Terms of Service

Detailed description of goods and/or services

Vander Host (Pty Ltd) (herein referred to as “Vander Host”) is an Information Technology company that offer services in hosting, domain registration and other related services to the customer.

Delivery policy

Subject to availability and receipt of payment, requests will be confirmed within 2 working days and delivery confirmed telephonically or via e-mail.

Liability

By agreeing to use our services you agree to our standard terms and conditions.

Return and Refunds policy

The provision of goods and services by Vander Host is subject to availability. In cases of unavailability, Vander Host will refund the client in full within 30 days. Cancellation of credit card orders by the client will attract a 5% administration fee. Vander Host provides a full 30 day money back guarantee on all services. All goods such as hardware and software remains the property of Vander Host until paid in full.

We do not refund domain registration fees either legally or fraudulently purchased. Each and every domain registration incurs a supplier and administration cost and therefore the onus rests on the client to ensure that they have purchased the correct domain name.

Customer privacy policy

Vander Host shall take all reasonable steps to protect the personal information of users. For the purpose of this clause, “personal information” shall be defined as detailed in the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA). Visit our privacy policy page for more information.

Acceptable use policy

Vander Host’s hosting services are government by our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). Our AUP policy states that none of services may be utilised in any way to generate SPAM (UCE – Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail). Use of your e-mail account to send unsolicited bulk (UBE) or commercial messages (UCE) is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, bulk-mailing of commercial advertising, informational announcements, charity requests, petitions for signatures, and political or religious tracts. Such material may only be sent to those who have explicitly requested it.

Spamming Sites or Illegal Activity

Should any aspect of a client’s website cause spam or other illegal activity and disrupt the service to any of our other clients, we will immediately suspend the hosting services of the website responsible for the spamming or illegal activity. This will be done after making contact with the client in writing to confirm this. Services will be reactivated upon confirmation from the client that the spamming software has been removed.

Client changes to personal domains

Vander Host reserves the right to charge a service fee, for any changes or system corrections needed on servers or domains owned by clients, when the changes or corrections needed are the result of changes made by the client.

Client Access Disclaimer

Vander Host reserves the right to charge a specialised IT Support fee, for any changes or system corrections needed on client installations and networks, in the event of a request for full systems access by the client.

Copyright

Vander Host’s servers may be used only for lawful purposes. Transmission, distribution or storage of any material in violation of any applicable law or regulation is prohibited. This includes, without limitation, material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property right used without proper authorization, and material that is obscene, defamatory, constitutes a legal threat, or violates export control laws. Examples of unacceptable content or links: “Pirated software”, “Hackers programs or archives”, “Warez Sites”, “Irc Bots”, “Illegal Mp3’s” etc.

We will be the sole arbiters as to what constitutes a violation of this provision with guidance taken from the Internet Service Provider’s Association.

IP Address Allocation Policy

Payment options accepted

Payment may be made via Debit Order (Bank Draft) and Visa / MasterCard /American Express credit cards. Unless otherwise specified all hosting and Internet access services are payable pro-rata in advance.

Payment on additional invoices

As per the terms on our service application forms, please note that you are in agreement to accept any additional relevant charges submitted against your account, not included in the monthly service invoices. This may include top up invoices, job card invoices, or invoices related to overuse for hosting services.

Debit Orders

Vander Host’s debit orders are processed once a month, typically on the last working day of each month. Should a customer’s monthly debit order return as rejected for any reason, a rejection fee of R50 will incur and this will immediately be billed as a separate invoice.

Upon signing up with Vander Host, the client agrees to any additional relevant charges to their products that are not included in their monthly service invoice. This includes traffic or disk overusage invoices that are created for hosting.  As all invoices are automatically e-mailed immediately after they are generated, it is the client’s responsibility to contact Vander Host should they have any queries relating to an invoice upon receipt thereof.

Credit card acquiring and security

Credit card transactions will be acquired for Vander Host via Payfast. Payfast uses the strictest form of encryption, namely Secure Socket Layer 3 (SSL3) and no credit card details are stored on the website. Users may go to www.payfast.co.za to view their security certificate and security policy.

Customer details separate from card details

Customer details will be stored by Vander Host separately from card details which are entered by the client on Payfast’s secure site. For more detail on Payfast refer to www.payfast.co.za

Merchant Outlet country and transaction currency

The merchant outlet country at the time of presenting payment options to the cardholder is South Africa. Transaction Currency is South African Rand (ZAR).

Payment via Credit card

All new orders placed where the account holder is making payment via Credit card will need to be accompanied by copies of the account holder’s Credit card (front and back of the card) before the order will be processed. Should a client wish to change their payment method to Credit card, or update their Credit card details, this will also be required.

Responsibility

Vander Host takes responsibility for all aspects relating to the transaction including sale of goods and services sold on this website, customer service and support, dispute resolution and delivery of goods.

Country of domicile

This website is governed by the laws of South Africa and Vander Host chooses as its domicilium citandi et executandi for all purposes under this agreement, whether in respect of court process, notice, or other documents or communication of whatsoever nature.

Disclaimer

Vander Host at its sole discretion, may choose to change the terms, conditions and operation of this website at anytime without notice.  This includes the occasional adjustment of our pricing allowing for the notification of our clients within 21 days.

Non Payment on Overdue Invoices

All invoices – unless otherwise indicated are due COD, or by the first of each month as all monthly services are billed in advance for the upcoming month.  Should an invoice become overdue, the necessary process is followed by our system with the details that are available on each client’s profile.  Should we receive no response with regard to outstanding invoices, the account will be handed over to our listing agency.  The client will receive notice from this company of the outstanding fees and have 30 days to respond and make arrangements for payment to Vander Host. Should payment not be received after the 30 days, the account holder will be blacklisted for non payment.

It is the responsibility of the client to ensure that Vander Host has their updated details, and this is available for each client to view in their client area. It is also the responsiblity of the client to be in contact with Vander Host to arrange for payment before the account is handed over.

About EFT and suspensions 

1. All payments, including EFT payments, are due on their due date.
2. We highly recommend regular services are  set to credit card or debit order payments instead of EFT.
3. You will get multiple reminders about the due date and then the payment is due.
4. Please ensure we have the correct email address on our system for payment due reminders. The onus rests on the client to ensure they receive emailed payment reminders.
5. You may also get reminders after the due date.
6. We reserve the right to suspend you after the due date has been passed.
7. In case you are paying using using EFT, please ensure your electronic banking is set to pop@vander.host
8. If we suspend your service, we will re-activate them upon receiving payment into our bank again.
9. Please note due to fraud we reserve the right to ignore emailed proof of payments and wait till the actual money is in our bank.
10. Please note, when paying EFT out of business hours, we may only allocate the funds during business hours which means a delay. Please be especially aware of this over weekends and during public holidays.
11. After three unsuccessful EFT payments, we reserve to right to put an additional allocation delay of 24 hours on the next payment receipt.
12. Please note, after six unsuccessful payments, we reserve the right to convert account to credit card of debit order payments.

Late Payment for Domain Renewals

In order to avoid having your domain suspended due to late payment, please ensure you make payment prior to the due dates stated on the invoice for the renewal. Failure to do so may result in the domain becoming suspended and even being transfered or purchased by another entity while unpaid.

Our renewal notices and invoices are sent out more than 30 days in advance, so ensure that your listed email address is the correct one with which to reach you.

Transferring of domains away

If you want to transfer, move, or cancel a domain, the abbreviated procedure is as follow:

1. Client submits cancellation request
2. New domain registrar initiates transfer
3. Vander Host accepts transfer
4. Domain is transferred

It is imperative that you contact your new ISP before transferring a domain away so that this entire process can facilitated. The essence of transferring a domain away is that the new (“incoming”) ISP does most of the work. If the new ISP does pro-actively manage the transfer your domain might go into redemption and then get re-registered by another party.

Domain Renewals .CO.ZA

Vander Host uses the official South African domain registrar to register .CO.ZA domain names. This registrar provides an option to pay them directly instead of going via the ISP. The money Vander Host collects for domain registrations and renewals are used to cover our administrative, billing, tech support, and infrastructure costs. For example, for every domain name that resides on our servers, we run fully redundant servers, locally, and internationally. If a client elects to pay the domain registrar directly instead of honouring our invoices, Vander Host reserves the right to not host the client’s DNS.

Backups for Hosting Packages

Daily backups are made of the web files on our servers and they are available in the event that your site needs to restored. Please note that we do not offer any backups for mails linked to the domain hosted with us and suggest that you always ensure a local copy.

It is highly recommended that you also create a separate backup of all your DNS records, web files and mailbox content, to prevent loss of data as we do not guarantee backups.

Fair Usage for Server Hosting

At Vander Host, we are committed to providing uncapped data on all server hosting plans. However, to ensure optimal performance and fairness across our network, we implement a fair usage policy for server resources.

Managing server resources effectively is crucial to maintaining the high standards of service our clients expect. This policy helps us monitor, balance, and upgrade resources efficiently, ensuring that all clients receive the best possible performance.

Our fair usage policy ensures that the resource usage of any individual client’s service does not exceed 20 times the average usage across all clients. This is calculated by first subtracting each client’s server usage before determining the overall average.

If a client’s service exceeds 20 times the average CPU cycles, Disk IO, or bandwidth usage, we may request an upgrade to a higher package. Should the client choose not to upgrade, we reserve the right to recommend alternative solutions outside our network and assist with the migration.

Technical Support regarding Overuse Investigation

Our hosting platform already provide clients with detailed statistics of usage. Sometimes clients find it difficult to understand that they are using such a large amount of overuse. If a client is unable to resolve the issue using the tools at their disposal and they would like Vander Host to investigate further, our Support team will be able to assist on this matter at a charge rate of R 225 per domain. Charges  will not be applied should there be a system fault on Vander Host’s side. For further clarity on this please contact our help desk.

System Administration Support Fees Charged

Vander Host charges for system administration of client servers. If we need to log a call with Parallels, a fee of $75.00 is charged to the client for each incident, and is payable upfront.

Transfer Requests Outside Office Hours

If a client wishes to transfer a domain out of office hours, the following policy applies:

1. The client must make sure the domain and all related services are paid up to date.
2. The incoming ISP must get confirmation in writing (e-mail is acceptable) that the accounts department will accept the transfer.

If the above procedure has not been followed the after hours (emergency personal) will be unable to help.

Please note that all outgoing domain transfers are automated. If your domain or any of the related service are not paid up to date the domain transfer will be automatically declined. Manual override can only be done during office hours.

Transfer tickets are only accepted once the cancelation for the specific hosting product has been requested online in the client area by the client, and in accordance with Vander Host’s 30 day notice period for hosting product cancellations.

Termination of Service

The General Terms of Service of this agreement commences on the Effective Date and will continue indefinitely, subject to termination by either party on 1 (one) calendar months prior, following our online cancellation procedure.

Cancellations are accepted by completing an online cancellation request in the customer client area. Cancellations are processed as follows:

1. Should the cancellation request be received before the 16th of the current month, this will result in the package being terminated (including all relevant files, information and history) on the 1st day of the following month.  (E.g. The cancellation is received on 15 June, and the product will be terminated on 1 July.)
2. Should the cancellation request be received after the 16th of the current month, this will result in the package being terminated (including all relevant files, information and history) on the 1st day of the second month. (E.g. The cancellation is received on 17 June, and the product will be terminated on 1 August.)

Please note that the cancellation period is 90 days in the case of clients who have an Internet Solutions contract service with Vander Host after the first year.

Vander Host reserves the right to terminate services if either the customer does not comply with Vander Host’s Terms of Service.

Client Contact Details

It is the client’s responsibility to keep their contact details up to date. This is easily accessible via the Client Area: https://my.vander.host

Support Procedures

Vander Host has standard procedures for obtaining technical support and escalations.

Clients are requested to log a ticket when experiencing difficulties. Methods for logging tickets are as follows:

• Using the Client Area: https://my.vander.host
• Sending an e-mail to support (at) vander.host
• Phoning our help line +27 21 300 3873

When requesting technical support you will be given a ticket number. All our technical support cases are attached to a ticket number which we use to trace the issue through our system. Without a ticket number, we cannot process any support request. Should you not receive a ticket number by default, please ensure that you ask for one. If you require to escalate a call, ensure that you quote your ticket number when proceeding with the escalation request.

Please do not contact our Support Engineers directly on their personal e-mail address or via any of the chat programmes such as  WhatsApp, as your query will not be handled efficiently.

Our Support Department should not be contacted for any reason on their cell phone numbers when reporting a problem.

Our system is set up to handle all technical support queries in an efficient manner and problems will only be addressed by following one of the three reporting methods above.

Vander Host’s Contact Details

Address:
20 Kloof Street, Gardens, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa

Telephone
+27 21 300 3873

Email:
hello (at) vander.host