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 paythe agreed upon rates, whether or not you actually use the service. When you place an order you are agreeing to pay, at the minimum, the installation fee, one month 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. The start date is the first date that service is made available on the line for the customer, whether it is used or not. That's because this is the way we get billed by the telephone company.
• 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.
• Most services are month to month. Unless otherwise noted, customers may cancel at any time, provided our cancellation requirements are met and all bills are paid in full.
• Brand X makes no waranty on services. We will do our best for you, but if service is not to your satisfaction or does not meet your needs, then your option is to close your account. We occasionally provide a credit to a customer if they have had problems but we make no contractual promise to do so. This is because we generally have to pay the telepone company for transit on lines whether you are happy or not.

Cancellation

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

• 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 us to send you a check for 75 cents.
• We charge no early termination fee for most types of accounts.
• Written notice of at least two weeks is required, so that we can ask the telephone company to turn off the line.  Email is fine.  The purpose of this is to avoid confusion and to make a clear record of who requested what and when. We recommend that you email to us (billing@brandx.net) and to yourself, so that you have a copy of the notice.
• Voicemails left with the answering service are NOT effective in closing an account. Email is required.
• Do not depend on Verizon, Frontier, Time Warner, 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 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, or monthly billing continues. This provides a financial incentive to pay in full when terminating service.

Payments

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, 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 credit card charges.
• Any billing discussions should be sent via email to billing@brandx.net. They cannot be submitted by phone. 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.