Customer Service Policy

Part of the Merlot Digital Legals
Last updated 2024/11/14 (November 14th, 2024)

These terms govern your access to support for Domain Names, SSL Certificates, Virtual Servers (VPS), Dedicated Servers, Colocation, IP Transit, SHOUTcast Hosting (Internet Radio) and other services provided by The Network Crew Pty Ltd.

Websites: https://merlot.digital & https://shoutcast.com.au
Entity: The Network Crew Pty Ltd (Owner) & related/trading entities

Definitions: As used in these terms, “The Network Crew Pty Ltd” means The Network Crew Pty Ltd and “Client”, “you”, or “your” means our client, as defined in my.Merlot as the Account Holder (invoices sent to “you”). As referred to in these terms, “site” refers to a web address on the internet and “The Network Crew Pty Ltd site”, “Merlot Digital site” & “Internet Radio site” refers to our online websites. Given all services provided by our Group are rendered online, it is accepted that you are comfortable with online management.

1. Acceptance of our CSP (& others)

By ordering a service from any of our brands and The Network Crew Pty Ltd accepting the same, you acknowledge that you have read this Customer Service Policy (CSP), and agree to abide by it and all other terms/policies listed on our Websites, as amended from time-to-time. You’re welcome to leverage RSS/etc to monitor our Legals for updates.

2. Methods of access to our Support

Ticket via my.Merlot
Once logged into the https://my.merlot.digital interface, you are authenticated and tickets sent can be addressed promptly as we don’t need to verify your identity again. Please make sure you submit your ticket to the correct department to speed up the resolution time of your support request. Enough information so we can replicate any fault will also assist.

Tickets created via Email
For the most part, tickets can also be raised by sending an email to the relevant department. Note that authentication/verification is required in this instance, as we have no way to verify that you are who you say you are. Please follow the same guidelines as below in terms of what you send to us and making sure you’re verified for prompt service/resolution.

Live Chat via our Website/s
Our websites and systems online will often allow you to start a Live Chat with our team at a time that suits you. Please make sure you’re logged into my.Merlot and try to start Chats from there, as it will show you to our Support team as a verified customer if you’ve done so. Response times are usually very prompt, however if it’s urgent please also raise a ticket.

Phone Calls (with Ticket #)
You’re welcome to follow up an existing Support Ticket by phoning our team during daylight hours. Please note that for support requests, you will need a ticket number so we can log the call against your account. We ask that you give our team 30-60 minutes before escalating your support request so that our team has time to research your problem and reply.

3. Conduct during Support interactions

General behaviour, etc.
Client agrees to behave in a professional, courteous and patient manner while interactions with our team are underway. We agree to do the same, and to always address your queries.

Stepping over the line.
Our staff are empowered to refuse support/escalation requests where our Client is behaving in any of the following ways, or in a similar way that they deem is not appropriate:

• Threatening violence, abuse or referral to an external party/agency (ie. Department of Fair Trading), including threats of legal action.
• Speaking in a rude, offensive or otherwise obscene manner that you wouldn’t expect in any settings, whether retail or online.
• Using capitalisation to SHOUT at our team, and after being told it was their 1st & Final Warning, continued to SHOUT.
• Raised the issue via a public/non-official forum/blog/search-engine/etc before giving our team a real chance.

4. Timeframes to receive our Support

Regular support requests:
We will take between 2 minutes and 2 days to respond to an average Support Ticket. Typically it takes around 30-90 minutes per reply, however each time you respond to a ticket the maximum possible time we can take is reset, as other clients will have then been “waiting for longer”. Please be patient and, if needed, use your telephone to follow-up.

Requests where you’ve asked for escalation:
We provide methods to escalate Support Tickets with us, in cases where you’re either unhappy with the support/service received, or would like it reviewed due to delays/behaviour etc. Where this happens, our team has up to 3 business days to provide you with each reply. The same concept applies with the timer being reset if you reply BEFORE you’ve heard from us.

5. Escalating a Support Ticket with us

You are welcome to request an escalation of an interaction with us by SEPARATELY emailing escalate@merlot.digital with details surrounding the request. Information provided to our Management team needs to include: any relevant ticket/s, details that aren’t within those ticket/s that would help us to understand the problem/s and work to find a suitable resolution, plus any other information that you believe would be helpful for us to have on-hand. We will then process your request, making contact to acknowledge your escalation.

Please note that if we’re unable to find a path forward together, which we tend to be able to do, then we will explain your rights to further escalate the interaction. Such avenues would include the Department of Fair Trading (or similar) in your state or territory. Note that if you’ve not given our team the time needed to remedy the issues, DoFT doesn’t help.

6. Service Credits where appropriate

From time-to-time, our crew may decide to apply a credit to your account where we believe the service/support rendered was sub-par compared to how we strive to deliver. This is at our discretion if it does occur, and any account/service credit/s issued pertain directly to your account and/or service, depending on what our crew issues. You aren’t able to redeem any credits for cash/refund/payout – if you have a Partner Account with us and try to do this, we will limit/restrict your account and may choose to not unrestrict it. Please be fair.

7. Rules are made to be followed

As per the Terms as a whole that you agree to when ordering from any of our Websites, should you not comply with this Policy and/or any other Legal Documents that form part of our Terms, we reserve the right to refuse service & to suspend/terminate accounts/customers where there is clearly no intention to come into compliance. This is to keep our clients safe.

Should you seek assistance from our crew without using an authorised method, or otherwise fail to comply with our Terms, you will not be covered by this Customer Service Policy.

8. Updates to our Legal Terms

As with all of our agreements/etc, we reserve the right to make amendments from time-to-time without providing notice. You are welcome to use a feed/RSS service to monitor our documents for revisions, however regardless of that monitoring or lack thereof, you agree to abide by all updated versions as they’re published on our Website/s.

Should you not agree with any of our Terms, you may submit a Cancellation Request via my.Merlot and our team will assist with your departure to another provider if needed.

9. Ground-rules (Abuse, etc)

Our various help-desk teams are here to help you – from Technical Support to Billing, Operations through to Management, we’re here for your success.
Please assist our passionate Australian team by adhering to the following ground-rules. We reserve the right to terminate customers at our discretion.

1. One ticket per problem
— A ticket from 2018 that’s relevant can be mentioned in a NEW ticket – make sure there’s 1 ticket per issue. Keep it relevant to the subject matter!
2. Keep it truthful, sincere & polite
— Outages suck, things happen and we don’t write the future. We don’t lie to you, please return the gesture. Stay honest though – if it’s serious, tell us.
3. Zero tolerance (ZT) for abuse of any form
— We will not tolerate any form of abuse of our passionate Australian team. It’s sad that we have to write this, and we hope to not use when working together.

These ground-rules are in-place to make sure our teams are protected from all abuse. Put simply, we expect to be treated how you’d like us to treat you.
If you take issue to any parts of Section 9, or any other part of our Terms (including other documents), please accept our thanks for considering us.
Customer Care: ticket from here.

GETTING IN TOUCH WITH US
Any notices or communication under this Agreement shall be through email and shall be deemed delivered to the party receiving such communication at their registered email address. If you’re posting correspondence to us, please use the following details, allowing 10 business days for delivery.

The Network Crew Pty Ltd
ATTN: Management
PO Box 3113
Uki NSW 2484
Australia