Terms of Service

1. Agreement

TheLocalRing is a product of Bjola Software Inc. By purchasing or using the service, you agree to these Terms and our Messaging Policy. You must be at least the age of majority where you live and legally able to enter this agreement.

2. What the service does

TheLocalRing rents a dedicated United States or Canadian phone number to you for a defined period. A person can text that number, we forward the message to the email addresses you configure, and an authorized email reply can be relayed as SMS from the rented number. The service is receive-first: you cannot initiate an SMS conversation with someone who has not first texted the number.

You may choose a public nickname for recipient identification; otherwise the service uses “Listing contact.” A nickname must accurately describe the conversation or listing and must not impersonate another person or organization.

Short passes are text-only. A monthly subscription may forward incoming calls on a Canadian number to up to five phone numbers you choose, which ring at the same time, with 300 minutes of calls included in each 30-day period. Each call counts as a whole minute, rounded up, and a call in progress ends when the allowance runs out. Past that allowance, and on every pass, callers hear a spoken message asking them to text instead. Whoever answers a forwarded call first hears the calling number read aloud, and that number is also emailed to every address you have set to receive texts. We do not record calls or listen to them. Call forwarding is not currently available on United States numbers. The service does not promise outgoing calls, voicemail, picture messages, group messages, short-code messages, or compatibility with verification codes.

3. Plans, billing, and cancellation

• The 1-Day, 3-Day, and 7-Day Passes are one-time purchases and do not renew.
• The Monthly subscription renews automatically each month until you cancel it.
• A first Monthly subscription costs C$9.99 for its first month, charged at checkout, and C$14.99 a month after that. The C$9.99 first month is for new customers, once per account: an account that has already had it, or a free period, is charged C$14.99 at checkout. The first month is not refundable. If your first month was the C$9.99 one and you meant to cancel before the C$14.99 charge that follows it, email us within 30 days of that charge and we refund it in full. A subscription that began with a 14-day free period before the C$9.99 first month was offered keeps it, and is charged C$14.99 when that free period ends, unless you cancel before then.
• A 1-Day, 3-Day, or 7-Day Pass begins when a number is successfully assigned to you.
• Canceling Monthly stops the next renewal. Service continues through the period you have paid for, or to the end of the free period if you cancel during it.
• If you meant to cancel before the free period ended and did not, email us within 30 days of that first charge and we refund it in full.
• Otherwise, except where required by law or when we cannot activate the service, charges are non-refundable after a number has been assigned.

Prices, taxes, renewal terms, and the total charge are shown before payment. Stripe processes payments, and your card statement identifies Bjola Software Inc.

4. Expiry, grace period, and number reuse

Forwarding and reply access stop when your paid period ends. We then reserve the number for you for seven days. This grace period holds the number but does not provide free forwarding. If you buy another pass during grace, you keep that number. Otherwise, it leaves your account. Quiet numbers may return to our shared pool and be assigned to another customer. Numbers that continue receiving traffic may be quarantined or released instead.

Phone numbers can remain printed, indexed, saved, or shared after a listing ends. Once your grace period ends, future texts to the reused number may reach its next holder. We do not transfer your stored messages, email addresses, forwarding settings, consent records, or old email-reply access to that holder. You are responsible for removing or updating an expired number anywhere you published it.

5. Your responsibilities

You agree to keep your account secure and use the service only for lawful, low-volume, conversational communication. You must not:

• Send a first message, marketing, promotions, spam, bulk messages, or automated replies;
• Send fraud, phishing, harassment, impersonation, illegal content, or carrier-prohibited content;
• Evade STOP, HELP, geographic, rate, or receive-first safeguards;
• Use the number for account verification or misrepresent it as a mobile number;
• Interfere with the service or use it in a way that harms carriers, recipients, or other customers.

6. Delivery and availability

SMS, email, payment, hosting, and carrier networks are operated by third parties. Messages may be delayed, filtered, rejected, duplicated, or lost. We do not guarantee uninterrupted service, delivery time, availability of a particular area code, or recovery of a number after grace ends. Fair-use and abuse-prevention limits may apply.

Message frequency varies with the conversation. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to end texts through the number, START to resume after opting out, or HELP for help. Messaging support is available at hello@thelocalring.com. Consent is not a condition of buying a product or service from a TheLocalRing customer.

7. Suspension and termination

We may restrict, suspend, or terminate service to protect recipients, comply with law or carrier rules, respond to non-payment, or address a violation of these Terms. Serious abuse may result in immediate termination without refund.

8. Liability

The service is provided as available and without warranties to the extent permitted by law. Bjola Software Inc. is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for losses caused by delayed or failed messages, expired listings, number reuse, or third-party services. Our total liability for a claim is limited to the amount you paid us during the three months before the event giving rise to the claim.

9. Changes and contact

We may update these Terms by posting a new effective date. Material changes affecting an active recurring plan will be communicated when required. Questions may be sent to hello@thelocalring.com.