Effective Date: July 1, 2024.
This Service-Level Agreement (SLA) specifies the service availability metrics and the compensation plan for the Standard Edition and Premium Edition of Alibaba Cloud Mail (hereinafter referred to as "Alibaba Cloud Mail") that Alibaba Cloud provides to customers.
1. Mail service availability guarantee
Mail service unavailability: if an issue with the Alibaba Cloud Mail system prevents more than 10% of users from normally using Alibaba Cloud Mail during a specific period, the mail service is considered unavailable for that period. All situations other than the preceding definition of mail service unavailability are considered service availability. For circumstances under which Alibaba Cloud assumes no liability, see Disclaimers.
Mail service availability: the ratio of the available time in minutes of Alibaba Cloud Mail in a month to the total time in minutes of that month, calculated on a fixed 30-day basis. The formula is: 1 - Σ(time of mail service unavailability) / (30 × 24 × 60).
Mail service availability guarantee: Alibaba Cloud guarantees that the availability of the mail system that Alibaba Cloud Mail provides to customers is no lower than 99.9%. That is, the cumulative monthly service unavailable time does not exceed 43.2 minutes.
If Alibaba Cloud breaches the preceding mail service availability guarantee, Alibaba Cloud calculates the compensation amount for each Alibaba Cloud Mail instance based on its monthly service availability, according to the following table. Compensation is provided only as a coupon that you can use to purchase Alibaba Cloud Mail products. The total compensation does not exceed the monthly service fee that you paid for that Alibaba Cloud Mail instance in the month when the service availability commitment was not met, excluding fees offset by a coupon.
| Service availability | Compensation coupon amount |
| Lower than 99.90% but equal to or higher than 99.00% | 10% of the monthly service fee |
| Lower than 99.00% but equal to or higher than 95.00% | 20% of the monthly service fee |
| Lower than 95.00% | 50% of the monthly service fee |
2. Mail sending and receiving speed guarantee
Mail sending latency: the time from when the mail system completely receives a message that a mail user sends through a standard mail protocol or the webmail page until the mail system starts transmitting the message to the destination mailbox.
Mail receiving latency: the time from when the mail system completely receives a message from the source mail system until the mail user can access the message through a standard mail protocol or the webmail page, that is, until the mail system has completely delivered the message to the user's mailbox.
Mail sending and receiving speed guarantee: Alibaba Cloud guarantees that, in any month, the average sending latency and the average receiving latency across all accounts of the Alibaba Cloud Mail service provided to customers do not exceed one minute. For circumstances under which Alibaba Cloud assumes no liability, see Disclaimers.
If Alibaba Cloud breaches the preceding mail sending and receiving speed guarantee, Alibaba Cloud compensates you 1% of the monthly service fee for that month. Compensation is provided only as a coupon that you can use to purchase Alibaba Cloud Mail products. The total compensation does not exceed the monthly service fee that you paid for that Alibaba Cloud Mail instance in the month when the commitment was not met, excluding fees offset by a coupon.
3. Customer service guarantee
Service request acceptance: while you use the mail service, if you encounter problems or have suggestions for improving the systems related to the mail service, you can submit them through the Alibaba Cloud after-sales service channels. Alibaba Cloud then handles the issue and replies with the related status.
Alibaba Cloud provides the following customer service guarantees:
Ticket service: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Hotline service: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Intelligent service: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Online consultation on the official website: live agent support 16 hours a day, 7 days a week (8:00 to 24:00)
4. Disclaimers
Alibaba Cloud assumes no liability under the following circumstances:
If you purchase or accept goods or services provided by a third party other than Alibaba Cloud through the mail service and a dispute arises, you and that third party must resolve the dispute yourselves. Alibaba Cloud only provides necessary assistance.
Alibaba Cloud assumes no liability for losses caused by data center maintenance, equipment inspection, system upgrades or optimization, the acts or omissions of third parties, improper maintenance, or force majeure. These causes include, but are not limited to: any change in laws and regulations; administrative orders from domestic or foreign governments; network issues such as unstable network signals, low network bandwidth, or network congestion; payment services; network access services; communication line failures of telecommunications carriers; communication technology issues; network or computer failures; system instability; and infringement by any third party.
Exceeding the system storage limit may cause message loss, for which Alibaba Cloud assumes no liability. Alibaba Cloud cannot provide message recovery services for messages deleted by end users, unless a relevant backup service was activated in advance.
If the mail service is terminated because you no longer continue to use it or because you violate the service terms for the mail service, Alibaba Cloud is not responsible for retaining message data or providing message recovery.
5. Compensation claims
You must submit a compensation claim for each instance that did not meet the service commitment in the previous month after the fifth (5th) business day following the end of that month. The claim must be submitted within two (2) months after the end of the month in which Alibaba Cloud did not meet the service commitment. Claims submitted after this time limit are not accepted.
6. Miscellaneous
Alibaba Cloud reserves the right to modify the terms of this SLA. If the terms of this SLA are modified, Alibaba Cloud notifies you 30 days in advance by posting a notice on the website or by sending you an email. If you do not agree to the modifications that Alibaba Cloud makes to this SLA, you have the right to stop using Alibaba Cloud Mail. If you continue to use Alibaba Cloud Mail, you are deemed to have accepted the modified SLA.