CIX Online Code of Practice relating to the telephony services supplied with the CIX Office account.

CODE OF PRACTICE

The 2003 Communication Act (UK) requires all providers of telephone services to companies employing less than 10 employee and to private individuals to publish a code of practice explaining the basis on which they supply their telephony services to the market. This is the CIX Online Consumer Code of Practice for the telephony services we supply to our customers. It describes the services, the basis on which we charge for the services, how to contact us should you have questions about the services, what you should do if you have a complaint, how we will seek to resolve it and what you can do if you are not satisfied with our response.

1. ABOUT US

CIX Online specialise in internet delivered communication solutions for business. This includes telephony services delivered over the internet, mobile networks and land lines. CIX Online do not at this time provide call origination or supply or install telephone equipment.

2. THE CIX ONLINE TELEPHONY SERVICES

CIX Online provide telephony services in the account called CIX Office. The services supplied are:

a. SMS outgoing text from a PC keyboard.

A 0208 telephone contact number which can be forwarded to a number of the customer's choice and or to voicemail. The voice message being delivered to the customer's email address.

b. A 0208 fax number for incoming faxes. These faxes being delivered as PDF or TIFF files to an email address.

c. A 0871 teleconferencing facility.

3. WHAT ARE THE COST TO YOU OF THE CIX ONLINE TELEPHONY SERVICES?

Telephony services are included with a number of other services in the CIX Office account. The contact 0208 voicemail and 0208 fax services incur no additional charge for usage. The SMS, phone forwarding and the 0871 teleconferencing numbers do incur usage charges as follows:

a. Voicemail - 0208 voicemail carries no additional usage charge

b. Fax to email - 0208 Fax to email carries no additional usage charge

c. SMS texting is charged on a per message basis. The SMS per message charge rate is published at www.cixoffice.com/tariff.

The message has a maximum character length of 160 characters and messages exceeding 160 characters in length are treated as more than one message. For example a 171 character length message is treated as two separate messages and therefore is charged as 2 messages. A 400 character length message would be charged as 3 messages.

The charges can be viewed as they accumulate when logged in to your CIX Office account by going to Preferences |My Account | Itemised usage.

d. Phone forwarding (only available with the CIX Office account) is charged on a part minute basis and the current tariffs are published at www.cixoffice.com/tariff . The charges can be viewed as they accumulate when logged in to your CIX Office account by going to Preferences |My Account | Itemised usage.

Charges you have incurred will be deducted from your credit card or by Direct Debit or invoiced at the end of each month.

Teleconference 0871 - When using a BT landline the charge is 10 pence (inc VAT) per minute for each person participating in the conference call. Mobile operators and telephone providers other than BT may charge more or less and users should check with their provider's tariffs to clarify the charge.

4. HOW TO CONTACT US

a. For support email: support@cixonline.com

b. For sales email: sales@cixonline.com

c. For administration email: admin@cixonline.com

d. Customer complaints

If you are unhappy with any aspect of our service or how we do business with you, then we would like to know. We can then make changes and improve our service. For complaints you can contact us by email, fax or in writing:

i. By email: complaints@cixonline.com

ii. By fax: Customer Complaints, CIX Online 020 8023 293

iii. In writing to: Customer Complaints. CIX Online, Avenue House, Southgate, Chichester PO19 1ES

e. Recording complaints

i. To help us respond efficiently, our Customer Services Team keeps a record of any complaints we receive. This may include taking written notes of relevant telephone conversations, and making copies of written communications.

ii. We will treat the records we keep as confidential and will handle them within the relevant data protection, privacy and confidentiality legislation that applies in England. Please keep a note of the date(s) and time(s) when you've spoken with us about your omplaint; whom you spoke to; and what they said or promised to do.

iii. We will normally keep records for three years after a customer disagreement or complaint.

f. Responding to complaints

We will do everything we can to resolve complaints, disagreements or disputes as quickly and efficiently as possible. Our Customer Services Manager will investigate your complaint and discuss a course of action with you to make sure the matter is resolved quickly and to your satisfaction. We categorise complaints as shown below. We aim to respond to all complaints within 2 working days and to provide a solution within the timescales shown:

i. Faults - within 5 working days of receiving your complaint

ii. Your bill - within 5 working days of receiving your complaint

iii. Network-related problems - within 2 working days of receiving your complaint

iv. Other - within 10 working days of receiving your complaint

g. Resolving complaints

While we intend to do everything we can to resolve complaints, disagreements or disputes, sometimes a satisfactory conclusion cannot be reached. If a resolution has not been achieved within 1 calendar months, we or you may refer the matter to an independent party to help resolve it satisfactorily. You may still seek resolution through the courts of England.

We are not liable for any matters beyond our reasonable control including fire, lightning, explosion, war, disorder, flood, industrial disputes (whether or not involving our employees), severe weather, Act of God (uncontrollable natural forces), acts of Government, or matters caused by anything a customer or a third party does or fails to do.

The terms and conditions of use for the relevant service fully state our liabilities to you for any loss or damage you incur through using any of our services. Refer to CIX Online Terms & Conditions

5. OUR BILLING CODE OF PRACTICE

In this section we describe how we take payment from you and what we will do if we do not receive payment.

a. Viewing your bill

The charges for telephone forwarding and SMS text messaging can be viewed on a per item basis as they are incurred by logging into your CIX Office account and going to Preferences |My account| Itemised Bill

b. Collecting payment

We collect payment for telephone forwarding and SMS texting on an end of month basis. Collection will normally be by Credit Card or Direct Debit or if agreed by invoice.

c. Call forwarding and SMS charges

The current charges for SMS texting and Phone forwarding are published at ww.cixoffice.com/tariffs

d. Contacting us about your bill

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 we cannot provide information about an account to anyone except the account holder..

e. Cutting off your telephone service if you do not pay your bill

In the event of late payment we will contact you and request that you pay all arrears owing within 20 days. If you fail to pay we may terminate this agreement or temporarily suspend performance of the telephony service.

f. Reasons other than non payment for suspension of your telephony services

i. If you break your contract with us as set out in our Terms and Conditions of service, or if your service is being used in a way prohibited by your specific contract.

ii. If fraud is suspected.

iii. If we detect abnormal usage, we may restrict your service immediately to avoid further debt building up, until we can contact you and find out why usage is abnormal. If appropriate, we will then investigate further to establish if fraud is taking place.

iv. We reserve the right to start legal action in all cases of fraud, or refer matters to the Police, or both.

g. Legal action to reclaim debt

If you do not pay a debt after your service has been cut off, we will end your contract with us and start legal action to recover the debt. We may ask a debt collection agency to collect the money on our behalf. We may also share information about debts with other organisations that give credit. We reserve the right to charge interest on any amounts outstanding on your account after the date payment is due.

6. TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SERVICE

This Consumer Code of Practice is a brief and accessible summary of the terms under which we provide products and services to our customers. Our Terms and Conditions of service and our standard Acceptable Use Policy set out the full terms under which we provide all products and services to our customers. They govern the contract between you and us for the provision of those products or services. If there is any difference between this Consumer Code of Practice, our Terms and Conditions and our AUP, then our terms and conditions and AUP take precedence over the Consumer Code of Practice.