THE GIST OF THINGS

Terms

By accessing the website at https://www.cloudfusion.co.za, it's pages, sub-domains and making use of our services, you are agreeing to be bound by these terms of service, all applicable laws and regulations, and agree that you are responsible for compliance with any applicable local laws. If you do not agree with any of these terms, you are prohibited from using or accessing this site or making use of any of our services. The materials contained in this website are protected by applicable copyright and trademark law.

DEFINITION OF SERVICES

Cloudfusion provides a range of digital services, including but not limited to web hosting, domain registration, and cloud-based software licensing. Each service package is defined by its specific features, limitations, and inclusions, as detailed in the service description at the time of purchase.‍

data protection

In compliance with South African laws for privacy and data protection, in particular the Protection of Personal Information Act of 2013, we are required to fulfil certain duties as an Operator. Our duties and your rights as a Responsible Party are contained in the Cloudfusion Data Protection Agreement. This agreement forms part of our Terms and Conditions.

Payment Policies

Full payment is required before any hosting service is rendered, which includes renewals. All payment-due notices will be sent by electronic mail. Payment is due on the first day of the month, for that month. New orders are pro-rata to the first day of the month. All customers will receive invoices 15 days before the due date. Billing will continue until you cancel your hosting account. We accept the following forms of payment: Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), Credit Card (MasterCard and Visa) and Debit Order.

A service fee will be charged for ALL cash/cheque/credit card payments, as charged by our bank. Please use EFT (Internet Banking) when making payments to avoid transaction fees.

Debit orders that return as unpaid will attract a R50 administration fee. The account should then be settled by EFT or Credit Card, no further debit orders will run on the account until the overdue amount has been settled.

VAT and Proforma Invoicing

Cloudfusion is a now VAT-registered entity. As part of our commitment to compliance with South African tax regulations, we have implemented the following changes to our invoicing and payment processes:

1. Proforma Invoices: For the purpose of requesting payments, Cloudfusion will issue proforma invoices. These proforma invoices serve as a preliminary bill of sale and will outline the products or services provided, along with the due payment. It's important to note that proforma invoices are not considered official tax invoices and, as such, VAT cannot be claimed on these documents.
2. Official Tax Invoices: Upon receipt of payment based on the proforma invoice, Cloudfusion will issue an official tax invoice. This document will comply with VAT requirements and can be used for VAT claims where applicable.
3. VAT on Services: All applicable services will be subject to VAT at the current rate, as determined by South African tax regulations. The VAT amount will be clearly indicated on both proforma and official tax invoices.
4. Client Responsibilities: Clients are responsible for ensuring that their billing information is accurate and up-to-date to facilitate the correct issuance of tax invoices. It is also the client's responsibility to inform Cloudfusion of any specific billing requirements or adjustments needed to comply with VAT regulations.

By engaging with our services and making payments based on the proforma invoices issued, clients acknowledge and accept these terms related to VAT and invoicing.

Late Payment

It is your responsibility to ensure that your payment information is up to date, and that all invoices are paid on time. You agree that until and unless you notify Cloudfusion of your desire to cancel any or all services received (by the proper means listed in the appropriate section of the Terms & Conditions), those services will be billed on a recurring basis, unless otherwise stated in writing by Cloudfusion. Cloudfusion reserves the right to bill your credit card or billing information on file with us.

Cloudfusion provides a 10-day grace period from the time the invoice is due and when it must be paid. Any invoice that is overdue for 10 days will result in account and service suspension until the account balance has been paid in full. Accounts with outstanding balances beyond this grace period are not entitled to the protections and guarantees outlined in our best intent policies. Access to the account and related services will not be restored until all outstanding payments have been received. We do not charge a reactivation fee.

Cancellation

Cancellations of services must be done in writing by submitting a cancellation ticket one (1) calendar month’s prior via www.cloudfusion.co.za/portal. You have the option of cancelling your hosting account immediately or at the end of the billing period. If you choose to cancel the hosting account immediately then your account will be terminated from our servers on receipt of the cancellation. Cancellation of a subscription does not cancel any outstanding invoices. All outstanding invoices are still due.

Domain Cost and Hosting Refunds

Please note that fees payable for domain registration and renewal costs are non-refundable. Cloudfusion accepts no responsibility for any typing errors (spelling mistakes) you make when ordering a domain name with us. Once a domain name has passed its expiry date there is no guarantee that we are able to renew the domain, additional charges might apply in these cases.

Please note we do not refund full amounts since purchase, if unsatisfied with service we refund you only for that month alone. Only web hosting is refundable. Note: We only refund to Bank Accounts and can refund Payfast transactions and Paypal transactions.

Inactive accounts with credit will be deactivated after 12 months of inactivity and any credit on the account will be forfeited.

Web Design & Development Refunds

Web design and development projects require extensive resources, consumes our time and incurs internal and external resource expenses. Therefore once a payment or deposit is made, it is non-refundable as work is started immediately after. Payments for custom design projects (i.e. custom logo designs, branding projects, full website designs, individual page mockups and smaller design components within a website, etc.) and custom development projects (i.e. PHP programming, WordPress CMS custom development, Plugin custom development, etc.) are made to us in increments as a courtesy to the client as well as discounted for those who agree to pay in full, but if a project gets cancelled, delayed or postponed by the client, then all monies paid or other pending projects will be retained by Cloudfusion and if applicable, an additional cost will be charged to the client for all work completed beyond what was already paid for shall be paid by the client.

To protect our clients, we split larger development projects into smaller milestones and clients only pay the following invoice once they are 100% satisfied with the previously completed milestone.

All development milestones that are completed as defined in the scope of the work are non-refundable.

MICROSOFT OFFICE 365 TERMS AND CANCELLATIONS

All subscriptions to Microsoft Office are subject to a yearly agreement. Termination of the contract requires a notification period of 12 months, during which any invoices issued remain payable.

Unlimited Traffic/Storage Policy

Our unlimited plans do not have set limits on bandwidth and disk storage. Instead, we have a fair use policy which goes as follows.

Bandwidth and disk storage are unlimited as long as:

– they used as an integral part of your website,– you are not intentionally abusing the service by using excessive bandwidth or disk storage,– you are not violating our terms and conditions, and– you are not impeding our capability to provide other service to other customers.

In other words, if you are adding content (images, files, text etc) to your site and using the service in the way it is intended to be used, then we will not limit the amount of bandwidth and disk storage your site is consuming.

Our intention is that, as long as both parties are being fair, you should not have to worry about bandwidth or disk storage limits. We’ll take care of these sorts of issues so you can concentrate on growing your site.

If, however, you are attempting to take advantage of the service by distributing large files or streaming excessive video or hosting music or something similar, then we will request that you cease doing so.

SPAM Policy

Cloudfusion takes a zero tolerance approach to the sending of Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) or SPAM over our network. Very simply this means that customers of Cloudfusion may not use or permit others to use our network to transact in UCE. Customers of Cloudfusion 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.

If your actions have caused Cloudfusion’s mail servers or Cloudfusion’s IP address ranges to be placed on blacklists and other mail filtering software systems used by companies on the Internet, you will be assessed a R500 charge to your account for administrative charges incurred to remove and protect mail servers and IP ranges.

Content Policy

All services provided by Cloudfusion are to be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage, or presentation of any information, data or material in violation of any South African, United Kingdom or United States Federal, State, Provincial or City law is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: copyrighted material, trademark, intellectual property, material we judge to be threatening or obscene, or material protected by trade secret and other statute without proper authorization. The subscriber agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Cloudfusion from any claims resulting from the use of the service which damages the subscriber or any other party.

Also prohibited are sites that promote any illegal activity or present content that may be damaging to Cloudfusion’s servers or any other server on the internet. Links to such materials are also prohibited.

Examples of unacceptable content or links:

– Pirated software– Hacker programs or archives– Fraudulent activities– Adult sites– Warez sites

Any illegal activity, online gambling, spamming or hacking will result in your site being shut down. The customer is solely responsible for the content stored on and served on their hosting space.

Cloudfusion will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of this provision.

Scripts and Software Policy

You are free to install and use any scripts you wish, (as long as they are not on our banned scripts list, see below) however we reserve the right to disable any script or software in your hosting account that affects normal server operation or service to other Cloudfusion customers.

Cloudfusion is not responsible for scripts that you use in your hosting. It is not our responsibility to ensure your scripts function correctly. Please don’t expect our support techs to troubleshoot aspects of your scripts or third party scripts that you use on your sites hosted on our servers.

Cloudfusion provides technical support for the server & server related softwares. Any scripts included in the Softaculous are 3rd party scripts and support is not provided by our techs.

The following scripts are banned due to the potential harm they can cause to other sites on the same server:

– Torrentflux (and similar scripts)– AlienForm (all versions)– formmail.pl– Greymatter (all versions)– Open Webmail– Ikonboard (all versions)– IRC Egg Drops & IRC related programs.– Chat software– lstmrge.cgi– Proxy Servers & Scripts (EX: nph-proxy)– Shell, SSH, Telnet Scripts and Shell, SSH, Telnet Alternatives (cgitelnet.pl)– The Anonymizer– UltimateBBS (all versions)– YABB + YABB se (all versions)– Any script that uses / processes a massive number of flatfiles or large flatfile databases.

Resource Usage

Cloudfusion’s hosting accounts operate on shared resources. Excessive use or abuse of these shared network resources by one customer may have a negative impact on all other customers. Misuse of network resources in a manner which impairs server/network performance is prohibited by this policy and may result in suspension of your account without notice. You are prohibited from excessive consumption of resources, including processing time, memory and session time. You may not use resource-intensive programs which negatively impact other customers or the performance of Cloudfusion’s systems or Hosting. Cloudfusion reserves the right to terminate or limit such activities.

System and Network Security

Users are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security of the Cloudfusion Network. Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. Cloudfusion will investigate occurrences, which may involve such violations and may involve, and cooperate with, law enforcement authorities in prosecuting Users who are involved in such violations. These violations include, without limitation:

Accessing data not intended for such User or logging into a server or account, which such User is not authorised to access. Attempting to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization.

Attempting to interfere with service to any user, host or network, including, without limitation, via means of overloading, “flooding”, “mail bombing” or “crashing”. Forging any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail or newsgroup posting. Taking any action in order to obtain services to which such user is not entitled.

Backups

Full backups are made nightly. No guarantees are made of any kind, either expressed or implied, as to the integrity of these backups. Backups are made for server restoration purposes only. It is the client’s responsibility to maintain local copies of their web content any information.

3rd party software

We are resellers of 3rd party cloud-based software licences and solutions and provide limited support to our customers via respective 3rd party reseller programs. All support queries will be routed to the respective provider for further assistance and support. Support provided by the 3rd party cannot be controlled and we will endeavour to assist where possible. Customers are required to employ their own internal IT resources for professional setup and support.

Intellectual Property

We are the owner and/or authorised user of all trade marks, service marks, design marks, patents, copyrights, database rights and all other intellectual property appearing on or contained within the Site, unless otherwise indicated. Except as provided in these Terms & Conditions, use of the Site does not grant you any right, title, interest or license to any such intellectual property you may access on the Site. Except as provided in these Terms & Conditions, any use or reproduction of the intellectual property is prohibited.

We have the right to retain ownership of any intellectual property / projects pertaining to accounts that are overdue or remain unresolved.

You may view this Site and you are welcome to print hard copies of material on it solely for your lawful, personal, non-commercial use. All other copying, whether in electronic, hard copy or other format, is prohibited and may breach intellectual property laws and other laws world-wide. Furthermore, you are not entitled to reproduce, transmit, publicly perform, distribute, adapt, translate, modify, bundle, merge, share or make available to any person, or create derivative works of such material, or use it for commercial purposes, without our prior written consent. All other rights are reserved.

Refusal of Service

We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason not prohibited by law. We reserve the right to terminate service to any customer for any reason not prohibited by law.

Any deliberate attempt to cause damage to Cloudfusion’s servers, the Cloudfusion network or any other internet servers will result in immediate account deactivation without prior notice.

Use License

1. Permission is granted to temporarily download one copy of the materials (information or software) on Cloudfusion's website for personal, non-commercial transitory viewing only. This is the grant of a license, not a transfer of title, and under this license you may not:
2. modify or copy the materials;
3. use the materials for any commercial purpose, or for any public display (commercial or non-commercial);
4. attempt to decompile or reverse engineer any software contained on Cloudfusion's website;
5. remove any copyright or other proprietary notations from the materials; or
6. transfer the materials to another person or "mirror" the materials on any other server.
7. This license shall automatically terminate if you violate any of these restrictions and may be terminated by Cloudfusion at any time. Upon terminating your viewing of these materials or upon the termination of this license, you must destroy any downloaded materials in your possession whether in electronic or printed format.

Disclaimer

1. The materials on Cloudfusion's website are provided on an 'as is' basis. Cloudfusion makes no warranties, expressed or implied, and hereby disclaims and negates all other warranties including, without limitation, implied warranties or conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement of intellectual property or other violation of rights.
2. Further, Cloudfusion does not warrant or make any representations concerning the accuracy, likely results, or reliability of the use of the materials on its website or otherwise relating to such materials or on any sites linked to this site.

Limitations

In no event shall Cloudfusion or its suppliers be liable for any damages (including, without limitation, damages for loss of data or profit, or due to business interruption) arising out of the use or inability to use the materials on Cloudfusion's website, even if Cloudfusion or a Cloudfusion authorised representative has been notified orally or in writing of the possibility of such damage. Because some jurisdictions do not allow limitations on implied warranties, or limitations of liability for consequential or incidental damages, these limitations may not apply to you.

Liability Limitation

‍Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary, Cloudfusion shall not be liable to you for any indirect, special, incidental, punitive, or consequential damages, including but not limited to loss of data, business interruption, or loss of profits, arising out of the use of or the inability to use the services.

Hosting Provider Acknowledgment

1. Hosting Provider: Cloudfusion's website hosting services are provided in partnership with Hostking, a third-party hosting provider. By using our services, you acknowledge that Hostking is our hosting provider and that your website will be hosted on their servers.
2. Acceptance of Hostking's Terms: In addition to accepting Cloudfusion's terms and conditions, all customers are required to accept and abide by Hostking's Terms of Service. It is the responsibility of the customer to review and understand Hostking's terms before using our hosting services.
3. Hosting Downtime & Issues: Cloudfusion strives to provide uninterrupted hosting services to its customers. However, any hosting-related downtime or technical issues should be directed to Hostking. Cloudfusion shall not be held liable for any damages, losses, or inconveniences caused by hosting downtimes or technical issues that are beyond our direct control.
4. Limitation of Liability: Customers acknowledge that the nature of hosting services can lead to interruptions for various reasons, including but not limited to technical issues, maintenance, and other factors. Cloudfusion and Hostking shall not be liable for any damages arising from such interruptions. Customers further acknowledge that our liability, as well as Hostking's liability, for any negligence may not exceed the amount equivalent to the charges payable by the customer for the services during the period the damages occurred.

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

While Cloudfusion strives to maintain a 99.9% uptime for its hosting services, there may be instances where this is not achieved due to unforeseen circumstances. In such cases, Cloudfusion will endeavour to communicate any issues promptly and work diligently to restore services. Specific remedies or compensations for extended downtimes will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

DATA BREACH PROTOCOLS

In the event of a data breach or suspected data breach, Cloudfusion will promptly investigate the matter. Affected clients will be notified as soon as possible, and appropriate measures will be taken to mitigate the impact and prevent future occurrences. Cloudfusion is committed to maintaining the security and integrity of client data.

3RD PARTY DEPENDENCIES

Cloudfusion's services may rely on third-party providers for certain functionalities. While we strive to choose reliable partners, Cloudfusion cannot be held responsible for disruptions or issues arising solely from these third-party dependencies. We will, however, make every effort to address and resolve any issues in collaboration with our partners.

Corporate Email Solutions Advisory

For our corporate clients, we advise considering premium email solutions such as Google Workspace or Microsoft Office 365 for enhanced reliability, security, and functionality. While Cloudfusion offers IMAP email services, these are primarily geared towards startups and may not cater to the advanced needs and reliability requirements of larger corporations.

Force Majeure

Cloudfusion shall not be deemed to be in default of any provision hereof or be liable for any delay, failure in performance, or interruption of service resulting directly or indirectly from acts of God, civil or military authority, civil disturbance, war, strikes, fires, other catastrophes, power failure, or any other cause beyond its reasonable control.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Cloudfusion, its affiliates, licensors, and service providers, and its and their respective officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, licensors, suppliers, successors, and assigns from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, expenses, or fees (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or relating to your violation of these terms of service or your use of Cloudfusion's services.

Dispute Resolution

In the event of any dispute arising out of or in relation to the services, both parties agree to first attempt to resolve the dispute through amicable negotiations. If the dispute cannot be resolved within thirty (30) days of such negotiations, either party may refer the dispute to mediation or arbitration before seeking legal action.

Service Interruptions

Cloudfusion is not responsible for any temporary delay, outages, or interruptions of the services. Further, Cloudfusion shall not be liable for any delay or failure to perform its obligations under these terms where such delay or failure results from any cause beyond Cloudfusion's reasonable control.

Termination for Cause

Cloudfusion reserves the right to terminate services immediately if you violate any provision of these terms of service, with or without notice.

Data Integrity

While Cloudfusion employs advanced data protection and backup measures, we cannot guarantee complete avoidance of data loss. It is the client's responsibility to maintain local backups of their data. Cloudfusion is not responsible for any loss of data, however caused.

Accuracy of materials

The materials appearing on Cloudfusion's website could include technical, typographical, or photographic errors. Cloudfusion does not warrant that any of the materials on its website are accurate, complete or current. Cloudfusion may make changes to the materials contained on its website at any time without notice. However Cloudfusion does not make any commitment to update the materials.

Links

We have not reviewed all of the sites linked to its website and is not responsible for the contents of any such linked site. The inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by Cloudfusion (Pty) Ltd of the site. Use of any such linked website is at the user's own risk.

Modifications

We may revise these terms of service for its website at any time without notice. By using this website or by engaging with Cloudfusion on a business level you are agreeing to be bound by the then current version of these terms of service.

Governing Law

These terms and conditions are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of South Africa and you irrevocably submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in that State or location. You agree to sign up on behalf of a legal entity or any (other) person (whether naturalor juristic), and you warrant that you have the necessary authority to do so and accept that you will be jointly and severally liable for the due and proper payment of the Attorneys’ accounts, bills of cost, fees and disbursements raising from any disputes.

Cloudfusion strives to provide the best possible service to all our customers, but we will not tolerate any unlawful activity or abuse on our servers. We respect freedom of speech and expression unless it is harmful to others. These brief guidelines are imposed to protect you, other Cloudfusion Networks customers and us against such harm. Cloudfusion reserves the right to update this policy at any time, so please check back periodically.