Terms of service
1. Definitions
1.1. “Account” means the account held with Redsteps by the Customer that is used for billing, contact information and details of Services assigned to the Customer.
1.2. “Customer” means the person or entity who ordered Service(s) from Redsteps.
1.3. “Service”, “Service(s)” or “Services” means any product(s) or service(s) the Customer has ordered from Redsteps. This can include, but is not limited to, web site hosting, domain name registration or transfer or renewal, SSL certificates, VPS and SMS services, business logos, design services. These product(s) and service(s) are identified in full within the “sign up” and “service provision” emails Redsteps sends to the Customer after an order has been placed. The specific details of the Services available can be found on our website.
1.4. “Redsteps” means the retail operations of Redsteps.
2. Acceptance
2.1. The Customer signified acceptance of these Terms of Service, as well as our Privacy Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, Customer Service Policy, Service Level Agreement (where applicable) and any applicable Registrant Agreement, when they submitted their order to Redsteps for an Account and/or Services and that order was accepted.
3. Term
3.1. The Customer agrees to a month to month contract term for Services unless otherwise stated in the Service offering (eg. domain names, SSL certificates, special Services with an agreed term), or otherwise agreed in writing. The month to month contract for Services is automatically renewed each month in perpetuity subject to cancellation by the Customer as per Section 13 of this agreement.
3.2. Monthly services are established as part, thereof, signifying the beginning of a new month demotes commitment till the end of that monthly period.
4. Service, Marketing and Promotional Emails
4.1. The Customer agrees to receive emails directly relating to the Service(s) provided, as well as marketing and promotional emails from Redsteps to the email address registered to their account. The Customer can unsubscribe from marketing and promotional emails by email to hello@redsteps.com.au
4.2. Redsteps warrants that they will never sell or trade any email address to any third party, in accordance with the Privacy Policy.
5. Availability of Services
5.1. While Redsteps will endeavour to provide continuous availability of all Services to the Customer, Redsteps will not be liable for any Service interruptions or down time that is not covered by a Service Level Agreement.
5.2. Scheduled maintenance will be performed at a time which is deemed suitable by Redsteps which has the least noticeable impact on the Customer, and should it require the Services to be offline for greater than thirty (30) minutes, Redsteps will post details of the scheduled maintenance at least two (2) days prior. 2012 Redsteps
5.3. Unscheduled maintenance will be performed as required by Redsteps, and should Services be offline for greater than thirty (30) minutes.
6. Domain Name Registration and Renewal
6.1. The Customer acknowledges that Redsteps is an authorised reseller of VentraIP Wholesale, an ICANN and auDA accredited registrar.
6.2. The Customer acknowledges that they have read and agree to any applicable Registrant Agreement before purchasing any domain name Service(s) from Redsteps.
6.3. The Customer acknowledges that all domain name Service(s) are non-refundable once the order for the domain name Service(s) has been accepted and processed by Redsteps.
6.4. Redsteps does not warrant or guarantee that a domain name registration will be approved, irrespective of whether the invoice for the domain name has been paid. The Customer should take no action in respect of the requested domain name(s) until they have been notified by Redsteps that the domain name(s) has been successfully registered and is in the Customers name.
6.5. The registration of the domain name and the ongoing use of the domain name are subject to the relevant naming authority’s terms of service and the Customer is responsible for ensuring awareness of these terms and that they are adhered to. The Customer waives any right to make claim against Redsteps in respect to a decision made by a naming authority to refuse registration or renewal of a domain name.
6.6. The Customer acknowledges that Redsteps is not obligated to renew a domain name if the Customer has not confirmed to Redsteps that the domain name is to be renewed, or the invoice for renewal has not been paid in full, or it is determined that the Customer does not satisfy the eligibility criteria to continue holding the domain name license. In these circumstances, Redsteps will not be held liable by the Customer for any loss or damages. All renewal requests must be submitted via email and it is the Customer’s responsibility to confirm that the renewal request has been successfully processed in full.
6.7. Domain name registration or renewal may be declined by Redsteps if the Customer is in breach of the Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, Customer Service Policy or any applicable Registrant Agreement, or the customer has other unpaid invoices in their Account.
6.8. It is the Customer’s responsibility to ensure that the Registrant and Technical contact information is kept up to date on every domain name. As per registry-registrar policy and agreements, Redsteps will use this information to advise the Customer of any pending expiry, renewal or transfer requests.
6.9. Should the Customer choose to terminate all services with Redsteps, but does not transfer a domain name to another registrar, the Customer agrees that Redsteps may contact the Customer after the Account closure to advise of any domain name expiry, renewal or transfer.
7. Limitation of Liability
7.1. Redsteps shall not be liable to the Customer for harm caused by or related to the Customer’s Service or inability to utilise the Service unless caused by gross negligence or willful misconduct.
7.2. Neither Party shall be liable to the other for lost profits, direct or indirect, special or incidental, consequential or punitive, or damages of any kind whether or not they were known or should have been known.
7.3. Notwithstanding anything else in this agreement, the maximum aggregate liability that Redsteps, any of its employees, agents or affiliates, under any theory of law, shall not exceed a payment in excess of the amount paid by the Customer for the Service in question for the six months prior to the occurrence of the event(s) giving rise to the claim.
8. Customer General Warranties and Undertakings
8.1. The Customer warrants that any information supplied for the purpose of creating an Account with Redsteps, including but not limited to, first name, last name, address, telephone number and email address is true and correct, and will be kept up to date via email.
8.2. The Customer warrants that they will keep any passwords or sensitive information used with the Service in a secure location.
8.3. The Customer warrants that at the time of entering into this agreement they are not relying on any representation made by Redsteps which has not been expressly stated in this agreement, or on any descriptions or specifications contained in any other document produced by Redsteps.
8.4. The Customer warrants that all due care has been taken to ensure data integrity before it has been uploaded to Redsteps’s servers. This includes an undertaking that the Customer will conduct the appropriate virus and malware scans on the data before it is uploaded to Redsteps’s servers.
8.5. The Customer agrees that they are solely responsible for dealing with cases of unauthorised third parties accessing their Account and/or Service(s). These matters should be referred to the Australian Federal Police for investigation as soon as possible.
9. Redsteps General Warranties and Undertakings
9.1. Redsteps accepts liability for the supply of the Service to the Customer to the extent provided in this agreement.
9.2. Redsteps does not warrant that:
a. The Services provided within this agreement will be uninterrupted or error free;
b. The Services will meet your requirements, other than as expressly set out in this agreement;
c. The Services will not be subjected to external hacking attempts, viruses, worms, denial of service attacks, or other persons gaining unauthorised access to the Service or internal Redsteps systems.
9.3. Redsteps does not make or give any express or implied warranties including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, or arising from a course of dealing, usage or trade practice, with respect to any goods or services provided under or incidental to this agreement.
9.4. No oral or written information or advice given by Redsteps or its resellers, agents, representatives or employees, to the Customer, shall create a warranty or in any way increase the scope of the express warranties hereby given, and the Customer should not rely on any such information or advice.
9.5. In no event will Redsteps be liable to the Customer for any loss of business, contracts, profits or anticipated savings or for any other indirect or consequential or economic loss whatsoever.
10. Fees and Credit Management
10.1. In relation to fees for Services:
a. Fees for Services ordered by the Customer shall begin on the date of the initial order and shall be prorated to include all days until the first day of the next month, and the chosen billing cycle in advance. This may be monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually, biennially or triennially.
b. The first day of the month will serve as the anniversary date for all future billings including one time fees, upgrades, additional services, cancellations and service credits, unless the Service only allows annual or biennially billing cycles (eg. domain name registrations, SSL, etc).
c. Fees are due in advance of the billing cycle and will be invoiced to the Customer ten (10) days prior to the due date. If a credit card is stored on in the Account, it will be charged three (3) days prior to the due date to allow sufficient time for any potential issues (such as insufficient funds, expired cards, etc) to be rectified before the due date.
10.2. In relation to fees for upgrades to Services:
a. Upgrades ordered by the Customer on the billing anniversary date will be billed for a full cycle and will continue each cycle on the anniversary date, unless the Services only allows annual or biennially billing cycles (eg. domain name registrations, etc).
b. Upgrades ordered by the Customer after the billing anniversary date will be prorated to the next anniversary date at the full monthly cost. Future fees will appear as the new plan from your existing anniversary billing date.
c. Fees for upgrades will be payable within seven (7) days of the upgrade taking place. If a credit card is stored on file, it will be charged three (3) days prior to the due date, to allow sufficient time for any potential issues (such as insufficient funds, expired cards, etc) to be rectified before the due date.
d. Additional fees may be payable for upgrades where manual work is required by Redsteps to process the upgrade request.
10.3. In relation to fees for downgrades to Services:
a. Downgrades will be processed when the request is received by Redsteps from the Customer, unless otherwise specified in the request.
b. A credit will be issued to the Customer’s Account as account credit for the difference of any prorated pre-paid amount minus the cost of the new plan prorated on the chosen cycle.
c. A $9.95 administration fee may be charged for a downgrade request at Redsteps’s sole discretion. Additional fees may be payable for downgrades where manual work is required by Redsteps to process the downgrade request.
10.4. Fees for one-off Services including, but not limited to, dedicated IP address, SSL certificates, SMS credits, instant data blocks and instant disk blocks, are due within seven (7) of the invoice being issued.
10.5. All published prices are inclusive of any government taxes and charges unless otherwise noted.
10.6. Any unpaid invoices in the Customer’s Account must be paid in full before new Services will be provisioned.
10.7. Failure to pay any fees may result in the account being referred to an external collection agency, which may include interest (calculated daily) and collection costs.
10.8. Invoices that are more than three (3) days past the due date will automatically incur a late payment fee of $9.95 or 2% of the invoice total, whichever is greater, which will be payable on top of the invoice amount.
10.9. Services with unpaid invoices that are more than seven (7) days past the due date will be automatically suspended, and a reconnection fee of $9.95 in additional to any outstanding fees may apply to have the service restored.
10.10. Services with unpaid invoices that are not paid in full within fourteen (14) days of the due date will be automatically terminated.
11. Refunds
11.1. The following Services are not eligible for a refund if the Service has been successfully provisioned by one of Redsteps’s suppliers:
a. Domain names;
b. SSL certificates;
c. SMS credits;
d. Software licenses and carbon offset add-ons.
11.2. A full refund will be provided to either account credit or returned to the original payment method, if the order was placed within forty-five (45) days of the date that the refund was requested for any of the following Services:
a. Any shared cPanel web hosting Service;
b. Any VPS hosting Service.
11.3. A pro rata refund will be provided to account credit only, minus a $9.95 administration fee, if the refund request was made more than forty-five (45) days after the order was placed for any of the following Services:
a. Any shared cPanel web hosting Service;
b. Any VPS hosting Service.
11.4. The Customer will not be entitled to a refund if any of Redsteps’s Terms, Policies and Agreements have been breached by the Customer.
11.5. All other refunds will be processed at the sole discretion of Redsteps Management, in-line with the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission’s published policies and guidelines. More information can be found at http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/1023609
12. Suspension and Termination of Services
12.1. Redsteps may suspend or terminate Services if:
a. The Customer is found to be in breach of any formal policy including but not limited to the Terms of Services, Acceptable Use Policy, Customer Service Policy or any applicable Registrant Agreement;
b. The Customer has become insolvent or bankrupt;
c. The Customer has unpaid invoices as per Section 10 of this agreement.
12.2. Redsteps may decide at its sole discretion to advise a Customer that their Account and/or Service(s) will be terminated by giving thirty (30) days written notice, and any applicable refunds will be processed as per Section 11.5 of this agreement.
12.3. If a Customer’s Account is closed for any reason, the Customer must pay all outstanding invoices by the due dates.
12.4. If a web hosting or VPS Service is suspended or terminated for any reason, Redsteps is under no obligation to provide the Customer with a copy any data associated with the Service. Redsteps may provide the customer with a backup of the data, if it is available, for a fee of $49.95.
13. Cancellation
13.1. The Customer can request cancellation of their Account or any Service(s) with Redsteps emailing hello@redsteps.com.au and submitting a cancellation request or via post. For security reasons, we will not accept cancellation requests by any other method.
13.2. Any pre-paid fees for Services past the current billing month will be refunded in accordance with Section 11 of this agreement once a refund request has been made by the Customer.
13.3. The Customer agrees to pay any outstanding invoices upon cancellation of their Services.
13.4. If the Customer requests cancellation of a Service after the invoice for the renewal of the Service has been paid, a refund will be issued in accordance with Section 11 of this agreement.
14. Data Management
14.1. It is the Customer’s sole responsibility to maintain regular off-site backups of their data. The Customer will not hold Redsteps liable for incomplete, out of date, corrupt or otherwise incomplete data recovered from backups and archives.
14.2. Redsteps makes every reasonable effort to backup and archive the Customer’s data on a regular basis for the purpose of disaster recovery.
14.3. In the event of hard disk failure or data corruption, Redsteps will restore data from the last known verified archive. If all backup and archived data appears to be corrupt, the Customer should be prepared to upload all of their data to their Service from their own copy or an off-site backup, and recreate all mailboxes, databases, FTP accounts, etc.
14.4. Redsteps takes automatic system backups of all web hosting Services seven (7) times a week.
14.5. Redsteps takes automatic system backups of Business web hosting Services seven (7) times a week and will also retain a weekly rotation of these backups.
14.6. If the Customer requires Redsteps to supply a backup of their data for any reason or purpose that is not the direct fault of Redsteps, a fee of $49.95 per Service will be payable by the Customer before the data will be made available.
15. Changes
15.1. Redsteps may amend the Terms of Service at any time. Should any change occur, we will advise the Customer by email and note the specific changes which have occurred, and provide fourteen (14) days notice before any changes are enforced.
15.2. In exceptional circumstances, Redsteps Management may be required to amend the Terms of Service and enforce the amendments immediately. If this is the case, the Customer will be advised by email and the circumstances will be explained.
15.3. All Redsteps Terms, Policies and Agreements are available for download from our website at any time.
16. Use of Identity
16.1. The Customer agrees to use the Redsteps logo, company information and related services in accordance with approved marketing guidelines.
16.2. Redsteps agrees not to use a Customer name, logos or information without prior written consent of the Customer.
17. Entire Agreement
17.1. These terms and conditions constitute the entire agreement between Redsteps and the Customer, and it supersedes all prior oral or written agreements, understandings and representations.
18. Governing Law
18.1. The Customer agrees to abide by all local, state and federal laws pursuant to the Services delivered by Redsteps.
18.2. The Customer agrees that these terms and conditions are governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia, and agrees to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of that state.If you have any questions about this agreement, please contact our Customer Care Team at hello@Redsteps.com.au
This document was last updated on September 20, 2012.