 SWS shall use its reasonable endeavours to make the Server and the Services available to the Customer 100% of the time but because the Services are provided by means of computer and telecommunications systems, SWS makes no warranties or representations that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free and SWS shall not, in any event, be liable for interruptions of Service or downtime of the server.

12.2 SWS does not provide backup or data restoration facilities for individual customers. SWS accepts no responsibility for data loss or corruption. Customers are responsible for ensuring they are able to restore from an adequate website backup.

13 SCRIPTING

SWS are not responsible for customer programming issues other than ensuring that programming languages such as Perl, PHP and ASP are installed and functioning on the web hosting system.

14 IP ADDRESSES

14.1 SWS shall maintain control and ownership of the IP address that is assigned to the Customer as part of the Services and reserves the right in its sole discretion to change or remove any and all IP addresses.

14.2 Where SWS changes or removes any IP address it shall use its reasonable endeavours to avoid any disruption to the Customer.

15 EMAIL NEWSLETTER

15.1 SWS has an opt-in Newsletter containing updates to our products & services and internet-related articles. An option to opt-out (Unsubscribe) is available on every Newsletter sent. SWS will not sell, rent or disclose any email addresses for subscribers to the Newsletter.

15.2 Subscribers to the Newsletter must have a bona fide personal email address. We will not accept email addresses starting sales@ or other email adddresses we feel are of a generic nature that may be received by multiple persons.

16 ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

16.1 The Website and use of the Services may be used for lawful purposes only and the Customer may not submit, publish or display any content that breaches any law, statute or regulation. In particular the Customer agrees not to:

16.1.1 use the Services or the Website in any way to send unsolicited commercial email or “spam”, or any similar abuse of the Services;

16.1.2 send email or any type of electronic message with the intention or result of affecting the performance of any computer facilities;

16.1.3 publish, post, distribute or disseminate defamatory, obscene, indecent or other unlawful material or information, or any material or information which infringes any intellectual property rights (for the avoidance of doubt this includes licensed software distributed as Warez), via the Services or on the Website;

16.1.4 threaten, abuse, disrupt or otherwise violate the rights (including rights of privacy and publicity) of others;

16.1.5 engage in illegal or unlawful activities through the Services or via the Website;

16.1.6 make available or upload files to the Website or to the Services that the Customer knows contain a virus, worm, trojan or corrupt data; or

16.1.7 obtain or attempt to obtain access, through whatever means, to areas of Somerset Web Service’s network or the Services which are identified as restricted or confidential. This includes leaving your home directory whilst using SSH access to servers.

16.1.8 operate or attempt to operate IRC bots or other permanent server processes.

16.2 The Customer has full responsibility for the content of the Website. For the avoidance of doubt, SWS is not obliged to monitor, and will have no liability for, the content of any communications transmitted by virtue of the Services.

16.3 If the Customer fails to comply with the Acceptable Use Policy outlined in Clause 16.1 SWS shall be entitled to withdraw the Services and terminate the Customer’s account without notice.

17 ALTERATIONS AND UPDATES

All alterations and updates to the Website shall be made by the Customer using the online account management facility (Control Panel or Domain Control Panel), FTP access or SSH access where available. The Customer will be issued with a user name and password in order to access the account. The Customer must take all reasonable steps to maintain the confidentiality of this user name and password. If the Customer reasonably believes that this information has become known to any unauthorised person, the Customer agrees to immediately inform SWS and the password will be changed.

18 WARRANTIES

18.1 The Customer warrants and represents to SWS that SWS’s use of the Content or the Customer Software in accordance with this Agreement will not infringe the intellectual property rights of any third party and that the Customer has the authority to license the Content and the Customer Software to SWS as set out in Clause 8.2.

18.2 All conditions, terms, representations and warranties that are not expressly stated in this Agreement, whether oral or in writing or whether imposed by statute or operation of law or otherwise, including, without limitation, the implied warranty of satisfactory quality and fitness for a particular purpose are hereby excluded. In particular and without prejudice to that generality, SWS shall not be liable to the Customer as a result of any viruses introduced or passed on to the Customer.

19 INDEMNITY

The Customer agrees to indemnify and hold SWS and its employees and agents harmless from and against all liabilities, legal fees, damages, losses, costs and other expenses in relation to any claims or actions brought against SWS arising out of any breach by the Customer of the terms of this Agreement or other liabilities arising out of or relating to the Website.

20 LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

20.1 Nothing in these Terms and Conditions shall exclude or limit SWS’s liability for death or personal injury resulting from SWS’s negligence or that of its employees, agents or sub-contractors.

20.2 The entire liability of SWS to the Customer in respect of any claim whatsoever or breach of this Agreement, whether or not arising out of negligence, shall be limited to the charges paid for the Services under this Agreement in respect of which the breach has arisen.

20.3 In no event shall SWS be liable to the Customer for any loss of business, loss of opportunity or loss of profits or for any other indirect or consequential loss or damage whatsoever. This shall apply even where such a loss was reasonably foreseeable or Somerset Web Services had been made aware of the possibility of the Customer incurring such a loss.

21 TERM AND TERMINATION

21.1 This Agreement will become effective on the date the service is ordered and shall continue until terminated by either party in writing of its intention to terminate the Agreement.

21.2 SWS shall have the right to terminate this Agreement with immediate effect by notice in writing to the Customer if the Customer fails to make any payment when it becomes due.

21.3 Either party may terminate this Agreement forthwith by notice in writing to the other if:

21.3.1 the other party commits a material breach of this Agreement and, in the case of a breach capable of being remedied, fails to remedy it within a reasonable time of being given written notice from the other party to do so; or

21.3.2 the other party commits a material breach of this Agreement which cannot be remedied under any circumstances; or

21.3.3 the other party passes a resolution for winding up (other than for the purpose of solvent amalgamation or reconstruction), or a court of competent jurisdiction makes an order to that effect; or

21.3.4 the other party ceases to carry on its business or substantially the whole of its business; or

21.3.5 the other party is declared insolvent, or convenes a meeting of or makes or proposes to make any arrangement or composition with its creditors; or a liquidator, receiver, administrative receiver, manager, trustee or similar officer is appointed over any of its assets.

21.4 Any rights to terminate this Agreement shall be without prejudice to any other accrued rights and liabilities of the parties arising in any way out of this Agreement as at the date of termination.

21.5 On termination all data held in the customers account will be deleted.

22 ASSIGNMENT

22.1 SWS may assign or otherwise transfer this Agreement at any time.

22.2 The Customer may not assign or otherwise transfer this Agreement or any part of it without SWS’s prior written consent.

23 FORCE MAJEURE

Neither party shall be liable for any delay or failure to perform any of its obligations if the delay or failure results from events or circumstances outside its reasonable control, including but not limited to acts of God, strikes, lock outs, accidents, war, fire, the act or omission of government, highway authorities or any telecommunications carrier, operator or administration or other competent authority, the act or omission of any Internet Service Provider, or the delay or failure in manufacture, production, or supply by third parties of equipment or services, and the party shall be entitled to a reasonable extension of its obligations after notifying the other party of the nature and extent of such events.

24 SEVERANCE

If any provision of this Agreement is held invalid, illegal or unenforceable for any reason by any Court of competent jurisdiction such provision shall be severed and the remainder of the provisions hereof shall continue in full force and effect as if this Agreement had been agreed with the invalid illegal or unenforceable provision eliminated.

25 NOTICES

Any notice to be given by either party to the other may be sent by either email, fax or recorded delivery to the address of the other party as appearing in this Agreement or such other address as such party may from time to time have communicated to the other in writing, and if sent by email shall unless the contrary is proved be deemed to be received on the day it was sent or if sent by fax shall be deemed to be served on receipt of an error free transmission report, or if sent by recorded delivery shall be deemed to be served two (2) days following the date of posting.

26 ENTIRE AGREEMENT

This Agreement contains the entire Agreement between the parties relating to the subject matter and supersedes any previous agreements, arrangements, undertakings or proposals, oral or written. This Agreement may be updated without notice.

27 GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION

This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and the parties hereby submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

28 PRIVACY

To protect your privacy we will not distribute your details to third parties, unless required to do so by law.

SWS reserves the right to revise the above Terms and Conditions at any time.

Please be advised that when all our phone lines are in use we use a call answering company who record any phone calls they take for quality and training purposes.

Last updated: 1st January 2016