Terms of service
Terms of service
1. Who we are
These terms of service apply to the services of Serverspark, trading as ServerSpark, registered with the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce (KvK) under number 82826757, located at Pisuissestraat 12, 3034 WK Rotterdam, the Netherlands. VAT number: NL003734999B44.
Contact: info@serverspark.nl. Abuse reports: abuse@serverspark.nl.
2. When these terms apply
These terms apply to every order and every service we provide: game servers, Discord bot hosting, VPSes and any service we add later. "You" means the customer: a consumer (a private person not acting for a business) or a business customer. Where a rule only applies to consumers or only to business customers, we say so.
The English and Dutch versions of these terms have the same content. If they differ, the version in the language you ordered in applies.
3. Your account and your order
- You need an account in our customer portal. The details you enter must be correct and complete. Keep your password secret; you are responsible for what happens with your account.
- Are you under 18? Then you need permission from a parent or guardian to order.
- Your contract starts when you complete your order in the customer portal. You receive an order confirmation by email.
4. Prices and payment
- All prices are in euro and include VAT where VAT applies. There are no setup fees. When you pay, you also pay the transaction costs of the payment method you choose (for example €0.38 incl. VAT for iDEAL); we show these costs per method before you order and before you pay, they appear as a separate line on your invoice, and they are never more than what our payment provider charges us.
- Billing periods. When you order, you choose how often you pay: every month, every 3 months (quarterly) or, for plans where we offer it, every 12 months (yearly). You always pay for the whole period in advance. Paying per quarter or per year is cheaper per month than paying monthly. Before you order, you see the price per period and what it comes to per month; the same amounts are on your invoice. Where our website shows a price "per month, paid quarterly", that is the quarterly price divided by 3.
- You pay in advance per period. For renewals, we create an invoice 7 days before the new period starts. You can pay with the payment methods shown in the customer portal; payments are processed by Mollie B.V.
- When your service renews, you pay the same price as for your first order: no introductory discounts that go up afterwards.
- We never charge your bank account or card automatically. A renewal is paid when you pay the renewal invoice yourself, or from your credit if you have credit (article 4a).
- Should we ever have to raise the price of a service you already have, we tell you by email at least 30 days in advance and you can cancel free of charge before the new price applies.
4a. Credit
- 4a.1 In the customer portal you can top up credit with €10, €20 or €50 at a time. Your credit can be at most €150. Credit can only be used to pay ServerSpark invoices and cannot be transferred.
- 4a.2 When we create a renewal invoice and your credit covers the whole amount, we pay it from your credit right away. If your credit doesn't cover it, you pay the invoice yourself; you can use your credit for part of it.
- 4a.3 The top-up amount includes 21% VAT, and you get a VAT invoice for each top-up. When you pay a top-up, you also pay the transaction costs of the payment method you choose (article 4). Invoices or parts of invoices you pay with credit carry no VAT again and no transaction costs.
- 4a.4 Credit you paid for does not expire. You can ask for unused credit you paid for to be refunded at any time; we refund it within 14 days to the payment method you used. Credit you received as a reward or as a refund for removed extras or a downgrade (articles 5a and 5b) is not paid out, and is used before credit you paid for.
- 4a.5 As a consumer you can also withdraw from a top-up within 14 days (article 7). You then get back the unused part of that top-up, plus its transaction costs. If we refund an invoice you paid with credit, we refund it as credit.
4b. Free trial
New customers can try selected plans (Minecraft Java 1 GB and 2 GB, Discord bot 0.5 GB) free of charge for 24 hours, once per person. To prevent abuse we ask for a verification payment of €0.01 (Bancontact: €0.02), which we refund automatically, and we keep a coded fingerprint of the bank account, e-mail address, network and device for 12 months. A trial never turns into a paid plan by itself: we never charge you automatically. After 24 hours the server stops. If you choose a plan and pay within 7 days after the trial ends, you keep the server and its files; otherwise we delete them. During the trial lower limits apply (CPU, no backups), and article 9 applies in full: we may stop a trial without notice if we suspect abuse, such as crypto-mining. We may end the trial offer at any time; trials already started run until their end.
5. If you don't pay
- If an invoice is still unpaid 2 days after its due date, we pause (suspend) the service. Your data is kept. As soon as you pay, the service is switched back on.
- If the invoice is still unpaid 14 days after its due date, we terminate the service and permanently delete the server and all data on it.
- A new order that isn't paid within 7 days is cancelled automatically.
5a. Extras (add-ons)
- 5a.1 You can add extras to a service, such as extra backup slots, storage, ports, databases, automatic backups and priority support. You see the price and what you get when you order and in the customer portal.
- 5a.2 An extra follows the billing period and the invoice of the service. If you add an extra during a period, you pay pro rata until the end of the current period. If you remove an extra during a period, we add the unused part to your account as credit.
- 5a.3 After you remove extra backup slots or automatic backups, you can't make new backups above your plan's limit. Automatic backups replace the oldest backup that isn't locked. "Priority support" means we handle your tickets first; it does not come with a guaranteed response time.
5b. Refer a friend
- 5b.1 As a customer with a paid service, you can bring in new customers with your personal link. A new customer is someone who has not had a service with ServerSpark before. With monthly billing, the new customer gets 50% off the first month.
- 5b.2 The reward is credit worth one month of your own plan (including extras), up to three times the monthly price of the new customer's plan and €15 per reward, and at most ten rewards per calendar year. You get the reward 30 days after the new customer's first payment, if the service is still active then and the payment has not been withdrawn, refunded or charged back.
- 5b.3 Reward credit is not paid out in cash and cannot be transferred (for credit you paid for, see article 4a). Referring yourself through your own or a second account, the same bank account or the same internet connection does not count. We check some rewards by hand first. If we suspect misuse, we can refuse or reverse a reward.
- 5b.4 We can change or end the programme; credit you have already received stays on your account.
6. Duration, renewal and cancellation
- 6.1 Your contract runs for the billing period you chose: 1, 3 or 12 months.
- 6.2 Before the period ends, we send you an invoice for a new period of the same length, at the same price (article 4). Your contract is only extended if you pay that invoice yourself or it is paid from your credit (article 4a): we never charge your bank account or card automatically. If you don't pay it, the service ends after the period you paid for (article 5), and you owe us nothing for the new period.
- 6.3 Want a different billing period? Tell us at info@serverspark.nl or in a ticket before your renewal invoice is created, and we'll switch it from your next period, at our price for that period at that moment.
- 6.4 You can cancel at any time in the customer portal, at the end of the current period or immediately.
- Monthly billing: if you cancel during a month, you don't get money back for the rest of that month.
- Quarterly or yearly billing: if you end the service early, we refund the full months that haven't started yet. For the months that have started, you pay the monthly-billing price that applied when you ordered (so you only lose the prepaid discount on the months you used). We refund the difference within 14 days to your original payment method. Example: you paid €41.69 for a year of a Minecraft 4 GB server (monthly billing €4.09) and end it after 2 months and 10 days. 3 months have started: 3 × €4.09 = €12.27. You get €29.42 back.
- This does not apply if we end the service because of abuse (article 9). The right of withdrawal (article 7) takes precedence where it gives you more.
- 6.5 When a service ends, we delete the server and its data. Make your own backup before that.
7. Right of withdrawal
As a consumer in the EU, you can withdraw from the contract within 14 days after you ordered, without giving a reason. Business customers have no right of withdrawal. This also applies to a credit top-up (article 4a.5).
- Our services start right after payment. When ordering, you ask us to start immediately during the withdrawal period. If you then withdraw, you pay for the part of the period you paid for that has passed until you tell us you are withdrawing. We calculate that part per day over the whole period you paid for (1, 3 or 12 months), from the day your service started up to and including the day you withdraw, based on the amount you actually paid. We refund the rest within 14 days after receiving your withdrawal, using the same payment method you paid with, at no cost to you. Example: you paid €11.37 for 3 months (92 days) and withdraw on day 5. You pay 5/92 × €11.37 = €0.62 and get €10.75 back.
- To withdraw, use the withdrawal function at mijn.serverspark.nl/withdraw ("Withdraw from contract"; also in the footer of our website and customer portal). You can also email info@serverspark.nl with your name, email address, the service and the date of your order, and that you are withdrawing from the contract, or use the model withdrawal form below. You receive a confirmation by email straight away. You have withdrawn in time if you send your withdrawal before the 14 days have passed.
- When you withdraw, we end the service and delete the server and its data (article 6.5). Make your own backup first.
Model withdrawal form: To Serverspark, Pisuissestraat 12, 3034 WK Rotterdam, info@serverspark.nl: I hereby withdraw from my contract for the following service: [service], ordered on [date]. Name: [name]. Email address of my account: [email]. Date: [date].
8. What we provide
- We set up your service automatically after payment, usually within minutes and at the latest within 24 hours. If your service is not ready within 24 hours, you get the amount you paid back in full. We make an effort to keep it available, secure and up to date. We don't guarantee uninterrupted availability (yet).
- We may carry out maintenance. Where possible, we announce planned maintenance in advance.
- We may change the technical setup (for example hardware, location within the EU or software versions), as long as the plan you ordered stays essentially the same.
9. Fair use and abuse
You may not use our services, or let others use them, for:
- anything illegal, including copyright infringement and content showing sexual abuse of children;
- sending spam, phishing or malware;
- attacks on other systems, such as DDoS attacks, port scans or hacking attempts;
- cryptocurrency mining;
- anything that seriously disrupts our network, our other customers or third parties.
The full rules, including restricted activities, sanctions and your responsibility for other users of your service, are in our Acceptable Use Policy, which is part of these terms.
If we find or receive a well-founded report of abuse, we may suspend the service immediately, without notice in serious cases. We tell you why. In serious or repeated cases we may terminate the service without a refund. We cooperate with authorities where the law requires it. Report abuse to abuse@serverspark.nl.
10. Your data and backups
- You remain the owner of the data on your server. You are responsible for its content and for keeping your own backups.
- We make nightly encrypted backups at a separate location for disaster recovery. These are an extra safety net, not a guarantee: we don't promise that every backup can be restored.
- For personal data you store on your server, you are the controller and we are the processor. Article 13 applies to that.
11. Game and software licences
You are responsible for following the licences and rules of the games and software you run, such as the Minecraft EULA and the Cfx.re (FiveM) terms. Some games need your own licence key; that is your responsibility.
12. Liability
- Our total liability per event is limited to the amount you paid us for the service concerned in the 3 months before the event.
- We are not liable for indirect damage, such as lost profit or lost data, except where you could not have prevented it with your own backup.
- These limits don't apply if the damage is caused by our intent or gross negligence, or where the law does not allow a limitation. As a consumer, you keep all rights that the law gives you.
- You are liable towards us for damage caused by breaking article 9 (fair use and abuse).
13. Processing of personal data on your server
When you store personal data of others on your service (for example player data), we process it only on your instructions and only to provide the service. We keep it confidential, secure it with appropriate measures, only use subcontractors (such as our data center provider) within the EU under the same obligations, help you with requests from data subjects, inform you without undue delay of a data breach, and delete the data when the service ends (backups expire within 3 months). Business customers can request a separate data processing agreement at info@serverspark.nl.
How we handle your personal data as a customer is described in our privacy policy.
14. Changes to these terms
We may change these terms. We email you about important changes at least 30 days before they take effect. If you don't agree, you can cancel before the change takes effect.
15. Complaints, applicable law and disputes
- Complaints can be sent to info@serverspark.nl. We reply within 14 days.
- Dutch law applies. If you are a consumer living in another EU country, you keep the protection of the mandatory rules of your own country.
- Disputes are submitted to the competent court in Rotterdam. As a consumer, you can also go to the court of your place of residence.