Support and Management Scope Policy

1. Purpose and Scope

This Support and Management Scope Policy explains what Spark Rack support includes, what remains Customer’s responsibility, how managed and unmanaged Services differ, when work may be billable, and the conditions under which Spark Rack may decline or limit assistance.

1. All Spark Rack Customers and prospective Customers;
2. All End Users, authorized users, administrators, and account contacts;
3. All Spark Rack websites, portals, control panels, networks, servers, storage systems, software, and Services;
4. All resellers and downstream customers where applicable;
5. All Customer Data and Customer Content processed through the Services; and
6. All third-party providers used to support an applicable Service.

This Policy supplements the Terms of Service and Service Level Agreement.

2. Core Support Principle

Spark Rack supports the Services Spark Rack provides. Spark Rack does not automatically become the developer, administrator, security team, records manager, compliance officer, or help desk for every application and device connected to those Services.

The exact support scope is determined by the purchased Service plan, Order, statement of work, and published Service description.

3. Managed and Unmanaged Services

Service Type	General Responsibility
Unmanaged	Spark Rack maintains the underlying facility, network, and hardware or virtualization layer described in the Order. Customer manages the operating system, applications, security, configuration, data, and administration.
Managed	Spark Rack performs only the management tasks expressly listed in the applicable managed plan. Customer retains responsibility for all excluded components and business decisions.
Fully Customer-Controlled	Customer has administrative control and is responsible for all configuration and operation above the Spark Rack-provided infrastructure boundary.
Professional Services	Spark Rack performs separately scoped project or hourly work according to an approved estimate or statement of work.

4. Support Channels

Customer must use the approved support channels displayed in the Customer Portal.

1. Support tickets for technical issues;
2. Billing tickets for invoices, payments, and account questions;
3. Security or abuse channels for urgent security and policy reports;
4. Emergency channels only when included in the Service plan and the issue is genuinely critical; and
5. Scheduled meetings or telephone support only when included or approved.

Social media, personal messages, unrelated email addresses, and contact with individual employees are not official support channels.

5. Information Customer Must Provide

A useful support request should include:

1. The affected Service and identifier;
2. A clear description of the problem;
3. The time the problem began and the time zone;
4. Steps to reproduce the problem;
5. The expected and actual result;
6. Exact error messages;
7. Relevant screenshots or logs;
8. Recent changes;
9. Affected users, domains, IP addresses, or systems;
10. Troubleshooting already attempted;
11. The business impact; and
12. A secure method for any required temporary credentials.

Incomplete or misleading information may delay resolution.

6. Infrastructure Support

Infrastructure support may include, within the purchased scope:

1. Physical server hardware;
2. Power and data-center connectivity;
3. Spark Rack-controlled network equipment;
4. Virtualization hosts;
5. Provisioning systems;
6. Assigned storage infrastructure;
7. Spark Rack control-panel availability;
8. Spark Rack-operated DNS or email platforms;
9. Service-level monitoring;
10. Replacement of failed Spark Rack-owned hardware; and
11. Coordination with Spark Rack-selected upstream providers.

7. Customer Application Responsibility

Unless expressly included, Customer is responsible for:

1. Website design and content;
2. Application code;
3. Themes, plugins, modules, and extensions;
4. Database design and queries;
5. Application performance;
6. Application configuration;
7. Software licenses;
8. Third-party APIs;
9. External authentication;
10. Content management systems;
11. Custom scripts;
12. Scheduled tasks;
13. Application backups;
14. Application security;
15. Compatibility testing;
16. End User support; and
17. Business workflow and data accuracy.

8. Operating System Responsibility

For unmanaged Services, Customer is responsible for operating-system installation, configuration, patching, firewalling, user accounts, services, packages, logs, backups, security, and troubleshooting.

For managed Services, Spark Rack performs only the operating-system tasks stated in the managed plan and may require use of supported distributions, repositories, control panels, and configurations.

9. Supported Software

Spark Rack may limit support to software versions and configurations identified as supported.

Support may be limited or declined for:

1. End-of-life operating systems;
2. Abandoned applications;
3. Unlicensed software;
4. Pirated software;
5. Modified vendor binaries;
6. Unsupported kernels;
7. Unsupported control panels;
8. Custom-compiled components;
9. Software without security updates;
10. Applications requiring unavailable vendor support;
11. Configurations that materially interfere with management tools; and
12. Software prohibited by the Acceptable Use Policy.

10. Third-Party Software and Providers

Spark Rack may make reasonable efforts to help identify an issue involving third-party software, but cannot guarantee correction by a third-party vendor.

Customer is responsible for vendor contracts, licenses, accounts, API credentials, support entitlements, and fees.

Work requiring vendor coordination, custom integration, or extensive testing may be billable.

11. Control Panels and Customer Portals

Spark Rack supports control-panel functions to the extent those functions are provided and controlled by Spark Rack.

Customer remains responsible for the consequences of Customer-initiated changes, including DNS changes, PHP versions, permissions, mailbox rules, database deletion, backup deletion, domain locks, renewals, and security settings.

12. Website and Code Support

Routine hosting support does not include website development, code debugging, theme repair, plugin repair, search-engine optimization, content editing, accessibility remediation, database redesign, or application architecture.

Spark Rack may offer those services as billable Professional Services when staff, skills, and time are available.

13. Performance Troubleshooting

Spark Rack may help determine whether an issue appears related to infrastructure, resource limits, database behavior, application code, third-party dependency, or external network conditions.

Performance work beyond initial diagnosis may require:

1. Application profiling;
2. Query optimization;
3. Code changes;
4. Caching design;
5. Content-delivery configuration;
6. Load testing;
7. Architecture changes;
8. Resource upgrades;
9. Database repair; or
10. Professional Services.

Spark Rack does not guarantee a particular application speed unless expressly stated in writing.

14. Security Support

Security support may include infrastructure safeguards, platform patching within the managed scope, access review, credential resets, log collection, firewall assistance, and incident containment.

Unless expressly included, Spark Rack does not provide continuous security operations, penetration testing, forensic certification, compliance certification, malware warranty, or guaranteed intrusion detection.

Customer is responsible for secure application design, least-privilege access, passwords, multifactor authentication, software updates, secrets, and End User behavior.

15. Malware and Compromise Assistance

Spark Rack may suspend or isolate a compromised Service to protect the Network and other Customers.

Basic assistance may include identifying obvious indicators, resetting credentials, providing available logs, restoring a known recovery point, or recommending reinstallation.

Detailed forensic analysis, malware cleanup, source-code review, recovery of compromised applications, and incident reporting are billable unless expressly included. No cleanup can guarantee removal of every persistence mechanism.

16. Backup and Restoration Support

Backup and restoration assistance is governed by the Data Backup and Restoration Policy.

Support does not guarantee that a backup exists, is complete, is uncorrupted, is free from malware, or will restore successfully.

Restoration, data extraction, repair, and large transfers may be billable.

17. Migration Support

Migration support covers only the sources, destinations, data types, methods, and validation steps stated in the approved scope.

Customer must maintain independent backups and must validate data, applications, DNS, email, and functionality after migration.

Migration support does not guarantee compatibility with unknown, unsupported, encrypted, corrupted, or inaccessible data.

18. Email Support

Email support may include mailbox creation, supported client settings, authentication troubleshooting, DNS-record guidance, and Spark Rack platform issues.

It does not guarantee remote delivery, inbox placement, reputation, removal from blocklists, recovery of deleted mail, compatibility with every client, or correction of third-party filtering.

19. DNS and Domain Support

Spark Rack may assist with DNS records and domain-management functions within the purchased scope.

Customer remains responsible for record accuracy, domain eligibility, verification, renewals, registrant information, application endpoints, DNSSEC, and third-party services.

Propagation, caching, registry operation, and external resolvers are outside Spark Rack’s control.

20. Remote Access and Temporary Credentials

Customer may be required to provide temporary access to troubleshoot a Customer-controlled system.

Customer should use temporary, least-privilege credentials, transmit them through an approved secure method, and revoke or rotate them after work is completed.

Spark Rack may decline access when credentials are shared insecurely or when access would create unreasonable risk.

21. Customer Changes During Troubleshooting

Customer should avoid unrelated changes while Spark Rack is investigating an issue.

Customer must disclose changes that may affect logs, system state, reproduction, or recovery. Uncoordinated changes may delay troubleshooting, destroy evidence, create data loss, or make the issue impossible to reproduce.

22. Change Approval

Spark Rack may require written approval before a change that could cause interruption, overwrite data, restart a Service, alter security, increase cost, or affect third parties.

When Customer authorizes a change, Customer accepts the ordinary technical risks of that change, including temporary interruption and rollback limitations.

23. Response and Resolution

Response targets are governed by the applicable Service plan and SLA.

A response time is not a resolution time. Resolution depends on complexity, access, Customer cooperation, vendor action, replacement parts, backups, security review, and other conditions.

No resolution time is guaranteed unless expressly stated in a separately signed agreement.

24. Severity and Priority

Spark Rack determines ticket severity according to actual impact.

1. Critical: a paid production Service is completely unavailable or an active incident creates immediate material risk;
2. High: a major production function is unavailable or severely degraded;
3. Normal: a noncritical function is impaired or ordinary assistance is required; and
4. Low: a question, request, cosmetic issue, planned change, or feature suggestion.

Repeatedly misclassifying routine matters as emergencies may result in reclassification, charges, or restriction of emergency channels.

25. Emergency Support

Emergency support is available only when included in the purchased plan or separately approved.

Emergency support is not intended for routine changes, billing questions, website design, plugin errors, planned migrations, domain propagation, password convenience, feature requests, or unsupported systems.

26. Billable Support and Professional Services

Work outside the included support scope may be offered as billable Professional Services.

1. Custom configuration;
2. Application debugging;
3. Database repair or optimization;
4. Malware cleanup;
5. Forensic analysis;
6. Large-scale restoration;
7. Migration;
8. After-hours nonemergency work;
9. Custom monitoring;
10. Compliance documentation;
11. Training;
12. Website development;
13. Third-party vendor coordination; and
14. Repeated work caused by Customer reversal or unsupported changes.

Spark Rack may require written approval of an estimate, hourly rate, minimum charge, or statement of work before beginning.

27. Best-Effort Assistance

Spark Rack may choose to provide limited assistance outside the purchased scope as a courtesy.

Courtesy assistance is best effort, may be discontinued, does not create an ongoing obligation, does not change the Service plan, and does not guarantee a result.

28. When Spark Rack May Decline Work

Spark Rack may decline or stop work that:

1. Is outside the purchased scope;
2. Is unsafe or likely to cause data loss;
3. Would violate law or policy;
4. Requires unsupported software;
5. Requires unavailable credentials or licenses;
6. Could harm another Customer or the Network;
7. Would circumvent security controls;
8. Requires Spark Rack to make a legal or business decision for Customer;
9. Requires access Spark Rack cannot lawfully obtain;
10. Is abusive, threatening, discriminatory, or harassing;
11. Cannot be performed with available staff or expertise;
12. Is subject to an unresolved payment dispute; or
13. Would expose Spark Rack to unreasonable risk.

29. Customer Conduct With Support Personnel

Customers must communicate professionally and must not threaten, harass, intimidate, discriminate against, or abuse Spark Rack personnel or contractors.

Spark Rack may restrict communication to written channels, reassign a contact, suspend support interaction, or terminate Services when conduct creates a safety or workplace concern.

30. Customer Availability

Customer must provide an authorized and technically capable contact when Customer participation is required.

Time waiting for Customer access, approval, information, testing, or response is not counted as active Spark Rack work and may delay resolution.

31. No Legal, Tax, Compliance, or Business Advice

Support personnel may explain technical features but do not provide legal, tax, accounting, insurance, regulatory, human-resources, medical, or business advice.

Customer remains responsible for determining whether a configuration or Service meets Customer’s obligations.

32. Documentation and Recommendations

Spark Rack may provide documentation or recommendations based on available information.

Customer must review and test recommendations before applying them to critical systems. Documentation may not account for every custom configuration or future software change.

33. No Guarantee of Data Recovery or Problem Resolution

Spark Rack does not guarantee that every problem can be reproduced, diagnosed, corrected, or prevented from recurring.

Spark Rack does not guarantee recovery of lost, deleted, encrypted, corrupted, overwritten, or unsupported data.

34. Contact

Support requests must be submitted through the appropriate Customer Portal channel.

Spark Rack
Attn: Support and Managed Services
PO Box 2215
Valdosta, GA 31604
United States

35. Acknowledgment

By using the Services, Customer acknowledges that:

1. Support scope is determined by the purchased Service and written Order.
2. Managed does not mean unlimited or all-inclusive.
3. Customer remains responsible for Customer applications, data, credentials, business decisions, and excluded components.
4. Application development, malware cleanup, migrations, restoration, and extensive third-party work may be billable.
5. Response time is not resolution time.
6. Unsupported and end-of-life software may receive limited or no support.
7. Courtesy assistance does not expand the contracted scope.
8. Spark Rack may decline unsafe, unlawful, unsupported, abusive, or unreasonably risky work.
9. No support process guarantees successful repair or data recovery.