Terms of service

By creating an account or using Standby you accept these terms, our Privacy policy and our Cookie policy. If you accept them for a business, you confirm you are authorised to bind that business, and “you” means the business. You must be at least 18.

Standby is sold to businesses for business use only. It is not a consumer product, and you confirm you are not signing up as a consumer.

Standby answers your missed calls, text messages, Instagram messages and Google reviews, and can answer calls with an AI receptionist, using the hours, prices, services and booking link you give it. It acts on your instructions and on your behalf. You remain the business your customers are dealing with, and you are responsible for what your business says to them.

Some features depend on accounts you connect — your Google Business Profile, Instagram, a booking provider — and on approvals from those platforms and from mobile carriers. A feature may be unavailable until those are in place.

Keep your password to yourself; you are responsible for activity under your login. Tell us promptly at pmventures.team@gmail.com if you think someone else has access. The information you give us when signing up must be accurate and kept up to date.

You keep ownership of everything you put into Standby and of your customers' conversations (“your content”). You give us a limited licence to host, process, transmit and display your content only as needed to run Standby for you, to keep it secure, and to meet our legal obligations.

We may produce aggregated statistics that do not identify you or any person — for example, how many messages Standby has answered in total — and use them to run, improve and describe the service.

You confirm that the information you give Standby to answer with — prices, services, hours, policies — is accurate, and that you have every right and consent needed for us to process your customers' information and message them on your behalf.

Text messaging, automated calls and call recording are regulated, including by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and state law. We build in safeguards — every automated text carries a STOP opt-out, opt-outs are honoured automatically, Standby replies only to people who contacted your business first, and the receptionist tells callers at the start that the call may be recorded. Compliance with these laws for your business's messages is still your responsibility. In particular, you agree:

• To use Standby only to reply to people who have contacted your business, and not to send marketing, promotional or bulk messages through it.
• Not to ask Standby to message anyone who has opted out, and to honour opt-outs you receive any other way.
• To complete the carrier registration (A2P 10DLC) and any other registration your messaging requires, and to give accurate information for it.
• To comply with any rules specific to your trade, your state, or your customers' states, which may be stricter than Illinois law.

You will not use Standby, or let anyone else use it:

• To send anything unlawful, deceptive, harassing, defamatory, or that infringes anyone's rights.
• To send unsolicited messages, or to contact people who have not contacted your business.
• To impersonate any person or business, or to post fake or incentivised reviews or review replies.
• To collect or process health information covered by HIPAA, payment card numbers, Social Security numbers or other government ID numbers. Standby is not built to hold them and we do not sign business associate agreements.
• To provide emergency services or handle emergencies.
• To probe, overload, reverse-engineer or get around the security or limits of the service, or to access it other than through the interfaces we provide.
• To resell Standby or offer it to third parties as a service.

Standby writes replies with AI. It is designed to answer only from what you give it and to hand a conversation to you when it isn't sure — but it is software and can be wrong, incomplete or out of date. Replies are sent in your business's name. Keep your business information current, review what Standby sends, and check anything that matters commercially before relying on it. You can require approval before review replies are posted, and you can take over any conversation at any time.

• Trials run 14 days and need no card to start. When a trial ends, Standby stops answering until you choose a plan.
• Paid plans are billed in advance, monthly or annually, through Stripe, and renew automatically for the same period until you cancel. Prices are shown before you subscribe.
• Prices exclude taxes, which are added where required.
• Plans with a monthly allowance of receptionist minutes do not cut off when the allowance runs out. Callers get your missed-call text instead until the allowance resets.
• We may change prices with at least 30 days' notice before your next renewal. If you don't agree, you can cancel before the change applies.
• If a payment fails we will tell you and retry. If it still can't be collected we may suspend the service until it is.
• Referral credits have no cash value, can't be transferred, and may be withdrawn if obtained through abuse of the referral scheme.

You can cancel at any time from your billing page, in two clicks. There are no long-term contracts and no setup fees. Cancelling stops the next renewal; you keep access until the end of the period you have already paid for.

Part-used periods are not refunded automatically. Annual plans cancelled within 14 days of purchase are refunded in full. If Standby did not work as described, or something went wrong on our side, write to us at pmventures.team@gmail.com and we will make it right.

Standby relies on services we do not control — mobile carriers, Twilio, Google, Meta, booking providers, payment processors and AI providers. Your use of a platform you connect (for example Google Business Profile or Instagram) is also governed by that platform's terms. We are not responsible for those services, their outages, or changes they make, including a platform withdrawing access or a carrier blocking messages.

We work to keep Standby running but do not promise it will be uninterrupted or error-free. We may change, add or remove features. If we remove something material you are paying for, we will tell you in advance and you may cancel and receive a pro-rated refund of any prepaid fees for the remaining period.

You can stop using Standby whenever you like. We may suspend or close your account if you breach these terms, if your use risks harm to people, to the service or to other customers, if a carrier or platform requires it, or if the law requires it. Where we reasonably can, we will tell you why first and give you a chance to fix it.

When an account closes, Standby stops answering for you. You can ask for a copy of your data within 30 days of closure. We delete your data within 30 days of you asking us to, and in any case within 12 months of closure, except what the law requires us to keep.

If you send us ideas or suggestions, we may use them freely without owing you anything. The Standby service, software and brand belong to us; these terms give you the right to use the service, not to own any part of it.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Standby is provided “as is” and “as available”. We disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement, and any warranty that the service or its AI output will be accurate, uninterrupted, error-free or secure, or that any message will be delivered.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, neither party is liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, business, goodwill or data, however caused and even if advised of the possibility. Our total liability arising out of or relating to these terms or Standby is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim, or one hundred US dollars.

These limits do not apply to your payment obligations, your indemnity below, or liability that cannot be limited by law. They apply even if a remedy fails of its essential purpose, and they reflect how Standby is priced.

You will defend, indemnify and hold harmless STANDBY AI LLC and its owners and personnel against any third-party claim, and resulting losses, fines, settlements and reasonable legal fees, arising from: your content or the business information you give Standby; messages or calls made on your behalf in line with your settings; your breach of these terms; or your violation of any law, including messaging, calling, recording, consumer-protection and privacy laws. We will tell you promptly about any such claim, let you control its defence, and cooperate at your expense; you won't settle a claim in a way that admits fault for us or binds us without our consent.

Talk to us first. Before starting any formal claim, either side must send the other a written description of the dispute and try in good faith to resolve it for 30 days. Write to us at pmventures.team@gmail.com.

Binding arbitration. Any dispute not resolved that way, arising out of or relating to these terms or Standby, will be settled by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Commercial Arbitration Rules, before a single arbitrator, in Chicago, Illinois (or by video, if both sides agree). Judgment on the award may be entered in any court with jurisdiction. Either side may instead bring an individual claim in small-claims court, or ask a court for an injunction to protect its intellectual property or stop misuse of the service.

Claims may be brought only individually, not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, consolidated or representative proceeding, and the arbitrator may not combine claims of different customers. Both sides waive any right to a jury trial.

Opting out. You may opt out of arbitration by emailing pmventures.team@gmail.com within 30 days of first accepting these terms, saying you opt out. If you do, or if this section is found unenforceable, disputes go to the state and federal courts in Cook County, Illinois, and both sides consent to their jurisdiction. The class-action and jury waivers still apply as far as the law allows.

Time limit. Any claim must be brought within one year after it arises, or it is permanently barred, to the extent the law allows.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois and applicable US federal law, including the Federal Arbitration Act, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.

We may update these terms. For a material change we will tell you by email or in the app at least 15 days before it takes effect; the change will not apply to a dispute already pending. If you keep using Standby after the change takes effect, you accept the new terms. If you don't, cancel before then.

• These terms, with the Privacy and Cookie policies, are the whole agreement between us about Standby and replace anything said before.
• If any part is found unenforceable, it is limited to the minimum extent necessary and the rest stays in force.
• Not enforcing a right straight away doesn't waive it.
• You may not transfer this agreement without our consent. We may transfer it to a company that takes over Standby.
• Neither side is liable for delays caused by events beyond its reasonable control, such as carrier, platform or internet outages.
• We are independent contractors; nothing here creates a partnership, employment or agency beyond Standby acting on your instructions.
• We may send notices to the email on your account. Send notices to us at the address below.
• Sections that by their nature should survive the end of this agreement — including fees owed, the disclaimer, liability limits, indemnity and disputes — survive it.

STANDBY AI LLC, Chicago, Illinois. Email pmventures.team@gmail.com.