Terms and Conditions Last updated 4th July 2001

Definitions
Act means the Telecommunications Act 1984 and includes any amendments to the act that may be made from time to time.
DonPhone means Gordon Sharpe t/a DonPhone
Agent means Gordon Sharpe t/a The 0870 Co.
We/Us means either DonPhone or the Agent
Customer means the person, partnership or company in contract with DonPhone via the agent
Service means the service or services requested by the customer and to be provided to the customer by DonPhone through the Agent.
Agreement means this agreement entered into by and between DonPhone and the Customer and is subject to both the terms set out on the rest of this website and those herein.

1) Duration
This Agreement shall come into force and effect from the date of acceptance by Us as indicated by the email date on the order acceptance and shall continue unless terminated by Us subject to section 9 of this Agreement.

2) Use of Service
2.1) The 0870 Co. shall provide the Service to the Customer subject to availability and shall exercise all due care in the provision and maintenance of the Service to provide high quality and reliability.
2.2) All information relating to the Customer collected by us in the course of providing the Service shall remain confidential between the Customer and us, subject only to the permitted users of that information under the Agreement or as may be required under the Act or any other regulations relating to the Service and except that DonPhone at its sole discretion may use data about use of the Service by the Customer as part of any report or publication without revealing the identity of the Customer.
2.3) The Customer undertakes to use the Services in accordance with the conditions set out herein and such variations as may be notified in writing from time to time to the Customer by us and in accordance with the Act or any other regulations relating to the Service.
2.4) The Customer shall indemnify and hold harmless The 0870 Co. against all liabilities, claims, losses, damages or expenses arising directly or indirectly or in any way associated with any use of the Service by the Customer or provision of the Service by us - this is to say that no claims will be entertained for loss of the service nor will we be held responsible for mis-use of the service by customers.
2.5) The Customer shall not use or allow use of the Service in any matter or for any purpose unlawful or offensive.
2.6) The Customer shall notify us immediately upon becoming aware of any failure or malfunction in the Service.
2.7) We shall correct any failure or malfunction in the Service as soon as is reasonable practicable.
2.8) The Customer recognises that the Service is not guaranteed to be "continuous" and that there may be periods of time when the Service is unavailable for operational or other reasons.

3) Provision of Information
3.1) The Customer undertakes to provide to us free of charge and in full co-operation any information reasonably required by us in order to fulfil its obligations under the Agreement.

4) Prices
The prices in this agreement may be changed subject to thirty days notice by email to the Customer. Call charges may change and cannot be guaranteed, they may change at any time without notification to us or our customers. (amended 30/06/00)

5) Acceptance by Us
We reserve the right to refuse any order where invalid information is given.

6) Liability & Compensation
We shall have no liability whatsoever to the Customer in contract, tort or otherwise, including any liability due to negligence for loss of goodwill, revenue, anticipated savings, profit or for any direct, indirect or consequential financial loss howsoever arising. Your statutory rights as a consumer are not affected by this. We have also been asked to point out that the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 state that liability cannot be excluded for death or personal injury although it is difficult for us to see how a telephone number service could cause such an event.

7) Payment
7.1) The Customer shall pay for the Service according to our tariff as amended from time to time.
7.2) Charges payable by the Customer shall be calculated by us according to data recorded by us.
7.3) Removed 30/06/00, not applicable to the 0870 offer.
7.4) Removed 30/06/00, not applicable to the 0870 offer.
7.5) All sums due to us under the terms and conditions of the Agreement are exclusive of Value Added Tax and or any other taxes applicable at the appropriate rate, such taxes to be paid by the Customer.
7.6) Commission to the Customer from personal 0870 numbers is as follows: The Customer is paid on revenue received on accumulated calls per month and is paid in accumulated amounts of £25.00 or more; paid monthly in arrears @ the rates shown on the Costs page of this website. These rates can change at any time without notification. Changes to such rates will be detailed on the website as soon as they are published.

8) Suspension of Service
8.1) In the event that the Customer in breach of the Agreement, provision of the Service to the Customer may be suspended forthwith by us upon notification to the client by email without liability to the Customer and until further notice.
8.2) Suspension of the Service will entitle us to payment on demand of all amounts owed by the Customer under the Agreement whether already invoiced or not.
8.3) The Customer shall pay us all reasonable costs associated with such suspension of 8.1.

9) Termination
9.1) Without prejudice to their rights under the Agreement expressed or implied the Customer or us shall have the right to terminate the Agreement in the event that the other party is in default either in observation of or in performance of its obligations under the Agreement and in the case of rectifiable default fails to rectify the default within a reasonable time specified by the non-defaulting party by email or in writing.
9.2) Without prejudice to their rights under the Agreement expressed or implied we may terminate the Agreement in the event that a liquidator, trustee in bankruptcy, receiver or administrator is appointed in respect of the assets and/or business of the Customer or if the Customer is deemed insolvent according to the Insolvency Act 1986, or if any licence under which the Customer operates its business is revoked, amended or ceases to be valid.
9.3) Without prejudice to their rights under the Agreement expressed or implied we may terminate the Agreement in the event that our licence under the Act is revoked.

10) Assignment
We shall have the right to assign, delegate or otherwise deal with their rights under the Agreement in part or in whole. The Customer shall not have the right to assign, delegate or otherwise deal with their rights under the Agreement in part or in whole. This is to enable an account to be transferred to another agent in the event that we should cease trading and does not affect your statutory rights as a consumer.

11) Entire Agreement
The Agreement represents the entire understanding between the parties in relation to the subject matter hereof and supersedes all price agreements, representations or understandings by either party whether oral or written.

12) No waiver
Failure by either party to exercise or enforce any right conferred by the agreement shall not be deemed to be a waiver of any such right nor operate so as to bar the exercise or enforcement thereof or of any other right on any later occasion.

13) Notices
Any notice, invoice other document which may be given under the agreement shall be deemed to have been duly given if sent by email to the address given in the original application.

14) Force Majeure
Neither party shall be held to be in breach of its obligations under the Agreement, save for obligations to make payments under the Agreement, to the other party for any loss or damage which may be suffered by the other party due to any cause beyond the reasonable control of the first party including but not limited to my act of God inclement weather failure or shortage of power supplies flood drought lighting or fire, strike, lock-out, trade dispute or labour disturbance, act or omission of Government authorities other telecommunications providers, war, military operations or riot.

15) Governing Law
The Agreement shall be governed by and construed and interpreted in accordance with English Law and the parties hereby submit to the jurisdiction of the English Courts.

This is a standard Terms and Conditions document, as amended, and does not affect your statutory rights as a consumer.

Additional clauses relating to low or non usage of a number:

Unused numbers
Where a number records no usage in any accounting month we will invoice, by email, the customer for an admin fee of £5.
This is to cover the cost of maintaining an account where no revenue is generated. We cannot provide a service if our basic costs are not met for accounting etc.
Failure to pay such charge will result in suspension of service, email will be sent to the customer to advise this.

Continual non-use
Should any given number be recorded as having no usage for three consecutive months then an email will be sent to the address given as part of the application and the status reviewed depending on the customer reply. Our feeling is that there is little point in issuing a number which is then not used at all, reasonable notification having been given the service may be suspended. It is possible that a disconnected 0870 number would later be allocated to another customer.

Where email is not answered and admin fees have become payable we will send an invoice to the customer postal address as given on the application for service. This will incur a further charge for the additional administration costs.

Other points to note:

Changes to destination number:
We understand that people do move home/business and/or change telephone numbers from time to time. Your 0870 number can be re-assigned to any standard UK landline (prefix 01 or 02) by sending email to changes@the0870.com . We will allow one such change in any 12 month period per 0870 number free of charge but further changes will be subject to an administration fee. Our service is intended to be to a fixed number and was not designed to allow the customer to change destination numbers other than stated above. Please ensure that you quote your 0870 number with any change request.

Queries and problems:
Customers are supplied with full contact information regarding the service on receipt of their 0870 number. This also gives details of who to contact and under what circumstances. Email, telephone, fax and postal addresses are also given on the Contact page of this site.

Customer change of details:
Customers are asked to inform us should they change postal or email address so that our records are kept up to date. For business accounts we would also be grateful if we can be advised of staff changes with regard to accounts held so that we have current contact information to hand.

Privacy Policy:
We operate a privacy policy which can be accessed from the main menu, certain assurances about our service and use of your personal information are given here

Acceptance of service by the customer will be receipt of their 0870 number and/or any use made of the service.
This implies that the customer has also accepted these terms and conditions and is aware of their content. ALL new numbers issued since February 2000 have carried a statement to the effect that acceptance of a number implies that the user has read these terms and conditions and agrees to abide by them. All orders taken from July 1st 2000 will have been subject to an additional field on the order form which the customer will have had to complete in acceptance of the terms shown above.

Important note for Channel Islands residents and Manx Telecom customers:
We have been advised by Telinco that they are unable to offer 0870 services to the Channel Islands as it is not viable. We are told that they are charged double the normal rate for redirection and as such this offer is available to UK mainland, including Northern Ireland, only. Sorry. Customers of Manx Telecom are also unable to have 0870 service due to a higher rate being imposed to call such numbers.

Charges made for connection.
There are no charges made for connection of 0870 services other than a one-off fee where a gold number has been ordered. We do not charge rental fee's nor for any installation costs.

Connection timescale.
We acknowledge incoming orders on a regular basis and advise that connection will normally be made within 7 working days of such acknowledgement, often sooner. Advice of connection will be sent by email and this information will also give the 0870 number(s) connected along with references to these terms and conditions. This is subject to national and local holidays.

Opting out of email communication.
We require that customers provide us with a contact email address to inform them of progress of their order and for future notification of any details relating to the service. We do not send unsolicited email, as detailed in our Privacy Policy, and will normally only communicate with customers as detailed here. As such we do not provide an opt-out of the system unless your service is cancelled, in which case such details will be deleted from our files.

Complaints procedure.
We accept that some disruption of service may occur from time to time that is out of our direct control and that complaints may be made by our customers. All such complaints should be directed to webmaster@the0870.com and include the details of the complaint, the 0870 number(s) affected, the contact name and telephone number of the person making the complaint and a return email address. Unless otherwise deemed neccessary we will reply by email. All such communication will remain confidential and will be dealt with in a fair an effective manner. We will acknowledge complaints within 5 working days and will provide details of what steps are being taken to resolve the problem. On advising the customer of matters being resolved we request that the customer confirms that we have dealt with the matter to their satisfaction. Escalation of complaints should only be made in extreme circumstances, The 0870 Co. will address customer complaints directly.

Issue date: July 4th 2001