MetaLINK Technologies, Inc. Terms of Service

The Service ("Service" and/or "Internet Access" covering all forms of Internet Access) as operated by MetaLINK Technologies, Inc. ("Provider") operating under various trade names is a computer, interactive information, software developer, communication, and transaction service provider for the Internet. The Service is available to an authorized member ("Member" or "Customer") through a membership account ("Membership"); it is accessible through a personal computer, or other access device, using software and a communications connection.
By accepting this agreement and using this service, Member signifies that he/she has read the specific service agreement and service order for the type of service/Internet Access selected by the Member and this Terms of Service agreement in its entirety, understands all clauses in this agreement, and agrees to be bound and responsible for all terms contained herein. If Member does not agree to these Terms of Service, Member must NOT install or use the service on their computer(s) or other access device and must contact Provider immediately to terminate service. Should Member fail to cancel service, Member shall be held responsible for the Terms of Service. Usage of the service is acceptance of the Terms of Service.
Member certifies to Provider that he/she is not a minor. Underage users MUST have a parent or legal guardian open the account, which constitutes the parent's, or guardian's acceptance of and responsibility for the terms and conditions set forth herein. Parental discretion is advised.
Member fully understands that the Provider can only offer a method to access the Internet, and does not edit the content of the Internet or make any measures to restrict the content available on the Internet, except in some limited cases where the customer has requested such action, and even in those cases the Provider's ability to filter undesirable information is not complete. Provider cannot assume any responsibility for material which the Member accesses online, whether such material is obscene, indecent, violent, or whether it contains computer viruses or anything else objectionable to the Member or harmful to the Member's computer, as Provider has no control over such material available online. Provider reserves the right to attempt to filter some unwanted content, but has made no statement that such attempts are guaranteed to work and assumes no liability if the Member accesses such information in spite of any filtering.
Provider sells Unlimited Interactive Access plans that may sometimes be referred to as Unlimited Access plans. These plans are one and the same and are all based on Interactive access. That is, Unlimited Interactive Access is defined as a temporary, on-demand connection to the Internet that incurs no overtime charges for usage beyond a particular point. Unlimited Interactive Access explicitly implies that Member terminates the Internet connection when it is not actively being used and does not use any artificial means to simulate usage in order to remain online. Provider reserves the right to terminate connections that have been in place for an excessive period of time. Provider also reserves the right to terminate connections that have been inactive for an excessive period of time. In both cases, Provider reserves the right to determine what is considered an excessive period of time. Members that consistently show excessive usage on their accounts may be switched to a dedicated dial-up plan. The Provider maintains both "on-network" and "off-network" dial-up modem ports. On-network dial-up modem ports are phone numbers that are connected to equipment owned and operated by the Provider. Off-network dial-up modem ports are phone numbers that are connected to equipment owned and operated by a third party which the Provider contracts for service. The off-network modem ports are subject to the terms and conditions of the third party and most notably can have a maximum connection time of 150 hours per unique login ID or username.
Provider's free technical support includes configuring and maintaining the Service and related features of the Service as they relate to the Provider. Issues relating to other providers, web-site specific applications or the customer's system hardware may not be supported. Provider is not responsible for damage to any computer resulting from the assistance of technical support in a good faith effort or for software and/or system failures that happen at the same time as the Member installs or uses the software provided by Provider.
Member is allocated 25 million bytes (Megabytes) for storing personal files. For each million bytes above the initial twenty-five, the Member will be required to pay one additional dollar per month. For example, a Member with twenty-seven million bytes used for storage would pay an additional two dollars per month of service. In cases where Member's storage dramatically exceeds the twenty-five megabyte limit, Provider reserves the right to delete files without any prejudice or inspection of their contents. Provider shall be the sole judge of what is considered dramatically exceeding the limit.
Member agrees to the following:
- Member may not permit other individuals whom do not reside at the member's address to use their account.
- Member may not permit concurrent use of the Service.
- Member must maintain the confidentiality of his/her password and assumes all responsibility for any failures to maintain said confidentiality.
- Member may not have the same username in use on two or more dial-in sessions at the same time unless Member's service plan allows for such usage.
- Member agrees to provide Provider with accurate, complete, and updated information including Member's legal name, address, and working contact telephone number(s).
- Member agrees to notify Provider within 30 days of any change in Member's registration data.
Member may order and purchase merchandise, services, and/or software from other third-party venders ("Sellers") on the Internet, who are not affiliated with Provider. Provider shall not be a party to a transaction between Member and Seller, or be liable for any cost or damage arising either directly or indirectly from any action or inaction of either Member or Seller. Provider will not be bound by any licensure associated with these agreements between Member and Sellers.
Provider may electronically monitor the Service and may disclose any content or records to satisfy any law, regulation or official government request to properly operate the Service and protect its members. Provider reserves the right at its sole discretion to review, modify, or refuse to post any material or information. Provider will not intentionally monitor or disclose any private mail messages unless permitted or required by law. Provider reserves the right to remove any content that it believes to be unacceptable or undesirable. Provider will not sell or release Member's information, including E-mail addresses, to any outside parties except as specified otherwise in this paragraph. Member acknowledges at the same time that information transmitted through the Internet in general is not confidential, and therefore Provider can take no responsibility for the privacy or protection of the user relating to any such information.
Provider assumes no liability for any fees charged by phone companies or other parties due to long distance calls and/or additional services. It is the Member's responsibility to verify the number they are dialing for Internet access is correct and understand that third party charges may apply.
Services from the Provider may only be used for lawful purposes. Member's use of account or service in an illegal manner shall be considered grounds for immediate termination. Upon request of Provider, member agrees to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Provider and employees, officers, directors, agents and licensees of the Provider against any claims or expense, including reasonable attorney's fees that arise from Member's use of Service and the Internet.
Provider makes no warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding its service and availability. While a good faith effort will be made to hold any periods of a lack of service to scheduled maintenance periods, no guarantees are made as to any account, product, or service offered by Provider. Provider also offers no warranty, express or implied, regarding any transmissions made by Member on the Internet or the Provider's service. Member is solely responsible for any losses, damages, or expenses related to service failure whether caused by Provider or Member, and agrees that Provider shall not be liable for any or all of the same.
Provider reserves the right to move, delete, or reduce Member's mailbox if said mailbox has reached a size that is adversely affecting system performance. Furthermore, member acknowledges that Provider has the right to stop any mail processes being run by Member that are adversely affecting system performance. In these and all instances of system performance being affected, Provider is the sole judge of what is adverse.
Provider reserves the right to control and alter bandwidth for high-speed accounts when it can be shown that the activity on those accounts is adversely affecting system performance. Provider reserves the sole right to determine what adverse performance is.
Provider does not restrict personal E-mail or newsgroup postings. However, the sending of unsolicited bulk E-mail ("UBE") or unsolicited commercial E-mail ("UCE") is strictly prohibited, whether it is through Provider's connectivity services or mail servers. If a person is reasonably suspected of sending either UBE or UCE or both, Provider reserves the right to immediately deactivate the account. Provider will only re-activate the account after a thorough discussion of the issue with Member, and even then reserves the right to not do so. If it is confirmed that a party has violated Provider's UBE or UCE policy, Provider reserves the right to permanently terminate the account with no refund and issue a $250 fine with additional charges of $50 per complaint received. Abusive conduct in E-mail shall also not be tolerated and shall be considered grounds for account deactivation in a like manner.
Provider has a regularly scheduled maintenance window from 12 A.M. till 6 A.M. During this time, Provider's services may be offline. Provider will give advance notice as much as possible of any anticipated downtime outside of this window. Provider cannot guarantee uptime outside of this window and occasionally service outages may arise which are out of Providers control. Provider assumes no liability for downtime outside of the maintenance window.
All rights given to Provider and Member by this terms of service shall be cumulative in addition to any laws which exist or might come into being. Should Provider waive the right to enforce any breach of the terms of service, that waiver shall be considered temporary and not a continuing waiver of any later breach. Although Provider may know when accepting payment for the service that Member is in fact violating one or more of the terms of this terms of service, Provider in accepting the payment is in no way waiving Provider's right to enforce the breach. The Provider shall not waive the right to enforce any breach unless Provider signs a waiver in writing.
Provider under no circumstances including negligence, or anyone else involved in creating, producing, or distributing the Service or the Provider's software, shall be liable for any damages that result from the use of or inability to use the Service or the Provider's software. This includes, but not limited to, reliance on any information obtained on the Service; or that result from omissions, interruptions, deletion of files, errors defects, viruses, delays in operation, or transmission, or any failure of performance, whether or not limited to acts of God, communications failure, theft, destruction or unauthorized access to the Provider's records, programs or services. Because some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation for consequential or incidental damages, the Provider's liability is limited to the greatest extent provided by law.
Member is responsible for all activities and charges resulting from the use of the Member's account on the Service. Member agrees to pay all monthly membership fees, connect time charges, and other charges incurred by Member and/or his/her designated users. In the event of a breach of the Member's account, Member will remain liable for any unauthorized use of the Service up to the time Member notifies Provider of the breach or it is otherwise discovered.
Provider's accounting cycle begins on the first (1st) of each month. Service charges will be billed in advance of receiving services and hours in excess of the monthly contract will be billed in arrears. The exception to this is during the first month of membership for unlimited accounts. In this circumstance, the service payment for the time period between the membership date and the end of the month for the Unlimited accounts will be prorated and included either on an invoice enclosed with the Provider's Software, mailed separately, or on the next billing cycle. Hourly accounts will not be pro-rated. The member acknowledges responsibility for the account until the payment is made in full. The member's account will be billed via US Postal Mail, E-mail or credit card. Invoices sent via US Mail will incur a one-dollar processing fee. When the member's account is first opened, a setup fee of fifteen dollars will be applied to the account. This fee will be credit to the member's account if a signed Acknowledgement and Acceptance of the Terms of Service form is returned to the Provider.
Provider reserves the right to change fees, surcharges, and monthly membership fees or to institute new fees at any time upon thirty days prior notice. In the event that a Member's account is terminated or canceled, credits will be forfeited. Member's account is not convertible to cash or other forms of credit. If Provider does not receive the full amount of Member's account balance by the invoice due date, a five dollar late charge will be added to Member's account balance and shall be due and payable. Provider reserves the right to disable Member's account for non-payment once an account is in past due status. Member accounts disabled for non-payment will be charged a disconnect/reconnect fee up to $45 per occurrence. Service will not be re-activated until all charges including late fees are paid in full. Member shall also be liable for all attorney and collection fees arising from Provider's efforts to collect any unpaid balance of Member's account(s). Members turned over to collections will not have their service reinstated until said fees along with the outstanding balance are paid in full.
Payment Plans are available for accounts in past due status. Payment arrangements must be setup within 30 days of the date the first outstanding charge posted to the Customer account. Minimum payment arrangements of $20 will be acceptable with all other payment amounts considered. Payment arrangements will not cease additional late fees from being applied against the Customer account. If a payment is not made as agreed, Customer account will automatically be sent to a collection agency for further collection action.
Provider may modify this agreement at any time and in any manner. Any modifications are effective immediately upon either a posting on the Service at http://www.metalink.net/tos.html, electronic mail, or conventional mail. Your continued use of the Service following notice of any modification to this agreement shall be conclusively deemed as acceptance of all such modification(s). If any modification to this agreement is unacceptable to you, you may immediately terminate your membership as provided in this agreement.
Member agrees that the Service charges are based on the Member's account being active and available. Provider is not responsible for crediting for time when the Member's account was active and available but not being used for any reason. If Member notifies Provider in writing that they will not be using the service for the period of a full month or more, and then calls back at the end of the period of inactivity, Provider may at Provider's option credit a month's time at the end of the Member's current package or each month the account was not being used. Provider is under no obligation to make such arrangements if Member does not notify Provider in advance. Provider reserves the right to refuse this arrangement in specific cases to be determined by Provider, or at any time Member's package goes past its regular ending period.
By accepting these terms, the Member is bound and responsible for the full term of the Internet Access package sold. Member's action is required to cancel the Service. Failure to cancel said Internet Access package does not waive the Member's responsibility for the account. Cancellation must be requested in writing or via phone prior to the end of said term. If cancellation is requested by phone, a cancellation confirmation number will be given to the Member confirming the request. Packages automatically renew at the end of the agreed upon term unless the Member provides written notice to Provider or calls in and receives a cancellation confirmation number. Likewise, package change requests must be given prior to the beginning of the next term. In the event of cancellation (for all Services other than the two (2) term Service for Wireless and/or DSL Service) or package change request, Member acknowledges that cancellation or changes will not take effect until the end of the current billing cycle, and there are no refunds for partial months.

In the case of termination of the two (2) year term Service for Wireless and/or DSL Service, Member will be responsible for the full charge of any early termination penalty and all applicable late fees. The early termination penalty is discussed in the Service Order, Wireless Access Agreement, or the DSL Access Agreement.

Early termination of a pre-paid or multiple-month Unlimited Interactive Access dial-up plan such as the 3, 6, or 12 month plans will billed the normal published monthly unlimited rate times the number of months in which the Members account was active/available as of the date a cancellation request is made. A ten-dollar processing fee will also be applied for the early termination. For example, if a 12 month plan began on January 1st and cancellation was requested as of April 15th, the final balance on the account would be calculated as $19.95 times 4 months plus $10.00 thus equaling $89.80.

In the event an account needs to be canceled due to the account holder passing away, a copy of the Death Certificate along with a letter outlining what needs to be done with the account is required. Letters will be accepted from the Executor of the Estate, the attorney's office handling the estate or other representatives as deemed acceptable solely at MetaLINK's discretion. Cancellations will be processed as outlined in this Terms of Service.
Customers are responsible for payment regardless of whether or not an invoice was received. Provider is not responsible for any payments that are not received. Customer's current balance and payments received as well as other billing information may be obtained by phone at 888-999-8002 option 3 or on the Internet at http://billing.metalink.net.
Provider reserves the right to refuse any account.
When you provide a check as payment, you authorize us to use information from the check to make a one-time electronic fund transfer from your account, or to process the payment as a check. You authorize us to collect a fee up to $25 (plus a bank fee if allowed by your state law) through electronic fund transfer from your account if your payment is returned unpaid. All refunds, returned checks or insufficient funds checks are subject to a $25 processing fee.
Customers requesting automatic credit card billing will have monthly charges processed around the 10th of each month and will be paying in advance of services as outlined in the Terms of Service. The exception to this is the first billing cycle. Any start-up fees will be billed in advance of the installation while the initial monthly fees will be billed shortly after the installation is completed. The initial charges may include any additional equipment purchased at the time of the installation, prorated services for the current month and the next full month service depending on the time of month the installation is completed in comparison to our normal monthly billing process.
Customer is required to have a valid credit card on file at all times. Should Customer become delinquent on their payments, MetaLINK reserves the right to process overdue charges automatically to the credit card on file. Customer expressly consents to MetaLINK processing delinquent amounts on the credit card provided.

TERMS OF SERVICE ("TOS")

Please read the following important information regarding the terms of your account