Terms of service

4.1 What the Services do

Ringzel is an automated AI receptionist for businesses. You keep your own telephone number and forward the calls you choose to the Services. The Services answer those calls in your business name, tell the Caller that they are speaking to an automated receptionist, ask the questions you have set, follow the instructions you give, and pass the details to you. After each call you can receive a recording, a transcript, a summary and a check report produced by a separate automated check.

Depending on your Plan, the Services may also provide a website chat for your website, book appointments into your calendar, transfer calls, route Callers to the right person in your team, connect to other tools you use, and help with reputation management. Features by Plan are shown on our pricing page.

4.2 Building and testing

You can build and test a receptionist on our website before you subscribe. To build it, we look up your business listing and read your public website. Test calls made in your browser are handled and recorded in the same way as other calls so that you can review them.

4.3 Not an emergency service

Ringzel is not an emergency service and cannot send help. It passes on the instructions you configure. By default, if a Caller describes an immediate danger to life, it tells them to hang up and call 999; if a Caller reports a smell of gas, it gives the gas emergency number for the region (0800 111 999 in Great Britain, 0800 002 001 in Northern Ireland). It does not decide for itself whether something is dangerous.

4.4 No professional advice

The Services do not provide, and must not be relied on for, medical, dental, veterinary, legal, tax, financial, electrical, gas, structural, security or any other professional or regulated advice. The Services may communicate information and instructions that you configure, and you are responsible for them. Any Output and any information we provide is for general information only. You and your Callers should consult qualified professionals for specialised advice.

4.5 Disclaimer of agency

We are not a law firm, financial institution, regulated telecommunications provider, emergency service or professional adviser. Your use of the Services does not create an agency, fiduciary, professional or lawyer-client relationship between you (or your Callers) and us.

6.1 Compliance with laws

You agree to use the Services in compliance with all laws, regulations and industry rules that apply to you, your business and your Callers, including data-protection, privacy, electronic-communications, call-recording, consumer-protection, marketing and sector-specific rules.

6.2 Prohibited conduct

You must not, and must not allow anyone else to:

• interfere with or disrupt the Services, our servers or networks, or those of our providers;
• transmit viruses, malware or any other malicious code;
• use data mining, robots, scrapers or similar data gathering or extraction tools without our prior written consent;
• impersonate another person or business, or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity;
• configure the Services to deceive Callers about who they are speaking to, or to pretend to be a person;
• use the Services to make or support unsolicited marketing calls, or for any fraudulent, harassing, defamatory, discriminatory or unlawful purpose;
• use the Services to collect information you are not entitled to collect, or to process special category data in breach of applicable law;
• represent, imply or create the impression that you are partnered with, affiliated with, endorsed by, authorised by or acting on behalf of us, or use our brand, name or logos, except as permitted under section 8;
• upload or share any content that infringes intellectual property rights, violates privacy rights or is otherwise unlawful; or
• resell, sublicense or provide the Services to third parties except as we expressly agree in writing.

6.3 Monitoring

We may monitor use of the Services for security, operational, quality and compliance reasons, subject to our Privacy Policy, the DPA and applicable law.

8.1 Our intellectual property

The Services, including all logos, trade marks, service marks, trade names, designs, text, graphics, software and content (excluding Customer Content and Outputs), are owned by or licensed to us and are protected by intellectual property laws. This includes the name "Ringzel", our logos, our domain names, and our brand styling and get-up (together, our "Brand Assets"). You may not use our intellectual property or Brand Assets without our express prior written consent.

8.2 No right to claim a partnership or endorsement

Unless we have given you express prior written consent, you must not state, imply, or create or allow any impression that you are a partner, official partner, reseller, authorised reseller, distributor, affiliate, agent, representative, sponsor, certified or approved provider of ours, or that you are endorsed by, accredited by, working with or otherwise commercially connected to us. Without limiting this, you must not:

• describe yourself or your business as being "in partnership with", "partnered with", "working with", "powered by", "official", "authorised", "certified", "approved", "accredited" or "endorsed by" Ringzel;
• use our Brand Assets in your company name, product name, trading name, logo, domain name, subdomain, email address, social media handle or account name, app listing, marketplace listing or business directory entry;
• register, apply to register or use any trade mark, domain name or handle that consists of, contains or is confusingly similar to our Brand Assets;
• use our Brand Assets in paid search keywords, advertising copy, display names, page titles, meta tags, alt text, hidden text, structured data or other metadata in a way that suggests affiliation, endorsement or a commercial relationship;
• issue any press release, public announcement, case study, pitch, investor material or marketing material that names us or presents us as a partner, supplier, customer or backer of your business; or
• hold yourself out as having authority to make representations, give commitments, quote prices, sell or enter into obligations on our behalf.

8.3 Permitted factual references

You may make accurate, factual, plain-text references to us where honestly necessary to identify us (for example, telling your own customers that calls to your business are answered using Ringzel, or naming us in a genuine comparison or review), provided you do not use our logos or stylised marks, do not imply endorsement, partnership or any commercial relationship, do not use our Brand Assets more prominently than your own, and comply with applicable law. Nothing in this section restricts any right you have that cannot lawfully be restricted, including honest comparative advertising permitted by law.

8.4 Consent is limited and revocable

Any consent we give under this section is non-exclusive, non-transferable and limited to the specific use, wording, media, territory and period we approve. Consent given for one use is not consent for any other use. We may withdraw consent at any time by written notice, and on withdrawal you must stop the use and remove or take down the relevant material within five (5) business days.

8.5 Brand guidelines

Where we approve use of our Brand Assets, you must comply with any brand guidelines we provide, must not alter, distort, animate, recolour, translate or combine them with other marks, and must not use them in any way that is misleading, disparaging, unlawful or damaging to our reputation or goodwill. All goodwill arising from your use of our Brand Assets accrues to us.

8.6 Enforcement

You acknowledge that a breach of this section 8 would cause us harm that damages alone would not adequately remedy. In addition to any other right or remedy, we may seek an injunction, interim relief, specific performance or other equitable relief in any court of competent jurisdiction, without needing to prove actual loss and, where the law allows, without giving an undertaking in damages, a bond or other security. We may also take any other step we consider necessary to stop the unauthorised use, including issuing takedown or infringement notices to hosting providers, domain registrars, app stores, advertising platforms, marketplaces, search engines and social media platforms; starting domain name dispute or trade mark opposition proceedings; suspending or terminating your account under section 21; and bringing claims for trade mark infringement, passing off, unfair competition, breach of contract or any other available cause of action. To the extent permitted by law, you will reimburse our reasonable costs and legal fees of enforcing this section against you. This section 8 survives termination of these Terms.

8.7 Reporting misuse

If you become aware of anyone misusing our Brand Assets or misrepresenting a relationship with us, please tell us at hello@ringzel.com.

8.8 Feedback

If you send us feedback or suggestions about the Services, you grant us an unrestricted, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free licence to use that feedback for any purpose without compensation to you.

12.1 Prices

Paying yearly gives you 12 months for the price of 10. Every Plan includes unlimited calls, with no per-call charges. The features included in each Plan are shown on our pricing page.

12.2 Taxes

Ringzel does not currently charge VAT. If we become required to charge VAT or any other tax, we will add it to our prices as the law requires and tell you before it applies. You are responsible for any taxes, duties or charges that apply to you in connection with your use of the Services, other than taxes on our income.

12.3 Billing and payment methods

Fees are billed in advance for each monthly or yearly billing period. You must provide valid payment details. By providing them, you authorise us and our payment provider to charge the applicable fees to your payment method on each renewal date until you cancel.

12.4 Refunds

Monthly Subscriptions: cancellation takes effect at the end of the month you have paid for, and we do not refund part months.

Yearly Subscriptions: cancellation takes effect at the end of the year you have paid for. The Services keep working until then, and we do not refund unused months.

Any other refund is at our discretion, except where the law requires otherwise.

12.5 Late payment

If a payment fails or is not made on time, we will remind you. If it remains unpaid, we may suspend or terminate your access to paid features. Suspension does not remove your obligation to pay amounts already due.

16.1 Our role

When we process calls, chats and Caller personal data on your behalf, we act as a data processor and you are the data controller for that data. You are the party in the relationship with your Callers. The DPA sets out how we process that data.

16.2 Your obligations as controller

You are solely responsible for:

• determining which laws apply to your business, your Callers and the jurisdictions in which you operate (for example, the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations and any sector-specific rules and, where you or your Callers are outside the UK, the laws of those places, including US federal and state laws on recording and intercepting calls, some of which require the consent of every party to a call);
• identifying the lawful basis on which calls and chats with your business may be answered by an automated receptionist, recorded, transcribed, summarised, checked and otherwise processed;
• giving any notices and obtaining any Caller, employee or third-party consents required under applicable law, including for call recording, automated handling and any processing outside the UK;
• the accuracy and lawfulness of the information and instructions you configure, including prices, opening hours, emergency and urgent-call instructions, and any regulated information; and
• configuring the Services appropriately before you forward calls, and keeping your configuration current as laws or your business change.

16.3 How the Services disclose themselves

By default, the Services greet Callers in your business name, tell them they are speaking to an automated receptionist, tell them the call may be recorded, and say so again if asked. They never claim to be a person or to be you. If you change the greeting, you must keep a recording notice in it. You are responsible for any further recording notice, privacy information or other disclosure your Callers must receive under applicable law. Depending on where you and your Callers are, that may include telling Callers that their call is handled by an automated system, that it may be recorded, transcribed and summarised, that their data may be processed outside the UK, and how they can reach a person or object, as well as meeting any law on the transparency of automated or AI systems that applies to you. We do not provide legal advice on which notices or settings are right for your business.

16.4 Caller requests

If a Caller contacts us directly about their personal data, we will refer them to you and, where reasonably practicable, tell you and cooperate with your response. Primary responsibility for responding to Caller privacy requests (access, deletion, correction and similar) rests with you.

16.5 Your warranties

You warrant and represent that: (a) you have all rights, consents and authorisations required to forward calls and connect website chat to the Services and to have them answered, recorded, transcribed, summarised, checked and otherwise processed by Ringzel; (b) your use of the Services, and all recordings, transcripts and other Outputs produced for you, complies with applicable law in every jurisdiction where your Callers are located; and (c) your configuration of the Services is appropriate for your business and those jurisdictions.

16.6 Indemnity for consents and configuration

In addition to section 20, you agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Ringzel against any loss, claim, liability, fine, penalty, cost or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in connection with: (a) your failure to give any required notice or obtain any required Caller, employee or third-party consent; (b) your configuration (or misconfiguration) of the Services, including the instructions and information you provide; or (c) any breach by you of applicable call-recording, privacy, electronic-communications, AI-disclosure, marketing or consumer-protection laws.

16.7 AI limitations

Ringzel is an automated service that uses artificial intelligence, including speech recognition, large language models and synthesised voice. You acknowledge that:

• AI can make mistakes. The Services may mishear, misunderstand or misinterpret a Caller, particularly on poor lines, with background noise, strong accents or unusual names;
• transcripts, summaries, check reports, messages, bookings and other Outputs may be inaccurate, incomplete or unsuitable;
• the automated check is itself automated and may miss problems or flag calls that were handled correctly;
• how the Services behave depends on the information and instructions you configure, and on third-party telephony and AI providers;
• we cannot guarantee that every call will be answered, understood, escalated or handled as you or the Caller intended; and
• you must not rely on Outputs without appropriate verification where the stakes warrant it, and you remain responsible for any business decision you make based on them.

16.8 Where data is processed

Call data processed through the Services, including call recordings, transcripts, summaries, check reports, chat content and account data, is processed and stored in the United States and in the other locations used by our providers, as described in our Privacy Policy. We may add, change or remove processing locations and providers from time to time in accordance with the DPA. Unless we agree otherwise in a written agreement signed by us, you accept that personal data may be processed in those locations. Detail on transfer safeguards is set out in our Privacy Policy and the DPA. We do not offer single-region data storage. To the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for losses arising from the location of processing, or from a change of location made in line with the DPA.

16.9 Sub-processors and the DPA

We may engage third-party sub-processors to help provide the Services. A current list of sub-processors is available to Subscribers on request. Where personal data is processed through the Services with you as controller and us as processor, the DPA is incorporated by reference into these Terms and forms part of the agreement between you and us. If the DPA and these Terms conflict in relation to the processing of personal data, the DPA prevails; in all other respects these Terms prevail. Liability under the DPA, any standard contractual clauses and any UK transfer mechanism is subject to the limitations, exclusions and aggregate cap on liability in section 19.

19.1 Excluded losses

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable (whether in contract, tort including negligence, breach of statutory duty or otherwise) for any:

• loss of profits, revenue, business, jobs, bookings, anticipated savings, goodwill, reputation or opportunity;
• loss, corruption or unavailability of data (including call recordings, transcripts, messages or contact records);
• business interruption or loss of use of the Services;
• missed, unanswered, incorrectly handled, delayed or poor-quality calls or chats, or any other consequence of a Caller's interaction with the Services; or
• indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive or exemplary losses, even if we were advised of the possibility of such losses.

19.2 Aggregate cap

Subject to section 19.4, our total aggregate liability to you under or in connection with these Terms, the DPA and your use of the Services (whether in contract, tort including negligence, breach of statutory duty or otherwise) will not exceed the greater of: (a) the total fees you actually paid us for the Services in the twelve (12) months immediately before the first event giving rise to liability; or (b) one hundred pounds sterling (£100).

19.3 Connected events

A series of connected events, or repeated events of the same type, is treated as a single event for the purpose of the cap in section 19.2.

19.4 What we cannot exclude

Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded.

19.5 Your responsibility

You acknowledge that you are responsible for configuring the Services appropriately for your business and jurisdiction (including notices, instructions, recording retention and Caller consent; see section 16), and that we are not liable for losses arising from your configuration of the Services or from your or your Callers' breach of applicable law.