Preface

This document outlines the services Approximatrix, LLC provides to users who have purchase the Draco Commercial Support package.  These terms apply only to purchasers of the package and do not extend to all users.

Definitions

The following definitions are used within this document for clarity.

• The Company refers to Approximatrix, LLC, purveyor of support services
• The Purchaser refers to the party and designated users of the support services relating to Draco Econometrics
• The Program refers only to Draco Econometrics.

Terms of Support

The Company will provide the following services in regards to the Program, Draco.  Other tools relating to the Program may, but are not required, to fall under the terms of this agreement:

Defect and Enhancement Request Filing

The Purchaser is entitled to access to the Draco Support site, http://support.approximatrix.com/, for the purposes of filing defects and enhancement requests, or Tickets.  The Purchaser is granted the right to create new Tickets, modify existing Tickets, or comment on existing Tickets provided the Purchaser is operating within the terms of this agreement.  The Company reserves the right to comment, resolve, edit, delete, or mark as invalid any Ticket entered by the Purchaser when appropriate.  The creation of Tickets fall under the same time-of-response requirements for the Company as the email support terms.

Additional Content and Examples

The Company agrees to administer the Draco Support site, http://support.approximatrix.com/, and provide updated content in a timely manner.  The Purchaser is granted access to the "wiki" portion of the support site to allow access to further examples, tips, and content related to the Program.  The Company may also elect to provide the Purchaser with create/edit access to the "wiki" section to allow further user content to be posted.  The Company, however, does not make any guarantees concerning the quality or quantity of content available on the support site, although the quantity should increase over time.

Voting on Defects and Enhancements to Determine Priority

The Purchaser will be given the ability to vote on all content within the Draco Support site, http://support.approximatrix.com/.  The voting results will determine the importance of defects or enhancements when planning future versions of the Program.  The Company is required to address the highest importance issues with the highest priority with the exception of issues that have been determined to be critical to the Program, which will receive highest priority. 

Allowed Use Support Site

The Purchaser is entitled to file defects and enhancement requests, or Tickets, via the Draco Support site, http://support.approximatrix.com/.  These rights include the creation of new Tickets, and the modification and commenting on existing tickets.  The Purchaser agrees to use the support site with reasonable conduct.  The Company will not tolerate the use of offensive language, the posting of offensive or unrelated material, or unproductive and derogatory criticism toward other users, the Program, or the Company itself.  The Company reserves the right to edit, delete, or mark as invalid any content as it sees fit under reasonable conditions.  The Purchaser agrees to resolve any issues or conflicts with the Company in a private manner.  Productive criticism of both the Company and the Program is encouraged on the support site where appropriate in a manner addressable by the Company.

Availability of the Support Site

The Company will provide a website, http://support.approximatrix.com/, as well as email and phone support to the Purchaser.  The Company, however, does not guarantee access to the support site, email, or phone support under certain conditions, including but not limited to:

• Power outages at the Company's server location
• Internet access outages at the Company's server location
• Unexpected server/phone hardware/software failures

The Company will strive to avoid outage situations, but provides no guarantees against these failure conditions.  The Company will not provide any redemption of payment should services cease during transient outage conditions, but may elect to provide refunds if a prolonged failure (greater than 5 business days) occurs.

Suspension of Access

The Company reserves the right to suspend access to the Draco Support site, http://support.approximatrix.com/, should the Purchaser violate any conditions outlined in this document.  The Company may not suspend access to any Purchaser if the Purchaser has not violated any of the conditions outlined in the document.  Should the Company elect to permanently suspend the Purchaser's account, the termination of the support contract will be handled as outlined in Termination of the Support Contract section of this document.

24-hour Turnaround Email Support

The Company will provide guaranteed 24-hour turnaround on any support questions posed via email to the Company's support address, support@approximatrix.com.  This guarantee, however, is only valid during periods of normalcy for the Company's infrastructure; the guarantee will be suspended during transient Internet access loss, transient power loss, or transient server hardware/software failures.  In these extreme cases, the Company will strive to continue normal operation and response times.

The 24-hour support email guarantee entitles the Purchaser to a response email within a 24-hour period of the Company receiving the email.  The response email provided by the Company will be from a human, not an autoresponse message.  The email response is not meant to guarantee correction of a problem or resolution of an issue, but only an initial response to the customer if a longer period is needed for resolution or the Company requires more information to assist.  The Company will provide live phone support for certain issues when requested in the initial email; the subsequent phone call fulfills the 24-hour email response guarantee if the call is placed within the time period.  Subsequent emails for the same issue will still fall under this guarantee.

Phone Voicemail Support

The Purchaser is entitled to access to the Approximatrix Customer Support voice mailbox.  The Company does not guarantee a human operator when the support line is called.  The Company will provide a response to phone voicemails via either phone or email; the time of response, however, is not guaranteed via this method of contacting support.

Priority Treatment of Issues

Issues put forth by the Purchaser and other users who have opted to purchase the Draco Commercial Support package will receive priority treatment over issues of non-paying users.  If an issue is identified by the Purchaser, the response will occur within 24 hours of the Company receiving the issue via email or through the Draco Support Site, http://support.approximatrix.com/; this time guarantee does not apply to issues submitted via phone. 

The Company will address issues received from user who have opted to purchase the Draco Commercial Support package in order of importance.  Importance of an issue is based on both the voting results from the support site and the impact on the operation of the program.  If the issue is single-user based, such as installation difficulties or difficulties learning and using the software, the issues will be addressed by the Company in a timely manner, and are subject to the guarantees related to communication between the Company and the Purchaser.  The Company reserves the right to limit the scope of assistance should the degree of assistance fall outside the reasonable definition of software support (i.e. the company will not participate in consulting under the terms of this support contract).

Transfer of Support Services

Purchasers of Draco support services may transfer the services to another user provided that the Purchaser and the Company both agree to the transfer.  The Purchaser cedes all rights to support services should the Purchaser request a transfer to another user.  The Company will handle all transfers of support services upon request within reason.  The Company does not guarantee transferability, however, in cases of suspected abuse of the support contract terms (i.e. frequent transfers to avoid the purchase of multiple support plans).

Termination of the Support Contract

The Company reserves the right to terminate the support contract under specific conditions.  Should the Purchaser violate any of the above requirements, especially the abuse of the Draco Support Site, http://support.approximatrix.com/, the Company may terminate the Purchaser's contract.  Eligibility for refund due to violations of the use of the support site is not guaranteed and is determined solely by the Company.

The Company may also terminate the contract in the cases where the Company is not equipped to provide sufficient service or the Company ceases to exist as an entity.  The termination of the contract by the Company under these conditions entitles the Purchaser to a refund of the support purchase fee less the cost of the time of the elapsed contract. 

The Purchaser does not have the right to terminate the support contract with refund except in circumstances explicitly set forth in this document.  The Company will work to resolve any issues the Purchaser may have with the support contract, however, and may elect to provide a refund under certain circumstances at the discretion of the Company.

Changes to Terms of Support

The Company may change the terms of support at any time.  However, the Company is obligated to provide notice to all Purchasers when such a change occurs.  A change in the Terms of Support allows the Purchaser the option to cancel the support contract and receive a refund for the amount of the contract less the cost of the time of the elapsed contract.  If the Purchaser wishes to cancel the contract after a change to the terms, the Company may be contacted at custserv@approximatrix.com.

Software License

The Program, Draco Econometrics, is copyrighted by the Company, and is governed by the terms of the GNU General Public License Version 3. Therefore, the following applies:

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

The purchase of Draco Commercial Support is completely independent of the Program.  The Purchaser does not receive any additional guarantees about the program when purchasing Draco Commercial Support.

More Information

Approximatrix, LLC may be contacted regarding these terms at any time via the Customer Service email address.