OCS Solutions Terms Of Service (TOS) - Terms Of Use & Conditions

TL;DR (too long didn't read) – Our Terms of Service at a Glance

We aim to make our terms of service and privacy policy simple to understand. In this section, you’ll find a quick summary of our terms. You may learn more about each item by examining that particular section below.

Your privacy is important to us.
You must use our services lawfully and not cause harm to others.
We will report any illegal or harmful content to the proper authorities.
You cannot use our services to send SPAM.
We may impose resource limits to prevent other customers from being affected by overages.
You must keep any applications you host with us up to date and secure.
While we backup your data, you also agree that you will maintain your own backups.
Payment is due when services are rendered, and unless otherwise specified, past due within 10 days of the date of invoice.
We provide many services, and some have specific or additional terms. These will be presented at time of purchase and/or activation.
We are always open to good faith negotiations with our customers regarding changes to our terms of service.
If we update this agreement, we will provide notice via email and give you 14 days to review the changes.

Those are the basics. If you have any questions, please let us know.

Application

By using services or purchasing products provided by OCS Solutions, you agree to abide by our terms of service. This terms of service agreement protects both us and you. If you do not agree to these terms, we regretfully cannot accept your business. Any breach of these terms may result in immediate suspension of your account with us.

This agreement was last updated on February 28th, 2018.

Individual Product Terms of Service

Some of our products and services have additional or different terms of service agreements.These agreements must be agreed to for use of these services. When a product has a different terms of service agreement from this one, you’ll be presented with the appropriate links to the applicable additional terms. In some cases these additional terms of service may contradict these terms. When this occurs, the service-specific terms of service agreement takes precedence over this agreement in all cases of contradiction.

Privacy

Your privacy is important to us. Please view our privacy policy for more information on how we keep your information safe.

System and Network Security

Violations of system or network security are prohibited, and may result in criminal and civil liability. OCS Solutions may investigate incidents involving such violations and may involve and will cooperate with law enforcement if a criminal violation is suspected. Examples of system or network security violations include, without limitation, the following:

Unauthorized access to or use of data, systems or networks, including any attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without express authorization of the owner of the system or network.
Unauthorized monitoring of data or traffic on any network or system without express authorization of the owner of the system or network.
Interference with service to any user, host or network including, without limitation, mail bombing, flooding, deliberate attempts to overload a system and broadcast attacks.
Forging of any TCP-IP packet header or any part of the header information in an e-mail or a newsgroup posting.

Violators of the policy are responsible, without limitations, for the cost of labor to clean up and correct any damage done to the operation of the network and business operations supported by the network, and to respond to complaints incurred by OCS Solutions. Such labor is categorized as emergency security breach recovery and is currently charged at $139 USD per hour required. OCS Solutions is concerned with the privacy of online communications and web sites. In general, the Internet is neither more nor less secure than other means of communication, including mail, facsimile, and voice telephone service, all of which can be intercepted and otherwise compromised. As a matter of prudence, however, OCS Solutions urges its customers to assume that all of their online communications are insecure. OCS Solutions cannot take responsibility for the security of information transmitted over OCS Solutions’s facilities.

Software Piracy

The OCS Solutions network and/or hosting accounts may only be used for lawful purposes. Transmission, distribution, or storage of any information, data or material in violation of United States or state regulation or law, or by the common law, is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, or other intellectual property rights.

Making unauthorized copies of software is a violation of the law, no matter how many copies you are making. If you copy, distribute or install the software in ways that the license does not allow, you are violating federal copyright law. If caught with pirated software, you or your company may be liable under both civil and criminal law, and you may be fined up to $250,000 and/or receive up to 5 years in jail.

Lawful Purpose

All services may be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage, or presentation of any information, data or material in violation of any applicable law, regulation, or this terms of service agreement is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: copyrighted material or material protected by trade secret and other statute or dissemination of harmful or fraudulent content.

Using any OCS Solutions service or product for the purpose of participating in any activity dealing with subject matters that are prohibited under applicable law is prohibited.

Any conduct that constitutes harassment, fraud, stalking, abuse, or a violation of federal export restriction in connection with use of OCS Solutions services or products is prohibited. Using the OCS Solutions network to solicit the performance of any illegal activity is also prohibited, even if the activity itself is not performed. In addition, knowingly receiving or downloading a file that cannot be legally distributed, even without the act of distribution, is prohibited.

Servers hosted within OCS Solutions network are open to the public. You are solely responsible for your usage of the OCS Solutions network and servers and any statement you make on servers hosted within the OCS Solutions network may be deemed “publication” of the information entered. Acknowledging the foregoing, you specifically agree not to use our service in any manner that is illegal or libelous.

Child Pornography

OCS Solutions does not allow any unlawful material to be placed on its equipment, and this includes child pornography or any type of material that supports harm to children in any way.

OCS Solutions will enthusiastically cooperate fully with any criminal investigation into a Customer’s violation of the Child Protection Act of 1984 concerning child pornography. Customers are ultimately responsible for the actions of their clients over the OCS Solutions network, and will be liable for illegal material posted by their clients.

According to the Child Protection Act, child pornography includes photographs, films, video or any other type of visual presentation that shows a person who is under the age of eighteen years and is engaged in or is depicted as engaged in explicit sexual activity, or the dominant characteristic of which is the depiction, for a sexual purpose, of a sexual organ or the anal region of a person under the age of eighteen years or any written material or visual representation that advocates or counsels sexual activity with a person under the age of eighteen years.

Violations of the Child Protection Act may be reported to the U.S. Customs Agency at 1-800-BE-ALERT.

Pornography

While OCS Solutions respects free speech as a policy, many of our upstream network providers do not allow pornography, and thus we must extend this policy to our customers.

Pornography includes films, video, or any other type of visual presentation that displays explicit sexual activity. Educational, artistic, and textual erotic material is not included in this definition and is permitted on our services as long as it compiles with copyright laws and all other terms in this agreement.

Unsolicited Commercial E-mail – SPAM

OCS Solutions takes a zero tolerance approach to the sending of Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE) or SPAM over our network. Very simply, this means that customers of OCS Solutions may not use or permit others to use our network to transact in UCE. Customers of OCS Solutions may not host, or permit hosting of, sites or information that is advertised by UCE from other networks. Violations of this policy carry severe penalties, including termination of service.

Sending a message, especially an advertisement, to more than five recipients, is by itself spamming unless the individuals have specifically requested to be added to a mailing list on that topic. This includes both commercial advertisements and informational messages sent to recipients via electronic mail (email) as well as off-topic messages posted in Usenet discussion groups where the recipient has not requested or invited the message. E-mail is a person-to-person medium, not a broadcast medium.

Customers of OCS Solutions are strictly prohibited from using or permitting others to use UCE or SPAM over our network. As our Customers are ultimately responsible for the actions of their clients over the OCS Solutions network, it is advisable that Customers develop a similar, or stricter, policy for their clients.

Violation of OCS Solution’s SPAM policy will result in severe penalties. Upon notification of an alleged violation of our SPAM policy, OCS Solutions will initiate an immediate investigation (within 24 hours of notification). During the investigation, OCS Solutions may restrict customer access to the network to prevent further violations. If a customer is found to be in violation of our SPAM policy, OCS Solutions may, at its sole discretion, restrict, suspend or terminate customer’s account. Further, OCS Solutions reserves the right to pursue civil remedies for any costs associated with the investigation of a substantiated policy violation. OCS Solutions will notify law enforcement officials if the violation is believed to be a criminal offense.

Any account that breaks our Anti-SPAM policy will not be subject to ANY refunds, even if prepaid.

Resource Limits

These limits apply to shared hosting accounts. Accounts using non-shared services may not be subject to these limits, but in all services provided we reserve the right to suspend or limit any account that is causing harm to other customers, systems, or our mail server reputations. We will make every attempt to contact you with the contact information on file in the event we may have to take action to suspend or limit your account.

Files and Directories – We reserve the right to suspend or exclude from backups any shared hosting accounts that exceed more than 150,000 files. Excessive numbers of files hampers system performance and may negatively impact other customers.
CPU Usage – We reserve the right to suspend or limit any shared hosting account that is using more than 25% of the CPU time available on the entire server.
Memory – We reserve the right to suspend, limit, or terminate any process on shared hosting accounts that is using more than 1 GB of RAM.
Processes – We reserve the right to suspend, limit, or terminate any processes exceeding the limit of 25 per shared hosting account.
MySQL Connection Limits – You are allowed 50 simultaneous MySQL connections on shared hosting accounts.
PHP Memory Limits – PHP scripts have the memory limit set to 256 MiB.
E-mail Account Usage – POP3 e-mail accounts are limited to 1 check operation per minute. Customers may not send more than 120 emails per hour on shared hosting plans.
E-mail Bounce Policy – We reserve the right to suspend or limit any user that is sending mail that generates an excessive percentage of bounces. Shared hosting customers will be automatically blocked from sending mail for one hour if their bounce rate goes above 20%. If the problem becomes excessive, or if a customer’s bounces degrade our mail server reputation, we may suspend or limit the ability of the customer to send e-mail through our servers.

Suspension and Protection of Network Integrity

OCS Solutions reserves the right to suspend any accounts that are violating this terms of service agreement. OCS Solutions is 100% committed to protecting our network integrity and reliability. We also reserve the right to disable other accounts or services to protect those services and our network from abuse if necessary. In the event this is necessary, we will make an attempt to notify you via the contact details we have on file, though we cannot guarantee advance notice if the situation is extreme.

Our Billing Policy

DUE TO THE UNIQUE NATURE OF INTERNET SERVICES, ALL PAYMENTS MADE TO OCS SOLUTIONS ARE NON-REFUNDABLE UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED ON YOUR INVOICE.

We currently accept the following payment methods:

All major credit cards
PayPal
Personal or business checks
Purchase orders (NET-30)
Wire transfers
Most cryptocurrencies

If any payment is charged back or returns to us for whatever reason, a $30 service fee will be charged and all services may be disabled until the charge-back is resolved. This charge-back or returned check fee does not apply to the failure of a credit card to process successfully.

VERY IMPORTANT: With all services, it is absolutely essential that you keep us up to date as to your current contact information. If your contact information changes, please let us know as soon as possible. Failure to keep your account information current can result in us not being able to contact you if there is a problem with your account.

For most services, we require payment of at least the first month or first installment before services can begin. For purchase order payments, we can activate most services before the first payment is received at the discretion of the billing department. Your account will be billed on a regular basis, in a frequency you choose at signup (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually). Some plans do not allow certain payment frequencies.

Your renew day is the anniversary of the day you signed up. You will receive an invoice for the next term 10 days before that day. If you have a credit card on file with us, we will attempt to charge the amount of the invoice. If your credit card is declined, we will attempt to reprocess the charge in a few days.

If the payment is not received within 10 days, it is considered past due, and may be subject to a 15% late fee.

If you fail to renew your domain by the expiration date, we can renew the domain for you for up to 15 days at no additional cost. After 15 days, domain redemption fees may apply and vary by domain type. We have no control over these fees, so we encourage you to renew your domain on time if you plan to keep it. A domain that expires is not available for re-registration for a period of up to 30-60 days after expiration.

For web hosting, if your payment and the late fee (if applicable) are not received by the anniversary day, your account may be suspended unless we hear from you otherwise and agree to alternative payment arrangements. If suspension occurs, a reconnection fee may apply of up to $20. If it remains suspended for 10 days, your account is subject to deletion. If this occurs multiple times, we may raise the reconnection fee to $30 per incident, require a longer term to re-establish service, or refuse service.

For consulting, development, and web design clients, payment must be received within 10 days after the due date unless other arrangements via contract and/or in writing have been made. A late fee of 3% per month will be applied, with a minimum of $5. Consulting, development, and web design work may be suspended until full payment is made.

We reserve the right to deny service to accounts that have been suspended. Any payment arrangements, late fees, or other such payment information that is contained in any separate agreement may override this policy.

In all cases, if your account has been suspended, full payment will be required (plus payment of any late fees or reconnection fees, if applicable) to restore your account.

We will not release any data or domain registration information if account is suspended or terminated without full payment of past due balances.

If you feel you are going to be late with your payment, it is imperative that you contact us as soon as possible so we can make arrangements. We want to work with our customers to help bring accounts current.

Although we make every effort to ensure that our billing is completely accurate, should a problem arise, we will gladly research and correct any errors in charges. However, we are not responsible for billing errors that are older than 60 days.

By using a credit card to pay for services, you are representing that you either own or have use of the card you provide. If it is discovered that you do not have legal use of the card, we will terminate service and report the incident to the proper authorities.

IMPORTANT: We use a wide variety of tools and techniques to prevent credit card fraud. We do report all incidents of fraud to the cardholder’s bank and the United States FBI.

Reseller Non-Competition Policy

This section only applies to private-label resellers of our services. We will not respond to requests for information or support from your resold accounts unless you specifically give us written authorization to do so. Technical support requests must be made through the reseller, not from the resold accounts. We will not accept, as clients or resellers, any of your resold accounts. We also will not accept, as clients or resellers, any resold account that was previously your client without prior written consent from you or unless they have not been your client for at least 3 months.

Reseller Confidentiality Agreement

Any reseller of OCS Solutions agrees that some material OCS Solutions discloses to resellers may be confidential. Reseller agrees not to disclose this information without written consent from OCS Solutions. OCS Solutions will never disclose any information to any other party about any of its resellers.

This confidentiality agreement will survive forever even if reseller no longer does business with OCS Solutions.

Refund Policy

As a general rule, OCS Solutions does not issue refunds. Instead, if a refund or credit is due under our policies, we will issue it as a credit on your bill. We cannot issue a credit on your bill on a check that has not cleared or on a credit card that has not been settled with your bank.

If you break our terms of service and your site is disconnected because of that, you will not be entitled to any refund or credit.

For services that we charge for and have other companies perform (for example, domain registration), we do not issue credits or refunds. If you desire a refund from those companies, we will provide you with contact information necessary to do that. However, those services are purchased on your behalf as a service to you and you must accept their terms of service agreements upon receipt of said services.

IMPORTANT: All services that are billed on a reoccurring basis are not refundable once payment is made, even if you elect to cancel in the middle of the billing period. This does not apply to upgrades to another package or form of service with us.

Disclaimers

Due to the unpredictable nature of the Internet and computer software in general, we do not guarantee 100% uptime and reliability of data and services. We do provide each account with the tools to completely backup and restore their data without our intervention. While backup procedures are in place that protect your data, we encourage you to back up your own data to prevent its loss since no backup system is perfect. Our sole liability to you is to help you fix the problem with your account. We are not liable in any way for data loss.

We do however issue downtime credits proactively. If your site is down for longer than an hour, we will credit your bill accordingly, automatically. These changes will show up on your next statement. This does not apply to regular maintenance and announced service downtimes.

Disregard of Advice or Counsel

If you choose to disregard advice or counsel from us, we cannot be responsible for any outcomes or damages that are a result of or caused by client disregarding our advice.

Server Management

If your server is covered under our server management service, we will manage your server by, among other things, performing routine maintenance and providing troubleshooting and general technical support on the server. Unless otherwise agreed to in advance, we will not support software that you install or alter the configuration files of. We do not support clustering and multi-server configurations under standard server management unless otherwise agreed to via separate consulting agreement.

Unless your server is hosted with us in our data center, you are responsible for all hardware maintenance and costs, network access maintenance and costs, and software licensing costs. You are also responsible for updating us on any password changes for administrative or “root” users so that we may log in to manage your server. Failure to do so will impair our ability to manage and support your server.

We are not liable for any damages whatsoever in regards to this service, incidental or otherwise. All server management services will immediately terminate if you are involved in sending SPAM (except if you were hacked or a user of yours sent SPAM without your knowledge), hosting or providing copyrighted material without the copyright holder’s consent, using your server to break any laws, or using your server to perform denial-of-service attacks on any other network or server(s).

3rd Party Licenses

Use of scripts or applications is allowed and encouraged on our servers, but only when you have a valid license to do so.

We require that any software you use in connection with its services be used in accordance with its license agreement, including paying for the software if it is not free.

If we receive complaints or discover you are running unlicensed software on your server, we will give you a brief period to correct the problem and obtain a valid license. If you disregard our notices, your account will be suspended.

Cancelling Your Account

To cancel your account, please contact us and request cancellation. All cancellation requests must be made through our contact form.

If you contact us to cancel, for your protection, we will ask questions to confirm your identity. We do NOT accept cancellations via phone to prevent unauthorized cancellation of your account.

Indemnification

If OCS Solutions, its vendors and/or assigns are sued because of your actions in conjunction of or use of our services, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless OCS Solutions and to pay any damages and/or attorney’s fees related to such suit.

Contact Maintenance

In order for us to provide you with excellent service, we must have your current full name, company name (if applicable), address, phone number, fax number (if applicable), and email address. It is your responsibility to notify us if any of this changes. We are not responsible for any problems caused by us not having the correct contact information due to your failure to provide it or keep it updated.

Managed WordPress Hosting

With our Managed WordPress Hosting offer, customers are responsible for the web design, text, images, video, and all other content on their site. Web design, scripting, programming, image editing, or any other design related service are not included in the technical support feature of the Managed WordPress Hosting packages. We cannot provide support for WordPress plugins, and we do not support problems with themes. Both of these kind of issues must be addressed with the author of the plugin or theme.

We will provide support for WordPress issues relating to server or hosting issues, updates, security intrusions, password resets, plugin installation and removal issues, and other general WordPress issues. All WordPress technical support is provided with the best effort of the OCS technical support team. Results and final resolution of all technical issues are not guaranteed.

If you have any questions about these terms or our privacy policy, please contact us.