Important customer information: your rights and obligations
Summary of the Netspace Standard Form of Agreement – pre August 22nd 2006
Outline
This is a summary of Netspace’s standard form of agreement. In the summary, words like "we" and "us" refer to Netspace. "SFoA" means our standard form of agreement.
Our SFoA is the contract that applies when we supply you with data transmission services (i.e. Internet access, access to our email, online games, FTP or news servers, or hosting or configuring your web site). It also applies when we supply you with ancillary services (i.e. managed filtering of Internet access and consultancy, or registering or hosting a domain name for you). It also applies when we supply you with goods that can be used in connection with data transmission or ancillary services (such as software, modems or routers).
A complete list of our data transmission and ancillary services is set out in our plan schedule.
Under Australian law, the SFoA applies whether or not you read it or sign it. If you and we have expressly agreed to different terms in a particular case, the SFoA still applies, but subject to those terms.
This is a summary of key points, for information only. It does not change the legal effect of the SFoA. The SFoA, including any changes that are made from time to time, is available online and from our office at 683, Burke Road, Camberwell, Victoria.
Many terms in the SFoA apply to all services and goods that we provide (for instance, our right to claim interest in case of late payment). Other terms apply only to particular kinds of service (for instance, our acceptable use policy for Internet access). Other terms apply to specific services (and these are normally set out in the details of the service in our plan schedule). You should familiarise yourself with our acceptable use policies, which regulate the way you may use our services and prohibit antisocial conduct.
Prices and charges
If you obtain goods from us, the price will normally be our advertised price when you order the goods.
The SFoA includes or links to the prices for our service plans. Basically, each of our plans is made up of a service type (e.g. 56 Kbps dial up Internet access), a commitment period (e.g. a year at a time) plus a way of calculating charges for the plan (e.g. an initial set up charge, plus a monthly charge, plus a charge per extra hour if you remain online for more than a specified time in a month). You can obtain the pricing method and rate for each plan from our plan schedule and/or price list.
Our main kinds of charges are as follows: set up charges, periodic access charges, usage-based charges (e.g. based on the amount of time online, or the volume of data transferred), early cancellation charges, charges to reimburse us for changing your plan type, reasonable administrative charges in other limited circumstances, initial and annual charges for domain name registration and hosting, charges for storage of data on our network (over any storage allowance in a plan).
We also pass on GST if it is applicable to any supply we make to you.
Some of our plans are identified as being for commercial or business use, and others for non-commercial or home use. If you use a non-commercial plan for commercial purposes, we may recalculate your charges at commercial rates and back-bill for up to 3 months.
We can change our charges on notice to you, but if you are on a fixed term contract, and we increase charges during the fixed term, or if you are on a contract with a minimum term, and we increase charges during the minimum term, you may cancel your contract within 5 days after we give notice of the increase. But you do not have a right to cancel if the only charges we have increased are charges for excess use of your account. If you are a domestic, personal or small business user, consumer laws may further control charge increases. Our SFoA details that.
If you access our services using services provided by a third party (e.g. you use a Telstra telephone line to access our Internet service) you are responsible for making sure you know what costs are payable to the third party, and for paying them.
If a plan allows you certain usage rights in a period (e.g. 20 hours a week online) and you do not use your entitlement within that period, there is no credit or rebate. The unused entitlements are lost.
We reserve the right to require payment of a security deposit for our services, but do not normally do so. We might do so if you have an unreliable payment history, or in other circumstances where we consider your credit risk to be unusually high.
The term of your commitment
We offer a variety of plans.
Some of our plans are "casual" i.e. after set up, you only pay for service if and as you use it. Others are for a fixed period, and you must pay charges for that period whether you use the service of not.
Some fixed period plans automatically renew for the same period. You can prevent automatic renewal of these plans by giving us notice at least 15 days before the end of the current period. Other plans have a minimum term. After the minimum term has lapsed, you can cancel these plans by giving us 30 days notice. Some plans involve non-refundable payment for usage entitlements that are lost if not used within a certain time.
The SFoA provides that some charges are payable in advance (e.g. set up fees and periodic access fees). Other charges are payable after service has been used (e.g. excess hours charges or excess data transfer charges).
Discounts, credits and rebates
If we offer a discounted rate for any plan, the discount is built in to the advertised charges for that plan. No further discount applies.
If a plan states that a discounted rate applies if certain conditions are met (e.g. that you transfer at least a stated volume of data in a given period), we may recalculate your charges at a higher rate if the conditions are not satisfied.
We do not provide discounts, credits or rebates unless an individual plan provides for one. If so, you will find the amount or basis of calculation detailed for that plan in the plan schedule. We generally do not give refunds, except in the limited circumstances set out in the SFoA.
Bonuses
Sometimes, we may provide complimentary services. These are always clearly identified as "bonuses". We can discontinue a bonus on short notice. There is no extra charge for a bonus, and no rebate to you if it is discontinued.
Peak and off-peak times
We do not designate peak or off-peak times "across the board". If a particular plan has peak or off-peak times, the plan schedule will state what they are and the price list will state the charges that apply to them.
Billing
Some charges are payable immediately, such as set up charges, money we must pay to someone else on your behalf, and other charges specified by a plan. Periodical charges are payable 10 days in advance. Other charges are payable within 10 days after we bill you. We may bill you at any time, but normally do so monthly.
Our policy about late billing is that we shall only do so up to 190 days in arrears.
A plan may provide for different billing arrangements.
We may deliver bills (and any other notice or document under the SFoA) by email (including emailing the address of a web page containing the document), fax, post, personal delivery or otherwise as the law permits. We normally use post and/or email.
Payment
You may pay us by credit card, or cheque, or cash safely delivered to our head office. Some plans may allow payment by EFT as well. If you do not pay a charge on time, we may terminate or restrict service and/or add interest and/or charge an administration fee and any collection costs. For some plans, we require standing access to a valid credit card or direct debit facility, so that we can debit your payments directly. Genuinely disputed charges need not be paid while we investigate the dispute, but disputed charges that are found to be payable must be paid within a further 5 days.
Terminating service
We may terminate your contract, or restrict or suspend service if you fail to pay charges when due, or threaten to do so, if you cease to satisfy our credit terms or reverse a credit card payment to us, if your prepaid access rights are used up, if there is an unacceptable threat to the security or reliability of our network, if we are investigating a suspected breach of an acceptable use policy, if your equipment ceases to be technically compatible with our service, if you cease to satisfy any condition of supply that is imposed by one of our wholesalers and notified to you, if you fail to provide us or our wholesaler with access to your premises if required in connection with service, if a wholesaler suspends or limits supply of wholesale service, if you become insolvent or vacate your premises without notice to us, or if you breach the SFoA in other ways.
If we terminate your contract or suspend service because of your breach, we may charge you as if the contract and service had continued.
You may terminate your contract on notice to us if it transpires that it is not technically possible to provide service, or any minimum term has expired, or you give us notice before the end of an automatically renewing term, or you pay us the amount we will lose as a result of the early termination, or (in some circumstances) when we have increased our charges. Full details, including required notice periods, are set out in the SFoA.
After termination
If you no longer have a contract with us, or all your prepaid entitlements are used up, we do not have to receive, keep or forward your email, or keep any of your data on our servers.
Varying the SFoA
We can vary the SFoA by changing the copy on our web site, and the change takes effect 7 days later. But we will not make a change that is detrimental to you without (a) giving you a notice (or publishing it so that you are reasonably likely to be aware of its contents) at least 3 working days before the variation takes effect and (b) if you are not a casual customer and we have not already done so sending it to you on or with one of your bills, or delivering it to you in person, or posting it to you, or emailing it to you (if you have consented to receive notices by email) within 16 weeks after the variation takes effect. Our notice will summarise the variation and inform you how to contact us further for information.
Goods warranty
If we supply goods to you, you will get the benefit of any manufacturer’s warranty that applies to them. The Trade Practices Act 1974 and/or State law may also entitle you to further goods warranties.
Service standards
We will use reasonable endeavours to supply services to a fair and reasonable standard, but we do not guarantee fault free, continuous or optimal service.
Support
Our help desk staff cannot be familiar with every product on the market, and we cannot test them all for compatibility with our network. We may designate certain hardware or software, or kinds of hardware or software, as "supported", and our staff will focus on them. You are free to use non-supported hardware or software (unless there is some legal or other reason why you must not) but you accept that we may not be able to assist you if there are problems related to it.
Cooperation
You must give us all reasonable cooperation that we require in order to provide service to you, and fixing any problems that arise.
Complaints and faults
At first instance, both complaints and faults should be reported to our help desk staff. They will take action to have faults corrected. If they have not resolved a complaint within 7 days, you should ask that it be referred to a supervisor, who will address it or pass it on to our most appropriate officer. If we ask for written details of your complaint, you must give them, and we will normally report the progress of the matter to you by email.
You are also entitled to take a complaint to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, who will deal with it at no charge if you have been unable to resolve it with us. Possibly, the consumer affairs office in your State will also have power to assist you with a complaint.
Your personal details
We do not normally obtain a credit report about customers, but we reserve the right to do so. When allowed by law, we also reserve the right to give credit information about you to a credit reporting agency.
We are subject to the Privacy Act 1988, a law that protects your privacy and personal information. Full information about the ways in which we collect and deal with personal information are set out in our privacy policy.
Indemnities and limitation of liability
You must indemnify us and our wholesalers against any loss or damage that arises from your use of our services. You release us from any liability for loss or damage that you may suffer, but that does not affect rights that you may have under the Trade Practices Act 1974. The SFoA cannot exclude those rights, but it does limit them as far as allowed by that Act.
If you are a non-english speaker or have a disability and require assistance to read or understand this summary or you require a large print copy. Please contact Customer Service on 131 456.
Last updated: 28th June 2006
