Code of Conduct
Updated: 15 February 2024
Building and maintaining a good brand reputation is crucial to the success of a company. Brand reputation is the cornerstone of integrity and earning consumers’ loyalty, resulting in improved trust. Customers prefer to buy from brands that align with their own values and beliefs. Loyal customers increase brand reputation and, in turn, brand equity and sales. A good reputation is a legacy.
Therefore, as part of UKUTEL’s commitment to ensure clients act in line with our values when they meet and interact with other people about UKUTEL-related matters, we have developed this Code of Conduct, hereinafter referred to as “The Code”.
“The Code” provides principles to which all UKUTEL clients are expected to adhere and advocate, and it embodies rules regarding individual responsibilities in dealing with clients and/or the general public with regard to UKUTEL-related matters.
The principles of “The Code” can be interpreted by these keys:
1.) Equal opportunity without regard to race, gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation/gender identity, or religion.
2.) “Give to get” – think of others’ interests first.
3.) Accept responsibility for personal behavior.
All community and business networking aspects related to UKUTEL, including this website, as well as participation as a client as that term is defined in the website (“www.ukutel.com”), are subject to this Code of Conduct, including without limitation, account names, profile content, comments, chat and forum activity, videos, e-mail or private messages, printed media, as well as conduct during general conversations.
In general, UKUTEL has the right to review any statements, and material provided and manufactured by a client and instruct such client to remove and/or amend such statements and material as deemed necessary.
A consequence of breach:
We trust our clients to do what is right, but we also have to be clear that we take any breach seriously. Violation of any part of this Code of Conduct or the refusal to amend any personal statements or material are grounds for the suspension or termination of a client’s reseller business, access to this website, and/or use of the services on this website, in whole or in part, at UKUTEL’s sole discretion, and may not be limited to legal proceedings.
If you are aware of a breach of this Code, you are required to report it and a failure to do so may be treated as an action condoning the breach. Please notify us at violations@ukutel.com if you believe this Code of Conduct has been violated.
Global definitions applicable:
The following words or phrases shall bear the meaning stated below:
“UKUTEL” shall mean UKUTEL (PTY) LTD with registration number 2019/284775/07.
“Client(s)” shall mean any person or legal entity with an UKUTEL Client Number.
THE CODE:
Being a client, you agree to the following:
- Positively promote UKUTEL, its products and services, and stakeholders of UKUTEL to existing and future clients;
- Immediately and truthfully identify yourself as a client to prospective customers and the nature of the UKUTEL products and the purpose for the approach;
- Explain and demonstrate the product/s offered accurately and completely, and only as per the listed terms and conditions within this website;
- Ensure that the consumer is in a position to make an informed decision by providing all the relevant details of the product, pricing and cooling-off periods;
- Respect the possible lack of commercial experience of consumers;
- Explain and disclose details and limitations of after-sales service, the name and address of the service, and or benefit provider/s, and the remedial action as per product, service, and benefit’s ‘Disclosure section”;
- Marketing and advertisements shall conform to “The Code”, which is aligned with both the Direct Marketing Association of South Africa (DMA) and Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa’s (ASA) marketing and advertising practices;
- ALL marketing materials, including flyers or posters, must be approved by UKUTEL HQ before dissemination. UKUTEL clients who design their own materials are required to submit these via email to support@ukutel.com to obtain written permission prior to using them.
- Should UKUTEL clients print any materials on another reseller’s behalf, they may only charge them the cost price of such printed materials. NO profit-taking is permitted.
As an UKUTEL client, you agree that you will NOT engage in any of the following, even if they do not constitute a violation of any law:
- Engage in any cash transactions between any client;
- Make any verbal promises that are not backed by UKUTEL and are not printed in official literature issued by UKUTEL;
- Send or post any advertisements or promotional literature or mailings that contain any description, claims or illustrations which directly or by implication are misleading about UKUTEL, the product, service and/or benefits, or the income opportunity;
- Refer to any testimonial or endorsement which is not authorized, not true, obsolete or no longer applicable, not related to UKUTEL’s offer, or used in any way likely to mislead the consumer;
- Replicate, produce, sell or supply without written consent by UKUTEL Head office any literature, advertisement, and/or testimonial;
- Use any comparisons which are likely to mislead and which are incompatible with the principles of fair competition. Points of comparison shall not be unfairly selected and shall be based on facts, which can be substantiated;
- Defame UKUTEL, its directors, employees, shareholders and/or any company/organization or product directly associated with UKUTEL;
- Take unfair advantage of the goodwill attached to the trade name and symbol of other organizations or their products;
- Abuse the trust of individual consumers, or exploit a consumer’s age, illness, lack of understanding, or lack of language knowledge;
- Post personal information (names, address, phone number, email, etc.) of another person;
- Impersonate another individual or falsely state or misrepresent an affiliation with a person or entity;
- Create “trolling” posts. (Trolling is deliberately posting false or provocative information to elicit responses from people who would not respond if they knew the motivation behind the post);
- Make postings or statements or encourage others to make postings or statements that are (i) vulgar, obscene, indecent, abusive, threatening bigoted, and/or hateful, and/or (ii) racially offensive, harassing, disruptive, inflammatory, intimidating, libelous, stalking, defaming, and/or defrauding of any individual, entity or group on any basis, including but not limited to age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, religion, disability, and/or economic status;
- Post material that advocates illegal activity, or discusses illegal activity with the intent to commit that illegal activity;
- Engage in acts that constitute “flaming” (there is a difference between voicing a legitimate concern or grievance versus simply badmouthing or abusing someone or something);
- Modify or falsify the source of any content or information;
- Distribute or disseminate inappropriate, unauthorized, or unsolicited advertising or promotional material, Including but not limited to, contests, sweepstakes, barter, junk mail, chain letters, and pyramid schemes;
- Transmit or facilitate the transmission of any unsolicited bulk or commercial email (“Spam”), directly or indirectly, including or creating links or otherwise referring to external sites that violate this Code of Conduct;
- Post content with excessive frequency, that is duplicative, and/or that is inaccurate, such as designating for yourself a category in which you do not belong;
- Attempt to access or search www.ukutel.com with any engine, software, tool, agent, device, or mechanism other than by the software or search agents provided by UKUTEL or generally available and industry-recognized and approved third-party web browsers (such as, but not limited to, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Apple Safari); or “frame,” “mirror” or otherwise copy any portion of the website without UKUTEL’s express prior written authorization;
- Flood, overload, or mail bomb any mail service or other parts of the services of UKUTEL, or transmit or transfer any harmful or disruptive viruses, worms, computer code, files, programs, or the equivalent;
- Post or make statements or other material that are deemed inappropriate and/or defaming by UKUTEL in its sole discretion.
- Contact any client and advise such client to consider canceling their active UKUTEL product and/or business subscription, irrespective of the motive.
- Keep a record of login credentials (e.g. passwords) of any client you may have assisted during the registration process.
The use of social media platforms:
To protect the reputation of the UKUTEL brand, minimize misrepresentation, limit the potential damage unofficial social media pages and support groups could cause and instill trust amongst clients, the following rules apply:
1.) The explicit use of the word “UKUTEL” and/or official logo is prohibited to be used in the name of any social platform where such platform is not represented by an Accredited Business Developer (ABD) with an “Admin” role.
2.) The following sentence must be included in the description of the page/group: “This is an UNOFFICIAL UKUTEL support page/group. Info on OFFICIAL pages/groups for UKUTEL can be obtained from the Client’s Portal.”
Conclusion:
This Code of Conduct is subject to change at any time at UKUTEL’s sole discretion by the posting of a revised Code of Conduct, and UKUTEL will notify clients of any changes to the code.