Customer Agreement

This agreement is between Amistrea Phone Systems, LLC, of Raleigh, North Carolina ("Amistrea", "we", "us"), and the business that orders Amistrea's phone service ("you"). It covers the phone service, the console and the Amistrea app. Two published texts are part of it: the Privacy Policy at phones.amistrea.com/privacy and the fair use terms at phones.amistrea.com/fair-use.

In short

• $19 a month for each person and $5 a month for each shared phone. Calls on our carrier are included for normal business use, as the fair use terms say.
• No contract term. You can cancel at any time, and the service runs to the end of the month you have paid for.
• 911 on an internet phone system has limits a landline does not. Section 13 says what they are, and the owner who signs this agreement acknowledges them.
• Recording is off until you turn it on, and recording lawfully is your responsibility.
• North Carolina law applies.

This summary does not replace the sections below.

1. Who this agreement is between

1.1 You are the business named when the service was ordered. The service is sold for business use, and you confirm you are buying it for a business, not for personal, family or household use.

1.2 The person who signs this agreement confirms that they are at least 18, that they are an owner, officer or employee of the business, and that they have authority to bind it.

2. Words used here

• Service: the hosted phone system described in section 4.
• Your system: the server we run for your business alone, and the phone system software on it.
• Console: the web application, also inside the Amistrea app, where your system is set up and managed.
• Owner: a person who holds the owner role for your business in the console.
• Person: someone listed for your business in the console who is not switched off. An agent's staff are never counted as your people.
• Shared phone: an extension nobody is assigned to, such as a front desk or conference room phone.
• Our carrier: phone numbers and calling provided through Amistrea's own carrier account.
• Your own carrier account: phone numbers and calling you hold in your own name with a carrier and connect to your system.
• Agent: an independent company, such as an IT provider, that Amistrea recognises as an agent and that is linked to your business.

3. How this agreement is made

3.1 An owner signs this agreement in the console, from their own sign-in or from a link emailed to them to sign it. The whole agreement is shown above the signature. The owner types their name and title, ticks a box that is never ticked in advance and presses the button beside it. That is your electronic signature. We record the version signed, the time, the name and title typed, the email address of the person who signed and their account if they have one, your system's 911 address at the time, and the internet address and browser they used.

3.2 By signing, the owner also acknowledges, for your business, that they have read and understood section 13 and the limits of 911 it describes. That acknowledgment is recorded with the signature.

3.3 We do not build your system until an owner has signed. An agent may enter your business's details and service address for you, and send you this agreement to sign, but only an owner of your business can sign it.

3.4 Section 13 decides anything about emergency calling, the Privacy Policy decides anything about your information, and the rest of this agreement decides everything else.

4. The service

4.1 What you get:

• a server we run for your business alone, with the phone system on it;
• the console, with a call flow editor, people and extensions, voicemail, call recording, call history, and a log called What changed that records every change made through the console and who made it;
• ways for your people to make and take calls: desk phones, the Amistrea app and a phone in the web browser;
• phone numbers, through our carrier or through your own carrier account;
• 911 calling, as section 13 describes;
• the console assistant, as section 17 describes.

4.2 What is not included: any uptime or service-level commitment; phone hardware, which you buy separately and which is yours; and backups of your server.

4.3 Internet and power. The service runs over the internet. Your phones need working internet and power where they are. Calls also depend on your server, on our systems and on the carrier. If any of these fails, calls can fail, including calls to 911.

4.4 Updates. We install software updates on your server automatically, at times when it is idle.

4.5 Changes to the service. We may improve or change the service. We will not remove calling, voicemail, 911 calling or your numbers, or otherwise materially reduce the service, without the notice in section 23. You may leave before such a change takes effect, at no cost.

4.6 Your data and our software. Your call flows, recordings, voicemail, greetings, contacts and call records remain yours. You let us host, process, copy and send them only as needed to provide and support the service, to comply with the law, and as the Privacy Policy describes. We own the software and the console, and you may use them while you have the service.

5. The account and your people

5.1 The account belongs to your business.

5.2 Sign-ins. Every sign-in is created through an emailed link, and each person chooses their own password. Nobody sets or sees another person's password: not an owner, an admin, an agent or Amistrea's staff. Resetting someone's password locks their account and emails them a link to choose a new one.

5.3 Owners. Your business always has at least one owner. Only Amistrea appoints a new owner, never an agent or an admin, and only on proof it finds satisfactory that the person speaks for the business.

5.4 Responsibility for use. You are responsible for how the service is used by everyone you give access to. Keep sign-ins, devices and desk phone passwords secure, and tell us at support@amistrea.com as soon as you think one has been misused.

5.5 Accurate information. The details you give us about your business, its addresses and its owners must be true and kept current. We may ask for documents that show your business exists and that the person acting for it may do so, such as its registration and a photo ID. Until we have them, we may limit outside calling.

6. Prices

6.1 $19 a month for each person.

6.2 $5 a month for each shared phone.

6.3 Calls. On our carrier, calls are included in these prices for normal business use under the fair use terms, and they are not metered. On your own carrier account, your carrier bills you for your calls and numbers.

6.4 The monthly charge is worked out from the people and shared phones on your system, and it is never for fewer than one person. There is no set-up fee, no minimum term and no late fee.

6.5 The assistant is included, up to $10 of use a month for each business, or $2 until your business has paid for its system. Above that it stops answering until the next month.

6.6 Any other charge applies only to something you choose, and it is shown to you before you choose it.

7. Taxes and government charges

7.1 Prices do not include taxes or government charges. We may add to your invoice any that the law requires us to collect, each on its own line.

7.2 They are worked out from your service address, so keep it current.

7.3 An exemption applies only once we have a valid exemption certificate for it.

8. Free trial

8.1 A business that signs up itself, on our carrier, gets its first 14 days free the first time it builds its system. The 14 days start when the system is ready. A business an agent brings in has no free trial.

8.2 During a free trial:

• your system makes at most 2 outside calls at once and 100 outside calls a day, and 100 minutes of outside calls in all;
• calls coming in are never cut off, and these limits never apply to 911 calls;
• texting, bringing a number over and adding numbers wait until you pay;
• the assistant is limited to $2 of use.

8.3 Unless you cancel before it ends, your card is charged when the trial ends. If that charge fails, you have 3 days to pay with another card. After that, your system is shut down and its number is given back. The account, its call flow and its people stay, and you can build again, paying that day.

9. Payment

9.1 A card first. We need a payment card before we build your system. Our payment processor holds it, and the card number never reaches our servers.

9.2 What you authorise. By saving a card, you authorise us to charge it, without asking each time, for the monthly charges in section 6, any taxes and government charges under section 7, and anything else you choose under 6.6. This lasts until your account ends and everything owed is paid.

9.3 The first charge. Without a free trial, we charge your card when we order your server, just before we build your system. With one, we charge it when the trial ends. If we cannot finish building your system, we cancel the subscription and refund the charge. You do not pay for a system you did not get.

9.4 We bill monthly in advance. Only an owner can change the card, on the console's Billing page; an agent never can.

9.5 If a charge looks wrong, tell us at support@amistrea.com within 60 days of it.

10. If a payment fails

10.1 An owner can pay with another card on the Billing page at any time.

10.2 If an amount stays unpaid, we may suspend your account. Suspension does not switch off your phone line: calls in and out continue, and the console stays open so you can pay. Sending texts stops while you are suspended.

10.3 If the amount is still unpaid 30 days after suspension starts, we may shut down your system. From then on no calls can be made or received on it, including calls to 911.

11. Fair use

11.1 The fair use terms at phones.amistrea.com/fair-use are part of this agreement. They set how many outside calls your system makes at once, the monthly level of outside calling we look at, and what happens if you go over it. Your system enforces the limit on calls at once.

11.2 They do not apply to 911 calls.

12. Acceptable use

12.1 You, and everyone who uses your system, must use it lawfully: every law on telemarketing, automated calls, caller ID, call recording, privacy and consumer protection that applies to your calls.

12.2 No robocalls. Do not make auto-dialled or prerecorded calls, or calls in an AI-generated voice, unless the law allows them and you have the consent it requires. AI-generated voices count as artificial voices. Follow the national Do-Not-Call rules, keep your own do-not-call list and honour requests to stop calling. You alone are responsible for getting and keeping proof of consent.

12.3 Caller ID. Never show misleading or inaccurate caller ID. On our carrier, show only numbers held for your business in our records; on your own carrier account, only numbers you are authorised to use. We may refuse or replace any other caller ID.

12.4 What the service is not for:

• auto-dialers (predictive, power or parallel dialling), call centres and telemarketing;
• reselling or sharing your lines outside your business;
• calls placed to make money from call volume, such as traffic pumping, or calls to premium-rate or high-cost numbers;
• connecting another phone system to yours so it can use your lines;
• attacking or probing the service, other customers or carriers;
• getting around the limit on calls at once;
• threatening, harassing, defrauding or impersonating anyone;
• calling 911 except in a real emergency.

12.5 Numbers. Do not sell, rent or transfer a number we provide.

12.6 Calls abroad. Your system refuses calls to other countries unless your business allows them for that country in the console, and it refuses calls to premium-rate numbers.

12.7 Investigations. We may investigate suspected misuse, and you will cooperate. If the FCC, law enforcement or the industry traceback group asks us to trace calls, we answer as the law requires, and if illegal traffic is identified from your system we may block it.

12.8 Report misuse of an Amistrea number or system to support@amistrea.com, with the number, the date and time, and what happened.

13. Emergency calling (911)

13.1 911 on your Amistrea phone system is not the same as 911 on a traditional landline. This section says when it may not work, or may be limited, and what you must do. Read all of it, then tell everyone who uses your phones.

13.2 911 is part of the service. You cannot switch it off.

13.3 How to call 911. Dial 911 directly from a phone on your system. Do not dial 9, or any other number, first. Stay on the line. Always tell the call-taker where you are, including the suite, floor or room, even if you think they already know.

13.4 One address for every phone. Your system holds one 911 address for all its phones: the address on the 911 screen in your console. It cannot tell a 911 centre where any particular phone is. Whichever phone makes a 911 call, a desk phone, the app, a browser, or a phone used at home or while travelling, that is the only address your system can give, and only once the carrier has registered it. If someone calls 911 from anywhere else, the call-taker may be given the wrong address unless the caller says where they are. If your business has more than one location, or people who work from home or on the road, the same applies to their 911 calls. Tell them.

13.5 When 911 may not work, or may be limited. A 911 call from your system may fail, be delayed, reach the wrong 911 centre, or arrive without your correct address or number in these situations:

• The internet fails or is overloaded, at your location, at the data centre where your system's server runs, or at the phone carrier.
• The power fails at your location. Your phones, router and network equipment need power, and without backup power they stop.
• Your system's server is down, is restarting, or cannot reach the carrier.
• A phone is moved, or used away from your registered address. See 13.4.
• Your address is not yet registered with the carrier, or was just changed. A new or changed address takes time to reach the records 911 centres use. Until it is registered, a 911 call may go to a national emergency call centre, where the call-taker has to ask where you are, or it may reach a 911 centre without your address.
• Your phone number is not local to where you are. A number from another area, including one we give you, can affect how a 911 call is handled.
• The 911 centre cannot receive your number or location. Some 911 centres cannot. You will then have to give your number and location.
• Your system has been shut down for non-payment. If a bill goes unpaid, your account is suspended first, and suspension does not switch off your phone line. If the bill is still unpaid 30 days later, your system may be shut down, and after that no calls can be made on it, including calls to 911. We will tell your owners before that happens.
• Your service has ended, or equipment has failed or been set up wrongly. For example, a phone is not connected to your system.
• You use your own carrier account, and your carrier's own 911 records or service are affected. See 13.9.

This list is not complete. Anything that goes wrong with the equipment, networks or services a call depends on can affect 911.

13.6 Your 911 address: what you must do.

• Give us the street address where your phones are used, with the suite, floor or room. Do not give a PO box, a mail drop, or a billing address unless your phones are actually there.
• Before phones or people move, update the address on the 911 screen in your console. If you move a phone without updating it, the address on file for 911 is the old one.
• Tell us about each other location, and about everyone who uses your phone system away from your registered address.
• If you add a location, or someone works remotely, outside North Carolina, tell us first. Some states have their own 911 rules for business phone systems.

13.7 The on-site 911 alert. Your system is set up to send an alert when someone dials 911, so that someone on site knows help has been called. Today Amistrea sets where the alert goes when your system is built, and you cannot change it in the console yet. Do not rely on the alert. Amistrea has not confirmed on a live call that it reaches anyone. Ask everyone who might call 911 from your phones to tell someone on site as well.

13.8 Tell everyone who might use your phones. Tell your employees, temporary staff, visitors and anyone else who may use a phone on your system about these limits. Put a 911 label on or near each phone, with these words:

EMERGENCY: DIAL 911. Dial 911 directly; do not dial 9 first. This is an internet phone, and 911 may not work if the internet or power is out. The 911 address on file for this phone system is the one your business registered. If you are somewhere else, tell the 911 call-taker where you are.

13.9 If you use your own carrier account, your carrier also keeps a 911 address for your numbers. Register the same address with your carrier, keep the two the same, and follow your carrier's 911 terms.

13.10 Keep another way to call 911, such as a mobile phone, for when your system cannot make the call.

13.11 What we do not promise. We do not promise that a 911 call will connect, reach a particular 911 centre, or deliver your address in every situation. Except for our wanton or wilful misconduct, and to the fullest extent the law allows, including 47 U.S.C. 615a and N.C. Gen. Stat. 143B-1413, we are not liable for any harm that results from a 911 call failing, being delayed, or reaching a 911 centre without your number or address.

14. Numbers and caller ID

14.1 Numbers on our carrier are assigned to your business for its use while you have the service.

14.2 Bringing a number over. You may move a number you hold elsewhere to your system through Bring a number over in the console, except during a free trial. Moving a number needs an authorisation signed by the business that holds it, or by its authorised representative, and that authorisation must be accurate.

14.3 How your calls are labelled. We cannot promise how other networks will label or deliver your calls.

14.4 Moving a number out. You may move a number we provided to another provider at any time. We will not refuse or delay a move because you owe us money; any balance stays owed. There is no fee for moving a number out, and moving it ends our service for that number.

14.5 After you leave, we keep a number we provided for 90 days so you can move it. After that it may be released and given to someone else.

15. Using your own carrier account

15.1 Your contract with your carrier is yours. It bills you for your numbers, calls, 911 service and related charges, and its terms apply to you, including on emergency calling. We do not resell or mark up its service.

15.2 Keep your carrier login current in the console, and register each 911 address with your carrier as it requires.

15.3 We are not responsible for what your carrier does or fails to do.

16. Call recording

16.1 Recording is off until you turn it on in your call flow.

16.2 Before a recording starts, your system plays a notice that the call may be recorded, unless your business switches the notice off.

16.3 You decide whether calls are recorded, and you are the party recording them. You are responsible for every consent, notice and record the law requires wherever a party to the call is, for your reasons for recording, and for how you use, keep and share recordings. The notice is a safeguard, not legal advice.

16.4 Our staff open your recordings, voicemail or live calls only when needed to provide, support or protect the service, when you ask, or when the law requires. We do not monitor calls at random.

17. The assistant

17.1 To answer a question, the assistant reads your system's set-up and may read your call history, people, contacts and voicemail. What it reads is sent to the AI provider the Privacy Policy names.

17.2 The assistant proposes changes and shows exactly what would be different. Nothing is applied until a person with authority approves it, and every approved change appears in What changed.

17.3 Its answers can be wrong. Check a proposal before you approve it.

17.4 We keep the questions asked and the answers given, with who asked, as part of your system's records.

18. Agents

18.1 You stay our customer. If an agent is linked to your business, you pay Amistrea, not the agent, for the service, and we pay the agent a commission out of what you pay.

18.2 The agent is independent. It cannot change this agreement, make promises for us or bind us.

18.3 While it is linked, you authorise your agent to:

• set up, configure and support your system;
• see your call history, voicemail and recordings, to support you;
• enter and confirm your 911 address for you;
• sign authorisations to move your numbers, as your authorised representative.

18.4 An agent cannot sign this agreement for you, see or enter your card, see or set anyone's password, or appoint an owner.

18.5 How agent staff reach your system. Each staff member of an agent signs in to your business separately, for your business alone, with two-step verification, their password again and a stated reason. Each sign-in, and every change made, is recorded in What changed.

18.6 Withdrawing the agent. An owner may withdraw the agent at any time on the Your provider page in the console. The link ends, and every open sign-in by the agent's staff ends at once. Your service from Amistrea continues.

19. Privacy and call records

The Privacy Policy explains what we collect, why, who else handles it and how long we keep it. Your call records are confidential. We use them to provide the service, and before we discuss them with anyone we check that the person speaks for your business.

20. Suspension

20.1 Fraud and illegal traffic. If we reasonably believe your system is being used for fraud or illegal calls, or for traffic that threatens our network or a carrier, we may at once limit or suspend outside calling, only as far as needed. We will tell your owners promptly, and we will restore it when the problem is resolved. We will not deliberately block calls to 911.

20.2 Non-payment is handled as section 10 says.

20.3 Other breaches. If you materially break this agreement, we may suspend or end the service if it is not put right within 10 days of our notice, or at once where the law or the risk requires it.

21. Term and cancellation

21.1 This agreement runs month to month until it is cancelled. It never renews into a longer term.

21.2 You may cancel at any time. An owner cancels on the console's Billing page, or by email to support@amistrea.com. The service runs to the end of the month already paid for, and until then an owner can change their mind with one press. There is no cancellation fee, and no refund for part of a month.

21.3 We may end the service only for non-payment under section 10, for fraud or a material breach under section 20, or under the fair use terms, on the notice they give.

22. After your service ends

22.1 Your number is kept as section 14.5 says.

22.2 Your information is kept and deleted as the Privacy Policy says. Within 30 days after your service ends, an owner can ask us at support@amistrea.com for a copy of your recordings, voicemail and call history.

22.3 Amounts owed remain owed.

23. Changes to this agreement

23.1 We may change this agreement, the fair use terms or the prices at any time. We will email your owners at least 30 days before a change takes effect.

23.2 You may cancel before a change takes effect and pay nothing under the new terms.

23.3 A change the law requires, or one needed to protect 911 or the network, may take effect sooner, with as much notice as we can give.

23.4 If you keep using the service after a change takes effect, you accept the agreement as changed.

23.5 We keep a record of which version of this agreement your business signed. If section 13 changes materially, an owner will be asked to sign the new version.

24. What we promise, and what we do not

24.1 We will provide the service with reasonable skill and care, and will comply with the laws that apply to us.

24.2 We do not promise any particular uptime. Support is by email at support@amistrea.com, Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 Eastern.

24.3 Apart from what this agreement says, the service is provided as it is and as available. To the extent the law allows, we disclaim implied warranties, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

24.4 We are not responsible for failures of your internet, power, network equipment or phones, of your own carrier, or of others we do not control.

25. Limits on liability

25.1 Neither of us is liable to the other for indirect, special or consequential loss, or for lost profits, revenue or data.

25.2 Our total liability under this agreement is limited to what you paid us in the 12 months before the event that led to the claim.

25.3 These limits do not reduce what you owe us, your obligations under section 26, liability for fraud or wilful misconduct, or anything the law does not allow to be limited. Section 13.11 sets the limits for 911.

26. Indemnity

You will defend and indemnify Amistrea against claims by others arising from:

• your unlawful use of the service, or a breach of section 12;
• recordings you make, or how you use them;
• a wrong 911 address you gave us, or not telling your people about the limits of 911;
• your content, and the caller ID you present;
• disputes with your own carrier.

27. Law and disputes

27.1 This agreement is governed by the law of North Carolina, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules, and by federal communications law where it applies.

27.2 Talk first. Before starting a claim, each of us will give the other written notice and try in good faith to resolve it for 30 days.

27.3 Disputes are decided by the state or federal courts for Wake County, North Carolina, and each of us agrees to their jurisdiction.

27.4 Nothing here stops you from complaining to the FCC or to a state agency.

28. Notices and electronic records

28.1 Notices to you go by email to your owners' addresses in the console, so keep them current.

28.2 Notices to us go to support@amistrea.com.

28.3 You agree to receive this agreement, notices, receipts and records electronically, with the same effect as paper.

29. General

29.1 We may transfer this agreement to a successor, including after a change of name or a sale of our business. You may transfer it with our written consent, which we will not unreasonably withhold.

29.2 Neither of us is responsible for a delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control. This does not excuse paying.

29.3 We are independent contractors. Neither of us is the other's agent, except as section 18 and a signed authorisation to move a number say.

29.4 This agreement, with the Privacy Policy and the fair use terms, is the whole agreement between us about the service. If any part of it cannot be enforced, the rest still applies. Not enforcing a part does not waive it.

29.5 We will not use your name or logo without your consent.