Broadband terms and conditions (abbreviated)
Generally we do not have any issues or enforce any of our terms and conditions for broadband usage. There's nothing hidden or any rules that a reasonable person wouldn't expect. We try to by fair in terms of credit control, usage tolerance and migrations away and will always act in a manner fair to both you and us as a company.
In addition to our general abbreviated terms and our full legal terms and conditions:
- Payment for all broadband services, unless agreed otherwise, is in advance. Normally paid at least 7 days prior to the renewal date to allow for any problems.
- Contract terms are 1 month. We require 14 days notice of termination notice prior to your renewal date to avoid being charged for the following month. This can be from the primary email account but we recommend recorded mail.
- If you opted to pay by credit card you are agreeing to continuous authority to charge the card we hold on file (securely) until the service or contract is terminated
- We will not refund for downtime unless notified or agreed otherwise. For broadband downtime or more than 2 days we may consider part refunds. We aim to keep our broadband available all the time but cannot realistically guarantee this as some of the link is beyond our control. BT do sometime issue refunds for problems relating to line problems. Backup 0845 numbers are provided for periods of downtime.
- If an engineer visit is required and agreed with by us after trying all other possible failure points, we will instruct an Openreach engineer to visit. If no fault is found, we will pass on their charges, currently £160 per visit. We will contest any charges on your behalf if we feel the fault does lie with BT though.
- If you move house we need as much notice as possible to ensure continuation of your broadband. At least 21 days if possible. There may be new activation fees for your new property
- Should you wish to migrate to another provider please contact us for a migration code, which we will issue with 24hours normally. We require 1 full month notice of migration and the migration code lasts for 30 days. You will not be charged any additional full months after you have migrated. It is possible to ensure you are not charged more than you should for a migration away from us but we do need at least 14 days notice of your transfer date. We'll be happy to work with you to minimise your costs.
- If you exceed the monthly download limit on your broadband package by more than half a gigabyte (0.5gb) we will automatically charge you up to the next package. This will be emailed to you and charged to your card 7 days later. If you pay by cheque or standing order these excess fees must be paid within 30 days. You can find you usage, updated daily, in the billing section of my.macace.net
- Failure to clear outstanding balances before your renewal date may result in automatic termination of your broadband account. You should contact us as soon as possible - we're normally happy to hang on for payment if you explain the problem. If your account is terminated, you'll have to pay a reactivation fee of £47 to BT via us to reinstate it, this fee is charged regardless of whether you change ISP or not. We reserve to right to suspend broadband access and email too should we not hear from you. We try to avoid suspension and termination wherever possible - these have to be approved by our MD.
- We do not charge for card declines, standing order declines or cheque bounces at present. However, should this happen on more than 3 occasions per year we reserve to right to then charge £20 per incident.
- We reserve to right to ask any broadband user, giving them 30 days notice, to migrate themselves to another provider for any reason we see fit (whilst this will only be in extreme cases). We will refund any full months paid. We will terminate accounts without notice for users sending spam or using their connection for illegal activities.
Broadband Speeds
We have signed up the Ofcoms Broadband Speeds voluntary codes of practice, details of which can be found here.
In essence we operate a transparent policy on the speeds we offer our customers and try to ensure customers get the best speeds their line can support. Whilst our services are advertised as "up to 8Mbits per second" this is purely a maximum figure based on perfect line conditions. In reality it's impossible to get actual throughput over about 7.2Mbits per second. The speed you receive is determined by several factors and there are two types of speed measurements.
SYNC rate is the speed your modem negotiates with the exchange for optimum throughput speed based on data obtained by the equipment in your exchange. This is determined primarily by the quality and length of the cable between you and your exchange. Interference and loss of signal along the cable directly affects your SYNC speed and actual throughput speed.
THROUGHPUT speed is the measured speed you get when transferring data from your computer to the internet - it's the figure speedtesters will give you (you can use ours at http://speedtest.macace.net or BT's at http://speedtester.bt.com or there are many third party test). This is determined, in addition to your sync speed, by several factors including contention and congestion on the line. You'll always get a lower speed at busy internet times like 6-11pm when the internet as a whole is at it's busiest, not only our network. Your router, wireless connection and computer can also affect this. If you run several speed tests one after the other or throughout the day you'll get varying different readings - that's exactly how it's supposed to work. You'll get maximum speeds during quiet times and lower speeds at busy times. The number of people online and downloading in your area at the same time you take these tests can affect them dramatically. Please feel free to contact us if you don't think you're getting a fast enough connection. Our systems are designed to give you the fastest speed your line can handle.
Migration Policy
We adhere to ISPA and Ofcom voluntary guidelines on the issue of Migration Authority Code for customers wishing to move their broadband away from us. We will not withhold a migration account for non-payment of account and will issue one as soon as we have it, normally within 24hours. Migration codes are valid for 30 days. If the migration code is not used within that 30 days your service with us continues as normal. Asking for a migration code does not constitute the termination of your contract with us, it is only termination once your broadband has been migrated. We still actively pursue unpaid invoices after migration.
Click to view our full terms and conditions
If you have any queries, concerns or issues please contact us as we are always happy to help in any way we can.
Try to be fair with our customers
That's what we believe in
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