Legal and Policies

Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of these Terms

These Terms of Service apply to all services supplied by Geometric Hosting (Pty) Ltd, including web hosting, email hosting, domain registration, domain renewals, reseller hosting and related services.

By placing an order, making payment, renewing a service or continuing to use our services, you confirm that you have read, understood and accepted these Terms.

2. Services

Geometric Hosting provides web hosting, email hosting, domain registration, domain management and related services.

Services are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. We may update, modify or discontinue a service where reasonably necessary. Where a material change negatively affects a paid service, we will provide reasonable notice where possible.

3. Customer Account Information

You are responsible for providing accurate and current contact, billing and account information.

You are also responsible for maintaining the security of your login credentials and for activity performed through your account.

It is your responsibility to ensure that your email address, telephone number, billing information and payment method remain up to date so that you receive invoices, payment notices, renewal reminders and service notifications.

4. Customer Responsibility

You are responsible for the websites, applications, files, emails and other data stored within your hosting account.

You must ensure that your websites, plugins, themes, scripts and applications are kept secure and up to date.

You must not use our services for unlawful, fraudulent, abusive or harmful purposes or in any way that negatively affects our infrastructure or other customers.

5. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by South African law, Geometric Hosting will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential losses, including loss of business, loss of profit, loss of email or loss of data.

Where liability cannot lawfully be excluded, our total liability relating to a service will be limited to the amount paid to Geometric Hosting for that specific service during the three months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

Nothing in these Terms excludes rights or protections that cannot legally be excluded under applicable South African law, including the Consumer Protection Act where applicable.

6. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Any dispute arising from these Terms or our services will be subject to the jurisdiction of the South African courts.

7. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Updated Terms will be published on this page.

Continued use of our services after an updated version has been published constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

8. Contact

Questions relating to these Terms may be sent to info@geometrichosting.com or submitted through the Geometric Hosting Client Area.

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Billing, Payments and Refunds

Payment in Advance

All hosting, email, domain and related services are provided on a prepaid basis unless otherwise agreed in writing.

Invoices are issued in advance and must be paid by the stated due date. Customers are responsible for ensuring that payment is received before the applicable service expires or becomes overdue.

Failed Payments and Debit Orders

Where a debit order or recurring payment arrangement has been authorised, you remain responsible for ensuring that sufficient funds are available and that the payment instruction can be processed successfully.

A failed debit order, declined payment, expired payment method or unsuccessful payment attempt does not mean that the invoice has been paid and does not extend the due date.

Where a payment attempt fails, the invoice remains outstanding and the account may continue through our automated suspension and termination process.

Geometric Hosting may attempt to process an authorised debit order more than once, but we are not required to continue attempting collection indefinitely.

Cancelling or stopping a debit order does not automatically cancel the related hosting, email, domain or other service. Any amounts already invoiced remain due unless the service has been properly cancelled.

Automated Billing System

Our billing, suspension, termination and renewal processes may be managed automatically by our billing system.

Where payment is not received by the required date, the system may automatically suspend or terminate services without manual intervention.

Customers should not assume that a service will remain active simply because a previous payment attempt was made or because the service is temporarily still accessible.

Overdue Accounts

Services with unpaid invoices may be suspended after the payment due date.

Accounts that remain unpaid for an extended period, including accounts that are approximately two months overdue, may be permanently terminated by our automated system.

Once an account has been terminated, the hosting account, website files, databases, email accounts and associated server data may be permanently removed.

Payments Received After Termination

Payment received after an account has already been terminated does not guarantee that the previous hosting account or its data can be restored.

Where possible, Geometric Hosting may check available backups and attempt a restoration. Restoration is subject to backup availability and is not guaranteed.

Refunds

Hosting service refunds are considered on a case-by-case basis and may be issued at our discretion where appropriate.

Domain registration, domain renewal and domain transfer fees are normally non-refundable once the transaction has been successfully submitted to or processed by the applicable registry or registrar.

Where Geometric Hosting has received a payment but the corresponding service cannot reasonably be supplied, we may refund the applicable amount where appropriate.

Upgrades and Downgrades

Hosting upgrades may be charged on a pro-rata basis for the remaining portion of the billing period.

Downgrades normally take effect from the next billing period unless otherwise agreed.

Cancellation

Customers may request cancellation through the Client Area or by contacting Geometric Hosting.

Cancellation does not automatically cancel invoices that became due before the cancellation request.

Customers must download and retain any required website, database, email or other data before their service ends.

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Domain Registration and Renewals

Domain Registration

Domain registrations are subject to availability and the rules of the applicable domain registry or registrar.

Payment must be received before Geometric Hosting is required to register, renew or transfer a domain.

Domain Renewal

Domain renewal fees must be paid before the domain's renewal or expiry deadline.

It is ultimately the customer's responsibility to ensure that domain renewal invoices are paid on time.

Geometric Hosting may issue renewal notices as a convenience, but failure to receive a reminder does not remove the customer's responsibility to renew the domain.

Unpaid Domain Renewals

If a domain renewal invoice is not paid, Geometric Hosting is not required to renew the domain.

An unpaid domain may expire, stop resolving, interrupt website and email services, enter a redemption period or become available for registration by another party, depending on the applicable registry rules.

Geometric Hosting cannot guarantee recovery of a domain after expiry.

Domain Expiry and Related Services

Hosting payment and domain renewal payment are separate obligations unless specifically included together in a package.

Payment of a hosting invoice does not automatically renew an unpaid domain, and payment of a domain invoice does not automatically settle an unpaid hosting account.

Domain Ownership and Transfers

Domains registered for customers will be managed according to the information supplied to us and the requirements of the applicable registry.

Where all outstanding obligations have been settled and registry rules permit, customers may request the transfer of their domain to another provider.

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Suspension and Termination

Suspension for Non-Payment

Geometric Hosting may suspend hosting, email or related services where an invoice has not been paid by the due date.

Suspension may restrict access to websites, email accounts, databases, control panels or other services until the outstanding balance has been settled.

Termination for Continued Non-Payment

Accounts that remain unpaid for an extended period may be permanently terminated.

In particular, accounts that become approximately two months overdue may be automatically terminated by our billing system.

Termination may occur automatically and does not require Geometric Hosting staff to manually delete or terminate the account.

Effect of Termination

When a hosting account is terminated, the active server account and its associated data may be deleted.

This may include websites, website files, databases, email accounts, email stored on the server, DNS configuration and other hosting data.

Geometric Hosting does not guarantee that terminated account data can be recovered.

Other Reasons for Suspension or Termination

Geometric Hosting may also suspend or terminate services where:

• these Terms are materially breached;
• the Acceptable Use Policy is violated;
• the account creates a security risk;
• the service is used for unlawful activity;
• failure to renew domain at the specified time
• the account negatively affects our infrastructure or other customers; or
• we are required to do so by law or by an authorised third party.

Where practical, we will attempt to contact the customer before taking action, except where immediate action is required for security, legal or operational reasons.

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Backups and Data

Customer Backup Responsibility

Customers are responsible for maintaining their own independent backups of all important websites, databases, email and other data.

Customers should not rely solely on Geometric Hosting's server backups as their only copy of important data.

Geometric Hosting Backups

Geometric Hosting may maintain automated server backups or snapshots as part of its hosting infrastructure.

These backups are provided as a recovery convenience and are not guaranteed.

We do not guarantee that a particular backup date, website, database, email account, file or other data will be available, complete or recoverable.

Backup Retention

Backups operate on a rolling retention basis and older backups are automatically removed as new backups are created.

Terminated accounts may eventually disappear from available backups as backup retention cycles progress.

Restoration After Termination

Where an account has already been terminated, Geometric Hosting may check available backup systems to determine whether a usable backup remains.

We cannot guarantee that a terminated account can be restored.

If a backup is available, Geometric Hosting may restore the account where technically possible and subject to any applicable outstanding payments or account requirements.

If no usable backup exists, Geometric Hosting will not be responsible for recreating lost website files, databases or server-side email data.

Email Data

Email stored only on the hosting server may be permanently lost if the hosting account is terminated and no usable backup remains.

Customers are encouraged to keep independent local copies of important email, particularly where email history is business-critical.

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Acceptable Use Policy

This Acceptable Use Policy applies to all services hosted or managed through Geometric Hosting.

Prohibited Content and Activity

• Illegal or unlawful content.
• Content that infringes copyright, trademarks or other intellectual property rights.
• Malware, viruses, malicious scripts or compromised software.
• Phishing websites or pages intended to steal credentials or personal information.
• Unsolicited bulk email or spam.
• Attempts to gain unauthorised access to systems, networks or accounts.
• Denial-of-service attacks, network attacks, port scanning or abusive network activity.
• Services intentionally designed to compromise or attack third-party systems.
• Content depicting or facilitating the sexual abuse or exploitation of children.

Shared Hosting Resource Usage

Shared hosting resources are shared between multiple customers.

Accounts that repeatedly or excessively consume server resources may be limited, suspended or required to move to a more appropriate hosting plan.

Where possible, we will contact the customer before taking action unless their account is actively affecting server stability, security or other customers.

Compromised Websites

Where a website or hosting account becomes compromised, infected or otherwise presents a security risk, Geometric Hosting may temporarily restrict or suspend the affected service while the issue is investigated or resolved.

Abuse Reports

Abuse reports may be sent to info@geometrichosting.com.

Where possible, include the relevant domain, IP address, screenshots, timestamps and supporting information.

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Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Geometric Hosting respects your privacy and processes personal information in accordance with applicable South African privacy legislation, including the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).

2. Information We Collect

We may collect information required to provide and manage your services, including:

• your name and business information;
• email address and telephone number;
• billing and payment information;
• domain registration information;
• IP addresses and security logs;
• support correspondence; and
• service and account activity.

3. Payment and Debit Order Information

Where you authorise a debit order, payment information may be processed through our authorised payment service providers, including Netcash.

Information associated with payment mandates may be retained where required for payment processing, fraud prevention, accounting, legal or regulatory purposes.

4. How We Use Information

Personal information may be used to:

• create and manage customer accounts;
• provide hosting and domain services;
• process payments;
• issue invoices and renewal notices;
• provide technical support;
• maintain platform security;
• meet legal and regulatory obligations; and
• communicate important information relating to your services.

5. Sharing of Information

We may provide relevant information to trusted third parties where reasonably necessary to provide a service.

This may include payment processors, domain registries, registrars, data centre providers, infrastructure providers and other technical service providers.

Geometric Hosting does not sell customer personal information.

6. Information Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect customer information against unauthorised access, disclosure, misuse or loss.

No online system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

7. Customer Rights

Subject to applicable law, you may request access to personal information we hold about you, request corrections or request deletion where we are not legally required to retain the information.

Requests may be sent to info@geometrichosting.com.

8. Retention

Customer, billing and transaction records may be retained for as long as reasonably necessary for operational, tax, accounting, legal or regulatory purposes.

Server backups operate on a rolling retention basis and are automatically overwritten or removed over time.

9. Third-Party Websites

Our website may contain links to third-party services or websites. Geometric Hosting is not responsible for the privacy practices of third parties.

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Service Availability

Geometric Hosting targets 99.9% network availability, measured monthly and excluding scheduled maintenance and circumstances outside our reasonable control.

Scheduled maintenance may be performed where required to maintain the security, stability or performance of our infrastructure.

Where practical, maintenance will be performed during lower-traffic periods and advance notice will be provided for significant planned maintenance.

Exclusions

Availability calculations do not include downtime or service interruptions resulting from circumstances outside Geometric Hosting's reasonable control, including:

• domain registry or registrar failures;
• DNS provider failures;
• internet routing or upstream provider issues;
• customer website code;
• WordPress plugins, themes or third-party software;
• customer configuration changes;
• malware or compromised websites;
• denial-of-service attacks;
• scheduled maintenance; or
• events beyond our reasonable control.

If you believe your service has experienced an availability issue, please open a support ticket with the relevant dates, times and details so that we can investigate.

Last updated 15 January 2023.