Terms of Service

1. Scope, Amendments to T&Cs
These T&Cs apply to all contracts for the provision of Internet services as agreed between VPS Zen (hereinafter: VPS Zen) and its customers. The Appendix lists special conditions for the provisioning and usage of software, for server management, and for resellers: these conditions apply only insofar as the customer makes use of VPS Zen’s services as described therein.
These T&Cs apply to all agreements concluded between the parties (orders/purchase orders), even in situations where such orders do not make explicit reference to the T&Cs. Conflicting T&Cs on the part of the customer do not apply, even if VPS Zen has not expressly rejected the validity of such T&Cs. Individual special agreements have precedence over these T&Cs; this does not apply to the customer’s pre-formulated conditions of contract.
VPS Zen reserves the right to amend these T&Cs at any time. The version current at the time of contract conclusion is authoritative for any new contracts agreed. For existing customers, such amended T&Cs apply only in the particular circumstances given in the following sections.
For existing customers, the agreed T&Cs may be amended if the following restrictions are observed. Circumstances justifying such an amendment are unforeseeable changes occurring at a subsequent point in time, which were not initiated by the company, and over which the company has no influence, and which have the effect of unilaterally burdening one party, as well as loopholes in the T&Cs constituting obstacles to contract fulfilment. VPS Zen will notify the customer of the amended T&Cs four weeks before they enter into force and will also describe the circumstances justifying the amendment and the scope of such amendments. If the customer does not reject the amendment in writing or by fax before the date of entry into force, but gives his or her consent to the new T&Cs by continuing to make use of VPS Zen’s services, the amendment is considered to have been accepted; the T&Cs in their revised version then also apply to existing contracts from the specified point in time. If a formally correct rejection is made within the specified period, the parties’ relationship continues to be governed by the earlier T&Cs; in this case, either the customer or VPS Zen may terminate the contract with notice on the terms of section 6(3).

2. Contract Conclusion, Communications
Unless otherwise indicated, any offer or over-the-phone information provided by VPS Zen is non-binding. The offers and service specifications as published on the VPS Zen websites at

www.devopshosting.online
www.vpszen.com
www.vpszen.de
are authoritative in all cases.
Customer orders can be sent to VPS Zen in writing or via email. Although phone- or email-based order placement is not possible, VPS Zen will respond to such inquiries by providing the customer with a written quotation.
Insofar as the customer does not expressly demand written notification on a case-by-case basis, it is assumed that s/he agrees to being provided with information about ongoing agreements via email. This also applies to confidential information, particularly in the case of login credentials for services ordered by the customer.
To aid in decision-making about the initiation, fulfillment or termination of contractual relationships, VPS Zen collects or applies probabilities, the calculation of which also takes postal address data into account.

3. Service Scope
In providing its services, VPS Zen depends on infrastructure that is operated by third parties and which lies beyond the control of VPS Zen itself. The origin of faults or service impairments that arise may therefore lie outside VPS Zen’s sphere of influence. This applies in particular to general Internet outages or cases of force majeure.
Unless otherwise agreed, VPS Zen guarantees a minimum average annual availability of 99.6% for all of its Internet-based services and other products. Availability is understood to mean the general operational readiness of servers and services. The following circumstances do not count as service disruptions:

Interruptions to availability due to a third-party fault lying outside VPS Zen’s sphere of influence
Interruptions due to force majeure
Temporary interruptions to service required in order to minimise or prevent (e.g., via installing updates) specific risks that result from potential abuse of the system by third parties (“exploits”).
The guaranteed minimum availability can be increased by ordering an optional “service level.” The additional terms of “service level” will be mentioned in a separate product description. These terms and conditions shall apply in addition to the conditions mentioned in the General Terms and Conditions. If the “service level” is not met, VPS Zen will reimburse the customer’s ensuing damages. The reimbursement will be made in the form of a credit note on the customer account. Reimbursement can only be made if the customer has indicated the refunding of the credit note in a written request via letter or fax within 30 days of the end of the calendar month. Such credit note essentially only applies after the expiry of the concerned month in which the non-compliance has occurred. For timely receipt, the date of postmark or incoming fax shall be decisive. Unless otherwise agreed, the maximum amount of the credit note is 100% of the monthly rent of the ordered product by the customer at VPS Zen for which the “service level” has not been respected.

VPS Zen carries out regular maintenance and service work designed to ensure the continued capability of the systems deployed. If this type of work involves outages to the service provided, VPS Zen will, where possible, schedule such work for periods of typically lower demand and notify the customer appropriately in advance.
Software updates are applied at regular intervals to maintain a high level of security. This may have the result of altering the scope and structure of the services as provided by VPS Zen. Although unlikely, updates may also require changes to be made to content stored by the customer or applications installed by the customer. Wherever possible, VPS Zen will notify the customer of this beforehand. If such a system update requires unacceptable changes to be made on the part of the customer, the latter may opt to terminate the contract without notice.

VPS Zen is entitled to employ third parties to render in part or in full the services it has agreed to deliver.
During the contractual term, the customer may opt to switch to a package offering a greater level of performance (upgrade) at any time. VPS Zen can provide customers with details of any fees charged for such an upgrade. Once the upgrade is complete, a new contract — potentially with a new minimum term — commences on the basis of the service specification and T&Cs applicable at the time of the upgrade. In the event of an upgrade to a higher-value package, any unused customer payments for the old package will be reimbursed.

4. Payment Terms
Payments for fixed fees are due in advance for the specified billing period unless otherwise agreed. Usage-based payments are invoiced at the end of the billing period.
Direct Debit Payments: Customers can set up or revoke direct debit mandates at any time. Unjustified chargebacks may lead to reimbursement claims from VPS Zen, covering actual fees incurred.
Invoice Deadlines: Payments are due within 7 days of invoice receipt. Failure to comply may lead to service suspension (including domain services) after prior notice, incurring an administration fee of up to $25 unless proven otherwise.
Contract Termination for Arrears: VPS Zen may terminate agreements without notice if substantial payment arrears persist for two consecutive months or equivalent amounts over a longer period.
Price Adjustments: VPS Zen reserves the right to adjust prices with six weeks’ notice before the next billing cycle. Customers may terminate the agreement
without notice when changes take effect. Non-response within four weeks implies acceptance of new prices.

5. Customer Obligations
Accurate Data: Customers must provide and update accurate personal and bank details.
Domain Management: Domain-related actions require the customer’s written consent in the appropriate format.
Login Credentials: Credentials must be updated upon receipt and kept confidential. Misuse by third parties is the customer’s responsibility.
Data Backup: Customers are responsible for backing up their content unless agreed otherwise. VPS Zendoes not guarantee backup services.
Prohibited Activities
Bulk Mailing: Engaging in spam or mass mailing.
Illegal Content: Hosting unauthorized copyrighted material, pornographic content, or radical/extremist materials.
Mining Services: Running cryptocurrency mining services like Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.
High CPU Load: Operating server services causing excessive CPU load, except for dedicated or virtual servers.
VPS Zen does not actively monitor customer content; legal compliance is solely the customer’s responsibility.

Service Suspension for Violations
Services may be suspended for breaches or reasonable suspicions of violations. Suspensions occur with or without prior notice based on urgency but are lifted when issues are resolved.
Reporting Malfunctions
Customers are required to report technical malfunctions promptly and provide detailed information to assist in resolving the issue.

6. Contractual Term, Notice of Termination
Unless otherwise agreed, contracts shall be concluded for an indefinite period on a month to month basis. In the case of VPS or Dedicated server products, contracts may be terminated by either party with one month’s notice to the end of the month, but no earlier than the expiry of a contractually agreed minimum term, which may not exceed 24 months for consumers. In cases where these T&Cs grant either party a special right of ordinary termination, the contract may be terminated on giving one month’s notice to the end of the month, regardless of any agreed minimum contractual term.

This does not affect the right of either party to terminate the contract without notice for good cause. For terminations on the part of VPS Zen, good cause is established by the following cases in particular:

The customer is in arrears after having missed two consecutive payment dates for the applicable agreed fee or for a substantial part of this fee, or the customer is in arrears after having failed to make payments for a period extending beyond two payment dates and for an amount equal to the fee that is charged for two months of service to the customer.
The customer is unable to render payment or has filed for insolvency or the opening of insolvency proceedings has been refused due to a lack of assets.
The customer is guilty of a fundamental breach of the contract and has not immediately rectified this breach despite receiving a warning or being notified by VPS Zen that content has been blocked.

7. Guarantees, Disclaimer
VPS Zen can accept no liability for losses, consequential losses or lost profits that result from faults and technical problems in technical systems that lie beyond our control. Nor does VPS Zen bear any liability for losses arising from the breaching of contractual obligations on the part of the customer and the customer’s duty to back up stored data in particular.
Strict liability is excluded for defects affecting the storage space provided in cases where such defects were present before contract conclusion.
VPS Zen is liable for its actions or those of its vicarious agents only in cases of gross negligence or wilful intent. This does not apply in the event of breaches of obligations whose fulfilment is fundamental to the proper performance of the contract and on the fulfilment of which the contractual partner regularly relies and may rely (fundamental contractual obligation). Unless otherwise agreed, VPS Zen shall be liable for non-compliance of minimum availability up to the amount of the monthly rent, which complied with the affected non-compliance of services. In the event of a material breach of contract due to simple negligence, VPS Zen bears liability for its own actions or those of a vicarious agent only for such typical losses foreseeable at the time of contract conclusion.
The customer is liable for all direct and indirect losses (including lost profits) incurred by VPS Zen due to a breach of contractual obligations arising from section 5 of these T&Cs.
The customer undertakes to indemnify VPS Zen against all third-party claims of whatsoever nature resulting from the illegality of content the customer has stored on the storage space provided to the latter. This declaration of indemnity also covers any legal defense costs incurred by VPS Zen (e.g. court and lawyer fees).

Special Provisions Governing Server Management
Insofar as the subject of the contract concluded between the parties constitutes the leasing of a (virtual or physical) server that includes VPS Zen’s server management service, the following provisions also apply:

In contrast to standard web hosting, VPS Zen here provides the customer with sole use of a server. This server is either a physical server (supplied as actual hardware) or a virtual server (the server functionality is emulated by software).
In the case of virtual servers, VPS Zen undertakes to keep the underlying server operating system (hypervisor) up-to-date and to install any updates and patches as and when these are made available. Notwithstanding the above, security holes for which no patches are yet available (“exploits”) may result from configuration or programming errors. VPS Zen bears no liability for faults and losses arising from third-party exploitation of security holes for which no remedy is yet known.
The customer is not given root access to the server if VPS Zen has assumed responsibility for the management and administration of the server provided.

Special Provisions for Resellers
Insofar as the customer does not make personal use of the services provided but charges a third party (third-party customer) for their use (as a reseller), the following provisions also apply:

The reseller is entitled to grant third parties contractual usage rights to the Internet presence instances as provided by VPS Zen. This right of sale is non-exclusive. The reseller is not entitled to claim for compensation.
The reseller remains the sole party to the contract with VPS Zen. The reseller undertakes to inform third-party customers of his/her material contractual obligations pursuant to section 5 of these T&Cs and ensure customer compliance with the same.
Insofar as the cooperation of the third-party customer is required for changes to contracts or domain reservations, the reseller shall ensure that these obligations to cooperate are honoured by the due date.
The reseller is liable to VPS Zen for all losses arising from a breach of contractual obligations pursuant to these T&Cs on the part of a third-party customer.