Terms of Service/Usage Agreement We know that this is not the fun part. We wanted to just say "We're not going to try to rip you off so please don't try to rip us off" but our lawyer said we should say all the stuff below instead and that we should make sure you read it, so please do. It's here to protect you as well as us.
1. Introduction
By accepting services from UtiliGeek Services and/or submitting payment to UtiliGeek Services, you agree to be bound by this Agreement as well as all procedures, pricing, policies and other terms on the UtiliGeek website and to use the services provided by UtiliGeek in compliance with this Agreement, as well as all procedures, pricing, policies and other terms on the UtiliGeek website.
2. Payment Obligations
a. UtiliGeek accepts payments only through PayPal.com via our payment page at http://utiligeek.com/payments.shtml or through the PayPal.com site by sending payment to the payment recipient address payments@utiligeek.com
b. Customers with questions regarding invoices or payments should contact UtiliGeek by writing to payments@utiligeek.com. All invoices and payments are considered valid unless disputed in writing within thirty (30) days of the billing date. Adjustments will not be made for charges that are more than 30 days old. This paragraph is not meant to be interpreted to mean that all disputed invoices or payments will be adjusted. Adjustments or refunds will be considered on a case by case basis.
c. Payment for a service is due as described for that service on the
UtiliGeek Website. Any and all hosting services (email, website,
discussion list/announcement list) will be suspended when the account
has become 25 days past due whether or not the customer has received notices
sent by UtiliGeek regarding payment due. Payment for hosting services
is due in advance on or before the first of the month. Payment procedures
for website design/construction/maintenance/development are as described
at http://utiligeek.com/design.shtml Portions or all of a website may
not be made publicly accessible on the internet or otherwise delivered
to the customer until all payment obligations have been met by the customer.
d. Delinquent accounts may be suspended or canceled at UtiliGeek's sole discretion; however, charges will continue to accrue until the account is canceled. UtiliGeek may bill an additional charge to reinstate a suspended account.
3. UtiliGeek's
Responsibilities
UtiliGeek Services will use its best efforts to resolve customers' basic
computer technical problems. UtiliGeek Services will attempt to resolve
such technical problems in a professional, reasonable and timely manner,
taking into consideration the circumstances and nature of the technical
problems. UtiliGeek's telephone and online response times may be delayed
due to research and inquiries, as may be necessary. UtiliGeek's telephone
or online technical support does not assure that every request for technical
support will be resolved to Member's satisfaction, and UtiliGeek's responses
constitute only technical advice or suggestions. Technical problems
that may arise may be a result of software or hardware errors or problems
that may not be correctable or may be too difficult to resolve by telephone
or online support. UtiliGeek has access only to proprietary information
from vendors, manufacturers, and developers, which are available to the
general public and purchasers of products and may not have the ability to
obtain proprietary information necessary to resolve some customer's technical
problems. UtiliGeek is in no way responsible for charges to a customer's
phone bill, internet service provider bill or any other charges, bills or
invoices from a third party related or unrelated to services provided by
UtiliGeek or requests for services from UtiliGeek.
4. Customer's Responsibilities Customer understands and acknowledges that resolving
computing problems via telephone and internet require the full participation
of the customer as well as that of the support tech. Customer will
make her/his best effort, with help from UtiliGeek where possible, to provide
UtiliGeek with information regarding the customer's hardware and software
which is required for troubleshooting, tutoring etc. Prior to seeking
technical support, customer is solely responsible for adequate protection
and backup of customer's data, software and/or hardware. Customer
using UtiliGeek webhosting services will provide UtiliGeek staff a minimum
of two weeks (14 days) warning if Customer's website on UtiliGeek's webserver
is to be featured by any media outlet of any kind, including, but not limited
to television or cable broadcast, radio broadcast, newspaper or magazine
article, high profile/high traffic website or other means of mass publication
which is likely to result in a spike in traffic to customer's website. Customer
understand that failing to provide such warning will more than likely result
in the crashing of the webserver making customers site and all other sites
on that server inaccessible. Customer understands and acknowledges that
neither UtiliGeek Services nor any of its third-party product or service
providers shall be responsible for any lost data, lost time, lost revenue,
lost profit, inaccurate output, or work delays resulting from any technical
support services, hosting services, other services or products provided
by UtiliGeek Services. Abusive, threatening or hateful language, whether
directed at a UtiliGeek staff member or a third party will not be tolerated
and will be cause for termination of the phone call, email thread or instant
messaging session without warning and without refund. UtiliGeek reserves
the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason. This section
is not intended to represent the whole of the customer's responsibility
as responsibilities of the customer are found throughout this document.
5.
Privacy Policy Any personal information
you submitted by customer to UtiliGeek (names, email addresses, phone numbers,
hardware and software owned/used, content accessed, etc) will not be shared
with anyone, anywhere for any reason unless needed for UtiliGeek to provide
services requested by customer to customer (e.g. interacting with customer's
ISP on customer's behalf) in which case UtiliGeek will notify customer and
obtain customer's permission to use such information beforehand. UtiliGeek
Services does not send unsolicited email (SPAM) nor allow unsolicited email
(SPAM) to be sent from or through UtiliGeek mail servers.
6. Monitoring of Services
UtiliGeek has no obligation to monitor the services, and may do so only to disclose information regarding use of the services to satisfy governmental warrants or legal servings or suits, or to troubleshoot and resolve technical problems with the services.
UtiliGeek may immediately remove your material or
information from UtiliGeek servers, in whole or in part, which UtiliGeek,
in its sole and absolute discretion, determines to infringe another's privacy
rights, property rights or to otherwise violate our Privacy Policy or Acceptable
Use Policy, both of which are included in this document.
7.Third Party Providers
Customer acknowledges that in order to access and use certain of
the UtiliGeek Services, Customer may have to agree to and execute agreements
with third party providers who may charge Customer fees and charges which
are in addition to the fees and charges imposed by UtiliGeek. UtiliGeek
is not to be held responsible in any way for any charges or fees assessed
by any third party provider, including, but not limited to, telephone service
providers, internet service providers, software vendors, hardware manufacturers,
retail stores, and/or utility companies.
UtiliGeek's Acceptable Use Policy (aka 'AUP') is intended
to help enhance the use of the Internet by preventing unacceptable use.
All users of UtiliGeek's services must comply with this AUP and Terms of
Service. We support the free flow of information and ideas over the Internet
and do not actively monitor use of our services under normal circumstances. However, we may remove from
our servers without warning any materials that, in our sole discretion,
may be illegal, may subject us to liability, or which may violate this AUP.
UtiliGeek may cooperate with legal authorities if presented with a valid
warrant relating to the investigation of a suspected crime or prosecuting
of a civil suit. Your violation of this AUP may result in the suspension
or termination of either your access to UtiliGeek services and/or your UtiliGeek
Hosting or any files left by you on UtiliGeek servers. This AUP should be
read in conjunction with the whole of this document and other policies posted
on the UtiliGeek website.
The following constitute violations of this Acceptable Use Policy:
a. Illegal use: Using our services to transmit any material (by email, uploading, posting, or otherwise) that, intentionally or unintentionally, violates any applicable local, state, national or international law.
b. Harm to minors: Using our services to harm, or attempt to harm minors in any way.
c. Threats: Using our services to transmit any material (by email, uploading, posting, or otherwise) that threatens or encourages bodily harm or destruction of property.
d. Harassment: Using our services to transmit any material (by email, uploading, posting, or otherwise) that harasses another.
e. Hate speech: Using our services to transmit any material (by email, uploading, posting, or otherwise) that, in our sole discretion, promotes hatred or violence including, but not limited to, materials which are racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-choice ('pro-life'), pro-death penalty and/or pro-war in nature.
f. Pornography: Using our webhosting services to transmit pornographic
images or video. This rule is not from a desire to censor legal pornography.
This rule is to protect our systems and those who use them from the overload
of requests which can result from the hosting of pornographic images or
video. g. Fraudulent activity: Using our services, knowingly or unknowingly,
to make fraudulent offers to sell or buy products, items, or services
or to advance any type of financial scam such as "pyramid schemes," "Ponzi
schemes," "Multi-Level-Marketing" and "chain letters." If you have any
doubt about a piece of email you are considering forwarding, please research
it first. http://snopes.com is an excellent resource for debunking frauds,
hoaxes, fictional virus warnings etc.
h. Unsolicited commercial email/Unsolicited bulk email (SPAM): Using our
services to transmit any unsolicited commercial email or unsolicited bulk
email. Activities that have the effect of facilitating unsolicited commercial
email or unsolicited bulk email whether or not that email is commercial
in nature, are prohibited. Many forms of unsolicited commercial email
and unsolicited bulk email are illegal in many states, including the state
of Washington where our servers are located. Therefore, you can be sued
for spamming a resident of such a state. In addition, if you use our services
to send unsolicited commercial or bulk email, you put our entire network,
all of our customers, as well as that of our upstream providers at legal
risk and at the risk of having mail to other networks blocked. UtiliGeek
has a zero tolerance policy toward unsolicited commercial email/unsolicited
bulk email/SPAM. If we receive a valid complaint of spam from your
email account, discussion list/announcement list (listserv) or sent via
a security hole or exploit in a script on your website, we will immediately
suspend your hosting services and ask questions later. We will not refund
any payments if we close your account for sending unsolicited commercial
or unsolicited bulk email. Instead that money will be used toward paying
for the cost of handling complaints, block threats and legal threats resulting
from your spamming activities and violation of this Terms of Service Agreement/Acceptable
Use Policy.
i. Forgery or impersonation: Adding, removing or modifying identifying network header information in an effort to deceive or mislead is prohibited. Attempting to impersonate any person by using forged headers or other identifying information is prohibited. The use of anonymous remailers or nicknames does not constitute impersonation. Using deliberately misleading headers ("munging" headers) in news postings in order to avoid spam email address collectors is allowed.
j. Unauthorized access/unauthorized access attempts: Using our services to access, or to attempt to access, the accounts of others, or to penetrate, or attempt to penetrate, security measures of UtiliGeek's or another entity's computer software or hardware, electronic communications system, or telecommunications system, or to attempt to exploit known or heretofore unknown vulnerabilities of such system, whether or not the intrusion results in the corruption or loss of or misappropriation of data.
k. Collection of personal data: Using our services to collect, or attempt to collect, personal information about third parties without their knowledge or consent or to otherwise invade privacy.
l. Reselling our services: reselling our services without our authorization.
m. Network disruptions and unfriendly activity: Using our services for
any activity which adversely affects the ability of other people or systems
to use UtiliGeek Services or any other networks. This includes, but is
not limited to, "denial of service" (DoS) attacks against another network
host or individual user. Interference with or disruption of other network
users, network services or network equipment or that of other networks
is prohibited. A customer may not, through action or inaction, allow others
to use their web, email or listserv for illegal or inappropriate actions.
A Member may not permit their web, email or listserv, through action or
inaction, to be configured in such a way that gives a third party the
capability to use their services in an illegal or inappropriate manner.
n. News, newgroups, discussion lists, listservs and web discussion boards: Utiligeek hosting customers should use their best judgment when posting to any newsgroup. Many groups have charters, published guidelines, FAQs, or "community standards" describing what is and is not considered appropriate. Usenet can be a valuable resource if used properly. The continued posting of off-topic articles is prohibited. Commercial advertisements are off-topic in most newsgroups, especially regional groups not specifically named for such. The presence of such articles in a group is not indicative of the group's "intended" use. Please familiarize yourself with basic Usenet netiquette before posting to a newsgroup, discussion list, listserv or web discussion board via UtiliGeek services. UtiliGeek considers "multiposting" or "cross-posting" to 10 or more groups within a two week sliding window to be excessive and we equate it with Spamming.
o. Uploading IRC Bots/IRC Servers or any executables which run while
you are not connected to your account: any such software will be removed
from the server and no backup will be made and your account will be placed
on probation A second offense of this TOS/APP will result in termination
of your hosting accounts without refunds.
9. Reporting Violations of UtiliGeek's Acceptable Use Policy
UtiliGeek requests that anyone who believes that there is a violation of this Acceptable Use Policy direct the information to abuseATutiligeekDOTcom (replace the AT with @ and the DOT with . )
If available, please provide the following information in your report:
The IP address used to commit the alleged violation
The date and time of the alleged violation, including the time zone or offset from GMT
Evidence of the alleged violation
Email with full header information provides all of the above, as do syslog files. Other situations will require different methods of providing the above information.
UtiliGeek may take any one or more of the following actions in response to complaints:
report the violation to the customer's ISP and/or upstream provider(s)
issue warnings: written or verbal
suspend the customer's UtiliGeek account(s)
terminate the customer's account(s)
bill the customer for administrative costs and/or reactivation charges
bring legal action to enjoin violations and/or to collect damages, if any, caused by violations.
10. Force Majeure
In the event UtiliGeek's delivery of UtiliGeek Services is delayed, prevented, or otherwise made impracticable by reason of any acts of God, The Gods, The Goddess, The Goddesses, extraterrestrials, fires, floods, earthquakes, or other natural catastrophes; terrorism, war, national emergencies, international emergencies, state emergencies, local disasters, replicants, clones, strikes, lockouts or other labor difficulties; computer "hacking" attack or computer virus; any law, order, regulation or other action of any governing authority; or any other cause beyond UtiliGeek's reasonable control, then UtiliGeek shall be excused from such delivery to the extent that it is delayed or prevented by such cause.
11. NO WARRANTIES/NO GUARANTEES
UTILIGEEK'S SERVICES, THE UTILIGEEK WEBSITE (INCLUDING ALL INFORMATION AND PRODUCTS THAT ARE REFERENCED OR LINKED TO IN THE UTILIGEEK WEBSITE), AND ALL OTHER INFORMATION, DOCUMENTS, PRODUCTS, SOFTWARE, DOWNLOADS, REPAIR SERVICES, ADVICE, AND INFORMATION PROVIDED BY UTILIGEEK AND ANY OF ITS THIRD-PARTY PRODUCT OR SERVICE PROVIDERS ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. UTILIGEEK ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY ERRORS, OMISSIONS OR OTHER INADEQUACIES IN THE SERVICES, THE UTILIGEEK WEBSITE (INCLUDING ALL INFORMATION AND PRODUCTS THAT ARE REFENCED OR LINKED TO IN THE UTILIGEEK WEBSITE), OR ANY OTHER INFORMATION, DOCUMENTS, PRODUCTS, SOFTWARE, DOWNLOADS, REPAIR SERVICES, ADVICE, AND INFORMATION PROVIDED BY UTILIGEEK OR ANY OF ITS THIRD-PARTY PRODUCT OR SERVICE PROVIDERS.
12. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
IN NO EVENT SHALL UTILIGEEK BE LIABLE TO ANY PERSON OR BUSINESS ENTITY FOR ANY SPECIAL, GENERAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THOSE RESULTING FROM NEGLIGENT OR CRIMINAL ACTS OF THIRD PARTIES, LOSS OF USE, LOSS OF DATA, LOST PROFITS, LOST REVENUE OR COMPUTER HARDWARE DAMAGE, IN CONNECTION WITH ANY OF THE UTILIGEEK SERVICES, THE UTILIGEEK WEBSITE (INCLUDING ALL INFORMATION, SERVICES, AND PRODUCTS THAT ARE REFERENCED OR LINKED TO IN THE UTILIGEEK WEBSITE), OR ANY OTHER INFORMATION, DOCUMENTS, PRODUCTS, SOFTWARE, DOWNLOADS, REPAIR SERVICES, ADVICE, AND/OR INFORMATION PROVIDED BY UTILIGEEK OR ANY OF ITS THIRD-PARTY PRODUCT OR SERVICE PROVIDERS, WHETHER OR NOT SUCH PERSON IS ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
13. Third-Party Link and Content Disclaimer
Links contained in UtiliGeek's website may cause a user to leave the UtiliGeek website. Such linked websites are not under the control of UtiliGeek and UtiliGeek is not responsible for the contents of any linked website or any link contained in a linked website, or any changes or updates to such websites. UtiliGeek provides these links from the UtiliGeek website only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply any endorsement by UtiliGeek of the website or any of its contents. All users use materials and information in UtiliGeek and third-party websites at their own risk.
14. Modifications to Terms of Service
UtiliGeek reserves the right to amend the Terms of Service that govern use of UtiliGeek Services and the UtiliGeek website at any time by (a) posting a revised version of the Terms of Service on the UtiliGeek website (http://utiligeek.com/legalese.shtml), or by (b) sending information regarding any amendment to the Terms of Service to the email address Member provides to UtiliGeek. Member is responsible for regularly reviewing the UtiliGeek website to be notified of any amendments to the Terms of Service. Member's continued use of the Membership Services after such amended Terms of Service have been posted or information regarding such amended Terms of Service has been sent to Member shall be deemed acceptance by Member of the amended Terms of Service.
15. General
In addition to the Terms of Service, customer agrees to be
bound by the Privacy Policy and all other legal notices contained on the
UtiliGeek website, which collectively constitute the entire agreement between
customer and UtiliGeek. UtiliGeek and/or third party providers may make
improvements and/or changes in the products, services, programs, business
or customer policies and prices described in their websites at any time
without notice. Washington State law will govern any action related to the
Terms of Service, without regard to conflict of law principles. The Terms
of Service shall be construed as if it was executed and performed in Seattle,
Washington. Any cause of action by a customer or other viewer of the UtiliGeek
website must be commenced within one (1) year after the cause of action
arose or it shall be forever waived and barred. If any provision of the
Terms of Service be held invalid or unenforceable, that portion shall be
enforced to the maximum extent possible, and all other provisions contained
in the Terms of Service shall remain in full force and effect. UtiliGeek's
failure to enforce any provision of the Terms of Service shall not be deemed
a waiver of such provision nor of the right to enforce such provision. The
UtiliGeek website is available internationally and may contain references
to UtiliGeek products, services, and programs that are not available in
a viewer's geographical location. These references do not imply that UtiliGeek
intends to make such products, services, or programs available in such geographical
locations.
16. Indemnification
Customer shall indemnify and hold UtiliGeek harmless against all third party claims, demands, suits, actions, judgments, losses, costs, damages (direct, indirect and consequential), attorney's fees and expenses that company or person may sustain or incur by reason of any breach or alleged breach of any term or condition of this Agreement (including attorney's fees) and for any act or omission of customer or its clients which are in any way related to UtiliGeek Services.
I Accept Accepting agreement returns you to the order page.
most recent revision: 01/27/2003
