MACO Core: Terms of Service

Last updated: 12 November 2026

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a contract between you and us. Please read them before you order. By creating an account or placing an order you agree to them.

1. Who we are

1.1 MACO Core is a trading name of MACO, a business run by Miguel Alejandro Chavez Oliva, a sole trader based in England ("we", "us", "our").

1.2 Our address: Address coming soon (contact us by email in the meantime). Email: [email protected]. Website: macocore.com.

1.3 ICO registration number: Registration pending.

2. Definitions

  • "Services": game server hosting, virtual private servers (VPS), dedicated servers, control panel access, backups, support and any other services we provide to you.
  • "Server": a game server, VPS, dedicated server or other hosted instance we provide to you.
  • "Your Content": all files, worlds, plugins, configurations, databases and other data you or your users put on a Server or in your account.
  • "Consumer": an individual acting wholly or mainly outside their trade, business, craft or profession.
  • "Business Customer": anyone who is not a Consumer.
  • "Billing Period": the period you pay for in advance (for example monthly).
  • "AUP": our Acceptable Use Policy, which forms part of these Terms.

3. Who can use the Services

3.1 You must be 18 or older to create an account and pay for Services. If you are under 18, a parent or legal guardian must create the account, pay, and accept these Terms. They are responsible for your use of the Services.

3.2 You must give us true, accurate and up to date information. You must keep it updated.

3.3 You are responsible for everything done with your account and Servers, including by people you give access to (for example sub-users in the control panel). Keep your login details safe. We strongly recommend turning on two-factor authentication.

3.4 If you are ordering for a business, you confirm that you have authority to bind that business to these Terms.

4. Your order and our contract

4.1 Your order is an offer to buy the Services. The contract between us starts when we confirm your order by email or when your Server is set up, whichever comes first.

4.2 We may refuse an order for any lawful reason, for example if we suspect fraud, if we do not have capacity, or if the information you gave is wrong. If we refuse an order after you paid, we will refund you in full.

4.3 Plans, resources (RAM, CPU, storage, slots, etc.), locations and prices are described on our website at the time you order.

5. Payment, renewal and price changes

5.1 Services are paid in advance for each Billing Period. Prices are in GBP and include any VAT that applies. (We are not currently VAT registered, so no VAT is charged.)

5.2 Payments are processed by our payment providers (such as Stripe and PayPal). We do not see or store your full card details.

5.3 Automatic renewal. Your Services renew automatically at the end of each Billing Period at the then-current price, unless you cancel before the renewal date. You can cancel at any time in the control panel or by contacting us (see section 7). We will send you any renewal reminders and information the law requires, by email.

5.4 Late or failed payments. If a payment fails or an invoice is unpaid:

  • (a) we will email you;
  • (b) after 1 day unpaid we may suspend the Service;
  • (c) after 7 days unpaid we may terminate the Service and permanently delete Your Content, including from our backups. The grace period in section 12.2 does not apply to Services terminated for non-payment.

5.5 Chargebacks. If you open a chargeback or payment dispute without first contacting us, we may suspend your Services while it is resolved. This does not affect your legal rights. If the chargeback is found in our favour, you must pay any amount owed plus any reasonable fees the payment provider charged us.

5.6 Price changes. We may change our prices. We will give you at least 30 days' notice by email before a price change affects your existing Services. If you do not agree, you may cancel before the change takes effect and it will not apply to you.

5.7 Promotions. Discounts and promotional prices apply only for the period stated in the offer. After that, the normal price applies. We may refuse or cancel a promotion that has been misused (for example several accounts made to claim a one-time offer).

5.8 Business Customers: late payment. If you are a Business Customer, we may charge interest and fixed debt recovery costs on overdue amounts under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, plus reasonable costs of recovering the debt.

6. Your right to cancel (Consumers only, 14 days)

6.1 If you are a Consumer, you have a legal right to cancel your contract within 14 days from the day the contract starts, without giving a reason.

6.2 Services that start immediately. Our Services are usually set up within minutes. When you order, we will ask you to expressly request that we start the Services during the 14-day cancellation period. If you do this and then cancel within the 14 days, we will refund what you paid minus a proportionate amount for the Services provided up to the time you told us you were cancelling.

6.3 To cancel, contact us at [email protected] or use the cancellation option in the control panel. You may use the model cancellation form in the Appendix but you do not have to.

6.4 We will refund you within 14 days of being told you are cancelling, using the same payment method you used.

7. Cancelling after the first 14 days

7.1 You can cancel your Services at any time in the control panel or by contacting us. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current Billing Period, and you will not be charged again. You will keep access until then.

7.2 Refunds. Apart from refunds we must give by law (see 7.4), refunds are limited as follows:

  • (a) refunds are only available for Services on a monthly Billing Period. Quarterly, yearly and other Billing Periods are non-refundable;
  • (b) refunds are partial only: at most the unused part of the current Billing Period, never the time already provided;
  • (c) the maximum refund is £50 per account per Billing Period;
  • (d) refunds outside 7.4 are at our discretion. We do not have to give one, and we do not refund fees for Services terminated because you broke these Terms or the AUP;
  • (e) setup fees, domain names, and third-party licences we bought for you are non-refundable once provided.

7.3 Where we do give a refund, we may give it as account credit instead of money, if you agree.

7.4 Refunds required by law. Nothing in this section affects refunds you are entitled to by law. For Consumers this includes:

  • the 14-day cancellation right in section 6, which is a proportionate refund for the unused part;
  • any renewal cooling-off period the law gives;
  • your rights in section 9 if the Services are not provided with reasonable care and skill.

Those refunds are calculated as the law requires and are not limited by 7.2.

7.5 Before your Services end, download a copy of Your Content. See section 12 for what happens to it afterwards.

8. What we provide

8.1 We will provide the Services with reasonable care and skill.

8.2 Availability. We work hard to keep the Services running, but hosting depends on hardware, networks, data centres, power and third-party software outside our full control. Unless we agree a separate written Service Level Agreement with you, we do not guarantee any specific uptime and the Services may sometimes be unavailable.

8.3 Maintenance. We may need to carry out maintenance, updates or security fixes. Where we reasonably can, we will give advance notice of planned maintenance that is likely to cause significant downtime. Urgent security or stability work may happen without notice.

8.4 Changes to the Services. We may change the Services, including:

  • hardware, software and versions;
  • data centre locations and IP addresses;
  • the control panel;
  • features and plan contents.

We may also stop offering a plan or feature. Where a change is likely to have a significant negative effect on you, we will tell you before it happens where we reasonably can. If you do not want to accept the change, you can cancel and get a refund for any prepaid period you have not used. In that case section 7.2 does not apply.

8.5 Monitoring and automated administration. To keep the Services secure and running, we monitor our systems and Servers (for example uptime, resource use, crashes, network traffic patterns and processes). Some of this monitoring and system administration is carried out by automated tools. We only access Your Content to the extent needed to provide, secure, fix or support the Services, to investigate abuse, or where the law requires it. Automated tools do not suspend or terminate accounts on their own: suspensions for abuse are approved by a person. See our Privacy Policy for more detail.

8.6 Support. We provide support through support tickets in our control panel and email ([email protected]). We aim to respond within a reasonable time but do not guarantee response times unless agreed in writing. We are not responsible for configuring or supporting third-party software, plugins, mods or game software, although we may help where we can.

8.7 Extra terms for VPS and dedicated servers. If you rent a virtual private server ("VPS") or a dedicated server, sections 8.7 to 8.14 also apply.

8.8 Unmanaged service. VPS and dedicated servers are unmanaged unless your plan says otherwise. You get full administrator ("root") access and you are the administrator. We provide and keep running the hardware, network and virtualisation; you are responsible for the operating system and everything you install, including security updates, firewalls, passwords and SSH keys. Our support covers our infrastructure, not the software you run.

8.9 Security of your server. If your server is hacked or infected and starts breaking the AUP (for example sending attacks or spam), we may suspend it or cut its network access until you have cleaned or reinstalled it, even if you did not cause the problem on purpose. You may need to reinstall the operating system to get it unsuspended.

8.10 IP addresses. IP addresses we assign to you remain ours (or our providers'). You do not own them and cannot take them with you when your Service ends. We may change them where reasonably needed (for example for network changes or abuse), and will tell you in advance where we can. If an IP address gets blacklisted because of how you used it, you must fix the cause, and we may pass on any reasonable costs of getting it delisted.

8.11 Email sending. To protect our IP reputation, outgoing email on port 25 may be blocked by default. We may unblock it on request if you agree to follow the AUP and set up your mail server properly (for example SPF, DKIM and reverse DNS).

8.12 Reinstalls, rescue mode and data. Reinstalling the operating system, or some recovery actions, permanently erase the data on your server. Make sure you have your own copy first.

8.13 Hardware faults (dedicated servers). If a part of a dedicated server fails, we will arrange a repair or replacement within a reasonable time. Data on a failed disk may be lost; see section 10.

8.14 Abuse reports and our providers. Our servers are hosted in data centres run by third parties, who send us abuse complaints about traffic from our IP addresses. If we forward you a complaint, you must reply and fix the problem within the time we give you (normally 24 hours, or sooner for an active attack). If you do not, we may suspend the server so our providers do not take action against our whole network. We may also ask you for identity or payment verification before or after activating a VPS or dedicated server, to prevent fraud and abuse.

9. If something goes wrong

9.1 If you are a Consumer, you have legal rights if the Services are not provided with reasonable care and skill. These rights include asking us to repeat or fix the service, or, if we cannot, getting some or all of your money back. Nothing in these Terms affects those rights. For more information, contact Citizens Advice.

9.2 Please tell us about any problem promptly at [email protected] so we can fix it.

9.3 Service credits. If your Server is unavailable for a long period because of a fault on our side, we may, at our discretion, offer service credits. This is in addition to, not instead of, your legal rights.

10. Backups and Your Content

10.1 You own Your Content. We do not claim any ownership of it.

10.2 You give us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, back up, transmit, display and process Your Content, only as needed to provide, secure and support the Services and to comply with the law. This licence ends when Your Content is deleted from our systems in line with section 12.

10.3 Backups. For game servers, we currently take daily off-site backups to help us recover from failures on our side. VPS and dedicated servers are not backed up by us unless your plan clearly says it includes backups. These backups are for our own disaster recovery and are best-effort. We do not promise:

  • any particular backup frequency or retention;
  • that a backup will exist, be complete, be up to date, or be restorable at any given time;
  • that we will restore a backup for you on request.

We may change or stop our backup arrangements at any time.

10.4 Loss of Your Content. Servers can lose data, for example from software bugs, corrupted worlds, plugins, mistakes by you or your users, hacked accounts, or hardware failure. Subject to section 13.1, we are not responsible for loss, corruption or deletion of Your Content, whether or not we have a backup of it.

10.5 Your responsibility. You are responsible for keeping your own up-to-date copies of Your Content, independent of our Services. Any backup feature in the control panel is a convenience, not a guarantee.

10.6 You confirm that you have all the rights needed to put Your Content on our Services, and that Your Content and your use of it does not break the law, these Terms or the AUP.

11. Acceptable use, suspension and termination by us

11.1 You must follow our AUP. It forms part of these Terms.

11.2 Suspension. We may suspend all or part of the Services, without notice where necessary, if:

  • (a) you seriously or repeatedly break these Terms or the AUP;
  • (b) your use is causing, or is likely to cause, harm to our systems, our other customers, third parties, or our reputation (for example a Server sending attacks, mining cryptocurrency, or compromised by malware);
  • (c) we are required to by law, a court, the police or a regulator;
  • (d) payment is overdue (see section 5.4); or
  • (e) we reasonably suspect fraud;
  • (f) your Server is the target of an attack (for example a DDoS) that threatens our network or other customers. In that case we may block or null-route traffic to it until the attack stops;
  • (g) you or someone acting for you is abusive, threatening or harassing towards us or our staff; or
  • (h) there is a dispute about who owns or controls the account, until it is resolved; or
  • (i) you do not deal with an abuse complaint about your Server within the time we give you (see section 8.14).

Where reasonable, we will tell you why and give you a chance to fix the problem first.

11.3 Termination by us. We may end the contract:

  • (a) immediately by notice if you seriously or repeatedly break these Terms or the AUP, or for any reason in 11.2(b) to (h) that you do not fix within a reasonable time after we tell you; or
  • (b) for any other reason, by giving you at least 30 days' notice. In that case we will refund any prepaid fees for the period after termination.

11.4 If we terminate because you broke these Terms or the AUP, we do not have to refund fees you have already paid, except where the law requires it.

11.5 Reselling. You may not resell, sublicense or rent out the Services or Servers to third parties without our written permission.

11.6 We may report illegal activity to the police or other authorities and share information with them as the law allows.

12. What happens when Services end

12.1 When your Services end (for any reason), your access to the Server and control panel for that Service stops.

12.2 We will keep Your Content for 7 days after the end date, so you can ask us to restore access to download it (we may require overdue fees to be paid first). After that we will delete Your Content from the live Server. Copies in our backups will be deleted as the backups rotate, normally within 30 days.

12.3 VPS and dedicated servers are wiped and given back to our providers when the Service ends, so the grace period in 12.2 may not be possible for them. Download anything you need before your Service ends.

12.4 We may delete Your Content immediately, without the grace period, if we terminate because of illegal content or a serious AUP breach, or where the law requires it.

12.5 Sections that by their nature should continue after the contract ends (including 5.5, 10, 13, 14, 15 and 18) will continue.

13. Our responsibility for loss or damage

13.1 What we do not limit. Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes our liability for:

  • (a) death or personal injury caused by our negligence;
  • (b) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation;
  • (c) breach of your legal rights as a Consumer that cannot be limited by law (for example under the Consumer Rights Act 2015); or
  • (d) anything else that cannot be limited or excluded by law.

13.2 If you are a Consumer:

  • (a) We are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of us breaking these Terms or failing to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for loss or damage that is not foreseeable.
  • (b) Our Services are for domestic and private use. If you use them for any commercial, business or resale purpose (for example running a paid server network), we will have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.
  • (c) We are not responsible for loss of or damage to Your Content to the extent it could have been avoided by you keeping your own backup as described in section 10.5.
  • (d) We are not responsible for losses caused by someone using your login details, API keys or sub-user access, unless that happened because we failed to use reasonable care and skill.
  • (e) Subject to 13.1, our total liability to you for all claims arising out of or in connection with these Terms in any 12-month period is limited to the total fees you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim.

13.3 If you are a Business Customer:

  • (a) Subject to 13.1, we will not be liable to you, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty or otherwise, for any: loss of profits; loss of sales, business or revenue; business interruption; loss of anticipated savings; loss or corruption of data or Your Content; loss of goodwill or reputation; or any indirect or consequential loss.
  • (b) Subject to 13.1, our total liability to you for all claims arising out of or in connection with these Terms in any 12-month period is limited to the total fees you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim.
  • (c) All terms implied by law (for example as to satisfactory quality or fitness for purpose) are excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law, except the term that we will use reasonable care and skill.
  • (d) Any claim must be brought within 12 months of the date you became aware (or should reasonably have become aware) of the event giving rise to it, or it will be barred.

13.4 Free, trial and beta services. Any free trial, free plan or feature marked "beta" is provided "as is", without any commitment as to availability or performance. To the extent the law allows, we have no liability for it.

13.5 Things outside our control. We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control, such as failures of data centres, power or internet providers, upstream network attacks (including DDoS attacks we could not reasonably prevent), natural disasters, war, government action, or failures of third-party software. If such an event happens, we will tell you and take reasonable steps to limit the effect. If it lasts more than 30 days, either of us may cancel and you will get a refund for any prepaid period not provided.

13.6 Third-party software and services. Servers run third-party software (for example game server software, mods, plugins and Docker images). We are not responsible for faults, security issues or licence terms of third-party software you choose to install. You must follow the licence terms of the game and software you run, for example the Minecraft End User Licence Agreement.

14. Your responsibility to us

14.1 If you are a Business Customer, you will indemnify us (meaning: pay us back) for losses, damages, fines, costs and reasonable legal fees we suffer because of a third-party claim arising from Your Content or your breach of these Terms or the AUP.

14.2 If you are a Consumer, you are responsible for losses we suffer that are a foreseeable result of you breaking these Terms or the AUP (for example costs caused by attacks launched from your Server).

15. Data protection

15.1 Our Privacy Policy explains how we use personal data about you (for example your account and billing details). We act as a controller for that data.

15.2 Data on your Server. Your Server may process personal data about other people, for example your players' usernames, IP addresses or chat logs. For that data you are the controller and we are your processor. Section 15.3 applies to it and forms the data processing agreement required by Article 28 of the UK GDPR.

15.3 When we process personal data as your processor, we will:

  • (a) only process it on your documented instructions, which are these Terms and your use of the Services, unless the law requires otherwise (in which case we will tell you unless the law forbids it);
  • (b) make sure anyone we authorise to process it is under a duty of confidentiality;
  • (c) take appropriate technical and organisational security measures;
  • (d) only use sub-processors listed in our Privacy Policy (or ones we tell you about in advance, giving you the chance to object by cancelling), under written terms that protect the data at least as well as these Terms;
  • (e) help you, where reasonable and taking into account the nature of the processing, to respond to requests from people exercising their data protection rights and to meet your obligations on security, breach notification and impact assessments;
  • (f) tell you without undue delay after becoming aware of a personal data breach affecting that data;
  • (g) delete the data at the end of the Services in line with section 12, unless the law requires us to keep it; and
  • (h) make available information reasonably needed to show we comply with this section.

15.4 You are responsible for having a lawful basis for the personal data processed on your Server and for giving your players any privacy information the law requires.

16. Changes to these Terms

16.1 We may change these Terms, for example to reflect changes in law, our Services or how we run our business.

16.2 We will give you at least 30 days' notice by email of any change that materially affects you. If you do not agree, you may cancel before the change takes effect and get a refund for any prepaid period after that date. Changes that are minor or required urgently by law may take effect sooner.

16.3 The current version of these Terms is always on our website, with the date it was last updated.

17. Communication

17.1 We will contact you by email at the address on your account, or through the control panel. Keep your email address up to date.

17.2 You can contact us at [email protected] or Address coming soon (contact us by email in the meantime).

18. Other important terms

18.1 Transfer. We may transfer our rights and obligations under these Terms to another organisation (for example if MACO becomes a limited company or is sold). We will tell you and make sure the transfer does not reduce your rights. You may not transfer your account or Services to someone else without our written agreement.

18.2 No third-party rights. Nobody else has any rights under these Terms, including under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

18.3 Severability. If a court decides that any part of these Terms is invalid or unenforceable, the rest will continue to apply.

18.4 No waiver. If we do not insist straight away that you do something you are required to do, or delay taking action, that does not mean we have given up our rights.

18.5 Entire agreement. These Terms, the AUP and any order confirmation are the whole agreement between us about the Services. If you are a Business Customer, you confirm you have not relied on any statement not set out in them.

18.6 Complaints. If you have a complaint, please contact us first at [email protected]. We will try to resolve it quickly and fairly.

18.7 Governing law and courts. These Terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.

  • If you are a Consumer, you can bring legal proceedings in the courts of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland you can also bring proceedings in Scotland, and if you live in Northern Ireland you can also bring proceedings in Northern Ireland.
  • If you are a Business Customer, the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.

Appendix: Model cancellation form (Consumers only)

The easiest way to cancel is the Cancel button on your service in the control panel. UK law requires us to give you this form as well; you never have to use it.

(Complete and return this form only if you wish to cancel the contract within the 14-day cancellation period.)

To: MACO (trading as MACO Core), Address coming soon (contact us by email in the meantime), [email protected]

I hereby give notice that I cancel my contract for the supply of the following service:

Service / Server ID: ______________________

Ordered on: ______________________

Name: ______________________

Email address on account: ______________________

Address: ______________________

Signature (only if this form is sent on paper): ______________________

Date: ______________________