Terms of Service

1. Who we are

Galeforce Hosting Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales.
Company number 17542989.
Registered office: 22 Bluecoat Close, Nottingham, NG1 4DP, United Kingdom.
Contact: support@galeforcehosting.net.

"We", "us" and "Galeforce" mean the company. "You" means our customer: the adult who owns a server and has accepted these terms. People you invite to help run a server are "members". Members do not accept these terms; the members notice tells them what applies to them.

2. What we do

We rent you a game server. You pick the game and the memory size, you buy a pass, and we run the server on our hardware. You manage it from our website.

We host in the United Kingdom: the website and control plane on servers we rent from OVH, and game servers on hardware we operate ourselves.

3. Who can use Galeforce

• You must be 18 or over to be our customer: to create a server, accept these terms, buy a pass or choose to renew. When you first sign in we ask your date of birth. It stays in your browser: we record only the date you turn 18 (or that you already have), worked out from it, and when you told us.
• If you are 13 to 17, you can sign in to Galeforce and play on and help run a server that an adult has set up and invited you to. You can also describe a server and ask an adult to take it on. When an adult offers, we show you who they are, and nothing is set up or bought unless you say yes. The adult is our customer: they accept these terms, pay with their own card, and are responsible for the server and for what the people they invite do on it. We do not make a contract with anyone under 18.
• If you are under 13 you cannot have a Galeforce account, and we delete the sign-in you just made.
• If we find that a customer is under 18, we switch their renewal off straight away and offer two choices: an adult takes the server on, or we close it and refund the unused time. We do not move a server or its payments from one person to another in any other way.
• You must be in the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland) or the United States. We do not sell anywhere else yet, including the Isle of Man and the EU. If your country is not available, the site will say so.
• You need an email address that reaches you. We send receipts, renewal reminders and warnings about your files to it, and we also show important notices on your billing page. If you give us a wrong address, or your email provider blocks our emails, you may not receive them, so please keep the address on your account up to date.

4. Your account

• You sign in by email link, Discord or Google. There is no password.
• Keep your account to yourself. Anything done from it counts as done by you, unless it happened because we failed to keep our systems secure.
• You can invite up to 20 people to help run a server. They can see the server but never your prices or payments. You are responsible for what they do on it.
• Members may be under 18. When you invite someone you can tell us they are. While any member of a server is under 18, only you can invite more people to it. Every member is shown, on the server's pages, who can see what they do there and what each person, you included, can see about them.
• If someone under 18 asks you to set up a server, they see your display name and your email address (partly hidden, unless it is the address they gave us), and you can set it up only after they say yes.
• Each server has its own SFTP password. Treat it like a key to your files.
• You can have at most 5 servers, and only one unpaid server waiting for its first pass.

5. Passes

A pass is paid time for one server. There is no credit balance, no wallet and nothing stored for later. Every payment buys a fixed period on one server.

• Time runs from the moment your payment succeeds, or from the end of the pass before it if you already have one.
• Time runs whether or not the server is on. If your server stops because nobody is online (15 minutes empty, on Minecraft Java), the clock keeps going.
• If the next month is shorter, your month ends on its last day. For example, a month bought on 30 January ends on 28 February (29 February in a leap year).
• Buying another pass adds it to the end of the one you have.
• Only running the game needs a pass. Your files, SFTP and settings stay available after a pass ends, until the server is deleted (section 9).

6. Prices

• The price you see is the price you pay. For the UK (and for EU countries, if we open there) it already includes any tax.
• US prices are shown in dollars and are final: we do not add sales tax at checkout.
• Each pass costs at least £2.00 (or $2.50).
• The renewing price. A week or month pass of 4 GB or more that you buy with renewal on costs 10% less than the same pass paid for once. You pay that price for the pass you buy and for every renewal of it while renewal stays on; the next two points say how long it is locked and what happens after. We round it down to the penny (or cent), so it is never less than 10% off, and it never takes a pass below the minimum above. Day passes, passes under 4 GB, upgrades and passes you pay for once are charged the full price. Checkout shows both prices, each as the amount you will pay.
• Your per-GB price, and the renewing price if your server has it, are locked for 12 months from your server's first successful payment. During that time your renewals and extra passes for that server will not go up.
• After the 12 months, renewals use our current prices, and the renewing price only if we still offer it. If that is dearer (including because the renewing price no longer applies), we email you 30 days before the first renewal at the new price, with a cancel link. You can cancel before it applies and keep the time you have paid for. If you do not, you can still cancel within 14 days after that first payment at the new price, and we refund the unused part of the period that payment bought.
• Offer prices. Some passes have an offer price. It is shown as that pass's price on our pages and at checkout, and it is what you pay. While your server's prices are locked (above), an offer price it has paid stays its price for that kind of pass and size, even after the offer ends. We can end an offer for new purchases at any time; that never changes a payment already made or a price already locked.
• First-pass offer. When the panel offers a new account its first pass at a first-pass price, that price is for that one purchase. It is once per account and once per card: an account that has paid for anything before, or a card that has already had the offer, pays the usual price, and checkout tells you before you pay. If you choose renewal, every renewal is charged at that pass's usual renewing price, and checkout shows both before you pay, for example "Pay £2.00 now, then £3.42 every week until you cancel". The first-pass price is not part of your server's locked price.
• If you make a server bigger mid-pass, you pay the difference for the time left, at least 50p (or 50¢). If the difference comes to less than that, the upgrade is free. Making it smaller gives no refund.

7. Passes that renew

Every pass can renew. At checkout you choose between a pass that renews until you cancel and a pass you pay for once. A pass that renews is a rolling contract: a day pass renews every day, a week pass every week and a month pass every month, until you cancel, with no minimum term. Each renewal buys the same kind of pass as the one you chose, at your server's size. A pass you pay for once ends when its time is up, and nothing more is charged.

• Before you pay, and before you are asked for any card details, checkout shows you, together in one box set apart from the rest of the page: what the pass gives you; that it can renew until you cancel or be paid for once; for a pass that renews, the price each time, how and when that price can change (section 6), the moment each payment is taken (when your current period ends), which is also the last moment to cancel before it, the emails we send you, and how to cancel; and when you can get a refund (section 8). Then come two pay buttons, and neither is chosen for you. Each says what you are agreeing to, for example, for a 4 GB month pass, "Pay £9.79 now, then £9.79 every month until you cancel" or "Pay £10.88 once". Where the renewing price applies (section 6), the first button shows it. The one you press is your choice. Your receipt repeats these terms, so you have them to keep.
• Renewal needs a saved card. We keep the card you pay with so we can take each renewal. If you pay by bank transfer (Pay by Bank), you can pay once only.
• Cancelling takes one click on your billing page, or from the link in any receipt or reminder, at any time, including the day you buy. We do not ask why. You can also cancel by emailing support@galeforcehosting.net with a clear message saying you want to cancel. An emailed cancellation counts from the moment it reaches us: if a renewal payment is taken after that, we refund it in full. Cancelling takes effect at the end of the period you have paid for: you keep that time, then the pass ends and nothing more is charged. Cancelling costs nothing, and we never ask for the 10% back. A pass you buy afterwards and pay for once is at the full price. We email you within 24 hours to confirm, with the date and time your paid time ends. To avoid the next payment, cancel before your current period ends: your last receipt or reminder gives the exact date and time (UK time).
• Receipts. We email you a receipt for every renewal payment, with the amount, the period it pays for, the date and time of the next payment, and a one-click cancel link.
• Reminders. For a month pass, between 5 and 7 days before each renewal we email you. The email says the amount, the date and time we will charge you, what has changed since the last renewal (including any price change), the last moment you can cancel before being charged, and gives you a one-click cancel link. We send one before every renewal of a month pass. A day or week pass gets no reminder before each renewal. Instead, for every six months it keeps renewing without a break, we email you a reminder that it is still renewing, with the amount, how often we charge it, and a one-click cancel link. It arrives between 12 and 24 hours before the renewal it is about for a day pass, and between 3 and 7 days before for a week pass. After a first pass bought at a first-pass price (section 6), we also email you before its first renewal, in that same window, with the full price that renewal and each one after it will charge; your confirmation email says this reminder will come.
• Payment. We take each renewal payment from your saved card at the moment your new period starts, and never before.
• If a renewal payment is declined, your server keeps running for 6.1 hours from the moment the payment was due. We email you straight away to say so, with the time we will try again and a link to pay on your billing page. We try again 6 hours after the payment was due. If that works, your new period runs from when the old one ended, so your renewal time never moves. If it does not, your server stops when the 6.1 hours end, and we charge nothing for those hours. A week or month pass then gets one last try, 24 hours after the payment was due, with the server stopped; if it works we start your server again for you, and the new period starts then, so the hours it was stopped are not charged. A day pass gets no further try. When no try has worked, renewal switches off, the pass ends, and your files are kept as set out in section 9.
• If your bank asks you to approve a renewal payment, we cannot take it automatically, so we do not try it again and renewal switches off. Your server still runs for the 6.1 hours, and our email asks you to pay on your billing page. If you have not paid when the 6.1 hours end, the server stops and the pass ends.
• Paying on your billing page while a renewal payment is being tried again buys a new pass in the usual way, with its own choice to renew or pay once. It starts when you pay, and we charge nothing for the hours before it.
• We do not give the 6.1 hours if a renewal on your account ended unpaid in the 30 days before. Then your server stops as soon as the payment is declined; the tries above still happen.
• If you buy another pass for the same server, the choice you make for it decides what happens next. If you choose renewal, the server renews into that kind of pass with the card you just used, and the next renewal moves to the end of the extra time. If you pay once, renewal switches off and the server runs to the end of all the time you have paid for; we email you to confirm, as when you cancel. Your next receipt or reminder gives the new time.
• To change the card, buy another pass for the server with the new card and choose renewal: renewals then use that card.

8. Cancelling and refunds

Short version: you can stop a pass renewing at any time, in one click. Within 14 days of your first payment for a pass you can cancel it and get back the money for the time you have not used. After those 14 days, a renewal is refunded in full if you ask within 15 minutes of the payment for a day pass, 12 hours for a week pass or 24 hours for a month pass.

In the UK, the 14-day right to cancel and your rights in section 15 come from consumer law. If you live in the United States, the same 14-day cancellation and the same refunds are terms of this contract, and nothing in these terms reduces the rights your state's law gives you.

The full rules are in our Refund and Cancellation Policy. It forms part of these terms.

9. When a pass ends

• The server stops. We email you to say so, and to tell you the date your files will be deleted.
• We keep your files for 30 days. You can still download them.
• 48 hours before deletion we email you a last warning. We never delete without having sent it.
• After 30 days the server and its files are deleted. This cannot be undone.
• Buy a pass within the 30 days and nothing is deleted. The server does not restart on its own; you start it. (A renewal that succeeds on its last try, after your server has stopped, is the one exception: we start the server for you, section 7.)
• A stopped server gives its memory back to other customers, except while we try a declined renewal again (up to 24 hours, section 7): then we keep its place, so a retry that works always restarts it. If the hardware it lives on is full when you come back, we tell you before you pay and take nothing. Ask support and we'll tell you when there is room.

If your account is on hold (section 12) or a payment dispute is open, we pause deletion until that is resolved, plus 7 days.

10. Backups

• We do not keep backup copies of your server.
• Keep your own copy of anything that matters. You can download your files at any time from the Files page in the panel: as one .zip with the Download button, or over SFTP (the Files page shows how to connect).
• If we start keeping backups, we will say so in the panel and update this section first.

11. Outages

If our fault takes your server offline for more than an hour, unplanned, we add a free day to your pass for each 24 hours (or part of one) you were down. You can ask for a refund of the affected time instead of extra days. This is on top of your legal rights, which are not affected. Please ask support within 30 days so we can check our logs; if you ask later we will still look at it.

This does not cover: planned maintenance we told you about, problems inside your own server (mods, plugins, settings, a corrupted world), a game publisher's own services being down, or your internet connection.

12. Holds and problems with payments

• If a payment you made is disputed with your bank (a chargeback), we put your account on hold and stop the servers that payment paid for. Your other servers keep their paid time and you can still start them. We email you to say why.
• While on hold you cannot buy passes or create servers, and you cannot start the servers the disputed payment paid for.
• A person reviews every hold. If the dispute is decided in our favour, or the hold turns out to have been wrong, we add back the paid time you lost.
• If we get a fraud warning on a payment, we put your account on hold and stop the server that payment paid for while a person checks it. The rules above apply until the check is done, and you can ask us to look at it again.

13. What you must not do

Our Acceptable Use Policy says what is and is not allowed on a Galeforce server. It forms part of these terms. Breaking it can mean a warning, a stopped server, or a closed account.

14. Your files and what you upload

• Your files stay yours. We never claim ownership of your worlds, mods or configs.
• You can download your files at any time from the Files page in the panel, as one .zip or over SFTP.
• You are responsible for everything you upload or install. Mods and plugins run as your code on our hardware.
• You must have the right to use any game, mod or content you run. Follow the game publisher's own rules.
• We can look at your files only to run the service, fix a problem you asked us about, or investigate abuse.
• If you run a server for other people. What your players do on your server, and what your server records about them (in-game names, IP addresses, chat, and the name or game ID of a player acted on from the panel, which your server's activity log keeps for 90 days), is yours to look after. If you run it for anyone beyond family and friends, data protection law treats you as responsible for that information, and us as working for you. So: we keep it only to run your server, on your instructions (your settings and what you ask support to do); we keep it secure and confidential; the companies named in our Privacy Policy help us host it, and we email you before we add or replace one; if one of your players asks us about their information we pass the request to you; we tell you without undue delay if a security breach affects it; and we delete it when your server is deleted, as these terms say. If you ask, we will tell you what you need to show that we do this.

15. Our responsibility to you

• We will provide the service with reasonable care and skill. If we do not, you can ask us to do it again and, if that is not possible or does not work, to have some or all of your money back. In the UK these are your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. If you live in the United States they are our promise to you under this contract, on top of your rights under your state's law. Nothing in these terms takes those rights away or makes them harder to use.
• If we break these terms or fail to take reasonable care, we are responsible for the loss that was a reasonably foreseeable result. For example, if we lose or damage your server's files through our fault, you can claim for the loss that was a foreseeable result.
• We are not responsible for: loss that neither of us could reasonably have foreseen when you bought; loss that we did not cause (for example a problem in a mod or plugin you installed, or a game publisher's service being down); or loss of profit or other loss to a business.
• Your own copy. If you have your own copy of your files and could have reduced a loss by restoring it, we expect you to do that, and we will help if you ask support. This reduces what you can claim only for the part of the loss you could have avoided.
• Nothing in these terms limits our responsibility for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else the law does not allow us to limit.

16. Changing the service or these terms

• Games, versions and server sizes come and go. If we stop offering a game you have a pass for, we refund the unused time.
• We may change these terms for these reasons only: the law or a regulator requires it; to fix an error or make wording clearer without making things worse for you; a change to the service, price or a game that we tell you about in advance; or to keep the service secure.
• We give 30 days' notice by email. If the change makes things worse for you, you can cancel and we refund the unused time. A change the law requires can take effect when the law does.

17. Ending your account

• You can close your account at any time in the panel, or by emailing support@galeforcehosting.net. For your safety the panel asks you to have signed in within the last 10 minutes. If a server still has paid time left, close your account by email instead, so we can refund what the refund policy allows. If a payment is still going through, wait for it to finish first.
• We can close your account for a serious or repeated breach of these terms or the Acceptable Use Policy. We refund unused time, less any direct loss your breach caused us that we can show you in writing. You can dispute the amount.

18. Complaints

Email support@galeforcehosting.net. A person reads every complaint. We reply within 2 working days and give you our answer in writing.

If we cannot sort it out, you can go to court. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland you can bring a claim there too. If you live in the United States, you can bring a claim in the courts of England and Wales or in the courts of the state where you live, and you keep any protection of your state's consumer law that a contract cannot take away.

19. Documents that form the contract

These terms, the Refund and Cancellation Policy, the Acceptable Use Policy and the Privacy Policy. If they disagree, these terms win, except that the Privacy Policy decides anything about personal data.