Hosting Terms and Conditions
Use of Made Neat hosting services constitutes acceptance and agreement to the terms and conditions below, they are designed to protect and benefit all clients. The TOS is designed to ensure quality service and performance for our customers and to maintain the integrity of our infrastructure.
Acceptable Use
All services provided by Made Neat may be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage, or presentation of any information, data or material in violation of any Australian Federal, State or Local law is prohibited. We reserve the right to refuse sites promoting things that violate the laws of other countries as well.
Made Neat will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of this provision. Content that does not meet these standards will be removed without prior notice to the subscriber.
Laws; Harmful Content
You may not use the Services to violate any governing law or regulation, including laws prohibiting: copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, or other intellectual property infringement, misuse, or misappropriation; distribution of child pornography, child erotica, non-consensual sex acts (including in the support of or furtherance of sex trafficking), or bestiality; gambling; defamation, harassment, libel, or slander; fraud or false advertising; and hacking, phishing, social engineering, or any transmission of malicious code or unauthorized use of the computing resources of an end user. It is Made Neat’s policy to terminate the Services of customers who are repeat infringers of intellectual property rights. Further, you may not use the Services in connection with any content that we reasonably believe: promotes, incites, or threatens violence; is in support of or furtherance of sex trafficking; contains harassing content or hate speech; violates any person’s privacy; constitutes terrorism or trafficking in weapons or other illegal items; or is likely to result in retaliation against Made Neat’s system, network, or employees, including behavior that results in any denial of service attack. The Services may not be used in violation of export laws, controls, regulations, or sanction policies of the United States or your applicable jurisdiction. The Services may not be used by any individual or legal entity which is involved with or suspected of involvement in activities or causes relating to: illegal gambling; terrorism; narcotics trafficking; arms trafficking or the proliferation, development, design, manufacture, production, stockpiling, or use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, weapons of mass destruction, or missiles; in each case including any affiliation with others whatsoever who sponsor or support the above such activities or causes.
High-Risk Use
You may not use the Services in any circumstance or fashion where a failure of the Services could result in death or physical injury.
Spam
If you use the Services to transmit email, you must do so responsibly. Sending or promoting spam using the Services is prohibited and may result in immediate termination of your account. We consider spam to be the transmission of any email messages that are in violation of the most recent regulations issued by the Federal Trade Commission implementing the CAN-SPAM Act or, if you are sending emails to non-domestic end users, any foreign equivalent thereof. In addition, and at our discretion, we may place limits on the number of outbound messages you send if our review of your account indicates that you are jeopardizing our network stability. Without limiting any other rights we may have, the parties agree that should you breach this section by sending spam it would be difficult to determine actual damages. Accordingly, a A$500 charge per violation will be assessed as a reasonable estimate of the damages. The parties further agree that such A$500 would not act as a penalty.
Regulated and Sensitive Information
It is possible to run an ecommerce site on our platform, provided that you follow some best practices that prevent credit card information from being processed or stored on our platform. You are not permitted to use or cause the Services to store or process sensitive or otherwise regulated health or financial information, including Protected Health Information (as that term is defined under HIPAA), cardholder data protected under PCI DSS regulations (such as credit or debit card data), or other financial data (including any financial account details). You acknowledge and agree that we are not responsible for any liabilities arising from your violation of this restriction.
Overburdening Resources
You may not interfere with our business or our ability to provide services to other customers, nor take any action nor make any use of the Services that places excessive burdens on the network or systems used to provide such services. Specifically, you may not use or provide open proxies or Internet Relay Chat or use the Services for video streaming. If your use of the Services materially exceeds the use by similarly situated customers, we may offer to move you to a different plan or charge you for the additional use. If you refuse, we may place restrictions on your use of the Services. You may not perform any vulnerability or penetration testing of Made Neat’s network or systems, including your own hosted environment, without our prior written approval.
Security Requirements
You must take reasonable security precautions in connection with your use of the Services. You are responsible for the actions and omissions of your Authorized Users and anyone to whom you provide access to the Services or the content you create using the Services.
Account Creation
Upon creating your hosting account, we will install the latest version of a default WordPress installation. As part of the installation, a splash page containing information about our services will be displayed. You are welcome to de-activate or delete this splash page at any time.
Domain Name Registration, Renewal & Transfers
Upon registering a gTLD domain, you must also agree to the terms set out in the ICANN Registrants’ Benefits and Responsibilities document. ccTLD domains are governed by their respective domain authorities as follows; AU – www.ausregistry.com.au NZ – www.dnc.org.nz UK – www.nominet.org.uk
Domain name registrations, renewals and transfers are not refundable.
Server Resources
Any website that uses a high amount of server resources (including but not limited to, CPU, memory usage and network resources) can be suspended without notice, and then maybe given an option of either upgrading their service or reducing the resource needed to an acceptable level.
Email Marketing/Mass Email
Our servers are not designed for newsletter or mass email campaigns. Our shared server environment is setup to allow 200 outbound emails per hour for each hosting account. Any account sending mail in excess of our limits, may have outbound email limited or blocked. Dedicated servers are not restricted to this limit.
Hardware, Equipment, and Software
You are responsible for and must provide all telephone, computer, hardware and software equipment and services necessary to access Made Neat Services. Made Neat makes no representations, warranties, or assurances that the client’s equipment will be compatible with Made Neat services.
Backups and Data
Made Neat provides free daily backups for all client accounts within our network, however for added security we advise that you subscribe to one of our WordPress Security & Performance plans. We accept no responsibility for any data loss or corruption.
Full account backups must be downloaded to your computer as any full cPanel backups stored on the server for longer than 7 days will be automatically removed from your account.
We retain a full backup of cancelled or terminated accounts for a maximum of 30 days. Should you require this data, a A$99+gst data recovery fee is payable.
Account Security
It is your responsibility to maintain secure passwords and keep all software, installations, plugins and themes up to date. Any account which is compromised or contains malware or spam scripts may be taken offline or have infected files sent to quarantine.
In the event of an account taken offline or files sent to quarantine, you may contact us for more information so we can provide recommendations or assistance at our discretion. You may then wish to resolve the issue yourself, engage Made Neat or employ a third party to do this for you. For added security, we advise that you subscribe to one of our WordPress Security & Performance plans.
Suspension, Cancellation and Termination
Made Neat reserves the right to suspend or cancel an account holder’s access at our sole discretion. Of your breach of our terms and conditions, we reserve the right to deactivate and/or remove your account from our servers immediately.
For security purposes, all service cancellations must be submitted via email. Any outstanding invoices must be paid in full before a cancellation will be processed for the requested service.
Made Neat reserves the right to terminate and delete all data (including backups), for any services which remain unpaid for a period of 60 days or longer.
Made Neat reserves the right to request annual payment for any account suspended 3 times within 12 months or with more than 20 failed credit card transactions.
Billing and Refunds
Account Payment
The establishment of this service is dependent upon receipt by Made Neat of payment of stated charges. If an account is not paid in full, Made Neat reserves the right to suspend your account until all payments have been received.
All hosting services are annual commitments unless otherwise agreed in writing. All services will automatically renew at the end of each annual term unless a written cancellation request is received at least 60 (sixty) days prior to the renewal date. Regardless of the agreed payment plan, each plan is considered a commitment for a full annual term.
Invoices are generated and payable on initial order. For recurring payments, invoices are generated and emailed to the primary account contact and any nominated billing contacts as follows:
- Monthly – 7 days before the due date
- Quarterly, Semi-Annual, Annual – 14 days before the due date
Accepted payment methods include Credit Card, Bank Transfer, and PayPal. Credit Card and PayPal transactions are assigned automatically, while Bank Transfer transactions require client entry when creating the bank transaction. The reference for the bank transfer must include your invoice number. Invoice numbers are unique and must be correct for the invoice to be marked as paid.
If you wish to cancel a service, you must do so before the 60-day period preceding the next annual renewal date to avoid automatic renewal. Please see the Cancellation Policy below for more details.
Refunds Policy
As we offer flexible payment options, the minimum required payment for hosting is the monthly fee for your selected plan. If you wish to cancel your hosting account, we will refund the pro-rata amount for any unused whole months upon request.
Refund requests made 60 days after the initial transaction will incur a deduction of our merchant fees. Refunds for payments older than 60 days are at our discretion and may be refused.
Refunds do not apply to domain name registrations, SSL certificates, consultations, or accounts in breach of our terms of service and acceptable usage policy. Accounts that have been suspended or terminated due to policy breaches are not eligible for a refund.
Chargeback Policy
Credit card or PayPal chargebacks will incur a $50+gst fee, divided between an Administration fee of $25 and a Chargeback fee of $25. We encourage you to contact us before initiating a chargeback to resolve any billing concerns. Unwarranted chargeback fees may be forwarded to a collections agency.
Pricing and Adjustments
Discounts may not be applied automatically. If you believe you qualify for a price reduction, please submit a request in writing via email before the issuance of the current billing cycle invoice. Otherwise, you may need to wait until the next billing cycle for adjustments. Made Neat will approve or deny the request at its sole discretion based on several factors, including your payment history.
Account Suspension
Overdue accounts will be suspended 14 days after the due payment date of the oldest invoice. To reactivate your account, please pay any outstanding invoices in full, and your account will be reactivated within 24 hours.
Reinstatement Fee
If your account has been terminated and backups are still available, a $99+gst account restoration fee will apply in addition to any unpaid invoices. This fee covers our engineers’ time in recovering your data from a backup server.
Cancellation Policy
Cancellations must be submitted via email. Failure to submit a cancellation request via email will result in the cancellation not being processed. A cancellation request will only be processed if all outstanding invoices have been paid in full. You may choose an immediate cancellation or an end-of-billing cycle cancellation. Cancellations will not be processed via phone or post.
For any service with overdue invoices or suspended accounts, cancellation requests will not be processed until all outstanding debts are cleared. We provide ample time between generating and sending an invoice and the actual invoice payment due date, so it is your responsibility to notify us of your intent to cancel before payment is applied.
This cancellation policy does not override any specific terms or conditions outlined in any separate contract or agreement between Made Neat and the Client, including fixed-term contracts. If such agreements exist, they will govern cancellation and termination terms.
Automatic Renewal of Hosting Services
All hosting plans are annual by default unless otherwise agreed in writing. Hosting services will automatically renew for a new annual term at the end of each current annual period. A 60-day written notice is required to avoid automatic renewal. If notice is not provided, the service will renew automatically, and invoicing for the renewed term will proceed.
Migrations from other hosts
Hosting accounts will be migrated from your old host free of charge unless we believe there will be extra steps outside of our normal migration procedure, which may increase the time taken to migrate the account. We reserve the right to refuse or quote for a migration which we deem as being outside of our normal migration procedure.
Hosting accounts migrated from other hosts containing malware, malicious scripts, viruses, bots, trojans or any file we deem harmful to our network, maybe suspended until either the client or ourselves have removed such files.
Before migration, we will advise of any actions or considerations you may need to undertake in relation to the hosting account, email accounts or DNS settings – either on our network or on your existing network you are moving from.
We will endeavour to complete migrations with minimal disruption to service, however, we accept no responsibility for events outside of our control, which may lead to issues that need to be addressed – This includes, but is not limited to DNS propagation, software incompatibility, data corruption, email settings, actions of your old provider.
Websites not built by us
We offer our incredibly powerful and secure custom-built hosting infrastructure as part of partnerships with other agencies. We reserve the right to refuse the build of a website by a 3rd party or agency.
All our standard hosting service inclusions are available on approval by the hosting account holder, however, troubleshooting technical issues for a website not built by Made Neat is deemed out of scope and chargeable service at our standard hourly rate unless a Support Pack exists.
All websites that are not built by us and hosted on our infrastructure are subject to an audit before publication which primarily covers performance and security at a cost of A$240+gst.
Service Availability
We shall endeavour to provide continuing availability of services and server stability, but we shall not, in any event, be liable for service delays and interruptions or downtime of the server, outside of our Service Level Agreement.
Liability and Indemnity
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Made Neat, its contractors, and its licensors, and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents from and against any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising out of your use of Made Neat services, including but not limited to your violation of this Agreement.
Copyright and Defamation Claims
If we receive legal correspondence relating to copyright or defamation claims, we reserve the right to remove related content or issue a 14 calendar day period to allow you the opportunity to remove the content yourself. If the content is not removed within this timeframe, we reserve the right to issue an account termination notice. An account termination notice provides you with 14 calendar days to migrate your services to another hosting provider, after which time your account will be terminated and deleted from our servers.
Service Level Agreement
Service Availability
Micro and Standard Packages are covered by a 99% (per calendar month) uptime SLA. If availability is below 99% and above 97%, a 25% credit is available. If availability is below 97%, a full credit is available for that month, by written request.
Premium, Corporate Packages are covered by a 99.5% (per calendar month) uptime SLA. If availability is below 99.5% and above 99%, a 25% credit is available. If availability is below 99%, a full credit is available for that month, by written request.
Enterprise Packages and Dedicated Servers are covered by a 99.9% (per calendar month) uptime SLA. If availability is below 99.9% and above 99.4%, a 25% credit is available. If availability is below 99.4%, a full credit is available for that month, by written request.
“Excused Downtime” means the length of time the Services are unavailable due to:
- Scheduled Maintenance;
- Emergency Maintenance;
- Beta Services;
- Force Majeure events; and
- the actions or omissions of you, your Authorised Users, or any third-party acting on your behalf or at your direction, including any unauthorised use of the Services, breach of the Agreement or Acceptable Use Policy, or any use or configuration of the Services that exceeds Made Neat’s recommendations or advertised limits.
“Scheduled Maintenance” includes any maintenance performed during the following windows or for which we provide reasonable notice or coordination with you in advance of the maintenance.“Emergency Maintenance” means any maintenance performed outside the Scheduled Maintenance windows without advance notice where such maintenance is reasonably and urgently required to protect the integrity, availability, or security of any online systems.
The availability guarantee does not apply to the functionality or operation of any software within any supplied servers, and does not apply if the service becomes unavailable due to Customer’s actions or actions of a third party. It also will not apply to IP address blocking at the firewall or FTP and email availability, if the website is still available to other networks.
The availability guarantee also does not apply to any interruptions during our standard scheduled maintenance window which is every week from Wednesday at 22:00 to 02:00 Thursday AEST, or to any other maintenance periods where we have provided at least 12 hours advance notice. Maintenance periods will never be scheduled within 08:00 to 22:00 Monday to Fridays unless they are deemed to be service critical.
Interruptions are deemed to begin from the time the Customer lodges a fault ticket or phone call. All SLA credits must be requested via a support ticket or via email.
SLA credit will not be available to clients who have overdue invoices on their account.
SLA credit does not apply to DDoS (denial of service) attacks towards our network or originating from our network, acts of nature (earthquakes, floods, fires, etc..) or acts of terrorism or war.
SLA credit may not exceed the monthly fee for any given service.
Service Performance
All services within our network are monitored 24/7 for potential performance issues. As a result, our service offering is generally of an extremely high standard. There are many factors that can impact on the performance of a given service – ie) software being used, excessive traffic or denial of service attacks, internet connection speeds, usage of a service in a way that it is not designed. As a result, service performance, speed or degradation issues are not covered by an SLA.
If you suspect a service-related performance issue, please open a support ticket or send an email so that we may investigate further.
Incident Reports
Outages
For downtime greater than 60 minutes, we will issue an incident report outlining the nature of the incident and steps taken to resolve and prevent repeat occurrences. For downtime less than 60 minutes, we will update our status feed with relevant information and notification of a resolution.
Website hacking or defacement
Made Neat offers a “best effort” Incident report for website hacking or defacement. We do not guarantee to monitor for such issues, however, we have employed security software to disable malicious code or files uploaded to your account to help protect against further hacking or defacement. If we detect an issue, we will contact you and provide information as to the cause and best method of resolution.
As you are given the freedom to upload files to your account, you also have the freedom to unknowingly upload vulnerable or malicious files. Malicious files will be scanned and quarantined by our malware scanners, however, there is no such scan for a vulnerable file.
Firewalls, brute force and intrusion detection methods are used on our servers, however, it is your obligation to ensure that best practice security measures are followed ie) strong passwords, software kept up to date.
Should you discover a hacking or defacement related issue before we do, please open a support ticket or send an email so that we may investigate further. After our investigations, we will issue an incident report outlining what has occurred and how to prevent it from reoccurring in the future.
Dedicated Server Management
Dedicated servers within our network;
Dedicated servers within our data center environment are covered by our SLA as outlined above. All dedicated servers which include our optional management service are monitored 24/7 for CPU, memory, load, disk space, network traffic and uptime. In the event that we identify an issue, we will rectify and let you know if required.
Server management includes 24×7 monitoring and 1 hour of scheduled or ad-hoc maintenance per month. Maintenance or repairs outside of the included 1 hour are billed at A$150+gst/hour.
Dedicated servers outside of our network (ie. on client’s or 3rd party network);
Dedicated servers outside of our data center environment not covered by our uptime SLA’s.
We require full FTP and SSH access to servers hosted outside of our network in order to manage, maintain and attend to any issues which may arise. If we do not have sufficient access to the server, you agree to provide access upon our request.
Server management includes 24×7 monitoring for CPU, memory, load, disk space, network traffic and uptime, plus 1 hour of scheduled or ad-hoc maintenance per month. Maintenance or repairs outside of the included 1 hour are billed at A$250+gst/hour.
WordPress Security & Performance
WordPress, plugin and theme updates are only provided to clients who opt-in for this service. WordPress Security & Performance includes updating WP minor and major releases, updating plugins and updating themes.
We will always make a backup of the website before completing any updates so that you can roll back in the event of an issue. Any themes or plugins which require manual updates or premium plugins that have not been renewed will not be managed and will require the attention of yourself or your web developer.
We follow best practices when updating any WordPress installation and always make a backup. However, as we may not be the authors of the plugins and themes you may have installed, we can not guarantee they will be bug-free or function as described by the author. If issues do arise due to a plugin or theme update, you can roll back the update or contact the author or your web developer.
Anti-Bribery and Corruption
Made Neat will not engage in corrupt business practices;
We will implement measures to prevent bribery and corruption by any director, employee, contractor or other party representing Made Neat;
We will, at a minimum, comply with all applicable laws, regulations and standards or, where internal policies require a higher standard, will apply and comply with such higher standard;
Made Neat prohibits the giving and receiving of gifts in connection with our operations which go beyond common courtesies associated with general commercial practice. This is to ensure that the offer or acceptance of a gift does not create an obligation or cannot be construed or used by others to allege favouritism, discrimination, collusion or similarly unacceptable practices by Made Neat.
Any gift, entertainment or other personal favour or assistance offered, given or received which has a value above A$50 must be recorded in the Gift and Entertainment Register if the gift is accepted. If a gift offered to a Made Neat employee or contractor is refused it shall only be entered on the register if the grounds for refusal were concerns that the gift/entertainment was excessive or likely to (or be perceived as likely to) improperly obtain/retain a business advantage.
TOS Updates
We reserve the right to revise, amend and modify the Made Neat Terms of Service at any time.
Questions
If you would like further information or have any questions regarding our terms of service, please do not hesitate to contact us using our contact us form or call 1300 254 791.