Terms of Service

These terms apply to every service you order from Stacklayer Communications Ltd ("we", "us", "our") under the StackLayer name, and to your use of this website and our client area. Please read them before you order. By placing an order or using a service, you agree to them.

About these terms

Our agreement with you is made up of these terms, our Service Level Agreement, our Acceptable Use Policy, our Abuse Policy, our Staff Abuse Policy, our Privacy Policy and the details of your order. If two of them disagree about a particular service, the details of your order come first, then these terms, then the policies.

In these terms, "service" means anything you order from us, such as hosting, a server, a domain name or an add-on. "You" means the person or business that holds the account.

You must be at least 18, or be authorised to bind the business you are ordering for. If you order for a business, you confirm you have the authority to do so.

Your account

You need an account to order. Give us accurate details when you sign up and keep them up to date, including your email address, because we use it to send invoices and important notices.

You are responsible for keeping your login details safe and for everything that happens under your account. If you think someone else has got into your account, change your password and tell us straight away. We are not responsible for loss caused by login details that you shared or failed to protect.

One person or business should hold each account. Do not share an account between unrelated people.

Ordering and setting up a service

Placing an order is an offer to buy. A contract starts when we confirm your order or begin setting up the service, whichever comes first. We can refuse or cancel an order, for example if we suspect fraud, cannot verify your details, have no capacity, or the order breaks these terms. If we cancel an order before the service starts, we will refund anything you have paid for it.

What each service includes is described on our plans page and in your order. Where a plan lists resources such as storage, memory or bandwidth, those figures are the limits of the service.

We may ask you for identification or other information to check an order. Orders that fail our checks may be held or declined.

Prices, tax and payment

Prices are shown in the currency on the plans page and exclude any taxes. VAT and other taxes that apply are added at checkout and shown on your invoice.

You pay in advance for each billing period you choose, for example monthly or annually. Your invoice shows the amount and the date it is due. Payment methods are listed in the client area. Where we offer automatic payment, you authorise us to take each payment when it falls due until you cancel.

We can change our prices. A price change applies from your next renewal, and we will tell you before then. If you do not want to pay the new price, cancel before the renewal date.

Late and failed payments

If an invoice is not paid by its due date we can suspend the service until it is. If it stays unpaid we can end the service and delete the data on it, as explained under "When a service ends". You remain responsible for any amount owed.

We may charge a reasonable fee if a payment is returned or reversed, or if a chargeback is raised, to cover the cost we incur. We may also suspend the account while a payment dispute is open.

Renewals and cancelling

Services renew automatically at the end of each billing period unless you cancel. To avoid the next charge, send a cancellation request through the client area before the renewal date. Cancelling stops future renewals. The service carries on until the end of the period you have already paid for.

Cancellation rights for consumers

If you are a consumer, meaning you are buying for purposes outside your trade, business or profession, you can cancel a service within 14 days of ordering without giving a reason. If you asked us to start the service during those 14 days, you must pay for the time you have used, calculated up to the point you tell us you want to cancel. Tell us through the client area or by opening a support ticket.

These rights come from law and do not affect any other right you have.

Refunds

You can ask for a refund within 5 days of paying for a service. Ask through a support ticket in the client area and we will refund the payment to the method you used. After those 5 days we may refuse a refund, and we will not normally give one, except where the law requires us to. This does not affect the cancellation rights for consumers described above, which run for their own period.

We do not give refunds where we suspend or end a service because you broke these terms or one of our policies. If we agree to a refund or credit in a particular case, that does not mean we will do the same in another. If we cannot provide a service you have paid for, we will refund the part you have not received.

Using our services

You are responsible for everything you store, send or publish using your service, and for anything done by people you allow to use it. You must follow our Acceptable Use Policy and the law that applies to you and your service.

You must not use a service in a way that harms our network, our equipment or other customers. If something you do causes a problem, we can limit or suspend the service until it is sorted out.

Limits and fair use

Each service has the limits described in your order. If your use affects the performance of a shared platform or other customers, we may ask you to reduce it, move to a suitable plan, or we may limit your use. We will tell you first where it is reasonable to do so.

IP addresses and network resources

IP addresses, network blocks and similar resources we give you remain ours. You have the right to use them for as long as you have the service, and you get no ownership of them. We may change the addresses assigned to a service if we need to, and will give you notice where we can. You must not announce or route addresses we have not given you through our network.

Domain names

If you register or transfer a domain through us, the rules of the registry and registrar also apply, and you must give accurate registrant details. We are not responsible for a registry's decisions or for domains that expire because renewal was not paid. Renewal reminders are a courtesy and are not guaranteed to arrive.

Security and backups

You are responsible for the security of what you run on your service. That includes keeping software and passwords up to date, using sensible settings and fixing known problems promptly.

Unless your plan states that backups are included, you are responsible for keeping your own copies of your data. Even where backups are included, we recommend keeping a copy of anything you cannot afford to lose, because we cannot promise that a backup will always be available.

Support

You can ask for help by opening a ticket in the client area. We try to reply as quickly as we can, but we do not promise a particular response or fix time unless your plan says so. Support covers our services and network. It does not cover the software, websites or configuration you run yourself, though we may help where we can.

Availability, maintenance and DDoS protection

We work to keep our network and services running, but we cannot promise they will always be available or free of faults. We may carry out maintenance, and will give notice of planned work where we reasonably can.

Our network includes DDoS protection. It reduces the effect of many attacks, but it cannot stop every attack, and filtering may occasionally affect legitimate traffic. We do not guarantee that a service will be unaffected by an attack. Our Service Level Agreement sets out the availability we aim for and the credit you can claim if we miss it.

Suspension and ending a service

We can suspend or end a service if:

• you break these terms or one of our policies
• you do not pay when payment is due
• we are required to by law or by a court, regulator or other authority
• the service is being used in a way that threatens the security or stability of our network or of other customers

Where we can, we will tell you why and give you a chance to fix the problem first. In urgent cases, such as an attack or illegal content, we may act first and explain afterwards.

You can end a service at any time by cancelling it. Cancelling does not give you a refund of fees you have already paid, apart from where these terms say otherwise.

When a service ends

When a service ends, whether you cancel it or we end it, the data stored on it may be deleted after a short time and we may not be able to recover it. Take a copy of anything you need before the service ends. We have no duty to keep your data once a service has ended.

Intellectual property

We, or our licensors, own the software, branding and content of our website and services. You may not copy or reuse them except as these terms allow. You keep the rights in your own content, and you give us permission to store, copy and transmit it as far as we need to in order to run your service.

Our liability

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability that cannot be limited or excluded by law. That includes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence and for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.

Subject to that, we are not liable for any indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, business, goodwill or data, whether or not we were told it could happen. Our total liability to you for all claims relating to a service is limited to the fees you paid for that service in the 12 months before the event that gave rise to the claim.

If you are a consumer, nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights.

Your responsibility to us

If a third party makes a claim against us because of your content, or because you broke these terms or the law, you will cover our reasonable costs of dealing with it, including reasonable legal fees. We will tell you about the claim promptly and let you help with it where that makes sense.

Events outside our control

We are not in breach of these terms, and not liable to you, if we are delayed or prevented from performing because of something outside our reasonable control. Examples are power or network failures that affect our suppliers, fire, flood, war, strikes, government action and large-scale cyber attacks.

Third-party services

Some services are provided with or by other companies, such as domain registries and payment providers. Their own terms may apply as well, and we are not responsible for what they do or fail to do.

Changes to these terms and our services

We may change these terms, for example because our services or the law change. We will tell you about changes that matter before they apply, by email or in the client area. If you carry on using a service after a change takes effect, you accept the new terms. If you do not agree, you can cancel before then.

We may also change or retire a service. If we do, we will give you reasonable notice and, if we end a service early, refund the part you have paid for but not received.

Notices

We will contact you using the email address on your account, and may also post notices in the client area. A notice sent to that address is treated as received when we send it, so keep your address current. To contact us formally, open a support ticket in the client area.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with our service, open a support ticket and say it is a complaint. We will look into it and reply. If you are still not satisfied, you may be able to use another route that the law gives you.

General

These terms, together with the policies listed above, are the whole agreement between you and us about the service. They replace anything said or written earlier.

If part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we do not enforce a right straight away, we can still enforce it later. You may not transfer your rights or duties under these terms without our written consent. We may transfer ours to another company if it takes over our business, and we will tell you if we do.

Nobody who is not a party to this agreement has any right to enforce it under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction over any dispute, unless the law gives you the right to bring a claim somewhere else.

Contact

You can contact us by opening a support ticket in the client area.