Terms of Service

These terms govern your use of DispatchSAM, a service provided by DESIGNFLARE LLC ("we", "us"). By signing up you agree to them. If you are agreeing on behalf of a business, you confirm you are authorised to do so.

1. What the service does

DispatchSAM answers calls to a phone number you direct to us, asks the caller about the job, and — where your calendar has availability and the job is inside the service area you gave us — books an appointment. We also send text messages on your behalf, including missed-call replies, booking confirmations, appointment reminders, and follow-ups.

We may also email past customers of yours to say you are still taking work. Those emails go only to people who called the number you direct to us and whose details we took on that call. We do not import, buy or accept a customer list from you or from anyone else, and this is email, never text. Every one carries an unsubscribe link, which we honour. We do not commit to a schedule for it.

The system uses automated speech and language technology. It is not a human receptionist and we do not represent it as one, and it does not transfer callers to you or to anyone else. What it does instead: it books the job into your calendar, and where a caller describes an emergency it sends a text to the on-call number you gave us while they are still on the line. Every call is recorded and written up to you either way, whether or not anything was booked.

2. What the service does not do

• It does not diagnose faults or quote prices. Those are for your technician on site.
• It is not an emergency service. Callers reporting a life-safety hazard are told to contact emergency services or their utility first.
• It is built to answer every call, day and night, and that is what it does in normal operation — but we cannot guarantee it. Telephone networks, our suppliers and our own systems can all fail, so we do not guarantee that every call is answered, every job booked, or any particular volume of business.

3. Your responsibilities

• Give us accurate business details, service-area ZIP codes, hours, and calendar access.
• Hold the necessary licences and insurance for the work you take on. We do not verify these and take no responsibility for them.
• Keep your calendar current. We book against what it shows; if it is wrong, the booking will be wrong.
• Only ask us to message people you are lawfully permitted to contact, and honour opt-outs. We enforce consent and STOP handling in software, but the underlying relationship with your customers is yours.
• Tell us promptly if a caller raises a complaint about how a call was handled.

4. Text message programme

DispatchSAM sends text messages on behalf of the contractor a customer has contacted. These are appointment-related: replies to missed calls, booking confirmations, appointment reminders, a message after the visit asking whether the job got sorted, follow-ups where a caller did not book, and answers to messages the customer sends us. The same list is set out for customers on our text message page.

• Consent. Customers opt in verbally during a phone call to the contractor's business number, or by texting that number first, and the answer is recorded against the booking. Messages about an appointment the customer booked are sent either way, because they are part of the job that was arranged on the call; everything beyond the booking is sent only where the customer agreed.
• Message frequency varies depending on appointment activity.
• Message and data rates may apply.
• To opt out, reply STOP to any message. No further messages will be sent. Reply START to resubscribe.
• For help, reply HELP or contact hello@dispatchsam.com.
• Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.

No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. How mobile numbers and consent records are handled is described in the Privacy Policy.

5. Fees and term

The service is billed monthly in advance. Setup is free for a limited time, then $249 one time. A pilot pays neither the setup fee nor a monthly charge while it runs — see clause 5a. Current pricing is provided before you sign up.

The plan is month to month with no fixed term. It renews automatically each month until you cancel. You may cancel at any time, effective at the end of the current billing month. We do not refund part-months.

How to cancel. Tell us — on the phone, in the chat on this site, or at dispatchsam.com/account. We write back with the date your service runs to, which is the end of the billing month you have already paid for, and no further invoice is raised. Nothing changes before that date: your line is answered exactly as now, and appointments already in your diary are kept and reminded as usual. On that date we stop answering, so dial *73 from your published line on or before it to put your calls back on your own phone. Tell us any time before that date if you change your mind.

The plan includes a monthly allowance of answered call minutes. Minutes used beyond that allowance are charged at $15 per started hour and appear on your next invoice, which you agree to pay. We do not cut the service off for going over: Sam keeps answering. We tell you at 80% and 95% of your allowance, and once a day by email and text while you are over it, with the minutes used and the amount owed so far, so nothing on the invoice is a surprise.

5a. The free pilot

A pilot runs for fourteen days or 250 answered minutes, whichever comes first, counted from the day Sam starts answering your line. There is no charge, no card and no setup fee, and no obligation to continue.

We tell you by email and text at 200 minutes and again at 237. When the days or the minutes run out, Sam stops taking bookings. For a short period after that it tells callers the line is not taking bookings while we contact you, ending with your pilot report and instructions for turning call forwarding off. You can become a paying customer at any point before the pilot ends, and the service continues without a break.

During a pilot, messages to your customers are sent under our registered brand and are signed "[your business] (via DispatchSAM)". Registration of your own business with the mobile carriers, after which messages read as your business alone, happens when you become a paying customer.

6. Suspension

We may suspend the service if payment fails, if the service is used unlawfully, or if continuing would breach the rules of the telephone carriers or platforms we depend on. Where circumstances allow, we will warn you first.

7. Your data

Lead and appointment records created for you belong to you, and on request we will provide an export.

Cancelling stops the service, not the record. If you leave, we stop answering your phone and stop every message and campaign that goes out in your name — and we keep your records rather than deleting them, so that an export, a question or a dispute is still answerable afterwards. If you want them deleted, ask us and we will.

We keep the written transcript of each call. The audio recording is held by our telephony provider rather than by us, so we cannot guarantee how long any particular recording remains available. See the Privacy Policy for detail.

8. Availability

We aim to keep the service running continuously, but it depends on third-party telephony, calendar, and language-model providers. We do not offer a guaranteed uptime level, and interruptions caused by those providers are outside our control.

9. Liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, our total liability arising out of the service in any 12-month period is limited to the fees you paid us in that period. We are not liable for lost profits, lost business, or indirect or consequential losses — including from a missed call, a mis-booked appointment, or a message that failed to deliver.

Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

10. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. If a change materially affects you we will give at least 30 days' notice by email, and you may cancel before it takes effect.

11. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules.

Contact

DESIGNFLARE LLC, PO Box 8192, 2250 Double Creek Drive, Round Rock, TX 78664, United States
hello@dispatchsam.com