1. CHARGES AND PAYMENT

1.1 Charges are payable in advance depending on the Service purchased as set out in the online customer order form and time for payment shall be of the essence. It is a condition of the provision of our Services that a regular credit or debit card, direct debit mandate  agreement is in force for the duration of this Contract and you agree to either update your details yourself via the control panel or to inform us of any change to your credit card or contact details.

1.2 You may not make payment to us by any other means other than those detailed in condition 1.1 without our prior authority provided to you in writing or electronic mail.

1.3 In the event that we agree to accept payment from you by any means other than credit or debit card you acknowledge that payment must reach our bank account no less than five working days prior to the invoice due date and that arranging this is your sole responsibility.

1.4 You shall make all payments due under the Contract in full without any deduction whether by way of set-off, counterclaim, discount, abatement or otherwise unless you have a valid court order requiring an amount equal to such deduction to be paid by us to you.

1.5 All payments payable to us under the Contract shall become due immediately on its termination despite any other provision.

1.6 Service Late Fee’s, Suspensions and Terminations
i) You will be sent an invoice outlining your payment at least 7 days before payment is due.
ii) You will be notified of an overdue payment 1, 4 and 7 days after the invoice due date.
iii) Without prejudice to our other rights, if payment is not made within 5 days of the invoice due date we reserve the right to charge a late fee of 20% of the total invoice value. This is to cover additional data retention and administration costs.
iv) If payment is not made within 8 days of the invoice due date we reserve the right to suspend the service(s).
v) Suspended services remain on our servers and therefore will continue to acrue the service charges as per your chosen payment cycle, or part thereof.
v) Services will be restored automatically on payment of all oputstanding invoices.
vi) Should we not receive payment within 90 days of the outstanding invoice due date we reserve the right to pass on client details to a Debt Recovery Service administered by Spratt Endicott Solicitors Ltd.
vii) At 90 days We will pass on details of ALL invoices on the account that are overdue by 7 days or more. Application for debt recovery will incur an additional fee of £40 ex VAT to cover our costs, which will be added to the invoice.
viii) Spratt Endicott Solicitors Ltd. will take over administration and collection of the outstanding balance and apply all charges of this service to your account. This includes any administration fees and legal fees incurred. We also reserve the right to claim costs under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts Act 1998.
ix) Your services will still continue to accrue charges during this process, including late fees, until the complete invoice is settled, unless you decide to terminate the services with us.
x) Terminatation of your services does not negate any existing payments which remain on your account.
xi) Should we not recieve payment within 120 days of the invoice due date we reserve the right to automatically terminate your service. Termination of your service involves the removal of all your data from our system, including website data, databases, emails and DNS entries. We are under obligation to provide you with copies of this data, and we do not store it after removal.

1.7 Value Added Tax at the current UK rate, where applicable, will be added at the appropriate rate to the total of all charges shown on your invoice.

1.8 Where payment is by credit card or debit card you expressly authorise us to charge recurring billing by such method until we receive from you a completed account cancellation notice (see condition 10.2) or the Services end.

1.9 If you dispute any payment made to us you shall contact us immediately to discuss repayment. In the event that you submit an unjustified chargeback (being a credit card or debit card chargeback or cancellation of a cheque or submission of a cheque that is returned for any reason) then the following shall be due and payable by you within 7 days for each instance of a chargeback:

1.9.1 the charges due and payable by you for the Services used in the period covered by the chargeback; and

1.9.2 such chargeback costs as are levied upon us by your bank or credit card company; and

1.9.3 a chargeback administration fee of £50; and

1.9.4 our reasonable costs and losses incurred in recovering the above-mentioned fees including debt recovery costs, legal fees and debt collection costs.

1.10 In the event of an unjustified chargeback our right to terminate this Contract as set out in our terms and conditions shall apply save that the period in clause 1.9.2 shall be shortened to 14 days and the period in condition 1.9.3 shall be shortened to 10 days.

Appendix 1: Credit and Debit card payments

You should note the following in relation to this:

When you sign up with us for a hosting account an agreement is made that will automatically debit your card on a regular basis, the frequency dependant on the billing term you choose.

We will normally attempt to charge your card three days prior to the invoice due date. This allows you to be notified so you can take appropriate action should the payment fail for any reason, and so avoids your service becoming suspended for being overdue.

If a payment fails due to being refused by your bank or due to the credit card expiring then an email notification is sent to the email address we hold for you, hence the importance of maintaining correct information.

If a payment fails on more than 3 successive or we don’t receive payment in 5 working days (whichever is sooner) we will suspend your service pending contact and subsequent payment by you. After this it marked pending deletion. At 60 days after the renewal date we will delete all services not paid for. This is permanent, and due to data protection laws no data is retained.

We will normally contact you in advance via email to tell you that the card we hold on record is expiring. If your credit card expires and you do not update the details and a payment is missed we will suspend your service pending contact or payment by you. For these reasons it is VITAL that you maintain your information correctly.

Appendix 2: Payment Via Direct Debit

If you choose to pay via direct debit you will be request to complete a mandate form on your first transaction with us. Once this has been completed and verified by you payment will be taken. Until you verify your account we will be unable to set up any services for you.

We will normally attempt to charge your account three days prior to the invoice due date. This allows you to be notified so you can take appropriate action should the payment fail for any reason, and so avoids your service becoming suspended for being overdue.

If a payment fails due to being refused by your bank or due to the credit card expiring then an email notification is sent to the email address we hold for you, hence the importance of maintaining correct information.

Direct Debits are automatically recharged. If a payment fails on more than 3 successive or we we will suspend your service pending contact and subsequent payment by you.

At 60 days after the renewal date we will delete all services not paid for. This is permanent, and due to data protection laws no data is retained.

Appendix 3: Payment via Bank transfer

Payment via bank transfer is only allowed at our discretion and with prior authorisation. The reason for this is that it costs us more in terms of administration and bank charges than for cards. Where we have given permission for payment via bank transfer you must use the invoice reference or account ID as the payment references and make payment at least five working days prior to the due date as we need to allocate the payment manuals in most cases.

If we do not receive payment within 5 days of the due date  suspended for 30 days. After this it marked pending deletion. At 60 days after the renewal date we will delete all services not paid for. This is permanent, and due to data protection laws no data is retained.

Appendix 4: Renewals and account suspensions

When a service is due for renewal you will normally be contacted via e-mail and advised of the renewal. We will normally send renewal notices to you 30 days prior to the due date.

The address we e-mail you on is the e-mail address used to apply for the service you have taken with us originally. Please note that the onus is on you to notify us of any changes of contact details which you can update these yourself via the control panel. If you have any problems doing this then please let us know.

Appendix 5: Domain Charging

Free Domain Transfers

For the full conditions regarding domain name transfers please read the information below.

Outbound transfers

We will not charge for transferring a domain away from Hipposerve if you perform the transfer from your control panel using the facility available. If you require a member of our staff to perform the transfer then this will be chargeable at £15 + VAT per instance. We make this charge as the transfer process will require engineer time to monitor and complete. The only exception to this will be where the facility to perform a transfer is not present in your control panel, in which case will not charge.

Inbound transfers

We only charge for inbound domain transfers if:

1. The domain transfer is a FULL transfer is for a domain name type where a fee is mandated by the registry operator in which case the charge levied on us will be in turn levied on you, however, it does extend the life of the domain for 1 year. The charge is normally the cost of a one year renewal for the domain name plus VAT. A full transfer is where we become the ISP responsible for billing.

OR

2. The transfer is only a partial transfer where we are not the billing ISP but you use our DNS servers and choose not to use the domain with any of our normally paid for services – see below:

We make an annual charge of £10  plus VAT because:

1. A partial transfer requires an engineer to add the domain to our DNS
2. Our network resources are used in hosting the DNS entry and responding to queries for that domain
3. By adding the domain to our DNS and control panel you are entitled to use the free web and e-mail diversion facilities we provide in our control panel.
4. If the domain is to be used in conjunction with an existing web site hosted by us and is to be added after the point of site creation an engineer will have to alter the site and mail configuration for your web site. This takes engineer time which has to be recovered and paid for.

We believe this is a fair policy and offers good value for money. While your domain is with us we will do our best to ensure that you are kept aware of when it is due for renewal and issue renewal notices in good time ensuring you retain your domain name.