Terms of Service

These terms apply to everyone who uses our website, talks to us about a project, or uses a service we provide. Please read them carefully. Section 16 limits our responsibility to you and asks business clients to cover certain claims. We've written it in plain language so it's easy to follow.

1. Who we are

The Automators (Pty) Ltd, registration number 2025/800843/07, is a private company registered in South Africa ("The Automators", "we", "us", "our").

We build AI chatbots, voice agents, workflow automations and system integrations for businesses.

Our physical address is 1 Vergenoegd Bordeaux Estate, Ametis Street, Klerksdorp, North West, 2572, South Africa.

2. Accepting these terms

By using our website, booking a demo or assessment, accepting a quote or proposal, or using any of our services, you agree to these terms.

If you're accepting for a company or other organisation, you confirm that you're allowed to bind it, and "you" means that organisation.

If you don't agree, please don't use our website or services.

3. Our services

We offer:

• AI chatbots that answer questions on websites, WhatsApp and other messaging channels
• voice agents that handle phone calls
• workflow automation that takes repetitive tasks off your team
• system integrations that connect the software you already use

What we build for you, how long it takes and what it costs is set out in your proposal or project agreement (see section 6). These terms cover the general rules that apply to all our work.

4. Using our website

You may use our website to learn about us, contact us and book a demo or assessment. When you use it, you agree not to:

• break any law or anyone else's rights
• send spam, malware, phishing links or other harmful content
• try to get into parts of the website or our systems you're not meant to access
• copy, scrape or reuse our content for commercial purposes without our written permission
• interfere with how the website works, or try to overload it
• pretend to be someone else

The content on our website is general information about our services. It isn't an offer, and it isn't advice for your specific situation.

We may link to other websites. We don't control them and aren't responsible for their content.

5. Demos and assessments

We may offer a free demo or assessment so you can see what we could build for you. For example, we may build a sample chatbot using your public product or service information.

• A demo is a sample only. It shows what's possible, not a finished product.
• It may contain mistakes, and it may not stay available after the demo.
• Any recommendations we make in an assessment are based on the information you give us at the time.
• A demo or assessment doesn't commit either of us to a project.
• You confirm that you're allowed to share any information you give us for the demo.

6. Quotes, proposals and project agreements

Before we start a project, we send you a quote, proposal or project agreement. It sets out the scope, deliverables, timeline, fees and payment terms for that project.

• A quote or proposal is valid for the period stated on it, or for 30 days from the date we send it if no period is stated.
• A project starts once you've signed or accepted the proposal or agreement in writing, and paid any amount it says is due before work starts.
• Changes to the scope must be agreed in writing and may change the fees and timeline.
• If a signed proposal or project agreement conflicts with these terms, the signed proposal or agreement takes precedence for that project.

7. Payment

• Fees, payment dates and any amount due before work starts are set out in your proposal or project agreement.
• We invoice as set out in your project agreement. You agree to pay each invoice in full by its due date.
• Prices exclude third-party costs unless your agreement says otherwise. Some platforms charge you directly (see section 9).
• If a payment is late, we may pause work, pause or suspend the services we run for you, and charge interest on the overdue amount from the due date until paid, at the rate set out in your agreement or, if none is set, at the rate prescribed under the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act 55 of 1975.
• Pausing work for late payment may affect agreed timelines.
• If you dispute an invoice, tell us in writing before its due date so we can sort it out. Please pay any part you don't dispute.

The Automators is not registered for VAT, so we don't charge VAT on our fees. If we register in future, we'll tell you, and VAT will be added to fees invoiced after the registration date.

8. Your responsibilities

To get good results, we need your help. You agree to:

• give us accurate, complete and up-to-date information
• give us the access we need on time, such as accounts, logins, systems and content
• review our work and give approvals and feedback within a reasonable time
• use our services lawfully and only for legitimate business purposes
• get the consents your customers need to give, for example before you send them marketing or WhatsApp messages, and keep records of those consents
• make sure you have the right to use any content, data, images or trademarks you give us
• keep your own passwords and accounts secure, and tell us promptly if you think one has been compromised
• follow the terms and policies of any third-party platform the service uses

If you delay information, access or approvals, timelines may move, and extra work caused by the delay may be charged as agreed in your project agreement.

9. Third-party platforms

Our services rely on platforms run by other companies. These include messaging platforms (such as WhatsApp), AI model providers, telephony providers, and hosting and automation infrastructure.

• Your use of these platforms is also subject to their own terms and policies.
• Some platforms charge fees directly, for example per message or per minute. Unless your agreement says otherwise, you pay those fees.
• These providers can change their prices, features, rules or availability at any time. Their outages, limits and changes are outside our control.
• If a platform change affects your service, we'll tell you and work with you on the best way forward. Any extra work needed may be quoted separately.

10. AI output

Our chatbots and voice agents use artificial intelligence to understand questions and generate answers.

• AI can get things wrong. It can misunderstand a question, give an incomplete or outdated answer, or state something false with confidence.
• You should review how your chatbot or voice agent answers, especially for prices, stock, policies and anything with legal, financial, medical or safety impact.
• AI output is not professional advice of any kind.
• You're responsible for the business information the AI uses, and for keeping it up to date.
• We set up handover to a person where it's agreed in your project, so that questions the AI shouldn't handle reach your team.

11. Availability and support

We use reasonable efforts to keep the services we run available and working properly. We can't promise that any service, our website or any third-party platform will run without interruption or errors.

• We may need to pause a service for maintenance, updates or security reasons. Where we can, we'll give you notice.
• Support and any service levels are set out in your project agreement or support plan.
• Our support hours are Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:00 SAST, excluding South African public holidays, unless your agreement says otherwise.

12. Intellectual property

Your data and content stay yours. This includes your business information, customer data, product data, brand, logos and any content you give us. You give us permission to use it only to provide our services to you.

We keep ownership of our own tools, templates, code libraries, prompts, methods, workflows and know-how, including anything we developed before or outside your project and general improvements we make while working.

When you've paid in full, you get the rights to use your deliverables as set out in your project agreement. If your project agreement doesn't say otherwise, you get a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the deliverables for your own business for as long as you use our services or the deliverables. Our underlying tools, templates and workflows stay ours.

Our website, its content, our name and our logo belong to us. You may not use them without our written permission.

13. Confidentiality

Each of us will keep the other's confidential information private. Confidential information includes business plans, pricing, customer information, system access details and anything marked or clearly meant to be confidential.

We will each:

• use the other's confidential information only for the project or service
• share it only with people who need it for the work and who are bound to keep it confidential
• protect it with reasonable care

This doesn't apply to information that is already public through no fault of the receiving party, that the receiving party already had or developed independently, or that the law or a court requires to be disclosed.

These duties continue after our work together ends.

14. Privacy and POPIA

We handle personal information in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA). Our Privacy Policy explains what we collect, why, who we share it with and your rights.

When we build or run a system for you, you decide how the personal information in it is used. You're the responsible party under POPIA and we act as your operator. We process that information only on your instructions and keep it secure, as our Privacy Policy explains.

You're responsible for having a lawful reason to collect and use your customers' personal information, and for the consents and notices your customers need.

Our Information Officer is Braam Raubenheimer. Privacy requests can be sent to braam@theautomators.co. Our Information Regulator registration number is 2026-061974.

15. WhatsApp notification service

This section applies to the WhatsApp notification service we provide (the "WhatsApp Service").

15.1 What it is

The WhatsApp Service delivers notifications and related messages to recipients through the WhatsApp Business Platform run by Meta Platforms, Inc. It may also receive and process messages that recipients send back to our WhatsApp business number.

15.2 Who may use it

You must be at least 13 years old, or the minimum age of digital consent in your country, to use the WhatsApp Service. By using it you confirm that you meet this requirement, and that you're allowed to accept these terms for any organisation you represent.

15.3 Business customers and recipients

Some features of the WhatsApp Service are provided to business customers under a separate agreement. If you're a recipient, you use the WhatsApp Service simply by opting in to receive messages from our WhatsApp business number. You're responsible for keeping your phone number and contact details accurate.

15.4 Acceptable use

You agree not to use the WhatsApp Service to:

• break any law, regulation or anyone else's rights
• send unsolicited marketing or spam
• pretend to be someone else or misrepresent who you are
• send malware, phishing links or other harmful content
• interfere with, probe or try to compromise the WhatsApp Service or its infrastructure
• get around rate limits, messaging tiers or other restrictions
• break WhatsApp's Business Messaging Policy, Commerce Policy or Business Terms

We may suspend or end access to the WhatsApp Service if we believe you've broken this section.

15.5 Opting in and out

Recipients must opt in before we send them business-initiated messages. You can opt out at any time by replying STOP to any WhatsApp message from us, and opt back in by replying START. We act on opt-out requests promptly.

15.6 Fees

If you're a business customer, fees for the WhatsApp Service are set out in your order form or agreement. We don't charge recipients for messages, but your mobile provider's standard data charges may apply.

15.7 WhatsApp's own terms

The WhatsApp Service relies on the WhatsApp Business Platform. Your use of WhatsApp is also subject to Meta's WhatsApp terms. We're not responsible for outages, limits or changes to WhatsApp that affect the WhatsApp Service, and we can't promise that any particular message will be delivered, read or acted on.

15.8 Other terms that apply

Sections 12 (intellectual property), 14 (privacy), 16 (liability and indemnity), 17 (ending our agreement) and 19 (law and disputes) also apply to the WhatsApp Service.

16. Limitation of liability and indemnity

Please read this section carefully. It limits our responsibility to you.

16.1 What we're not liable for

As far as the law allows:

• our website, demos and services are provided "as is" and "as available", apart from anything we expressly promise in your project agreement
• we're not liable for indirect or consequential loss, such as loss of profit, revenue, business, data or goodwill
• we're not liable for loss caused by third-party platforms (section 9), AI output you didn't review (section 10), wrong or late information or access from you (section 8), or events outside our reasonable control, such as load shedding, internet or network outages, natural disasters or changes in law

16.2 Our maximum liability

As far as the law allows, our total liability for all claims about a project or service is limited to the greater of the fees you paid us for that project or service in the 12 months before the claim arose, or R2,000.

16.3 What we don't exclude

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes:

• liability for our gross negligence, fraud or wilful misconduct
• liability for death or bodily injury caused by our negligence
• any right you have, or any liability we have, that the law doesn't allow us to limit or exclude, including your rights under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 where it applies to you

If the Consumer Protection Act applies to you, these terms must be read so that they comply with it, and any part that doesn't comply won't apply to you.

16.4 Indemnity (business clients)

If you use our services as a business, you agree to cover The Automators against claims, losses, damages, costs and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) that arise from your use of the services, your content or data, your customers' consents, or your breach of these terms. This doesn't apply to the extent that the claim was caused by our own breach or negligence.

17. Ending our agreement

• Either of us may end a project or service as set out in your project agreement, including any notice period it sets. If no notice period is set, either of us may end an ongoing service by giving 30 days' written notice.
• Either of us may end it immediately by written notice if the other seriously breaches these terms or the agreement and doesn't fix the breach within 14 days after receiving written notice.
• We may suspend or end services if you don't pay on time (section 7), if you use them unlawfully or against section 4 or 15.4, or if the law or a platform provider requires it.
• If the Consumer Protection Act applies to a fixed-term agreement you have with us, you may cancel as that Act allows.
• When our work ends, you pay for work done and costs incurred up to the end date. We'll help you get your data back, and then return or delete it as our Privacy Policy explains.
• Sections that by their nature should continue after the end will continue. These include intellectual property, confidentiality, privacy, liability and indemnity, and payment of amounts owed.

18. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. When we do, we'll change the "Last updated" date at the top. For important changes, we'll give reasonable notice on our website or by email to clients.

If you keep using our website or services after an update, you accept the updated terms. Changes don't affect a signed project agreement unless both of us agree in writing.

19. Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa.

If there's a dispute, we'll first try to resolve it by talking to each other in good faith. If that doesn't work, either of us may take it to the Magistrate's Court with jurisdiction, which we both agree to even if the amount is more than that court would normally hear, or to the North West Division of the High Court, Mahikeng. If the Consumer Protection Act applies to you, this doesn't limit your right to approach a consumer court, ombud or the National Consumer Commission.

Nothing in this section stops either of us from asking a court for urgent relief.

20. General

• These terms, together with any signed proposal, project agreement or order form, are the whole agreement between us about their subject.
• If any part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies.
• If we don't enforce a right straight away, we haven't given it up.
• You may not transfer your rights or duties under these terms without our written consent. We may transfer ours to a company that takes over our business, and we'll tell you if we do.
• Notices under these terms may be given by email to the addresses we use for each other.