Terms of service

1. Business use

You confirm you're signing up on behalf of a business, including a sole proprietorship, and that the website is for business use, not personal, family or household use.

2. Term and renewal

Your plan has an initial term of 12 months, starting on the day your site goes live. After that it continues month to month until you cancel.

There is no pausing during the initial term.

3. Billing

The client adds a card and accepts these terms when approving the mockup. Billing starts when the full site goes live.

If we haven't received the content we need within 30 days of mockup approval, we launch the site with the content available, and billing starts at that launch.

Price changes require 30 days' notice and take effect only after the current term ends.

4. Changes and fixes

2 free change requests per billing cycle, which don't roll over. Additional changes are $20 each, shown before submission and charged when published. Declined or cancelled requests aren't charged.

One free fix within 7 days if a published change doesn't match the request. Extra pages are $100 one-time each.

Refunds are at our discretion.

5. Ending early, and buyout

You may end your plan at any time during the initial term by telling us and paying an early termination fee of 50% of the monthly payments left in the initial term. For example, with 6 months left on a $100/month plan, the fee is $300. The fee goes down every month and is $0 once the initial term ends.

Why we charge it: we design and build your site before we charge anything, and we price the plan on the expectation that you'll keep it for the full initial term. If you leave early, we lose the payments that cover that work. The exact loss is hard to work out for each customer, because it depends on our build, support and change costs for your site. The fee is our reasonable estimate of that loss, set at about half of what you would otherwise have paid. It is not a penalty.

If you end your plan, your site goes offline. You keep your content and your domain.

After the initial term, you may instead buy the site outright for $500, as long as nothing else is owed. The buyout isn't available during the initial term.

[Lawyer: confirm the fee is enforceable as an option or as liquidated damages under California Civil Code §1671(b). Research notes: docs/research/california-early-termination-fee.md.]

6. Ownership, domains and handover

The website is provided as a service while subscribed. The client's content (text, photos, logo) and domain always belong to the client.

The client authorizes Berry Site to register and manage their domain as their agent. The client is always the registrant.

On cancellation without buyout, the site goes offline; within 10 business days the client receives a content export and domain handover. Site code is not included. We keep the client's data for 30 days after cancellation, then delete it, except billing records and records we must keep by law.

7. Nonpayment

If a payment fails, we retry your card and remind you by email. 21 days after it was due, your site shows a temporary notice with your business phone number; lead forms keep working.

If a payment is still unpaid 30 days after it was due, your plan ends that day as if you had cancelled it. Your site goes offline, and you owe the payments still unpaid plus the early termination fee for the months after them, worked out that day. That is never more than you would have owed by cancelling yourself on the same day. Our reminder emails tell you the date your plan will end and the fee that will apply.

A payment at any point before then clears the notice and keeps your plan going.

8. Content and acceptable use

The client warrants they own or have rights to everything they provide, including photos on their current website that we reuse, and indemnifies us for content they supply.

The client is responsible for the accuracy of their business claims and license information.

We may decline requests for unlawful, deceptive or infringing content, and may end service for abuse or such requests. No early termination fee is owed when we end service for these reasons. Nonpayment is covered under Nonpayment above.

Mockup previews are for evaluation only and may not be copied or used without subscribing.

9. Service levels and liability

We use commercially reasonable efforts to keep sites available and do not guarantee a specific uptime. If a site is down for more than 24 hours because of us, we may provide a pro-rated credit.

We don't guarantee compliance with any accessibility law; the client is responsible for content they supply.

Liability is limited to the fees paid in the 3 months before the claim, with no liability for consequential damages such as lost leads or revenue.

10. Leads and data

Lead form submissions are processed by Berry Site as a service provider to the client and kept for up to 24 months.

11. Support

Support is provided through the client dashboard, with replies within 1 business day. Mockups target 3 business days and changes 2 business days.

12. Transfer on sale of the business

The subscription may transfer to a new owner with the remaining term. Otherwise a sale is treated as an early cancellation, which we may waive (for example if the business closes or the owner dies).

13. Copyright complaints (DMCA)

We respond to valid notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Designated agent: [to be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office before hosting client sites].