Telebizz Ltd and its affiliated persons / companies trading as Virtual Receptionist through www.telebizz.co.uk, www.virtualreceptionist.co.uk and its related websites, hereafter to be referred to as 'The Company', supplies its services (not exclusive to but inclusive of call answering, brochure lines, message forwarding, mail forwarding and other mailing / fulfilment related services, provision of number allocation and fax services) operates under the following terms and conditions.
The Company reserves the right to add and amend these terms from time to time as required. The Company terms and conditions supersede any terms and conditions previously imposed by the client or the Company. The Company agrees to provide full up to date copies of this Agreement via our site www.virtualreceptionist.co.uk. Copies of all Agreements may be requested in writing by a recorded means to our registered office.
Any Company or person undertaking use of any aspect of the Company's services, hereafter referred to as the Client, for personal use or on behalf of a third party, is bound by these terms. Breach of this agreement may result in suspension or termination of all, or part of the services provided, without notice.
When undertaking services with the Company, Clients may be eligible for a free trial. Unless otherwise given expressly in writing, the Virtual Receptionist call answering service offers a free trial period of 1 month. The free trial includes:
Free trial periods are available to new Clients only. Clients opening multiple accounts will only be entitled to trial credits on the first/primary account. Holiday cover is not included in the free trial–the charges for holiday cover are available on request.
The Company cannot guarantee that free trial periods or credits can be reapplied or restarted in the event of technical difficulty that is an external service affecting fault, including network incompatibilities and third-party errors. It is the Client's responsibility to ensure that the facilities required to enable Virtual Receptionist services are available before commencing the trial period.
The free trial incurs no further obligation from the Client. Cancellation may be made at any point during the first month from the point of registration / signup by giving written notice by a recorded means to the Company's registered office. Where no cancellation is received within the free trial period, accounts will continue to be charged at the 'Standard tariff' rate when the period has expired.
Based on the Clients choice of service level, the Company agrees to provide one or more of the following:
The Client acknowledges that the Virtual Receptionist is a message taking facility and whilst the Company will always endeavour to comply with Client requests and may agree to trial certain additional services that are within our capacity to do so, service levels in this circumstance cannot be guaranteed. The Client understands that the Company accepts no responsibility for direct or indirect loss of earnings because of errors.
The Client accepts that by undertaking certain services, namely the SMS text messaging facilities, message content may be restricted due to predetermined character parameters.
The Client accepts that calls will be taken by the Virtual Receptionist between the hours of their selected tariff/service level. It is the Clients responsibility to ensure that provision is made for call answering after these times. The Company holds no responsibility for calls outside of operating hours unless the Company has previously put in place the facilities to do so at the request of the Client. Only the 24/7 tariff covers bank holidays, all other tariffs exclude bank holidays.
The Company agrees to employ continued quality control and monitoring of its agents and systems as far as is necessary to maintain service levels. The Company and Client acknowledge that from time-to-time anomalies because of human error and technical faults may occur. The Company agrees to endeavour to keep disruption to services to a minimum. The only exception to this is a Force Majeure event including acts of God, riots, war, strikes, epidemics, fire, communication line failures, power failures, natural disasters, or anything beyond the Company's control.
Whilst the Company will make every reasonable effort to ensure that staffing levels match the Client's call volumes, the Company cannot offer any guarantees relating to staffing levels. The Client will ensure that the Company is made aware of any expected increase to call volumes within a time scale that will allow the Company to provide sufficient training to its operators to enable them to handle said calls.
All Virtual Receptionist calls will be answered based on the information given to the Company by the Client either at the point of Signup / Registration or via the web-based Account Management Consol. The Client undertakes to provide sufficient information about them in the format requested. Any required training over and above the Company's in-house training, will be paid for by the Client. Costs for additional training will be offered by the Company and will be payable in advance.
The Client accepts that not every call will result in a message and that some callers will leave insufficient information for a complete message to be sent. The Company will make all reasonable efforts to filter unwanted calls, however the Company cannot guarantee to regulate all calls that are answered by agents on behalf of the Company.
The client agrees that the Company will only answer calls during their selected tariff hours. Changes to tariff hours can be made by given written notice to the company or via the Account Management Console.
The Company reserves the right at any time, without prejudice or prior notice, to make amendments to the pricing structure of any or all its services. The Company will make reasonable efforts to make the Client aware of these changes.
Current tariffs and prices for telephone services can be found on our host site www.virtualreceptionist.co.uk. New and returning Clients may choose from the Company's current tariff structure. Tariffs cannot be backdated. Multiple account discounts may however be available to some Clients. Full tariff structures for call answering and additional services are also available by written request to the Company's registered office.
The Client understands that in the following instances, their network provider may charge for call time accumulated in addition to other charges:
The Company will not be held liable for any additional charges levied by network providers and recommends that all Clients request full charging structures from their network provider before accepting the terms of this Agreement.
All usage of the Virtual Receptionist and its related services are chargeable. This includes but is not limited to every SMS sent from the Company to the Client. The Company reserves the right to charge for undelivered SMS messages, except for where the failure is shown to be through the sole fault of the Company. All calls are chargeable regardless of whether said call resulted in a message being sent to the Client.
Clients can upgrade their account at any point during a billing month resulting in a pro-rata charge for each tariff on their next invoice. All accounts must remain on the higher tariff for a minimum period of 1 month before any downgrading can occur.
All quotations for mailing, bespoke systems or other services are valid for 10 days only. The Company reserves the right to change the quotation at any time. The client shall be responsible to the Company for ensuring the accuracy of the details specified in the Company's quotation / estimate. All estimates are based on information, data and collateral being compatible with the company's systems and machinery / equipment. If the client supplies anything that is incompatible, the company reserves the right to surcharge any additional costs at standard rates without informing the client or refuse to accept the data, goods, or collateral in question.
When the Client signs up via paper-based systems or via the online sign-up systems or the client starts trading with The Company, this constitutes acceptance of the Company's terms and conditions. The Company reserves the right not to begin work until any specified sign-up process is completed.
Clients completing registration confirm that the information they have provided and will continue to provide is true, accurate and complete information about them and agree to inform the Company if that information changes. If it is shown or the Company suspects that the Client has not done this, the Company may suspend or terminate your Account and refuse use of services. The Company will treat your information very carefully and will only use your information in accordance with these terms. The Client should note, the Company's terms will allow the Company to process the Clients registration and user data and to receive and deliver the Content.
During registration, the Company reserves the right to conduct certain security checks. Clients may be requested to provide copies of documentation such as proof of billing address. If the Company does not receive proofs or is not confident with the results of these checks, the Company reserves the right to suspend / terminate any account within 7 working days of the first day of registration. Unless otherwise expressly granted through written authorisation, these identity confirmation documents must include one of the following:
Clients may be required upon registration to provide one or more payment methods. The Company reserves the right at any point to refuse registration if valid payment details are not provided in accordance with these terms.
Except where express written authorisation otherwise states, the point of registration (also referred to as 'signup') of the Virtual Receptionist or parts of the service thereof and the terms of this agreement will be deemed to have been accepted when a full online or paper based signup has been received and processed by the Company to the point of account generation. Account generation is to be held as the date on which one or multiple unique DDI (Direct Dial numbers) have been allocated for a client. Where services not requiring the provision of DDI technology are required, account generation will be held at the point where Client details are processed onto the Company's billing / accounts platform.
Unless otherwise expressly agreed through written authorisation, the billing period will be on a month-to-month basis. Invoices will be produced monthly accordingly to reflect this charging period. Pre-pay, pay as you go clients will be charged monthly for monthly fees and on a top up basis for minutes purchased.
By supplying credit card and bank details the client accepts and agrees to allow the Company to take monies for all outstanding monies owing. Failed transactions due to insufficient funds or invalid / cancelled details will incur an administration fee of £12 per failed transaction. Non-automated payments will incur an administration fee of £5 per transaction where there has been failure to quote the Account Reference. The Company also reserves the right to hold deposits or move the client to a Pre-pay account for clients who have failed to meet the Company standard payment terms as detailed on the invoice or within these terms and conditions.
The Company reserves the right to suspend or terminate all or part of Client services at any point without notice where failure to make payment has occurred.
It is the Client's responsibility to ensure that all billing details, including address, are kept up to date. Any amendments to details must be made at least one working day before the end of the billing month in writing. Changes to bank / card details must be submitted at least 10 working days before the date shown on the invoice. Late amendments of these details may result in failed transactions and incur an administration fee.
The Company may as part of its billing procedure, without notice, implement a credit limit onto any new or existing accounts. Clients may be subject to a staggered credit limit structure within the first six months of usage, after which time, limits will be based on their average call spend. Clients who exceed their credit limit may be required to make a 'top-up' payment via credit / debit card to bring their spend to a lower level or be automatically moved to a pre-pay account. Remaining payments at the end of the month will be taken as normal. All payments will be outlined on the Client's monthly invoice. Pay as You Go clients will automatically have their credit charged in line with their default or selected top up amount. Clients who are on a post pay account may be moved on to a pre-pay account automatically if they fail to maintain their payments on time, using the credit card details supplied.
All overdue payments will be subject to 3% compound interest daily. All costs of recovery will be paid for by the client, including the administrative costs of recovery. The company reserves the right to charge administration fees for recovery of all overdue payments.
All billing queries must be raised within 14 days of date of invoice, failure to notify within this timescale will render the dispute invalid.
On completion registration process for telephone answering, Clients will receive a User ID and password for their Account. Clients are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of both their User ID and activities on the account in general. The Client must notify the Company immediately of any unauthorised use of their User ID or Account or any other breach of security that may affect the Company or its services.
All information, text, sound, or messages ("Content") are the sole responsibility of the person from whom such Content originated. The Company is not responsible for the Content of messages, or any other activities conducted through Client Accounts. Accordingly, the client agrees that they, and not Virtual Receptionist, are solely responsible and liable for all activities conducted through their Account.
The Company reserves the right to terminate any Account if in the Company's reasonable opinion that it has been used for the purpose of violating any law or we reasonably believe that the client has done so (or allowed to be done so) through use of Virtual Reception services any of the following: harass, threaten, embarrass or cause distress or discomfort to any person or transmit Content that we consider to be unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, vulgar, obscene or racially, ethnically, sexually or otherwise objectionable, particularly taking into account the recipient's age; transmit any Content that infringes any rights of confidence, trademarks, copyright, or other proprietary rights or intellectual property of any party; impersonate any person or manipulate identifiers to disguise the Content origin; or transmit any unsolicited advertising, promotional materials, or any other forms of solicitation. We do not permit the use of the Services to send unsolicited marketing material. If you send or allow to be sent any unsolicited marketing message using the Services, we reserve the right to charge you up to £50 for each person and/or number with respect to each such unsolicited message.
Although we normally do not filter or otherwise amend the Content of messages presented to us for conversion and we accept no obligation to do so, we and our Associated Persons reserve the right to remove or refuse to transmit Content that violates this Agreement or is otherwise objectionable. We and our Associated Persons may preserve Content and disclose Content if we, in good faith, believe that either is required to enable us to comply with or respond to any legal process or to enforce this Agreement or obtain advice from professional advisers. The Client understands and agrees that technical processing and transmission of the Services, including their Content, may involve (a) transmissions over various networks; and (b) changes to conform and adapt to technical requirements of connecting networks or devices; and (c) single or multiple human review.
Unless otherwise stated through express written agreement, the following applies to all accounts:
The Company and the Client agree to comply with applicable laws concerning privacy and data protection.
The company will not hold data any longer than necessary. Client data remains the property of the client at all times.
Mailing and fulfilment clients are required to have their own postage accounts. It is the client's responsibility to ensure at design stage that their mailing complies with the Royal Mail / DSA provider and the company suggests that samples are always sent off for approval in advance, especially as changes are ongoing. The company quotes based on the assumption that the client has already checked the specification criteria themselves and the company will accept no liability whatsoever for any retrospective or unexpected costs.
In the event of the company agreement to send out a mailing on The Company's postal account, cleared funds must be in the Company Account before the mailing will be commenced and all costs will be passed on the client. If Royal Mail / DSA provide deems that their criteria have not been met and this impacts on the anticipated costings, the mailing will be withheld until any balance funds are deposited.
The client takes full responsibility for tariff / all compliance requirements. Any associated penalty for non-compliance is to be paid by the client.
The company will not accept pre-populated postal dockets.
Unless required by applicable law or regulation or otherwise indicated in this Agreement, neither party shall disclose Externally any information that has been designated to be confidential or that is obviously confidential in nature (including message Content). "Externally" means persons other Associated Persons and advisers and any third parties who need to receive the information to provide the Services.
The Client will indemnify and hold us and our Associated Persons harmless from any losses, expenses, damages, claim or demand, including reasonable legal fees and consequential losses due to your use of the Services, violation of this Agreement, or violation of any rights of another.
The Client agrees to not reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, resell, make available for gain, or exploit for any commercial purposes, any portion of the Services, use of the Services, or access to the Services.
The Company may establish general practices (and change such practices without notice) and limits concerning use of the Services, including, without limitation, any fair use policies to be implemented by Virtual Receptionist, the maximum number of days that messages or other uploaded content will be retained by us, the maximum number of messages that may be sent from or received by an Account, the maximum size of any message that may be sent from or received by an Account, the maximum disk space that will be allotted on our servers to you, and the maximum number of times content will be resent after failure of a message. The Company take no responsibility or liability for the deletion or failure to store any messages and other communications, or other content maintained or transmitted by the services. The company will not hold mailing data any longer than necessary.
The Company may at any time modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, any supplied services (or any part of them) with or without notice and liability to anyone.
The Company may terminate the Clients User ID, password, Account (or any part of it) or use of the Services, and remove and discard any Content within the Services, for any reason and with or without notice, including, without limitation, for lack of use, failure to pay or if we believe you have violated or acted inconsistently with the letter or spirit of this Agreement. The Company shall not be liable to you or any third-party for any termination of your access to the Services.
The Company services and any software used in connection with the services ("Software") contain proprietary and confidential information that is protected by intellectual property and other laws. The Client acknowledges and agrees that content contained in information presented to you through the services may be protected by copyright, trademark, patents or other proprietary rights and laws. The Client or any third party may not copy, modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, distribute, or create derivative works based on content you receive (other than for forwarding messages) or the Software, in whole or in part. The Client may not access the services by any means other than through the interface that is provided by the Company for use in accessing the services.
Where the Company is unable to convert a message to text due to poor dictation, noisy environment, poor phone connection or drop-outs, language or unacceptable content, the Company will attempt to advise you.
The Service requires that your Network Operator supports call diverts (or call forwarding). The Service requires that you caller line identification be available to The Company. Please check before attempting to sign-up. Some mobile phone pre-pay services do not support call diverts. When roaming abroad certain mobile networks may not be compatible with your home network's text message service limiting the ability to deliver text messages to you. The Company assumes no responsibility for the deletion, mis-delivery, or timing.
The services are provided on an 'as is' and 'as available' basis. The Company hereby deny all other warranties, terms and conditions whether express or implied, including, but not limited to implied warranties terms or conditions concerning merchantability, satisfactory quality, or fitness for purpose. The Company assumes no responsibility for the deletion, mis-delivery or for failure to store any content. The Company makes no warranty that the services will be uninterrupted or error free.
The Company does not control the content transmitted through the services. By using the services, you may be exposed to content others send that you find offensive, indecent, or objectionable. The Company is not liable for content, including, but not limited to, any errors or omissions in any content even if it arises through The Company's negligence or for loss or damage of any kind incurred because of the use of any content. The Company is not liable for indirect loss or for loss of profits, goodwill, time, use, data or other intangible losses (even if advised of the possibility of such damages), whether arising through breach of contract tort or otherwise, resulting from: (i) the use or the inability to use the services; (ii) the cost of procurement of alternative services; (iii) unauthorized access to or alteration of your transmissions or data; (iv) statements or conduct of any third party transmitted through the services. The company cannot accept any liability for any third-party transaction, which the Company arranges on behalf of the client. Any disputes must be taken up with the third party. The Client shall indemnify the Company against all, and any cost, claims, liabilities, and expenses suffered or incurred by the Client because of this business relationship. The Company's liability arising out of or in relation to this agreement, whether arising due to breach of contract tort or otherwise, is limited to the lesser of (a) the amount of fees you pay to The Company in the 12 months prior to the action giving rise to liability, or (b) £50. All claims made against the Company must be detailed in writing within 14 days of the proposed incident, failure to notify within this timescale will render the claim invalid. The Company is not liable for any failure to perform its obligations when that failure is caused by events beyond its reasonable control ("force majeure").
The company cannot accept any liability for any third-party transaction, which the Company arranges on behalf of the client. Any disputes must be taken up with the third party. The Client shall indemnify the Company against all, and any cost, claims, liabilities, and expenses suffered or incurred by the Client because of this business relationship. The client is responsible for compliance of any legislation and takes full responsibility for data compliance. Whilst the Company has stringent quality control procedures in place The Company works within a normal tolerance level for errors of around 5%. This applies to all aspects of the business including IT, mailing, fulfilment, telephone answering, systems, human error etc. If the Company fails to deliver the goods, or service, or fails to deliver any items for postage for any reason other than any cause beyond the Company's reasonable control over and above the 5% tolerance level, the Company's liability (if any) shall be as outlined above.
Whilst every reasonable effort is made to ensure that staffing requirements match the clients' call volumes or mailing requirements, The Company cannot offer any guarantees on staffing levels. In terms of inbound call handling IVR may be used when the volumes are exceptionally high enabling missed calls to be captured and the Company reserves the right to call record from time to time for quality control monitoring.
The client undertakes to provide sufficient information in the format requested or initial training to the Company personnel where applicable, for example on outbound campaigns to enable the operators to carry out their role. Any training over and above the companies in house training will be paid for by the client and these costs will be agreed in advance. The company will advise the client regarding the information that is required to fulfil the role and the parameters of the service. The Virtual Receptionist is a simple message taking All information and other facilities requested by the Company to enable it to perform the Services shall be supplied by the client within reasonable timescale and any information or data supplied by the client shall be accurate and sufficient to enable the Company to perform the Services as agreed. The client maintains responsibility for full payment of Services in the event of a delay in providing or failure to provide the necessary information and facilities.
The Company accepts no liability whatsoever for the content of any communication on behalf of the client either verbal or written. We will always endeavour to represent your organisation in a professional manner.
The Company agrees to provide the client with a message taking/order taking / mailing/ IT and other services where all reasonable efforts will be made to ensure that accurate data is recorded, and the clients' requirements are fulfilled. The Company uses third parties and while all reasonable measures will be taken by the Company to maintain levels of service, the Company cannot guarantee or be held liable in full or in part to the level of service provided by these parties, this includes but is not exclusive to e-mail providers, SMS text message providers, clients website service and any requirements beyond this will have to be in advance by the company. outages, outages caused by power failures, results of unforeseen circumstances, events of war or acts of God etc.
The Company will make all reasonable efforts to filter unwanted calls, however the company cannot regulate the calls that are answered by agents on behalf of the client. The client accepts that not all calls will result in a message and that some callers will not leave sufficient information. Operators will use their best endeavours to gain the relevant information from the caller. The client will be liable for all minutes that agents are on the phone and the client is subsequently invoiced. The Company cannot be held liable for any costs incurred by the client during the contract. The company reserves the right to terminate the call if the caller is abusive or proper communication is not possible.
Price agreements are based on accurate information in advance from the client. Should anything materially change from the information supplied on which the agreed prices were based, The Company reserves the right to adjust the charges accordingly to ensure that The Company is compensated for decisions made based on inaccurate information supplied by the client.
Notices of changes to this Agreement or on other matters may be sent to you by email, SMS text messages, standard mail/post or through our website at www.virtualreceptionist.co.uk. The Client may contact the Company for any reason, including the updating or correcting of your personal data by using contact pages made available through this or any of our associated sites.
From time to time The Company may contact the Client with marketing promotions. The Client may choose to opt-out of these communications by contacting the Company using the details available on the www.virtualreceptionist.co.uk website.
This Agreement is the entire Agreement between the Company and the Client and governs the use all Virtual Reception Services. It supersedes any prior agreements that have been made. The Client may be subject to additional terms and conditions such as those imposed by your Network Operator. If any provision of this Agreement is found by any competent court to be invalid or unenforceable, its invalidity or unenforceability shall not affect the other provisions of this Agreement. If the Company fail to exercise, or delay in exercising a right or remedy under this Agreement or given by law, the Company is not waiving that right or remedy or any other rights or remedies.
The Client confirms that they are aged over 16. If the Client is under 18, the Client confirms that they have shown these terms and conditions to someone over 18 who agrees to guarantee and meet the obligations imposed on you. Similarly, the Client confirms that if they are not the bill payer, that they contract the Company on behalf of the bill payer and that they have sufficient authority to enter such a contract and that they will continue to be liable under this Agreement, as will the bill payer.
This Agreement and the relationship between the parties is governed by the laws of England and Wales and both parties submit to the jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.