Cancellations and refunds

1. About this policy

1. 1.1

   This policy forms part of our Terms of Service and explains how cancellations, credits and refunds work. It does not limit any right you have under the Consumer Protection Act, 2008 (CPA) or the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 (ECTA). Where this policy and one of those Acts differ, the Act wins.

2. 1.2

   "Consumer" means a person to whom the relevant Act applies. ECTA's cooling-off right applies only to natural persons. The CPA also protects small businesses below the threshold set by the Minister (currently an annual turnover or asset value of R2 million), except for the fixed-term agreement rules in section 3.5, which do not apply between companies and other juristic persons.

2. Cancelling a hosting plan

1. 2.1

   You can cancel any plan yourself at any time: in the dashboard, open Billing and choose Cancel plan. We confirm the cancellation by e-mail. If you cannot use the dashboard, ask use our contact form.

2. 2.2

   Cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing period you have paid for. Until then the service keeps working normally. Any card renewal is stopped and unpaid renewal invoices for the plan are withdrawn.

3. 2.3

   Changed your mind? Choose Keep plan under Billing at any time before the period ends and the plan continues as before.

4. 2.4

   You can also just turn auto-renew off. The plan then ends at the end of the period unless you pay a renewal.

5. 2.5

   When the period ends, the plan's websites and apps are stopped and its mailboxes stop being managed from your account. For servers you own, our management access becomes read-only and your server keeps running. What happens to your content afterwards is set out in section 5.

3. Your cooling-off and other statutory rights

1. 3.1

   ECTA cooling-off (section 44). If you are a natural person and bought a service online, you may cancel the order without giving a reason and without penalty within 7 days after the agreement was concluded. We refund any payment within 30 days of your cancellation.

2. 3.2

   Section 42(2) of ECTA says this right does not apply to services that began, with your consent, before the 7 days ended. Our hosting starts as soon as you pay, so when you place an order you ask us to start the service straight away. We nevertheless honour a cancellation request made within 7 days of a first order for a hosting plan, and refund what you paid for it, unless you broke our Acceptable Use Policy. Domain registration fees are excluded once the domain has been submitted to the registry (see section 4).

3. 3.3

   To use the cooling-off right, e-mail use our contact form within the 7 days, giving your account e-mail address and the order or invoice number. The service is then stopped.

4. 3.4

   Direct marketing (CPA section 16). If you bought as a result of direct marketing by us (for example a call or message we initiated), you may also cancel by written notice within 5 business days of the agreement or of receiving the service.

5. 3.5

   Fixed-term agreements (CPA section 14). A yearly plan is a fixed-term agreement. If section 14 applies to you, you may end a yearly plan before its term ends by giving us 20 business days' notice in writing. We then refund the amount paid for the unused part of the term, less a reasonable cancellation charge allowed by the CPA and its regulations, and less any amount you owe us. Monthly plans can simply be cancelled for the end of the month as described in section 2.

6. 3.6

   Defective services. If a service we provide is not of the quality the CPA requires (section 54), you may ask us to remedy the defect or refund a reasonable portion of the price. Please tell us within a reasonable time.

4. Domains

1. 4.1

   Domains are registered for a fixed period (normally one year) and the registration fee is passed on to the registry. Once a registration, renewal or transfer has been submitted to the registry, it cannot be undone and its fee is not refundable, except where the law requires or the registry itself refunds us.

2. 4.2

   To stop a domain renewing, turn its auto-renew off in the dashboard. The domain stays yours until its expiry date. Our Domain Registration Terms explain expiry and transfers.

5. Your content after a service ends

1. 5.1

   When a plan ends (whether you cancelled it or it was terminated), we keep its content, such as website files, databases and mailboxes on our servers, for at least 30 days after the end date. During that time you can renew the plan to bring it back as it was, or ask use our contact form for a copy of your files, databases and mail.

2. 5.2

   After the 30 days we may permanently delete the content and any backups of it, without further notice. Download what you want to keep before your plan ends.

3. 5.3

   Content on servers you own stays on your server: we do not delete it when you stop using NewHost.

6. Wallet, credits and how refunds are paid

1. 6.1

   We do not refund the unused part of a billing period when you cancel or downgrade, because the plan keeps working until the period ends and a downgrade only takes effect at your next renewal. The exceptions are the cases in section 3 and any other case where the law requires a refund.

2. 6.2

   Some changes are settled automatically as credit to your NewHost wallet:

• Wallet funds are in rand, do not expire, earn no interest and cannot be transferred to another account. They pay your invoices (with auto-pay on) and can buy AI credits.
• If you close your account, we pay the unused balance of wallet funds you paid in back to your bank account, after setting off anything you owe us. Promotional credits we gave you for free are not paid out.
• AI credits are used up per request and are not refundable, except where the law requires it.
• Cash refunds are paid to the card you paid with (through our payments platform, CentraPoint) or by EFT to a South African bank account in your name, normally within 30 days of approval.
• Fees for a service suspended or terminated because you broke our Acceptable Use Policy are not refunded, except where the law requires it.

7. Closing your account

1. 7.1

   Once all your plans have ended and your invoices are paid, you can ask use our contact form to close your account. We then delete or anonymise your personal information, except what we must keep by law (such as invoices and payment records), as explained in our Privacy Policy.

8. Questions and complaints

1. 8.1

   Contact use our contact form about any cancellation or refund. If we cannot resolve your complaint, the dispute section of the Terms of Service explains where you can go next.