Support and Service Availability Policy

This policy explains how we provide technical support, how we handle service availability and maintenance, and what you can expect from us. It forms part of our Master Terms and Conditions of Supply.

This policy is not a service level agreement. We do not currently offer contractual uptime guarantees or service credits. The response targets in this policy are objectives which we work to, not contractual commitments. They do not create a right to compensation and they are not guaranteed resolution times. Our obligation is to provide the services with reasonable care and skill.

1. How to Contact Support

1.1

Support is provided through the support ticket system in your client portal. Raising a ticket is the fastest route to a resolution and creates a record of the issue.

1.2

You can also contact us by email at support@littlemoohosting.com for hosting support, at billing@littlemoohosting.com for billing queries, at abuse@littlemoohosting.com for abuse, spam, malware, phishing and notice and takedown reports, or at contact@littlemoogroup.co.uk for general enquiries. You can telephone 0300 124 6935 during Working Hours.

1.3

Emergency out of hours monitoring applies only to tickets submitted through the client portal and marked Critical. Emails, telephone messages and social media messages are not monitored as emergency support channels.

1.4

Please include your account details, the domain or service affected, a clear description of the problem, the time it began, and any error messages or screenshots.

1.5

Passwords, payment card information and other sensitive information must not be sent in ordinary emails or in the main body of a support ticket. Where credentials are required, they must be submitted through the designated secure credentials area. Access is restricted to authorised personnel and the credentials are removed when the relevant task is completed, subject to any short technical deletion or backup cycle.

2. Support Hours

2.1

Working Hours are 09:00 to 17:00 on a Business Day, which means a day other than a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday in England.

2.2

Tickets can be submitted at any time. Outside Working Hours, only tickets submitted through the client portal and marked Critical are monitored. All other tickets are dealt with on the next Business Day.

2.3

We publish notice of any variation to our support hours, for example over public holidays, in the client portal.

3. What Support Covers

3.1

Support included with hosting, email and domain services covers:

(a)

availability, performance and configuration of the hosting platform and mailboxes;

(b)

DNS records, domain settings, renewals and transfers;

(c)

SSL certificate installation and renewal;

(d)

account, billing and provisioning queries;

(e)

diagnosis of platform level faults; and

(f)

guidance and knowledgebase material on common configuration tasks.

3.2

Support does not include, and is chargeable at our then current rates unless included in a maintenance plan you have purchased:

(a)

website design or development work, content changes or the addition of new functionality;

(b)

debugging of custom code, themes or plugins written by you or by a third party;

(c)

recovery from damage caused by changes made by you or by a third party;

(d)

training, consultancy or strategic advice;

(e)

restoration of data from a courtesy backup, which is subject to a reasonable fee for the work involved; and

(f)

support for third party software or services which we did not supply.

3.3

Where a request falls outside included support, we will tell you before carrying out the work and will confirm the cost.

4. Priority Levels and Response Targets

4.1

We triage tickets into the following priorities:

(a)

Critical, meaning a widespread platform outage, the complete loss of a managed service which the Order expressly identifies as eligible for emergency monitoring, or an active security incident presenting a serious and immediate risk. Target first response: within 2 Working Hours, and monitored out of hours where the ticket is submitted through the client portal and marked Critical.

(b)

High, meaning a significant function is impaired but the service remains partly usable, for example intermittent errors or mail delivery failures affecting many users. Target first response: within 4 Working Hours.

(c)

Medium, meaning a fault or configuration issue with limited impact, or a change request. Target first response: within 1 Business Day.

(d)

Low, meaning a general query, guidance request or cosmetic issue. Target first response: within 2 Business Days.

4.2

A first response means an acknowledgement together with an initial assessment or a request for further information. It does not mean a resolution.

4.3

A fault affecting a single website which arises from your own code, themes, plugins, expired licences, configuration or an external third party service is not automatically treated as Critical, even where that website is unavailable to you. Such a fault is normally assessed as High or Medium depending on its impact, and we will tell you how we have assessed it.

4.4

We assign the priority based on the actual impact on the service. If you disagree with the priority assigned, tell us and we will review it.

4.5

The response targets in this policy are objectives which we work to. They are not contractual guarantees, they do not create a right to compensation or service credits, and they are not guaranteed resolution times.

4.6

Resolution times depend on the nature of the fault, on the cooperation of third parties, and on the responsiveness of our infrastructure supplier where the fault sits at the infrastructure layer. We will keep you informed of progress on critical and high priority tickets.

5. Service Availability

5.1

We aim to make hosting and email services available at all times and take reasonable steps to restore availability promptly following an interruption.

5.2

We do not offer a guaranteed level of uptime, a formal service level agreement, or service credits. Hosting is delivered on infrastructure operated by a United Kingdom based supplier, and availability depends in part on that supplier, on connectivity provided by third parties, and on the configuration and code within your own website.

5.3

Email delivery depends on filtering, reputation and routing decisions made by third parties and cannot be guaranteed.

5.4A

vailability information and incident updates are published through the public Little Moo Hosting status page and, where appropriate, the client portal during a significant incident.

6. Planned and Emergency Maintenance

6.1

Planned maintenance may require an interruption to the service. Where practicable we give at least 48 hours' notice, schedule the work outside Working Hours, and keep the interruption as short as reasonably possible.

6.2

Emergency maintenance may be carried out at any time and without notice where necessary to protect the security, integrity or performance of the infrastructure, or where required by our infrastructure supplier. We notify affected customers as soon as reasonably practicable.

6.3

Maintenance carried out by our infrastructure supplier may take place on notice periods set by that supplier, which we pass on to you as soon as we receive them.

6.4

Software updates applied to a managed hosting plan may occasionally cause a compatibility issue with a theme, plugin or custom code. Where that happens, we will work with you to resolve it, and clause 8.7 of our Master Terms and Conditions of Supply regarding independent customer backups applies.

7. Backups and Restores

7.1W

here the Order or current product description expressly includes automated backups, we arrange them in accordance with the stated cycle, and that is a contractual obligation. Automated mailbox backup applies only where expressly stated. Plans that do not expressly include automated backups have no promised automatic backup cycle.

7.2

In either case, backups are an additional recovery measure and are not a substitute for you maintaining your own independent backups of your website, databases and email. We cannot guarantee the existence, completeness, currency, integrity or recoverability of any individual backup, and you should not rely on a backup held by us as your only copy of important data.

7.3W

here self-service restoration is made available through the control panel, use of that standard functionality is included. Where you ask Little Moo to investigate, select, verify, merge or restore data for you, a reasonable assisted-recovery charge may apply and will be notified in advance. Restoration depends on a suitable snapshot existing and being usable.

7.4

This wording matches Schedule B of our Master Terms and Conditions of Supply and Annex 2 to our Data Processing Agreement.

7.5

Where email backup is included, restoration may first be made into a temporary mailbox so that its contents can be checked before they are synchronised into the live mailbox. This reduces the risk of overwriting current mail.

7.6

Backup snapshots are not a post-termination archive. They may cease to be available when the underlying hosting package is terminated, and you must export required data before that point.

8. Incident Management

8.1

On becoming aware of a significant incident affecting availability or security, we assess the scope and impact, take steps to contain and resolve it, and communicate with affected customers.

8.2

Where an incident involves personal data, we follow the process described in our Privacy Policy and, where we act as processor, in our Data Processing Agreement, including notification to the relevant controller without undue delay. Data protection complaints should be sent to privacy@littlemoogroup.co.uk.

8.3

After a significant incident we carry out an internal review and, on request, provide affected customers with a summary of what happened and what we have done to reduce the risk of recurrence.

9. Your Responsibilities

9.1

Keep your account contact details up to date so that we can reach you about incidents, maintenance and renewals.

9.2

Keep your own backups, apply updates where your plan makes you responsible for them, and use strong credentials and multi-factor authentication where available.

9.3

Report problems promptly and provide the information we need to investigate.

9.4C

omply with our Acceptable Use Policy, at https://www.littlemoohosting.com/legal/acceptable-use/, including the fair use of shared resources described in Schedule B of our Master Terms and Conditions of Supply.

9.5

Pay invoices within 7 days of the invoice date unless the Order states otherwise. Where payment remains outstanding for 7 days after its due date we may suspend the affected service after giving notice, and where it remains outstanding for 30 days after its due date we may terminate it. We will not normally suspend solely because of a genuinely disputed amount while a properly raised dispute is being investigated, provided any undisputed amount is paid by its due date. Suspension will be proportionate and, where reasonably possible, limited to the affected service, website, mailbox or account.

10. Escalation and Changes

10.1

If you are not satisfied with the handling of a ticket, ask for it to be escalated by replying to the ticket. Escalated tickets are reviewed by a member of our management team.

10.2I

f you remain dissatisfied, our Complaints Procedure is available at https://www.littlemoohosting.com/legal/complaints/, or write to complaints@littlemoogroup.co.uk.

10.3

We may update this policy from time to time. The version number, publication date and effective date at the top of this policy show which version applies and from when. Where a change materially reduces the support you receive, clause 12.3 of our Master Terms and Conditions of Supply applies, and you may cancel the affected service and receive a pro rata refund of prepaid charges for the unused period.