Premium Support Terms
Last Updated: December 11, 2009
These terms explain important details about the Ning Premium Support Plans. As always, in using the Ning Platform you agree to our Terms of Service, which governs our Premium Support Plans too.
1. Premium Support Descriptions
The categories and prices of our Premium Support Plans are described here and may change from time to time. We’ll look to provide you with advanced notice whenever possible.
2. Purchasing a Support Plan
To purchase a Premium Support Plan, sign in to your social network on Ning and head to the Manage tab. Click on Premium Services icon and look for Premium Support.
3. Term
Just like Ning’s other premium services, Premium Support is good for as long as you pay the monthly fee. Your credit card will be automatically charged every month until you cancel your premium services, which you can do at any time. If you decide that you don’t need Premium Support any longer, it will end on the day you cancel.
4. The Ning Help Center
All of our Premium Support Plans are provided online through the Ning Help Center. Premium Support is not retroactive, and thus tickets that you have already submitted to the Ning Help Center will not be marked as premium support tickets. In the Ning Help Center, you can find answers to commonly asked questions and also submit individual emails (or “support requests”).
5. Authorized Support Contacts
If you purchase “Personal” Premium Support, you as the Network Creator are covered under this Premium Support Plan. If you purchase “Professional” or “Partner” Premium Support, you can add additional support contacts for no additional fee on the same page where you purchased Premium Support. “Professional” Premium Support subscribers may have up to five (5) support contacts. “Partner” Premium Support subscribers may have up to twenty (20). Only Network Creators and named support contacts may submit support requests and interact with the Ning Help Center team under our Premium Support Plans.
6. Number of Social Networks Covered by Premium Support Plans
Network Creators often create and manage multiple social networks on the Ning Platform. If you are one such Network Creator, you can purchase “Professional” or “Partner” Premium Support Plans and include support for multiple social networks for the same monthly fee. “Professional” Premium Support subscribers have the option to cover up to five (5) social networks. “Partner” Premium Support subscribers have the option to cover up to twenty (20).
7. Premium Support Priority Levels
We respond to every support request as fast as we can. However, if your support request is time-sensitive, you can let us know by prioritizing your support request:
Priority A: This means that important functions of your social network are unavailable and you can’t work around them. This includes your social network being unavailable, or new members being unable to sign up.
Priority B: This means your social network is usable, but in an impaired fashion. This includes slow system performance or problems integrating with an external website.
Priority C: This means your social network is usable but experiencing minor issues. This includes a general development or usage question, a new feature request, or characters displaying errors in RSS feed.
By appropriately prioritizing your support requests, we’ll be able deliver more timely and efficient service to you and your fellow Network Creators. Ning reserves the right to change the priority level if we determine your support request is inconsistent with the descriptions above. If this happens, we will let you know the change in the priority level and adjust the response time accordingly.
8. Response Times
Our normal business hours are Monday through Friday from 6 am to 6 pm (Pacific Time) and exclude US holidays, such as New Year’s Day, MLK Day, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas.
Typical response times for free support from the Ning Help Center are often as little as a few hours. However, with the free service, we make no commitments to specific response times.
For the following Premium Support Plan subscribers, we aim to respond as follows:
Personal: Responses will be sent during normal business hours within 24 hours of receiving the initial support request.
Professional: Responses will be sent seven days a week within 24 hours of receiving the initial support request. This excludes U.S. holidays. In addition, urgent support requests (per the Premium Support Priority definitions) will be prioritized to help maximize an even quicker response.
Partner: Responses will be sent seven days a week within four (4) hours of receiving the initial support request. Specifically, responses will be sent within four (4) hours of receiving Priority A support requests; within four (4) business hours of receiving all other support requests.
Except for Priority A support requests under a Partner plan, support requests received outside normal business hours will be treated as if they were received on the next business day. For example, if you submit a support request at 8:30 pm (PT) on a Sunday, the 24-hour response period starts on Monday at 6 am (PT) and ends on Tuesday at 6 am (PT).
For Priority A support requests under a Partner plan, our response time begins when the support request is received, regardless of whether it is received during our normal business hours. For example, a Priority A support request under the Partner plan that is properly submitted on a Saturday at 6 pm (PT) will receive a response by Saturday at 10 pm (PT).
9. Method of Response
We respond to all support requests by email. We do not currently offer telephone or in-person support.
10. Number of Support Requests
All Premium Support Plan subscribers can submit unlimited support requests. If you don’t purchase a Premium Support Plan, you can submit up to five (5) support requests per calendar month. If you exceed this limit, we will ask you to sign up for Premium Support.
11. Resolving Issues
We want to resolve your issues and get you back-in-action as quickly as possible. However, our ability to resolve your issues is a partnership. Namely, we need your help in order to deliver a successful and timely response to your support requests. The clearer and more detailed you can be with us, the higher the likelihood that we’re going to get your issue resolved quickly.
In this context, here’s how we approach resolving issues:
For Priority A support requests, our team will immediately look to do the following: (i) acknowledge the issue, (ii) report the issue to engineering immediately, (iii) notify management of the issue and corrective steps being taken; (iv) provide you, the Network Creator (or other designated support contact), with periodic progress reports; and (v) initiate and communicate the steps for a solution or workaround with you as quickly as possible.
For other support requests, we will still work to immediately resolve the issue, but it may mean that the fix for the issue will be included in a future product release. In either case, we’re going to communicate the steps for a solution or workaround with you as quickly as possible.
12. Additional Benefits
There are a few additional benefits we provide Premium Support Plan subscribers if you are interested. Every three months, “Partner” Premium Support subscribers can get up to four (4) hours of special access to the Ning team in one or both of these areas:
- A Ning developer will be available to provide general development suggestions and discuss other relevant topics, including CSS customization and new features.
- The community management team will be available to provide special resources designed to educate and train you on growing and maintaining your social network on Ning. This may include suggestions on maximizing the effectiveness of features, moderating content, and growing your social network virally.
13. Ownership (or a Word from our Lawyers)
As between Ning and you, you will own the intellectual property rights in any specific deliverable or work product created by Ning for you as a Partner Premium Support subscriber ("Deliverables"). However, in no event shall the term Deliverables include any Ning Tools. "Ning Tools" means any Ning Technology or trade secret, process, algorithm, invention, original works of authorship, development, design, improvement, patent, copyright or other intellectual property of Ning which Ning (a) developed or acquired previous to the commencement of these terms; (b) acquired after the commencement hereof independently of these terms or (c) developed either alone or in collaboration with others, separate and apart from these terms, and all derivative works based thereon. Ning Tools shall also include any software, project management, development processes and productivity tools developed by Ning, and of general applicability to Ning's business, whether or not prepared under the course of performance of these terms, provided they are not solely related to the services provided under these terms. Ning shall also be entitled to perform similar services for third parties.
Subject to the terms and conditions hereof, Ning hereby grants you, a nonexclusive, nontransferable, non-sublicensable worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free license, to use that portion of any Ning Tools that are incorporated into any Deliverables solely in connection with your use of your Social Network or any Deliverable on the Ning Platform. You should not otherwise be entitled to use, license or commercially exploit the Ning Tools and any such use may result in the revocation of the license rights herein.