Hosting Terms of Service

1. About these terms

These Terms of Service govern the web-hosting services supplied by Strange Duck Ltd trading as Strange Duck Hosting (“Strange Duck Hosting”, “we”, “us” or “our”). Our registered office is Suite A, 82 James Carter Road, Mildenhall, United Kingdom, IP28 7DE. You can contact us at support@strangeduck.co.uk or on 01379 430418.

These terms apply together with:

1. our Acceptable Use Policy;
2. our Privacy and Cookie Notice;
3. our Cancellation and Refund Policy;
4. our Support and Service Policy;
5. our Backup Policy;
6. the description, resources, billing cycle and price shown for the selected plan at checkout; and
7. any written order-specific terms that we expressly agree with you.

If there is a conflict, an order-specific written agreement takes priority, followed by the checkout description, these Terms of Service and then the other policies.

Nothing in these terms limits rights that cannot lawfully be limited, including applicable consumer rights.

2. Eligibility and account registration

You must be at least 18 years old and legally capable of entering into a contract. You must provide accurate, complete and current account, billing and contact information.

You are responsible for:

• keeping your client-area and hosting credentials secure;
• using unique, strong passwords and enabling available multi-factor authentication;
• maintaining access to your registered email address;
• keeping authorised-user details current; and
• notifying us promptly if you suspect unauthorised access.

We may rely on instructions submitted through an authenticated client account or registered email address unless we have reason to believe they are unauthorised.

3. Ordering and formation of the contract

The store listing is an invitation to place an order. Your order is an offer to purchase the selected service. A contract is formed when we accept the order, normally when payment is confirmed and the service is activated or when we send an order-acceptance confirmation.

We may reject or manually review an order where reasonably necessary, including suspected fraud, inaccurate information, technical incompatibility, sanctions concerns, previous abuse or inability to supply the service.

The order confirmation and invoice will identify the service, billing cycle and amount paid. You should save copies for your records.

4. Service commencement and automatic provisioning

Hosting is normally provisioned automatically after the first successful payment. If you are a consumer and ask us to begin service during the statutory cancellation period, you must make an express request at checkout.

Where the law permits, if you cancel after requesting early commencement, we may deduct or charge an amount proportionate to the service supplied up to the time you notify us of cancellation. Further details appear in the Cancellation and Refund Policy.

Activation may be delayed by fraud review, payment review, maintenance, technical problems or information we reasonably require from you.

5. The hosting service

The service is a self-managed shared web-hosting account using cPanel. The plan resources and included features are those displayed on the order page when you purchase. Current plans differ principally by storage and account allowances.

All plans currently receive the same published per-account processing allocation. A higher plan increases the allowances stated on its order page; it does not promise dedicated hardware or an inherently faster server.

The service may include access to third-party software such as cPanel, LiteSpeed, CloudLinux, Imunify360, WordPress Toolkit or similar systems. Availability and features may change where the relevant vendor or upstream provider changes, withdraws or replaces them. We will use reasonable efforts to provide a materially equivalent service where practical.

Unless expressly stated otherwise:

• the service does not include website design, development, maintenance or content creation;
• the service does not include management of WordPress, plugins, themes or customer code;
• Essential does not include automatic WordPress installation or WordPress management tooling;
• where you use an existing domain, you must keep its registration current and update its DNS or nameservers as instructed; and
• where you order or transfer a domain through us, you must provide accurate registrant details and comply with the applicable registry and registrar terms.

6. Customer responsibilities

You are responsible for:

• all websites, files, databases, mailboxes, software and content within your account;
• ensuring that you have all permissions and licences required for that content;
• keeping applications, plugins, themes and custom code secure and updated;
• testing changes before applying them to a live website;
• maintaining independent copies of important data;
• monitoring your resource usage and mailbox capacity;
• complying with the Acceptable Use Policy; and
• responding promptly to security, abuse, payment or resource-usage notices.

Security scanning and automated protection reduce risk but cannot guarantee that an account will never be compromised.

7. Prices, taxes and payment

The price and billing cycle are shown before checkout. Prices displayed to consumers are the total payable price, including any taxes that we are required to charge.

Prices shown at checkout are the total payable price. Any tax we are required to charge will be shown before payment. If our tax status changes, we may add legally required taxes from a future renewal date after giving appropriate notice.

Payment is due at the start of each billing period. By choosing a recurring payment method, you authorise us and our payment provider to collect renewal invoices when due until the service is cancelled.

You must ensure that payment details remain valid. We do not store complete payment-card numbers; payment credentials are handled by the selected payment provider.

8. Renewal and price changes

Monthly plans renew monthly and annual plans renew annually unless cancelled. The next due date is shown in the client area and on invoices.

We may change renewal prices by giving reasonable advance notice. A price change will not alter a billing period that has already been paid. If you do not accept a future price, you may cancel before the affected renewal date.

Promotional pricing applies only for the period and conditions stated with the promotion.

9. Failed and overdue payments

If payment is not received when due, we may send reminders, restrict the account or suspend the service. Continued non-payment may result in termination and deletion of hosted data.

We will not intentionally suspend a service for non-payment before the applicable due date. Payment processing failures can occur; you remain responsible for checking invoices and payment confirmations.

Restoration after suspension may not be immediate. Any late fee or reconnection fee will only apply if it was clearly disclosed before it became payable.

10. Cancellation by you

You may request cancellation through the authenticated client area or by contacting support from your registered email address.

• A monthly service can be cancelled for the end of its current paid billing period.
• An annual service can be cancelled for the end of its current paid annual term.
• Cancellation prevents future renewal but does not automatically create a refund for time already paid, except where required by law.
• You may request immediate termination, but hosted data may then be deleted and may not be recoverable.

You should download all required files, databases and email before termination. The statutory rights of consumers are explained separately in the Cancellation and Refund Policy.

11. Suspension and termination by us

We may restrict, suspend or terminate a service where reasonably necessary because of:

• overdue payment;
• a breach or suspected breach of these terms or the Acceptable Use Policy;
• malware, phishing, spam, fraud, attacks or other security risks;
• unlawful use or a valid requirement from a court, regulator, law-enforcement body or upstream provider;
• excessive or abnormal resource use that harms other customers or infrastructure;
• false account or payment information;
• abusive or threatening behaviour towards staff or contractors; or
• an urgent need to protect customers, systems, data or the public.

Where practical and safe, we will explain the issue and allow a reasonable opportunity to correct it. We may act immediately where delay would increase risk, breach the law or breach an upstream requirement.

Suspension does not remove fees already due. We will act reasonably when deciding whether reinstatement is possible.

12. Maintenance, availability and changes

We use reasonable care and skill to provide the service. Hosting depends on networks, data centres, software vendors and other systems that can fail or require maintenance.

We may perform planned or emergency maintenance. We will give notice of planned work where reasonably practical. No fixed uptime guarantee or service credit applies unless an order-specific SLA expressly says otherwise.

We may make reasonable technical or security changes where they do not materially reduce the core paid service. If we must permanently withdraw a service, we will give reasonable notice where possible and provide an appropriate remedy for any unused prepaid period, subject to applicable law.

13. Support

Support is provided on a best-endeavours basis through the client-area ticket system and support@strangeduck.co.uk. We do not promise a fixed response time or continuously staffed 24-hour help desk.

We prioritise security incidents and platform-wide outages. Support boundaries and exclusions appear in the Support and Service Policy.

14. Backups and data

Daily offsite backups are included as described in the Backup Policy, but backups are a recovery aid rather than a substitute for your own independent backup strategy. You remain responsible for maintaining current copies of important data outside the hosting account.

We do not guarantee that every file, database, mailbox or restore point will always be recoverable. Any specific retention promise must be stated expressly on the order or in writing.

15. Migration assistance

Where the order page includes migration assistance, it means one standard migration of one compatible existing website, normally on an eligible annual plan. Migration is subject to access, compatibility, size and security review.

Unless agreed in writing, migration does not include repairing an already-broken website, rewriting code, updating unsupported software, redesigning content, correcting email-client settings or making incompatible platforms work. We will explain any separately chargeable work before beginning it.

16. Intellectual property and customer content

You retain ownership of your content. You grant us and our infrastructure providers a limited right to store, copy, transmit, scan, back up and otherwise process the content only as reasonably necessary to provide, secure and support the service, comply with law and enforce these terms.

You warrant that hosting and processing your content does not infringe another person’s rights. We may remove or restrict disputed content where reasonably required by law, a valid complaint or the Acceptable Use Policy.

17. Data protection

Each party must comply with applicable data-protection law. Our handling of account and billing information is described in the Privacy and Cookie Notice.

Where we process personal data contained in your hosted website solely on your behalf, the Data Processing Schedule in this pack applies unless we agree a separate data processing agreement.

18. Liability

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability where doing so would be unlawful, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or applicable statutory consumer rights.

If you are a consumer, we are responsible for foreseeable loss or damage caused by our breach or failure to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for business losses arising from consumer use of the service.

If you purchase wholly or mainly for business purposes, then, to the fullest extent permitted by law:

• we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, loss of revenue, loss of anticipated savings, loss of opportunity or loss of goodwill; and
• our total aggregate liability arising from the service in any 12-month period will not exceed the fees you paid for that service during the preceding 12 months.

We are not responsible for loss caused by your content, credentials, configuration, unsupported software, failure to maintain independent backups, unlawful activity or matters outside our reasonable control. This paragraph does not excuse us from using reasonable care and skill or from obligations that law does not allow us to exclude.

19. Events outside reasonable control

Neither party is responsible for delay or failure caused by an event outside its reasonable control, provided the affected party takes reasonable steps to reduce the impact. This does not excuse payment for a service already supplied or remove non-excludable legal rights.

20. Complaints

Please raise a ticket or email support@strangeduck.co.uk with the account email, affected service, relevant dates and the resolution sought. Billing complaints may be sent to accounts@strangeduck.co.uk.

We will investigate and respond on a best-endeavours basis. If you are a consumer, nothing in this process prevents you from exercising statutory rights or contacting an appropriate regulator or dispute-resolution body.

21. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms for legal, regulatory, security, technical or commercial reasons. Material changes affecting an active service will be notified by email or through the client area before taking effect where reasonably possible.

Changes will not retrospectively remove rights relating to an already-paid period unless required by law or necessary to address an urgent security or abuse risk.

22. Transfer and third parties

You may not transfer an account without our written agreement. We may transfer the business or contract to a successor that can continue supplying the service, subject to applicable law and notice requirements.

A person who is not a party to the contract has no right to enforce it, except where the law provides otherwise.

23. Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction. If you are a consumer living elsewhere in the UK, you retain any mandatory protections and rights to bring proceedings available in your home jurisdiction.