Our Services and Your Obligations Masscot Internet will provide web site design, development, web hosting and related Internet services in exchange for payment of fees and full compliance with the terms and conditions of this Agreement. In performing these services, Masscot Internet maintains full control and ownership of any and all account information and (“IP”) addresses and numbers that may be assigned to you. Masscot Internet reserves the right to access any information as permitted by required law, regulation or other governmental request. Masscot Internet will fully cooperate with law enforcement authorities in the prosecution of lawbreakers and Masscot Internet reserves the right to inform law enforcement authorities of any illegal activity.

You agree to comply with the requirements of the CDA and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the “DMCA”) and acknowledge that Masscot Internet is a service provider and thereby immune from liability under the DMCA. Masscot Internet will accommodate standard procedures used to identify and protect copyrighted works. Neither websites themselves that are being hosted on Masscot Internet’s servers nor the links contained within these sites are being monitored, screened for approval, or endorsed by Masscot Internet.

Masscot Internet is not responsible for any content on any websites hosted on our servers.

Annual Accounts – If any services are paid for under an annual basis, Masscot Internet reserves the right to change the hosting account to monthly at anytime and begin billing the account under a monthly account starting that month. All annual accounts are applicable to the terms and conditions of monthly accounts and pricing can be altered within a 30 day notice to begin charging services on a monthly basis.

If a client decides to pay for accounts on an annual basis, the account is not held within an annual contract, It’s simply paid for under an annual basis, all accounts fall into the terms and conditions of monthly accounts and any services or product offerings can be changed at anytime without notice. Masscot Internet reserves the right to terminate and cancel any service/product with 30 days notice to client via e-mail. You agree that Masscot Internet is not responsible for any loss of data due to any server or network or any and all other related issues.

Masscot Internet, Inc. is not responsible for any damages to any client’s business. Masscot Internet, Inc. makes no warranties or guarantees of any kind, expressed or implied for services that we provide and is not responsible for circumstances beyond our control. Use of Masscot Internet’s web hosting and e-mail service is at the client’s sole risk. Masscot Internet, Inc. services are provided on an “as is, as available” basis.

Masscot Internet will not pay or reimburse for any damages regarding website functionality due to server issues, downtime, or any other related issues that could lead to a client’s web site being dysfunctional or non-operational. The client is responsible for locating errors on their website and notifying an outside party or Masscot Internet for assistance with fixing any issues on the website relating to coding, PHP, MySQL, Miva Merchant errors, SSL errors, e-commerce errors and/or e-mail related issues.

Masscot Internet will help to the best of its abilities to fix these issues. If the issue continues, then the client is responsible for any further support provided by any outside third party to resolve the issue. Masscot Internet will not reimburse or credit any fees incurred by a third party contractor to fix issues, or any damages or losses incurred by any issue related on the website or downtime.

Masscot Internet reserves the right to modify or change any IP address associated with any hosting account at any time without notice.

Masscot Internet does not guarantee that our services will be uninterrupted or error free. Masscot Internet will provide every effort in good faith to ensure that its services are available to as many Internet users as possible with minimal service interruptions. In no circumstance will Masscot Internet be liable for any claims resulting from the use or inability to use Masscot Internet, Inc. services including, but not limited to, service interruptions, client errors, Internet connectivity problems, miscommunication, loss of design of a web site, loss of marketing or advertising programs, deleted accounts, unauthorized access to Masscot Internet servers.

Masscot Internet reserves the right to report to law enforcement authorities any illegal activity that comes to our attention.

Masscot Internet provides domain acquisition and registration services through an accredited domain registrar partnership. Masscot Internet is not responsible for the domain registration or renewal of the client’s domain name(s) registered through Masscot Internet. Masscot Internet provides automatic domain name renewal services as a convenience, and automatic renewal is Masscot Internet’s default setting. If Masscot Internet renews a domain on behalf of a client automatically, and the client decides that they no longer want such domain name(s), that client must notify Masscot Internet in writing within 7 days of the invoice date stating that they no longer want the domain and request a refund. If Masscot Internet does not receive such cancellation request within 7 days of the original invoice date, then the domain renewal charges shall be non-refundable. If a domain is not using Masscot Internet’s automatic renewal, Masscot Internet will make reasonable attempts to notify the client of any upcoming renewals through Masscot Internet’s current support system. Domains not utilizing Masscot Internet’s automatic renewal system will not be renewed without the client’s prior approval. The client is responsible for making sure their domain name is properly renewed, regardless of the method used. Masscot Internet shall have no responsibility or liability for any lost domain names. Any domain renewed by Masscot Internet on behalf of a client and for which the client has not paid, or refuses to pay for such renewal for any reason whatsoever, then the client agrees that such unpaid domain name shall become the sole property of Masscot Internet who may then sell, retain, or dispose of such domain(s) at Masscot Internet’s sole option.

Payment Policies, Cancellation Policies Web Design – Web design and development fees are in addition to and separate from any web hosting and domain registration fees. Unless otherwise specified in writing, Masscot Internet requires a payment equal to 50% of the estimated cost of web site construction before construction begins. Website construction estimates are for labor estimates based on Masscot Internet’s current rates and information provided by the customer and do not include the cost of domain name registrations, website hosting, third party graphics, sound files, or any and all other elements, programs and features that may be purchased on behalf of the customer by Masscot Internet. Programs included in Masscot Internet website control panels are included in all website construction estimates. Web design includes basic search engine optimization and basic search engine submission. All fees for web site construction, domain registrations, web hosting, and third party elements not previously paid by deposit or otherwise, are due immediately upon completion of the website construction. Completion of the web site shall be determined to be when the site is ready to me made public, or has actually been made public. If the customer fails to pay the balance in full, including any charges for third party graphics, sound files, or any and all other elements, programs and features purchased on behalf of the customer by Masscot Internet, upon completion, and upon demand, by Masscot Internet, Masscot Internet reserves the right to suspend the website hosting and any and all other services until such time as all fees and charges are paid in full.

Search Engine Optimization – Full Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is beyond the scope of the basic search engine optimization included in construction of all websites. Search Engine Optimization fees and terms vary greatly from site to site depending on multiple factors including the size of the site, the target market, level of competition, among others. Payment for Search Engine Optimization is payable in advance unless agreed otherwise by prior arrangement. In any case full payment for SEO services is required immediately upon completion of the work.

Domain Registrations – All domain registrations and renewals must be pre-paid by the client. Masscot Internet is required to pay the registrar prior to registering new domain names and any renewals. Once registered or renewed at the registrar level, domain registration fees are non-refundable to Masscot Internet and may not be canceled and therefore not refundable or able to be canceled by the client. Domain name registrations may however, be transferred or sold to a new owner.

Web Hosting – Full payment of the web hosting account specified is required before any hosting services are rendered, including any renewals. All payment requests and invoices are to sent to the client via electronic e-mail (“e-mail”). All pre-paid accounts are due by the date of the accounts anniversary, the customer will be notified by e-mail of payment due date. Web Hosting accounts not paid in full by that date may be immediately suspended.

Monthly Clients – Monthly clients will be able to cancel their accounts at anytime, but shall not receive any type of refund for the days used or unused for the account. Once a client requests cancellation by e-mail or written notice, the account will be canceled right away, and no further services are provided. Masscot Internet is not responsible for any fees incurred by any other party including third party agencies, PCI Compliance vendors or security checks by PCI Compliance vendors that cause the client to incur a fee or fine for not being compliant. Annual clients receive substantial discounts for annual pre-payment. Annual clients may cancel at any time but shall not receive any type of refund for the time unused.

PCI Compliance – Masscot Internet will provide PCI Compliance on certain packages located on our web site, but will not guarantee compliance and will not in any way be responsible for fees incurred for not being PCI Compliant if a client’s site does not pass the scans.

Masscot Internet will also not provide any type of refund if a client receives any type of bank fees caused by Masscot Internet running a charge on a bank account, or credit card, for any of our services. Client is responsible for making sure money is deposited into the account prior to the hosting date that charges will be deducted from the client’s credit or debit card. If Miva Merchant or some other premium e-commerce software is installed on a website and the customer decides to cancel his account within the initial 30 day trial period, The software license fee portion of the hosting fee is non refundable as that portion is paid to the software provider and therefore not under the control of Masscot Internet.

We do not pro-rate monthly rates after 30 days of account activation. Domain registration and setup fees if any are nonrefundable. The account holder is responsible for all money owed on the account from the time it was established to the time that the customer notifies Masscot Internet of cancellation. Additional features can be added to your account at anytime. The customer may also upgrade their account at anytime without any penalties. If your web site has any overdue or unpaid balance, Masscot Internet will temporarily suspend your account, until the full payment is made. All cancellations must be received with a 30 day notice.

30 Day Money Back Guarantee – We are sure you will enjoy your service with Masscot Internet. That is why we include a 30 day money back guarantee with all of our web hosting packages. If you are dissatisfied with our service for any reason, you will receive a full refund within the first 30 days of your account activation (minus setup fees or third party software license fees). It is also not possible to refund a Miva or other software licenses that may be issued with our E-Commerce packages. This money back guarantee is not available after 30 days of the initial account activation and does not include renewals or web design services or domain name registration fees.

All cancellations must be received by either e-mail to support@masscothosting.net, Signature Required USPS delivery, or by a support ticket within the first 30 days of activation of service.

Indemnification Policy You agree to use all Masscot Internet services at your own risk. Masscot Internet disclaims all warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Masscot Internet is not liable for any loss, loss of data or commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or any and all other damages. By accepting this Agreement, you agree to waive and not hold Masscot Internet responsible for any claims relating to any action stated above.

Customer agrees to defend and hold harmless Masscot Internet from any and all demands, liabilities, losses, costs, claims, including attorney fees asserted against Masscot Internet, it’s employees, agents, customers, officers, that may arise at their own expense. The customer agrees that Masscot Internet, Inc. is not to be liable for any costs, fees, penalties or monetary court judgements which exceed the amount the customer has paid Masscot Internet, Inc. for services (not to include licensing fees) and that this Agreement and the rights and obligations of the parties under this Agreement shall be governed, construed, interpreted and enforced in accordance with the domestic laws of the State of Massachusetts, regardless of any choice of law or conflict of law provision or rule of any other jurisdiction.

The rights and obligations of the parties under this Agreement shall be heard only in a state court in Barnstable County, Massachusetts or in a federal district court having jurisdiction over Masscot Internet, Inc. in Massachusetts. The parties irrevocably consent to the jurisdiction of the state of Massachusetts.

Cancellation Policy You may cancel your Masscot Internet services at any time. If your account is on a month-to-month basis with Masscot Internet, you may wish to cancel this service at anytime, by stating in a written letter or an e-mail before the end of the billing period. If your account is paid up front, all fees for service are considered non-refundable unless cancellation is requested within 30 days of initial account activation. Licensing and setup fees are always non-refundable.

Masscot Internet charges a $25 fee for returned checks and a $25 fee for charge backs. For international customers, if you are using Masscot Internet services, the amount must be drawn in US dollars. If a client has a balance due at the time of cancellation, this balance must be paid in full. All overdue balances and or financial obligations must be paid in full before the cancellation is considered complete. The act of transferring your domain to another hosting or service provider does not constitute of canceling your account, and charges will continue until Masscot Internet is notified in writing as aforementioned. Masscot Internet reserves the right to pursue any and all legal avenues available to enforce collection of any and all unpaid accounts plus any recovering attorney’s fees we may encounter in the process of collection regardless of whether or not such account(s) were previously cancelled.

Masscot Internet must be contacted formally to avoid further charges. Account changes and account maintenance issues can be handled by your web site’s high tech state-of-the-art Control Panel.

Account Ownership Masscot Internet is only responsible to the current owner for web hosting services. We verify ownership by credit card number, address, and other information stated in your account. If this information is given to someone else by the account holder and/or owner, the account holder is responsible for any abuse. Masscot Internet keeps all information private and confidential.

E-commerce Services and Hosting The client is responsible for maintaining their storefront, retrieving orders, and making sure that the storefront, no matter what version, is fully operational. Masscot Internet will assist in solving issues related to basic hosting troubleshooting and E-commerce software issues related to hosting. We will help support and troubleshoot issues with the shopping cart but we are not completely responsible if any third party modules are installed. In no way is Masscot Internet responsible for any fixes or updates to these patches or modules. We will not support any fixing of bugs or troubleshooting of these software – they will have to be directed to the module vendor.

Since 2011, Miva Merchant has been making dramatic increases in their license fees. Because of this, Masscot Internet reserves the right to adjust Miva Merchant Hosting fees accordingly as needed and without prior notice.

Privacy Statement Masscot Internet collects the following types of personal information: names, billing information, postal and e-mail addresses, phone and facsimile numbers and support tickets. Masscot Internet will not use your personal or billing information other than for the purpose for which it was submitted without your consent. We use your information to reply to inquiries and to handle billing charges. No personal information or billing information on file will be used for creating aggregated databases or unlawful uses.

E-mail Policy By no means does Masscot Internet support mass e-mails, group e-mail, e-mail bombs, hate e-mail or spam. Client is responsible for keeping their e-mail storage under control. Masscot Internet is responsible for an anti-spamming policy. Under this policy, we prohibit spam or any unsolicited commercial e-mail, from being sent either over the Masscot Internet network or by customers, or any other users of Masscot Internet including customer’s customers. Masscot Internet has the right to immediately cancel hosting services, without notice, to any client not following these policies.

Content Policy All services provided by Masscot Internet may be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage or presentation of any information, data or material in violation of any United States Federal, State, or City law is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to copyrighted or trademarked material, material that advocates calls for the commission of crimes or civil harms to any person and intellectual property.

Website Termination If for any reason a web site receives a complaint about copyright, Cease and Desist, or any legal notice for a website to be taken off-line, Masscot Internet reserves the right to take down the website immediately until the issue has been solved by both parties.

Backup Full backups are made every night as well as backups of new or modified data but it is the customers sole and full responsibility to make backups of their complete website, including E-commerce sites, web hosting, or any other service or sites hosted on Masscot Internet servers. Masscot Internet uses state-of-the-art backup utilities, but the customer is responsible for keeping a backup of their web content, E-commerce shopping cart files, email, and/or any files or applications stored on Masscot Internet’s servers. Backup utilities are included in the user’s control panel or by using any FTP software with your FTP account. If loss of data has occurred due to an error of Masscot Internet, we will attempt to recover the data without charge. Masscot Internet keeps a copy of backups for 30 days, anything after that we cannot guarantee a restore. If the customer makes an error, or a website is hacked, or a simple error has occurred on the website it is not Masscot Internet’s responsibility to restore backups. Backups are made for server restoration purposes only. Masscot Internet is not responsible for loss of data due to the negligence of client. In such cases, Masscot Internet will still attempt to recover files and data but it is not guaranteed. We also provide off-site nightly backups, but these backups are for website files and E-commerce files only. We do not backup e-mail and will not restore e-mail accounts. Client is responsible for keeping and restoring e-mail accounts and e-mail. E-mail accounts and e-mail are backed up once a week and are restored at a per account basis if requested. It’s the user’s right to backup their own website. If, in any case, the website files are not restorable by backup, Masscot Internet takes no responsibility for website files or content, shopping carts, or any other information previously hosted on Masscot Internet servers.

Upon written or verbal cancellation to Masscot Internet Inc., all files, e-mail, website content, MySQL database, shopping carts and all account information including credit card information is removed immediately from all servers belonging to Masscot Internet. We do keep a 14 day retention period of data on backups. After 14 days from notice of cancellation, all data, files and account information are fully removed from the servers and the possession of Masscot Internet.

Resellers Resellers are responsible for providing support to their own clients. Masscot Internet will provide resellers with high priority support. Your customers have to abide by the same terms and conditions as you do, or we have the right to cancel any of your reseller accounts. This will not be done until discussed with you beforehand.

Domain Names It is the client’s responsibility to renew the domain name and contact Masscot Internet to do so if the domain name was registered by Masscot Internet. Notices will be sent up to 30 days prior to expiration to the e-mail address listed as the domain name’s administrative contact. If the domain name is in Masscot Internet’s automatic renewal system, the domain name will only be renewed automatically if a client has a valid credit card on file with an active hosting account. All other domains without a valid hosting account or credit card will expire and can be renewed only within a 14 day grace period after expiration. If the domain is in redemption the client will have to pay a fee of up to $350 to recover the domain back from the registrar. In any case, if a domain name expires, Masscot Internet Inc. is not responsible for any damages or losses due to the website not being present on the web or loss of the domain name itself.

There is an annual charge per year at Masscot Internet’s posted rate for domain name renewals which may vary depending on the TLD (.com,.net. etc). If the client fails to pay for a domain name that has already been renewed by Masscot Internet, Masscot Internet holds the full right of ownership without any exceptions and may use or sell or assign that domain without any limitations whatsoever.

Service Level Agreement and Uptime Guarantee Masscot Internet strives to provide great uptime. We offer the following SLA (Service Level Agreement). Masscot Internet Inc. will endeavor to provide world class web site uptime. “Web Site Uptime” is the percentage of time per month (based on a 30 day month, 43200 minutes) that the content of your website is available for access by third parties via HTTP and HTTPS, as measured by Masscot Internet. If your website Uptime is less than 100%, Masscot Internet will, upon request, issue a credit to your account in accordance with the following schedule. Credits will be calculated on the basis of the monthly service charge paid for the affected services as follows: Web Site Uptime Credit Percentage 99.9 to 100% 0%, 98% to 99.8% 10%, 95% to 97.9% 25%, 90% to 94.9% 50%, 89.9% or below 100%.Web Site Downtime (in minutes) Credit Percentage less than 42.2 mins 0% 42.3 – 864 mins 10%, 865 – 2160 mins 25%, 2161 – 4320 mins 50%, Greater than 4320 mins (72 hrs.) 100%.

Customer shall not receive any credits under this SLA in connection with any failure or deficiency of website availability caused by or associated with: Circumstances beyond Masscot Internet’s control including war, strike or other labor disturbance, unavailability/interruption/delay in telecommunications, virus attacks and/or hackers, third party software failure (free scripts, e-commerce software, merchant gateways), fire, flood, tornado, earthquakes, acts by any governing body, embargo, boycott, or inability to obtain supplies, raw materials, or power used in or equipment needed for any provision of this Service Level Agreement including: Notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein, the total amount credited to the customer in a particular month under this SLA shall not exceed the total hosting fee paid by customer for such month for the affected Services. Credits are exclusive of any applicable taxes or third party software license fees charged to customer or collected by Masscot Internet and are customer’s sole and exclusive remedy with respect to any failure or deficiency in the website.

The SLA applies to all clients that host with Masscot Internet and are current (i.e., not past due) for all accounts and services provided by Masscot Internet.

Contact Us You can contact us at support@masscothosting.net if you have any questions about this policy. Masscot Internet reserves the right to edit these terms at anytime.

These terms and conditions are effective as of 10/01/2012

 

Dave Doolittle

There's a world of Internet service providers out there, but there's a world of difference when it comes to service. Fast, responsive service makes the difference in answering questions and keeping my clients happy. Knowing that we can count on Masscot as we do, I recommend Masscot to my friends and clients for both small sites and for larger e-commerce sites.

Dave Doolittle, web-designer