Terms of Service

1. Parties and agreement

These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a legally binding agreement between [Company Legal Name], a company registered in South Africa ("NewslettersSuck", "we", "us") and the legal entity or individual ("Customer", "you") that accesses or uses the NewslettersSuck.Email service ("Service").

By signing up, you confirm that you are authorised to bind your organisation to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

2. Service description

NewslettersSuck.Email is a done-for-you B2B newsletter service. We use a debate pipeline between several AI models to produce, gain your approval for, and send brand-consistent newsletters to your audience via your existing email service provider ("ESP"). We do not host, store or process your subscriber list; your ESP remains the system of record for all contact data.

3. Subscription and payment

3.1 Pricing

The Service is billed at $299 USD / month or R4 500 ZAR / month (your choice at signup, locked for the contract term). Annual plans are available at a 15% discount. Prices are set at signup and will not change mid-contract without written agreement.

3.2 Cold-start free tier

You may generate and preview up to three (3) sample newsletter issues at no charge before entering payment details. Once you choose to send any issue via your ESP, a paid subscription is required.

3.3 Payment terms

Subscriptions are billed monthly in advance via Stripe. If payment fails, we will retry for 7 days. After 7 days of non-payment, automatic sending is paused and you will be notified. If payment remains outstanding after 30 days, we may terminate your account with 7 days' notice. You remain liable for any outstanding amounts.

3.4 Refunds

If you cancel within the first 30 days of your first paid month and no newsletter has been sent via your ESP during that period, you are entitled to a full refund. After 30 days, or after a newsletter has been sent, no refunds are issued for the current billing period. Annual subscription refunds are prorated for unused months, provided no newsletters have been sent in the refund period.

4. Your responsibilities

• You must ensure your newsletter recipient list has been lawfully obtained and that recipients have given valid consent to receive marketing emails from you, as required by applicable law (CAN-SPAM, CASL, POPIA, GDPR).
• You must provide accurate information in your brand kit and kickoff form. We rely on this information to produce newsletters; inaccurate information is your responsibility.
• You must review every newsletter before it sends or allow the 48-hour auto-send timer to run. We are not liable for content that you approved (explicitly or by silence).
• You must keep your approver email addresses accurate and ensure your approver monitors the approval inbox. Failure to do so that results in an unintended auto-send is your responsibility.
• You must not use the Service to send content that is illegal, defamatory, spam, or violates any third-party rights.
• You are solely responsible for compliance with CAN-SPAM, CASL, POPIA, GDPR and any other applicable email marketing regulations in your jurisdiction. We provide tooling (physical address enforcement, unsubscribe link) but compliance is your obligation.

5. Our responsibilities

• We will produce newsletters using the brand kit information and topic calendar you approve.
• We will send approval emails to your designated approver within the agreed cadence cycle.
• We will push approved campaigns to your ESP using the credentials you provide.
• We will store your data securely and in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
• We will provide 99.5% monthly uptime for the portal and approval email pipeline, excluding scheduled maintenance and force majeure events. We do not guarantee uptime of third-party ESP APIs.

6. Intellectual property

6.1 Your content

You retain ownership of all brand assets, voice guidelines, and newsletter content produced for your account. You grant us a limited, non-exclusive licence to use your brand assets and content solely to provide the Service.

6.2 Our service

The Service, including its software, debate pipeline, AI model prompt architecture and UI, is our intellectual property. You may not copy, reverse-engineer or resell it.

6.3 AI-generated content

Newsletter content produced by our AI model pipeline for your account is yours. We make no warranties about copyright status of AI-generated content; you are responsible for reviewing and approving content before it is sent.

7. Confidentiality

Each party agrees to keep the other's Confidential Information (business plans, technical architecture, pricing, customer data) strictly confidential and to use it only to perform obligations under these Terms. This obligation survives termination for five years.

8. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

• Our total liability to you in any twelve-month period is capped at the fees paid by you in that period.
• We are not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive damages, including loss of revenue, loss of data, or reputational harm.
• We are not liable for failures of your ESP, for deliverability outcomes, or for subscriber actions in response to your newsletters.
• We are not liable for content you approved, explicitly or by auto-send timer expiry.

9. Warranties and disclaimer

The Service is provided "as is". We do not warrant that the Service will be error-free, uninterrupted or suitable for any particular purpose. We do not warrant that newsletters produced by the Service will achieve any particular marketing outcome. Subject to clause 5, we exclude all implied warranties to the fullest extent permitted by law.

10. Cancellation and data deletion

You may cancel your subscription at any time via the portal. Cancellation takes effect immediately; no further newsletters will be sent. We will:

1. Provide a full export of your data (newsletter drafts, debate transcripts, audit log, brand kit) within 24 hours of cancellation.
2. Permanently delete all your data within 30 days of cancellation.
3. Email you a deletion certificate when the deletion is complete.

Audit log entries and billing records required by law are retained for 7 years.

11. Termination by us

We may suspend or terminate your account with 7 days' written notice if:

• You breach these Terms and fail to remedy within 7 days of notice.
• Payment remains outstanding for more than 30 days.
• Your use of the Service violates applicable law.

On termination for cause, the data deletion process in clause 10 applies.

12. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Disputes will be resolved by the courts of South Africa (Gauteng Division). Either party may seek urgent interim relief before any court of competent jurisdiction. Before litigation, the parties agree to attempt good-faith mediation for 30 days.

13. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. We will notify you by email at least 14 days before material changes take effect. If you continue using the Service after the effective date, you accept the updated Terms. If you do not accept, you may cancel your subscription before the effective date.