Terms and Conditions of Service

The following rules govern accounts at Brand X Internet. Your use of the service means you agree.

Financial

When you sign up for DSL service it is a contractual promise to pay the agreed upon rates, whether or not you actually use the service. If you sign up for a service with a one year term, then you have committed yourself to a full year of payments. When you place an order you are agreeing to pay, at the minimum, the installation fee, the minimum agreed term of service, and any other equipment or labor charges.

• Service begins on the first day it is available to the customer. It will still be charged even if you don't use it. Incomplete installation by the customer, or delay in completing installation on the customer side, do not change the start date.
• Customers must pay their bills in advance in order to receive service. It is the customer's responsibility to make sure that payment is received.
• If your service has a one year contract there are absolutely no exceptions. If you move, or suddenly get free internet from your landlord or just decide you don't want the internet any more, the payment obligation remains out to the end of the contract.

if you are paying by credit card, it is necessary to update the card from time to time. You can call it in to 310 395 5500 or you can use our payment form which is found at http://www.brandx.net/billing/payment.html.

Cancellation of Installation

You may cancel an installation without charge at any time up to the point where a telephone company person comes out to install your line. The installation process may take several days. Sometimes installers may come out more than once, or changes may be needed at the central office, or equipment may require replacement. We encourage customers to be patient. If an installation is cancelled before a telephone company person comes out, there is no charge. If an installation is cancelled while in process but after the telephone company comes out, the customer should expect a minimum charge of installation + one month of service plus any equipment charges. Typically this minimum charge will be $60 installation + $45 one month service + $45 for the router.

If you want to cancel an installation, this must be done at least 24 hours in advance so that we can provent the telephone installer from coming out. That allows us to avoid charges, and allows you to cancel without penalty.

Annual Contracts

• We encouarge customers to think long and hard before taking on an annual obligation. If you sign up for a year, that means you are signed up for a year, and it's not easy to change your mind later. If you cannot meet the year term we encouge you to sign up for month to month service. It has a higher install fee but can be cancelled at any time without penalty.
• Service with an annual contract are sold with "absolutely no exceptions" to the one year term. We get a discount from the telephone company on our line charges for annual contracts. We pass the savings on to you.
• After the one year term the service becomes month to month.
• Service may be cancelled without penalty if the service doesn't work. "Doesn't work" means the service totally and permanently fails, or tests consistently at half or less of the rated speed of the line. For most DSL services the minimum acceptable speed is 1.5 megabits download, which is fast enough to watch Netflix. Testing should be done at speedtest.net, and must be over ethernet, not wifi. If the service doesn't work, give us three weeks to try everything we can to fix it. If we are unable to get the line to work, we will cancel and charge you nothing. Service cannot be cancelled due to a one time outage or service problem that can be repaired.
• Refusal by the customer to cooperate with installation, testing or repair voids any offer to close without penalty. The customer will be held responsible for the charges for the full term of service.
• Annual contracts that are cancelled before their term is up become immediately due in full, at our option. The purpose of this is to make collection easier for us. For example, if you sign up for service with a binding one year contract, stay for two months, and then move, the entire yearly amount becomes due immediately. We will sometimes waive this requirement, but it requires that the customer be acting in good faith. "Customer hospitalized", "customer incarcerated", "house burned down" or "customer deceased" are among excuses that we have accepted in the past. Our willingness to accept an excuse depends largely on whether we can use that story to get a credit for telephone company line charges. "Customer got offer of free service from parents" or "Customer decided to bundle their internet with cable TV" are not considered a good excuses for failing to meet contract terms.
• We don't really like one year contracts, but the discount we get from the telephone company seems worth it. We feel the fair way to do this is to clearly inform the customer that there are "absolutely no exceptions" so that the customer can make a good choice before the service starts.
• There is no way to "downgrade" an annual service to a monthly service before the year is up. It requries re-installation to change the contract type.

Cancellation Procedure

Our service agreement allows you to cancel with the following restrictions:

• Month to month service may be cancelled at any time, subject to contract term requirements.
• Cancellation should be by email to billing@brandx.net with two weeks notice. Send us an email with your name and what you want to close and the date for closing. It's really easy. Send yourself a copy. If you do this, everything will close in an orderly way and all will be good. Your email is your receipt, and if there's a question about the cancellation date, this email will settle the matter.
• Annual service can only be cancelled by the customer if it doesn't work and can't be repaired. See the annual Contracts section for an explanation.
• We sell in units of one month, not by the day.  We do not sell partial months of service. You cannot close the account on the 27th and ask for a refund check for the last three days of the month.
• Voicemails left with the answering service are NOT effective in closing an account. Email is required. Voicemails frequently have little more than a name and number and do not have sufficient information to close an account. Email is absolutely required. If you call us to close an account, we will ask you to send an email, and the closing is not effective until the email is received.
• Do not depend on Verizon, Frontier, Spectum, or AT&T to send us messages about closing an account. That doesn't work.
• Our goal is to have a system that is as flexible as possible for customers, but doesn't leave us having to pay large telco line charges for customers at the end of their service. Closing your account in an orderly way is your responsibility. Just drop us an email and everything will be fine.
• All bills must be paid in full, and monthly billing continues until the account is properly closed. This provides a financial incentive to pay in full and close heir account in an orerly way when terminating service. Moving, switching your internet connection to another company, or even having your house burn down do not close an account. You have to tell us or you will keep getting billed.

Equipment Policies

If you have purchased equipment from us, it comes with a full "as long as you are a customer" waranty. If it fails, we will repair or replace it at no charge.

Some equipment that we provide may be "refurbished", however, it carries the same waranty. If it fails, we will repair or replace it at no charge.

Return of equipment: In general customers who have paid for their equipment own it, and are not required to return it.

If you do return equipment, we will provide you a credit or a cash payment as follows:

If the equipment is returned in the same condition as it was received, the credit is 100%. Typically this will be $30 for a modem and $45 for a router. The customer is responsible for delivering or shipping the equipment to us.

If the equipment is returned in good used condition, and complete, credit is 50%. Typically this will be $22.50 for a router with power supply and cables. We will often provide this equipment for free to other customers whose equipment has failed. Equipment doesn't need to look new, but it should be delivered in condition that is suitable for us to pass the equipment on to another customer. This means, cables should be rolled up nicely and all items should be clean and undamaged.

If the equipment is returned in a shambles, such as, a wad of cables and parts in a grocery bag, credit will be roughly 25%, typlically $11.25 for a router. A router that is physically damaged or missing the power supply is not usable and is zero value.

Brand X does not provide return envelopes for shipping, and any shipping costs for return of equipment are born by the customer. We will normally cover the cost of shipping equipment to you, and you will have to bear the cost of shipping it back.

If the customer desires us to send out a messenger to pick up equipment, the charge is $75. We suggest that the best way to return equipment is by postal mail. It's much cheaper.

Payments and Late Fees

Nobody at Brand X likes to do billing or collections, and so we hope to keep billing as simple as possible.

• Brand X rates are posted on our website.
• Customers in general should have a credit card on file at Brand X to cover any bills. Brand X will generally charge any amounts due to the card, each month, and customer agrees to this.
• Brand X also accepts checks. Credit cards are generally run on the 27th of each month for the coming month. Checks should arrive before this time to avoid late fees.
• Any billing discussions should be sent via email to billing@brandx.net. They cannot be submitted by phone. This is for your protectino, and ours too. If you have a question, or if you want to change your method of payment, or make any other arrangements, or wish to dispute a charge or bill, please email billing@brandx.net. Doing business discussions via email leaves a good record, for your protection and ours, and avoids misunderstandings.
• Late fees may be assessed for bills paid after the due date. The due date is usually either the first, or the first date of service availability for new accounts. Late fees may be charged for customers paying by credit card if the card payment fails for any reason and the customer fails to remedy this. It is the customer's duty to keep us informed of new card numbers etc. Late fees will usually be $10 per billing cycle, plus any collections costs, plus 3% monthly of the amount due if it is over $100. Late fees may be retroactively assessed based on the payment record. This means if you pay three months late, expect late fees of at least $30 to be charged.
• Credit card chargebacks are not a way to close your account. Of course we desire to be fair. Customers have a right to correct bills. But: chargebacks are not the best way to resolve disputes, because they involved large bank fees that frequently are larger than the bills in question. Customers agree that any credit card dispute must be preceeded by a written note to Brand X (email is best) so that we can have an opportunity to resolve the question, and at least two weeks for us to resolve it. Customers agree that if they do not provide a written request to Brand X (via email at billing@brandx.net) and instead go directly to disputing the credit card payment, the dispute should be denied, and they will be responsible for any responsibile for any credit card chargeback fees, with a minimum of $100 per incident, plus the disputed amount, regardless of the merits of the actual dispute. In other words, if you file a dispute without first talking to us (via email) then the chargeback will be denied and you will pay the fees. You must talk to us first. And we will do our best to help you. Any chargeback will result in immediate closing of services but bills will remain due.

Rules

We want customers to enjoy their service. Our rules are fairly simple:

• We do not allow customers to send spam, at all, ever. No building porn websites. Please respect copyrights. Please respect all city, state, and federal laws on all subjects.
• Abusive behavior is not tolerated. Yelling at staff, yelling at operators, name calling, swearing, threats of violence, threats to not pay bills, or threats of legal action on any basis, with or without justification, are cause for immediate termination of service. The same rules apply for written communications as well as telephone and in person communications.
• An involuntary closure fee of $200 mayl be assessed for any account closed for non payment or for violation of terms of service.

Any violation of service rules may result in immediate termination of service, but bills will still need to be paid.

Legal

If any part of these terms and conditions is legally disputed, the remainder remains in force.

Customers waive any right to legal action. If you are unhappy please close your account. Our bills are too small to be worth fighting about in court. Customers waive any right to class action lawsuits. Customers agree that under no circumstances will compensation, including payments of any kind, exceed the amount the customer has paid to Brand X. Customers agree to waive any legal fees or expenses. Customer agrees that the court with jurisdiction service and billing disputes is the Santa Monica Small Claims Court.

Brand X may update these conditions from time to time.