Note: Most of this documentation is copied VERBATIM from the TOS of Ev1Servers (our server providers) and can be found here. Additional Top Tech Hosting policies have been added as necessary to protect us as a business, and more importantly, you as the client.
Top Tech Hosting ("The Company") agrees to furnish services to the Subscriber, subject to the following TOS (Terms of Service).
Use of Top Tech Hosting Service constitutes acceptance and agreement to Top-Tech's AUP ( Acceptable Use Policy) as well as Top-Tech's TOS (Terms of Service), thereby also constituting acceptance and agreement to EV1Servers' (our upstream server provider and datacenter) AUP and TOS.
All provisions of this contract are subject to the TOS (Terms of Service) of Top Tech Hosting and AUP (Acceptable Use Policy). The AUP may be changed from time to time at the discretion of the Company. Subscriber understands that change to the AUP by the Company shall not be grounds for early contract termination or non-payment.
This Agreement shall be construed in all respects in accordance with the laws of the state of Texas, county of Harris applicable to contracts enforceable in that state. Venue will be Harris County, Texas
1. Disclosure to Law Enforcement
The AUP specifically prohibits the use of our service for illegal activities. Therefore, Subscriber agrees that the Company may disclose any and all subscriber information including assigned IP numbers, account history, account use, etc. to any law enforcement agent who makes a written request without further consent or notification to the Subscriber. In addition Top Tech Hosting shall have the right to terminate all service set forth in this Agreement.
2. Service Rates
Subscriber acknowledges that the nature of the service furnished and the initial rates and charges have been communicated to Subscriber. Subscriber is aware that the Company may prospectively change the specified rates and charges from time to time. The promotional offer is contingent upon Company achieving and maintaining its cost of service goals including but not limited to rates charged to company by its suppliers.
3. Payment
Establishment of this service is dependent upon receipt by the Company of payment of stated charges. Subsequent payments are due on the anniversary date of the month (or quarter or year, if applicable) for that month's service.
4. Payments and Fees
Credit cards that are declined for any reason are subject to a $1.00 declination fee. Service will be interrupted on accounts that reach 10 days (including non-business days and holidays) past due. Service interrupted for nonpayment may be subject to a $20 reconnect charge. Accounts that are not collectable by Top Tech Hosting may be turned over to an outside collection agency for collection. If your account is turned over for collection, you agree to pay the company a "Processing and Collection" Fee of not less than $15 nor more than $25. If you desire to cancel your account, please follow the proper procedure to do this as outlined in this TOS.
5. Refund and Disputes
Top Tech Hosting offers a 14-day money back guarantee on your first month of service fees. If you are in any way unsatisfied with services DURING your first 14 days, you may cancel your account and have all monies refunded in full. Account cancellations after the first 14 days will result in no refunds unless you have paid quarterly or yearly dues in advance. In these cases, you will be refunded the pro-rated amounts starting with the first full month of unused services. For example, should you cancel a yearly contract during the second month, you will be refunded the remaining 10 months (proportional to the amount per month based on the discounted yearly rate) in full. All overcharges or billing disputes must be reported within 60 days of the time the dispute occurred. If you dispute a charge to your credit card issuer that, in Top-Tech's sole discretion is a valid charge under the provisions of the TOS and /or AUP, you agree to pay Top Tech Hosting an "Administrative Fee" of not less than $25 and not more than $100.
6. Failure to Pay
The Company may temporarily deny service or terminate this Agreement upon the failure of Subscriber to pay charges when due. Such termination or denial will not relieve Subscriber of responsibility for the payment of all accrued charges, plus reasonable interest and any collection fees.
7. Account Cancellation
Top-Tech's preferred method of cancellation is via the members section of your Top Tech Hosting account. Please log into the members section here and emailed cancellation requests are also acceptable to support@toptechhosting.com.
8.
Subscriber acknowledges that the service provided is of such a nature that service can be interrupted for many reasons other than the negligence of the company and that damages resulting from any interruption of service are difficult to ascertain. Therefore, subscriber agrees that the company shall not be liable for any damages arising from such causes beyond the direct and exclusive control of the company. Subscriber further acknowledges that the company's liability for its own negligence may not in any event exceed an amount equivalent to charges payable by subscriber for services during the period damages occurred. In no event shall the company be liable for any special or consequential damages, loss or injury.
9. New Domain Accounts
All new web hosting accounts involving new domains will be set up and entered into our DNS servers within 1 to 3 business days. Due to unforeseen complications, however, this process may sometimes require up to 7 business days. Domains registered by Top Tech Hosting will be automatically registered with Top Tech Hosting as the registrant, administrative and technical contacts unless otherwise expressly requested beforehand. Top Tech Hosting recognizes, however, that upon paying the registration fee, the subscriber becomes the legal owner. As long as there are no pending payments, Top Tech Hosting will transfer ownership or relinquish the domain as requested by the subscriber at any time.
10. Transfer of Domains
New web hosting accounts which involve the transfer of a domain from another provider to Top Tech Hosting will require a minimum of seven (7) days to be set up and entered into our DNS servers. In some cases, such transfers may take up to sixty (60) days. Due to the unpredictable nature of the transfer process, no guarantees are made regarding the amount of time a specific transfer may take. If the transfer of the domain is done by Top Tech Hosting on behalf of the account holder a handling fee will be incurred. If the customer cancels service during the transfer period for any reason, all charges are considered earned.
11. Support Boundaries
Top Tech Hosting servers are monitored for uptime of all services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year with no exceptions. Any server-related problems are addressed immediately around the clock, year round by our support staff. Technical support to our individual subscribers is provided on an as-needed basis with the exception of a few holidays. We limit our technical support to our area of expertise. The following rules are our guidelines when providing support: Top Tech Hosting provides support related to your account's physical functioning. Top Tech Hosting does not offer tech support for application specific issues such as cgi programming, html or any other such issues unless arranged otherwise. Top Tech Hosting does not provide technical support for YOUR customers unless arranged otherwise. If you can email, we encourage you to email support@toptechhosting.com for assistance. You can also login to your client area here and submit a trouble ticket to our support team if required.
12. SPAM and Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE)
Top Tech Hosting takes a zero tolerance approach to the sending of Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) or SPAM over our network. Very simply this means that customers of Top Tech Hosting may not use or permit others to use our network to transact in UCE. Customers of Top Tech Hosting may not host, or permit hosting of, sites or information that is advertised by UCE from other networks. In addition, it is not acceptable to transmit bulk email through remote SOCKS, HTTP or other similar proxies who in turn make a SMTP (TCP port 25) connection to the destination mail servers. This technique may result in account suspension or termination. Violations of this policy carry severe penalties, including termination of service. In order to prevent unnecessary blacklisting due to spam we reserve the right to occasionally sample bulk email being sent from servers.
- Violation of Top-Tech's SPAM policy will result in severe penalties. Upon notification of an alleged violation of our SPAM policy, Top Tech Hosting will initiate an immediate investigation (within 48 hours of notification). During the investigation, Top Tech Hosting may restrict customer access to the network to prevent further violations. If a customer is found to be in violation of our SPAM policy, Top Tech Hosting may, at its sole discretion, restrict, suspend or terminate customer's account. Further, Top Tech Hosting reserves the right to pursue civil remedies for any costs associated with the investigation of a substantiated policy violation. Top Tech Hosting will notify law enforcement officials if the violation is believed to be a criminal offense.
- First violations of this policy will result in an "Administrative Fee" of $250 and your account will be reviewed for possible immediate termination. A second violation will result in an "Administrative Fee" of $500 and immediate termination of your account. Users who violate this policy agree that in addition to these "Administrative" penalties, they will pay "Research Fees" not to exceed $175 per hour that Top Tech Hosting personnel must spend to investigate the matter. PLEASE, DO NOT SPAM from your account.
- As our Customers are ultimately responsible for the actions of their clients over the Top Tech Hosting network, it is advisable that Customers develop a similar, or stricter, policy for their clients if applicable.
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
BEGINNING IMMEDIATELY, anyone hosting websites or services on their account that support spammers or cause any of our IP space to be listed in any of the various Spam Databases will have their account immediately removed from our network. Top Tech Hosting reserves the right to immediately delete that account without providing any backups or refunds regardless of what type of payment plan was used. This supercedes the Refund clause discussed in option 5. above.
13. Network
- IP Address Ownership: If Top Tech Hosting assigns Customer an Internet Protocol address for Customer's use, the right to use that Internet Protocol address shall belong only to Top Tech Hosting, and Customer shall have no right to use that Internet Protocol address except as permitted by Top Tech Hosting in its sole discretion in connection with the Services, during the term of this Agreement. Top Tech Hosting shall maintain and control ownership of all Internet Protocol numbers and addresses that may be assigned to Customer by Top Tech Hosting, and Top Tech Hosting reserves the right to change or remove any and all such Internet Protocol numbers and addresses, in its sole and absolute discretion. Our allocation of IP addresses is limited by ARIN's new policies. These new policies state that use of IP addresses for IP based virtual hosts will not be accepted as justification for new IP addresses. What this means to you is that you MUST use name-based hosting where possible. We will periodically review IP address usage, and if we find that clients are using IP addresses where name-based hosting could be used, we will revoke authorization to use those IP addresses that could be used with name-based hosting.
- Bandwidth and Disk Usage: Customer agrees that bandwidth and disk usage shall not exceed the number of megabytes per month for the Services ordered by Customer on the Order Form (the "Agreed Usage"). Top Tech Hosting will monitor Customer's bandwidth and disk usage. Top Tech Hosting shall have the right to take corrective action if Customer's bandwidth or disk usage exceeds the Agreed Usage. Such corrective action may include the assessment of additional charges, disconnection or discontinuance of any and all Services, or termination of this Agreement, which actions may be taken is in Top-Tech's sole and absolute discretion. If Top Tech Hosting takes any corrective action under this section, Customer shall not be entitled to a refund of any fees paid in advance prior to such action.
- System and Network Security: Users are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security of the Top Tech Hosting Network. Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. Top Tech Hosting will investigate occurrences, which may involve such violations and may involve, and cooperate with, law enforcement authorities in prosecuting Users who are involved in such violations. These violations include, without limitation:
- Accessing data not intended for such User or logging into a server or account, which such User is not authorized to access.
- Attempting to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization.
- Attempting to interfere with service to any user, host or network, including, without limitation, via means of overloading, "flooding", "mail bombing" or "crashing".
- Forging any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail or newsgroup posting.
- Taking any action in order to obtain services to which such User is not entitled.
14. Notification of Violation
- Top Tech Hosting is under no duty to look at each customer's or user's activities to determine if a violation of the AUP has occurred, nor do we assume any responsibility through our AUP to monitor or police Internet-related activities.
- First violation: Any User, which Top Tech Hosting determines to have violated any element of this Acceptable Use Policy, shall receive an email, warning them of the violation. The service may be subject at Top-Tech's discretion to a temporary suspension pending a User's agreement in writing, to refrain from any further violations.
- Second Violation: Users that Top Tech Hosting determines to have committed a second violation of any element of this Acceptable Use Policy shall be subject to immediate suspension or termination of service without further notice.
- We reserve the right, to drop the section of IP space involved in Spam or Denial-of-Service complaints if it is clear that the offending activity is causing great harm to parties on the Internet. In particular, if open relays are on your network or a customer's network, or if denial of service attacks are originating from your network. In certain rare cases, we may have to do this before attempting to contact you. If we do this, we will contact you as soon as is feasible.
15. Suspension of Service or Cancellation
Top Tech Hosting reserves the right to suspend network access to any customer if in the judgment of the Top Tech Hosting network administrators the customer's account is the source or target of the violation of any of the other terms of the AUP or for any other reason which Top Tech Hosting chooses. If inappropriate activity is detected, all accounts of the Customer in question will be deactivated until an investigation is complete. Prior notification to the Customer is not assured. In extreme cases, law enforcement will be contacted regarding the activity. The customer will not be credited for the time the customer's machines were suspended.
16.
Top Tech Hosting reserves the right to amend its policies at any time. All Sub-Networks, resellers and managed servers of Top Tech Hosting must adhere to the above policies. Failure to follow any term or condition will be grounds for immediate Cancellation. You will be held responsible for the actions of your clients in the matter described on these Terms and conditions. Therefore, it is in your best interest to implement a similar or stricter Terms and conditions or otherwise called Acceptable Terms of use policy.
17. Indemnification
Top Tech Hosting wishes to emphasize that in agreeing to the Top Tech Hosting Acceptable Use Policy ( AUP) and Terms of Service (ToS), customer indemnifies Top Tech Hosting for any violation of the Acceptable Use Policy ( AUP) and Terms of Service (ToS) that results in loss to Top Tech Hosting or the bringing of any claim against Top Tech Hosting by any third-party. This means that if Top Tech Hosting is sued because of a customer's or a customer of a customer's activity, the customer will pay any damages awarded against Top Tech Hosting, plus all costs and attorney's fees.
18. Miscellaneous Provisions
You must provide us with, and keep current, good contact information for you. E-mail, telephone and fax contacts are used, in that order of preference.
- A waiver by the Company of any breach of any provision of this Agreement by Subscriber shall not operate as or be construed as a continuing or subsequent waiver thereof or as a waiver of any breach of any other provision thereof.
- Subscriber shall not transfer or assign this Agreement without the prior written consent of the Company. Company may assign Agreement at anytime without consent from or notice to Subscriber. Company reserves right to cancel customers rights under this contract at anytime without further obligation.
- Top Tech Hosting takes no responsibility for any material input by others and not posted to the Top Tech Hosting Network by Top Tech Hosting. Top Tech Hosting is not responsible for the content of any other websites linked to the Top Tech Hosting Network; links are provided as Internet navigation tools only. Top Tech Hosting disclaims any responsibility for any such inappropriate use and any liability to any person or party for any other person or party's violation of this policy.
- Top Tech Hosting is not responsible for any damages your business may suffer. Top Tech Hosting does not make implied or written warranties for any of our services. Top Tech Hosting denies any warranty or merchantability for a specific purpose. This includes loss of data resulting from delays, non-deliveries, wrong delivery, and any and all service interruptions caused by Top Tech Hosting.
- It is absolutely forbidden to host pornographic content or IRC servers on Virtual Server Accounts. Virtual Server Accounts found hosting this material will be subject to immediate cancellation without refund.
19. Responsibility for Content
You, as Top Tech's customer, are solely responsible for the content stored on and served by your Top Tech Hosting server.
20. Denial of Service
We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone at any time for any reason.
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