Why we need terms and conditions

GrassRootsDesign provides services to many customers and has a responsibility to protect your hosting service from the adverse effects. We have a responsibility to ensure that our client web sites and email services are available for them to use. This means that we need to limit customers activities to those which are compatible with running a reliable and safe service.

The following terms and conditions were designed to ensure these obligations are met.

Length of contract

If you pay your web hosting account monthly then your contract runs for one month and is renewed for another month when you make your next months payments. If you pay annually then your contract runs for 12 month from the date you first ordered service. Annual service is paid in advance. Details of how to cancel the contract can be found below.

Server abuse

Any attempt to undermine or cause harm to a server, or customer is strictly prohibited.

The content of your web site

All services provided by GrassRootsDesign may be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage, or presentation of any information, data or material in violation of any Canadian, or any International laws is prohibited.

The following list is not exhaustive, but it will indicate the sort of material you are not permitted to host:

  • copyright material.
  • MP3 files containing copyright music, unless you created the music yourself and/or own the copyright.
  • material we judge to be threatening or obscene.
  • material protected by trade secret and other statute.
  • pornography and sex-related merchandising, including sites that links to such content.
  • pirated software, also known as warez.
  • hacker programs or archives, including sites that links to such content.
  • hate propaganda.
  • products designed to defraud others, e.g. satellite hacking equipment.
  • promotion of illegal activities.
  • content that may be damaging to our servers or any other server on the internet.
  • Web sites promoted by spam or involved in spamming or selling spam related software or bulk email lists.
  • IRC or IRC bots.

If you are unsure whether or not your site falls into these categories feel free to contact us with a description before you sign up for an account or publish material as an existing customer.

The content of your emails

Spam is "Unsolicited junk e-mail sent to large numbers of people to promote products or services".

We have a zero tollerance policy towards spam and our mail servers is monitor to ensure they are not being used for spamming. If we allowed customers to spam then our mail servers would be blacklisted and none of our customers would be able to send and receive mail reliably. It is in all customers interests that we stop spam.

We do not permit:

  • The sending of spam through our servers.
  • Sending out spam through another providers mail server which includes links to web pages or email addresses hosted on our servers.
  • Web sites promoted by spam or involved in spamming or selling spam related software or bulk email lists.

As delegated by our upstream providers, any sites using spam or selling of spam related software or bulk email content will be closed.

If you spam, we will see you doing it, your account will be terminated and you will not get a refund.

If you run a mailing list, all the people you mail must have opted into the list. The list must not have been obtained from a third party. Your list server must use a system where an email is sent to the user when they sign up and you must honour all unsubscribe requests.

If we receive a spam complaint about your account we will.

  • Suspend your account to prevent any further violations.
  • Contact you to ensure you will not do it again.
  • Either reactivate the account or terminate it.

Protecting server resources

Each server has a limited amount of processing power and memory. We have found most our customers to stay within "reasonable limits", but sometimes people do cause problems for other users by using too many resources.

You may not:

  • Provide hosting for third parties.
  • Link to cgi scripts running on your account from other domains (e.g. banner exchanges).
  • Use more than 10% of system resources on the server.

We do not allow clients to install their own cgi or php chat rooms. These tend to be a large drain on system resources and we cannot allow it as an account option.

Discussion forums and bulletin boards are permitted, provided they stay within the 10% server usage limit explained above.

We allow you (subject to a suitable hosting plan) to run programs to run continually in the background (cron jobs). However, these must not overload the server or affect other users sites.

If you go over any of the limits described above we will suspend your account and contact you to resolve the situation. We may offer dedicated server hosting for an additional charge. If you do not move to a dedicated server or reduce your system usage we will terminate your account to protect other customers.

Bandwidth usage

Each hosting plan we provide has unlimited bandwidth available. We monitor this usage to ensure that you stay within "reasonable limits" based on the server's limited amount of processing power and memory. If your hosting service requires more bandwidth resources than the shared server can provide, your hosting service can be transferred to a dedicated server for an additional charge. If you are concerned about going over your limit you should monitor your bandwidth usage and resource usage in the control panel.

IP Addresses and DNS delegation

We provide IP address information in your welcome email. This is provided to allow access to the web site and control panel until the domain name has been transferred to our DNS servers. Customers are not permitted to nor is it recommended to link their site or address via an IP address based link once the transfer is complete. This is for your own safety as it prevents links becoming out dated if the IP address changes.

All customers must change their domain names' DNS servers to those specified on their welcome email. We do not permit customers to use external DNS management tools because of the likelihood of failure if we change an IP address. If you decide to use an external DNS service then you agree to absolve GrassRootsDesign of all liability should your site fail due to DNS errors or the IP address changing at a later date.

All IP addresses remain the property of the upstream providers and are provided according to ARIN and RIPE rules and only when required for technical reasons.

Domain name registration

Domain names are the PROPERTY OF THE DOMAIN OWNER. Though GrassRootsDesign can assist customers with the registration of their domain, the domain owner is responsible for and bound by the terms and conditions of their domain registration. Some of these are enforced by the different domain name registries and you should be aware that you may have a contract with them as well as with us.

It is the customers responsibility to ensure that their domain name registration is current and up to date. GrassRootsDesign does not monitor domain registry expirations.

Change of domain names

We can change the domain name associated with your hosting account but you will need to register the new domain name first. Changing the domain name may require your account to be deleted and it may cause disruption to your web site. The old domain name will stop working. We reserve the right not to allow domain changes.

Billing

Monthly Billing: We send out invoices for work completed in the current month. All post dated cheques must be made out to the anniversary of the date the account was ordered. So if a customer orders hosting on the 15th of the month they would be billed on the 15th every month. We believe this is sufficient advance notification of payment due. It is the clients responsibility to ensure that they have sufficient credit to cover this transaction. In the event that a payment is declined for any reason we will send an e-mail with instructions to submit a payment. If new payment details are not supplied within 24 hours we will suspend the account. If payment is not received within 7 days we will delete the account.

If your web site is important, you are strongly recommended to pay annually (for which you will receive a discount).

Annual Billing: If you pay annually we will send a renewal notice to the email address you provided us with when you signed in the month before the renewal date. However, because email addresses change and because many ISP's spam filters remove emails which mention web hosting services we cannot guarantee delivery of these emails. We recommend that you make a note in your calender one year from the date you ordered the hosting originally. If we do not receive the renewal payment by the due date then we will suspend the account. If payment is still not received within 7 days we will assume the account is no longer required and delete it.

Payments made through a third-party transaction service (such as Paypal) may be subject to a surcharge.

All invoices, account information and receipts are submitted in an electronic format. Printed and traditional mail can be arrange for unusual circumstances and for an additional fee.

Refunds

Regular Hosting Clients: Should you become unsatisfied with our services GrassRootsDesign will refund your hosting fee subject to Cancellation Refund below.

Cancellation Refunds: We DO NOT refund partial monthly fees. Annual accounts can receive a refund for each full month left in their service minus two months. For example, if you cancel an annual account before the 6th month of service you can get a refund of 4 months hosting fees. All refunds must be requested.

Account Cancellations

By ordering services from us you agree to abide by these cancellation procedures. Before we cancel an account we need to make sure it really is the site owner requesting the cancellation. When a request for cancellation occurs by email a confirmation email will be sent to the registered address and must be responded to before the account is closed.

Accounts will be closed as soon as confirmation is received, we do not schedule closures for the end of the current months hosting. Accounts are only be considered cancelled once we have conformed by e-mail that we have cancelled it for you. If you have not received conformation from us it means your account is still open and you will be billed for all services provided until we have given such confirmation.

GrassRootsDesign will not be held liable for the non arrival of your request to cancel an account or failure to confirm the request. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have received confirmation of the account closure from us.

When an account is cancelled, all of its files are deleted and are not recoverable.

Correspondence

In the event of written notification of account termination being sent by GrassRootsDesign to a customer, any such communication sent by normal post shall be considered received by the customer seven days after it was posted.

Data integrity and backups

We provide no guarantee that we will be able restore the server if there is a disk failure. It is in your own interests to keep a copy of your web site backed up on your own computer. You can do this by simply uploading changes from a copy you hold or by using the backup tools provided with most of our web hosting accounts.

If you have an accident with your site we will do our best to help, but we may not be able to restore your files for you.

It is impossible to have too many backups. Keeping a local copy at your location is the best way to protect your data.

Passwords

We will provide you with a username and password for accessing your account. This will be sent to the email address you entered into our order form. If you lose your password we can resend it to the same email address. If your email address has changed you will need to supply proof of your identity before we will provide the password. The reason for this is that a password requests could be coming from someone trying to gain unauthorized access to an accounts. It is in your interests that we verify your identity before issuing a password.

Limits of hosting support

GrassRootsDesign hosting service provides free support with server side problems only. These include, non functioning of facilities provided with your hosting account and any faults which exist on the server your site is hosted on.

Refusal of Service

GrassRootsDesign reserves the right to refuse, cancel, or suspend services at our sole discretion.

Indemnification

By ordering services from us you agree to indemnify and hold harmless GrassRootsDesign from any claims resulting from the use of the service which damages the subscriber or any other party. If you intimate that you are entering into legal action against us we will suspend your account until the legal dispute has been resolved. We will do our best to keep the service running reliably but we will not be held responsible for any losses you incur through your use of it.

Changes to these terms and conditions

GrassRootsDesign reserves the right to change or amend these Terms of Service at any time without prior notice.

Enforcement

Violations of these Terms of Service should be referred by email to abuse [at] GrassRootsDesign. All complaints will be investigated promptly. Violations of these terms and conditions can be ground for immediate account deactivation without refund.

Data protection

All information that GrassRootsDesign obtains from the customer is used strictly for billing, identification or security purposes, and is only for GrassRootsDesign. Unless specifically required by law, we do not share our customer's information with any outside source.

(update February 2021)