1. As a customer of Zeronet, these Terms & Conditions form the basis of Zeronets’ contract with you, along with your online application and with the agreement to transfer your services to Zeronet at the prices applicable at the time. If you use our internet services, then the Terms and Conditions specific to internet services included at the end of this section will also apply and form part of our contract with you.
2. We may amend our prices, terms, and conditions from time to time as updated on our website, www.zeronet.co.nz or notified to you in writing. Any change in the prevailing rate of GST will result in a corresponding change to quoted rates/prices regardless of any term contract that may be in place at the time. Price lists or copies of our terms and conditions are available on our website. Amendments to these will vary our contract with you. We may interpret your ongoing use of our services after that date as constituting your acceptance of the amendments.
3. In this contract, we use the terms “Zeronet”, “we”, “our”, and “us” to refer to Zeronet Ltd trading as Zeronet, “you” and “your” to refer to the person with whom we have the contract (our customer), and “services” to refer to the internet services we provide to you under this contract. Headings in this contract do not affect their interpretation.
4. Once you are connected to our network(s), we aim to provide you with consistently reliable and good quality services. Services can be affected by radio interference, atmospheric conditions, geographical factors, network congestion, maintenance, outages on other networks, configuration imitations and more. We do not guarantee that our service will be perfect at all times, nor can we guarantee the integrity of data sent or received via the services. If and when your services are disrupted, we will do our best to reinstate our services to you as soon as we can.
5. Your Fibre (UFB) broadband service requires mains power to operate. If power is unavailable during a power outage, your broadband and any services that run over it will stop working unless you have a battery backup in your home. You should check with the provider of any essential services, such as security and medical alarms, to ensure they will operate with this fibre service. They can often change your access method to ensure your services are available during a power outage.
6. From time to time, there may be changes to how you can access our network, and we will advise you of any such changes to your access in advance of them taking place.
7. The services we supply to you will be supplied to you in whatever way we think is appropriate. We can choose the carriers used to provide our services and we can change the carriers at our discretion.
8. Zeronets’ customer support is via our website chat or by emailing us on [email protected]. Standard support hours may vary on public holidays and for operational reasons.
9. You agree that you will:
10. You are responsible for ensuring that all calls or other communications (collectively, ‘calls’) are specifically or inadvertently directed into our network from your communications equipment or systems related to services you have ordered from us and services we have agreed to provide you. You must ensure no ‘calls’ directed onto our network relate to services you have agreed to take from another carrier, and that you have no pre-programmed calling procedures installed on or linked to your equipment or systems. You will be liable for our charges in conveying or dealing with any such ‘calls” that we have not agreed to carry, and we accept no liability for any discount or benefit you would have received had you complied with those obligations
11. We will deliver our invoices and any other notices to the most recent postal and/or email address you have given us. In the case of emailed invoices, the invoice may be attached to the email or viewed by downloading from our website by clicking on a link. We will assume that a posted invoice or notice has been delivered five days after we have posted it and an email invoice two days after we have emailed the invoice or notified of the invoice.
12. It is essential that if you move premises or otherwise change your postal or email address, you inform us of this in writing to ensure that there is no interruption in our supply of service to you or our ability to contact you. If your address details change and you fail to inform us, you will remain responsible for all charges that may accrue against your account at the last address we hold on record.
13.1. You agree that sufficient funds will be available on your nominated debit/credit card on the day you sign up and monthly after that, in accordance with the plan you have chosen, on the first day of the month or on the next business day in the event of a public holiday or other interruption.
You agree we may charge you a late fee at the rate/terms applicable at the time. If there are insufficient funds on your nominated debit/credit card and the payment is dishonoured, we may charge you a dishonour fee in addition to a late fee. We may also recover from you all legal and other costs incurred by us in collecting any overdue amount.
13.2. We may charge you for up to 6 months (180 days) in arrears depending on where we have incorrectly invoiced you for the services or where charges have come from other Network Operators and Telecommunication Service Providers.
14. We reserve the right to impose a credit limit on your account, and will advise you if you get close to this limit. You agree that if at any time you exceed your credit limit, we will be entitled to suspend the provision of our services to you. We reserve the right to charge a minimum monthly fee to cover the cost of maintaining an account for dormant or low-spend customers. This charge will be advised at the time of joining Zeronet or with a minimum of 30 days’ notice for existing customers.
15. If you have a genuine dispute in relation to the amounts we have charged you, you must pay the undisputed charges and notify us of the disputed charges with details of the dispute and evidence to support its validity. This can be done on our website via chat or by emailing us at [email protected]. You must make any claims for credits for disputed charges within 30 days of the most current bill sent to you. Any claim made otherwise than in accordance with this clause shall not be recognised.
16. We may suspend or disconnect your service(s) from our network:
17. 1. If you do not pay any of the invoices we send you by the due date or fail to make a payment under an agreed payment plan between you and us then we may suspend or terminate services and our contract with you with immediate effect.
17.2. If you fail to meet your responsibilities to us, we may suspend or terminate services and our contract with you with immediate effect.
17.3. We may also end our contract with you for any reason providing you a minimum notice period of one month.
17.4 Ending the contract between us in this way shall not release you from any obligations or responsibilities under the contract.
18. You may ask us to stop a particular service or cancel this agreement with 30 days’ notice at any time by sending a request via our website chat or emailing us on [email protected]. If you move a service from Zeronet to another provider without notifying us we will continue to charge you for that service for 30 days from the departure of the service.
19. On termination of our contract with you, we will cease providing our service to you, and all amounts you owe to us will immediately become due and payable. We shall not be liable to you for any loss or damage suffered, or claimed to have been suffered, by you on or following the termination of our service’s supply to you.
20. If you are a residential customer, rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 may apply in addition to the abovementioned rights. If your services are used for business purposes, then you agree that the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 will not apply to this contract.
21. If our service fails to operate for any reason and you use a service provided by another carrier, we will not be responsible for that carrier’s service charges.
22. We accept no liability for any loss or damage, including, without limitation, indirect and consequential losses, caused by a carrier suspending or interrupting its service to us which affects our ability to provide services to you or any other cause beyond our reasonable control.
23. We also exclude all other liability we may have to you for acts or omissions by us, our directors, employees, agents, representatives, and contractors. This includes both direct and indirect losses, including loss of profits, loss of revenue and loss of any opportunity. These exclusions of liability also apply under the Contracts (Privity) Act 1982 for the benefit of any other carrier which allows us to use its network to provide our service to you.
24. To the extent permitted by law, none of the persons referred to in clause 23 are liable to you or has to pay you for anything else caused by or resulting from anything any of them does or does not do or delays in doing, whether or not it is contemplated or authorised by these terms and conditions.
25. This exclusion of liability applies whether or not our contract with you has ended and regardless of the nature and cause of any damage or loss. If you are a residential customer, these exclusions do not affect your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993.
26. To the extent permitted by law, if, despite the provisions contained in the previous section, we or any other carrier is liable to you for any breach of these terms and conditions or for breach of any other obligation to you, our liability shall be limited, at our discretion, to one or more of the following:
27. If you are a residential customer, this limitation does not affect any rights you may have under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993.
28. You agree that we may collect information about you for the purposes of this contract and the performance of our obligations to you. The information we collect about you may be obtained from you and others.
29. You may decide not to provide any information sought from you. If you do not provide it, we may not be able to provide our services to you.
30. We may use the information we hold about you and may exchange information about you with our contractors, agents and representatives, with other carriers, and with credit reporting and debt collection agencies for the purposes of our business and to law enforcement agencies as required under the law.
31. All information held by us will be held at our offices at 95a Collingwood Street, Hamilton. You may obtain access to, update, or correct any information held by us under the Privacy Act 1993.
32. We may assign or transfer our rights and responsibilities under this contract to someone else. We will give you written notice if we intend to do this.
33. We may also subcontract the performance of any of our responsibilities under this contract to anyone else.
34. You may not assign or transfer your rights or responsibilities under this contract to anyone else without our prior written consent.
35. If, for any reason, any provisions of this contract cannot be enforced or relied upon by either of us, all other terms of our contract with you remain binding.
36. Depending on the services we provide you, you may be given a username, password or PIN. You agree to keep these personal identifiers confidential and to take all reasonable steps to prevent disclosure to any person other than members of your household or business who are considered authorised users. You are responsible for ensuring that all authorised users of the services also meet the responsibilities and obligations set out in clause 9. and 10. above.
37. You will be liable for all charges resulting from the use of the service accessed through your personal identifiers, whether authorised by you or not. You agree to indemnify Zeronet for all claims, proceedings, damages, losses or expenses, however incurred, arising from the acts of any person accessing the service using your username, password or PIN.
38. Disclosure or loss of your username or password that results in the incurring of charges or misuse of the service is your responsibility, and it is also your responsibility to report any such occurrence immediately to Zeronet.
39. Your registration of an internet service account with Zeronet and your access, connection and use of Zeronets’ internet service is subject to the following ISP Terms and all applicable laws. By accessing and using the service you represent, you have read, understood and accepted these ISP Terms and agreed to be bound by them. Please do not use the service or register an internet account if you do not agree to these ISP Terms.
40. Unless specifically included in our offer to you, you are responsible for providing the telephone line, modem, computer, hardware, software and all other equipment required to access the service and for all charges in relation to the above.
41. It is important to Zeronet that all eligible Zeronet customers can access our services and get the best possible experience. For this reason, and to ensure quality service, a Fair Use Policy applies to some of our services where your usage can affect that of other customers. We have developed this Fair Use Policy by reference to average member profiles and estimated member use of our services.
42. We may issue a warning or suspend your services under this Fair Use Policy where in our reasonable opinion, your use of our services is excessive and/or unreasonable by materially exceeding estimated usage patterns over any month. Where reasonable, Zeronet will give you 30 days’ notice before suspension, restriction or termination.
43. If, after we have requested that you stop or alter your use to come within our Fair Use Policy, your excessive or unreasonable use continues, we may, without further notice, apply charges to your account for the excessive and/or unreasonable element of your use; suspend, modify or restrict your use of our services or withdraw your access to the services. If we terminate your services and you have agreed to a fixed contract term, you may have to pay the applicable early termination fee.
44. Bandwidth allocated to unlimited internet users is reviewed and increased as required, but at any time, there is a fixed amount of bandwidth available. The aim of this clause of the Fair Use Policy is to ensure that the experience of the vast majority of unlimited internet users is not compromised by the extreme and unreasonable usage of a few. Zeronet reserves the right to modify (through speed and other variables) the behaviour of individual users that frequently use significantly more data than the majority of the unlimited users and/or use their internet service in a way that negatively affects the experience of other users. If an unlimited internet customer is found to be in the top 1% to 5% of users and their usage is negatively impacting the network, Zeronet may attempt to communicate with the user, asking them to modify their usage, may suggest a more suitable solution for all parties involved, or may exercise its rights outlined in clauses 42 and 43 above.
45. You acknowledge that Zeronet does not and cannot in any way supervise, edit or control the content and form of any information or data accessed through the internet, and Zeronet shall not be held responsible in any way for any content or information accessed via the service. Furthermore, Zeronet disclaims all or any responsibility or liability for any material on the internet that you may find offensive, upsetting, defamatory, personally offensive and in any way unsuitable for minors.
46. Some internet sites may have embedded within them the ability to program your modem to dial overseas numbers without your knowledge or direction. You are liable for any charges arising from such calls, and Zeronet accepts no liability for such charges.
47. You are not permitted to operate servers from the service, and you are not permitted to on-sell this service without our written approval. You are not permitted to send spam or bulk mail using the service and we reserve the right to charge you a clean-up fee to rectify the result of such activity by you at a maximum charge of $200 per article.
48. Your Voice service may be automatically disconnected after 3 hours of continuous use or after 15 minutes of usage being idle. You may be charged for each connection if you establish multiple simultaneous connections or have your account terminated.
49. We will make reasonable commercial efforts to protect your confidentiality. However, you should assume that your use of our services is not confidential. Let’s consider in our discretion that your use of our services is defamatory, contrary to accepted community standards or illegal. You acknowledge that we have the right to disclose those activities to any person, including the police. Without limitation to the foregoing, we can check your use of the system to ensure that your use is not breaching these terms and conditions or to assess any charges which may be payable by you.
50. Owners of copyrighted material may enforce their rights against people who use file-sharing applications to download copyrighted material illegally. Zeronet is obliged to issue infringement notices and if necessary, terminate any customer accessing material illegally over an internet service provided by Zeronet.
51. Liability for alleged copyright infringement lies with the person who ‘owns’ the internet account. If the account is in your name, then the liability, according to the law, is with you, no matter who pays the bill or who used your account, whether with or without your permission.
52. The ISP Terms are governed by the laws of New Zealand, and the parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of New Zealand in respect of any dispute or proceeding arising out of the ISP Terms.
Updated: 7 December 2022