The Small Business Web Specialist

General Terms & Conditions

Please note that from time to time specific terms and conditions may apply to specific products and services and if so these will be available on our website. Any third party providers referred to in these conditions, may have additional terms and conditions and these will need to be consulted where applicable.

1. These terms and conditions set out the agreement between MCL Communications ('MCL' or the 'provider') and you (the 'customer') for the provision of web and ancillary services.

1.1 By ordering any of the services or products provided by MCL you will be deemed to be accepting these terms and conditions and immediate provision of all or any of the services requested by you, the 'customer.

1.2 Some of the services allow the customer to access the Internet. The Internet is separate from the Service and use of the Internet is at the customers' own risk and is subject to any applicable laws. We have no responsibility for any goods, services, information, software, or other materials obtained by the customer when using the Internet.

1.3 MCL take all reasonable care to ensure that any information contained in its promotional literature or on its website is accurate but customers can request a written quotation for services as necessary.

1.4 Certain services, for example telecomms, may require specific additional terms and conditions for technical and operational reasons and the customer should ensure that these are read in addition to these general terms and conditions.

2. GENERAL SERVICES

MCL will exercise skill and care and use all reasonable efforts to consistently provide fast and reliable services but can accept no liability whatever for any interruptions to the service or loss of data, sales revenue, profits or other consequential loss resulting from interruptions to the service howsoever caused. 2.1 Misuse of the service may result in immediate termination of any agreement and withdrawal of the service and no fees will be refunded. Such misuse includes the customer impairing the integrity of the system by exceptional and deliberate overuse of server resources or assigning, transferring or subletting his or her right of access to the service without written approval from MCL, or using the service to publish, send spam mail or to display, transmit or advertise any material that may be defamatory, offensive, abusive, obscene, pornographic or illegal, or which may be protected by laws of any country or state relating to copyright, confidentiality or intellectual property.

2.2 MCL will not be liable for incorrect amendments to any customer website made by a member of the customers' organisation or associates using access by the customers' own passwords or codes; by 'hacking' or by unauthorised access with malicious intent by a third party; or by inadvertent uploading of incorrect material by MCL staff members updating the customers' website on the customer or his representatives' instructions. MCL will correct the website at the earliest possible opportunity upon receipt of written instructions from the customer.

2.3 Upon receipt of any information from a third party regarding material displayed on any website hosted on the MCL servers that may be to the detriment of the third party or others, or infringe any copyright confidentiality or intellectual property then MCL at their discretion may suspend such service immediately for the period required to determine the accuracy of such information. Such action will only be taken exceptionally and where the material displayed is clearly in breach of the terms and conditions in relation to the information received (2.1).

2.4 In the event that MCL are obliged to suspend any web service for any reason, then service will be restored as soon as is practically possible after the facts have been determined in consultation with either the customer or the owner or his representative. MCL will not be liable for any loss whatsoever caused to the affected parties as a result of this suspension of service or its re-instatement.

2.5 MCL retain the right to terminate the customers' service at any time upon giving one months notice of our intention to terminate, by email or by letter, to the customers' last known address. Only in these circumstances will we refund the unused portion of any subscription fee affected. See also item 8 2.6 The customer may terminate or transfer the service at any time upon giving MCL suitable written instructions and paying any outstanding charges
including any transfer, copyright release or other charges, but no part of any hosting or other fees paid will be refunded unless expressly agreed in writing.
2.7 MCL are unable to exercise control over material transmitted over the Internet, and hereby excludes liability of any kind for the reception by the customer of malicious viruses or programmes, offensive, threatening or obscene material, or material in breach of copyright, confidentiality, intellectual property or applicable laws.

2.8 The customer should set up and maintain an e-mail account relevant to their own or their companies domain name in accordance with the details supplied when the e-mail account is set up. Failure to do so may mean that the customer may not receive important information regarding general service status or information relevant to their account. MCL will not be responsible for any failure by the customer to take appropriate action to protect their website, e-mail or other relevant services, after having been notified of a change in the status of any services by e-mail to their domain address.

3. DIAL-UP CONNECTIONS Dial-up connections are not normally available to customers, but in certain instances we may be able to provide a service if customers contact our support services.

4. WEB HOSTING & EMAIL SERVICES

Provision by MCL of web hosting, dial-up and e-mail facilities assumes that the customer (or his representative) has available a suitable, fully configured computer able to utilize the facilities from information supplied by MCL. While MCL will make every effort to assist by telephone, or with e-mail support where this is part of the agreement, there is no requirement for MCL to ensure that the customer has equipment configured correctly to use the services available. Customers are advised to contact their technical consultant or installer in this regard, to ensure that computers and accessories are functioning and configured correctly to make use of the services offered. Customers may be given details to manage their services or may request that details are given to a third party for management. In this regard security and other details relating to the account are entirely the responsibility of the customer.

4.1 Standard web hosting and e-mail services are located on shared server space and events affecting other domains on any one server may have an impact on other customer's sites, resulting in downtime or loss of data when any such event occurs.Customers using webmail particularly should download the mail from the server from time to time and maintain copies on their local machine at all times to avoid additional problems with any software or hardware upgrades as well as any events occurring as indicated. Whilst MCL will make every effort to minimise the impact of any such event and to restore services as soon as possible there is no guarantee that services will be restored to their pre-event status. MCL will accept no liability for any losses sustained, as a result of such an event, because of downtime, or data loss, or any remedy deemed necessary by MCL to quickly restore the server to operating status. Separate conditions apply to co-located or virtual server systems and are available on application.

4.2 From time to time MCL may have to suspend e-mail, form-mail or other services in order to investigate service misuse either by a customer or third party attempting to use the MCL network services for mail spamming, hacking or other illegal activities. During these investigations the customer will be advised and any interruptions to the customer will be kept to a minimum, consistent with maintaining the integrity of the network.

4.3 In order to access the Service the customer will be issued with a set of unique passwords and user names. The customer is responsible for the security and proper use of all passwords relating to the Service and must take all necessary steps to ensure that all passwords are kept confidential, secure and are used properly.

4.4 The customer must inform us immediately if there is any reason to believe that any password or user name has become known to someone not authorised to use it or if any password or user name is being or likely to be used in an unauthorised way.

4.5 If we have reason to believe that there is likely to be a breach of security or misuse of the Service:
(a) we may change the password or user name and notify the customer accordingly; and/or
(b) suspend the user name and password access to the Service until the breach is rectified.
4.6 You agree to notify us immediately of any changes to the information you give to us during the Registration Process including any changes to your account details.

4.7 You confirm and warrant that all the information supplied by you when you register on-line for the Service is true, complete and accurate in all respects.
4.8 Special offer hosting. To take advantage of a 'special offer' web hosting agreement the customer agrees to host their services with MCL for a two year minimum period. The second years hosting fee will be at the standard web hosting rate applicable at the time of renewal; such charges are available on request from MCL or as advertised.

4.9 Customers should ensure at all times that they have appropriate copies of their data for re-instatement of their services should it become necessary and appropriate facilities are available on request, on the server, to enable individual back-up of the customer's domain services as appropriate.
5. DESIGN SERVICES

All original material supplied to MCL, for the production of a customers' website, will be returned upon request by normal post and at customers' risk providing there are no outstanding invoices awaiting payment. The customer, by supplying logos, drawings, extracts and other material for website production confirms that he has a legal right to re-produce such information and indemnifies MCL against any action or claim as a result of using such material or breaching any copyright or of any design containing material that may infringe the rights of any third party. Original website design and production copyright, other material and intellectual copyright remains with MCL unless otherwise expressly agreed in writing although such copyright will be automatically released if customer(s) have used the MCL hosting services for 2 years or longer.

5.1 MCL will provide a custom website for the customer from photos, artwork text and other materials supplied, to the specification agreed in advance and in accordance with our standard price list, unless varied by a specific quotation in writing.

5.2 If the customer does not provide detailed design instructions the customer agrees to accept the original design created by MCL provided it is of similar quality to other sites viewed from the MCL portfolio and displays the competence expected of an experienced web design company. Any major variations requested by the customer, from the design created, will be chargeable at the MCL standard rate.

5.3 Websites of 6 or less pages will be proofed to screen at a special web address for final approval prior to putting 'live' at the customers' web address. Larger sites will have the preliminary pages proofed to screen for general approval before completing any other pages.

5.4 Actual errors and omissions will be completed prior to putting the site live although any major alterations requested will be chargeable.

Any changes required by the customer must be listed and put into an email as confirmation and we may decide to reproof the corrections.

5.5 The website design balance due will be invoiced to the customer after proofing to screen for payment in 30 days. The customer should also refer to item 8. " payments" for further information.

5.6 The website will not be put live until after customer approval which will require a confirmation by email or other written means from the customer. 6. DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATIONS

MCL act as agents between the customer and the domain name registration authorities and ultimately the contract for domain names is between the customer and the appropriate authority. Registrations for UK domains will be subject to the terms and conditions issued by Nominet the UK registration authority of which MCL are members. Other registrations will be the subject of additional terms and conditions either by ICANN, the USA registration authority, or where applicable, their official registrars. Note: new terms and conditions, applicable to both .uk (Nominet) and to ICANN (.com, .net etc) registrations have been applied since March 2014. For an overview please visit our 'Domain' section.

6.1 No guarantee can be given that any domain name has been registered until the appropriate details have appeared on the whois database for the relevant registration authority. This can be checked within 48 hours of the registration date on the MCL website or certain other domain name checkers. 6.2 Acceptance of a domain name registration by either MCL or the authority offers no guarantee that the name requested will not infringe the rights of a third party and the customer agrees to indemnify MCL and the authority against any such infringements.

6.3 Transfers of domain names to other providers will be processed as quickly as possible (with the acceptance and approval of the new ISP) upon receipt of written instructions from the registrant and the appropriate administration payment.

6.4 Where domain names are transferred to other providers then domain name service (DNS) will cease to be provided and all records removed immediately. The customer should ensure that their new provider has the correct domain name service provisioned and the new web and mail details set up in advance of any transfer. MCL do not automatically provide a domain name service only for their business or personal users, unless specifically arranged. If domain name service is allowed there will be a suitable charge made for the service and details of the charge will be notified to the customer.

7. SPECIAL TERMS

Special terms may sometimes apply to hosting arrangements or services agreed with the customer in advance and in these cases the customer will be notified of such terms in writing. Any special terms for these services may indicate variations from these general terms but where any of these general terms are not specifically varied they will remain in force.

8. PAYMENTS

Unless otherwise agreed all registration and hosting fees are payable in advance and are non-refundable. Design, programming and other charges are payable half in advance, or an amount otherwise agreed and the balance within the credit terms allocated to the customer, or as shown on the invoice. See also 8.2.

8.1 Design or other services being prepared over periods longer than one month will be invoiced on a regular monthly basis, for the work completed in any 4 week period, for immediate payment if the work is to progress, or within the normal terms if no further work on the project is required.

8.2 Where payment is made by credit card or debit card for recurring or other payments then details will be stored on our secure server. Such details will be used for completion of payment for any ongoing contract or work in progress unless an alternative method of payment is agreed between the parties. Card payments will be taken approx 7 working days in advance by our automated system. Cheque payments will not be considered as cleared funds for seven days after presentation and services will only be provided during this period at the discretion of MCL.

8.3 All services provided by MCL assume that customers will pay all due amounts within the specified time periods and non payment of any invoice, following notification of outstanding amounts, may result in withdrawal of any or all services, without further notice. Where services are withdrawn there may be a charge for re-instatement which can include interest charges at 8% above the base rate.

9. INDEMNITY

The customer agrees that it shall defend, indemnify, save and hold MCL Communications harmless from any and all demands, liabilities, losses, costs and claims, including reasonable attorney's fees asserted against MCL Communications its agents, its customers, officers and employees, that may arise or result from any service provided, or performed, or agreed to be performed, or any product sold, by the customer, its agents, employees or assigns. The customer agrees to defend, indemnify and hold harmless MCL Communications against liabilities arising out of; (1) any injury to person or property caused by any products sold or otherwise distributed in connection with information on the MCL Communications server; (2) any material supplied by the customer infringing or allegedly infringing on the proprietary rights of any third party and; (3) copyright, confidentiality, or intellectual property infringement.

10. THIRD PARTY

A person who is not a party to this Contact has no right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any term of this Contract but this does not affect any right or remedy of a third party which exists or is available apart from that Act.
11. DATA INFORMATION

We may hold information, that you provide, on our database. We may from time to time use the information that you have provided to offer you other services that we feel may be of interest to you. If you do not wish us to use the information that we hold about you in this way please notify us by post, e-mail or fax. Any information held by us about you will be available for inspection by you in accordance with the terms of the Data Protection Act. 12. ALTERATIONS TO TERMS AND CONDITIONS

MCL may at any time modify these general terms and conditions by publishing the amended terms on the MCL website.

13. COMPLAINTS
In the first instance, any complaint that a customer may have with the services provided by MCL should be put in writing to: The Director, MCL Communications, 28 Kineton Road, Wellesbourne, Warwickshire, CV35 9LQ, who will investigate the complaint and provide a written reply where relevant. 14. In case of any dispute, the law of England shall apply.

In the event of any dispute or complaint correspondence should be addressed to:
The Director, MCLWEBCO Ltd
Regd office: 28 Kineton Road, Wellesbourne, Warwickshire, CV35 9LQ.
Company no: 3960559 reg. in Cardiff