Phone Addendum

This Addendum adds to the EMLbot Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy for Phone Features: phone numbers, SMS, MMS, and (when offered) voice calls. An authorized person must accept it in the console, separately from the Terms, before your workspace can turn Phone on. If it conflicts with the Terms about Phone Features, this Addendum controls. Everything else in the Terms and the Acceptable Use Policy continues to apply.

1. Availability

1.1 After the trial only. Phone Features are not available during the 7-day free trial. You can turn on Phone once your paid subscription has started. The $49 setup fee, phone numbers and SMS or MMS usage charges cannot be incurred during the trial.

1.2 United States only. At launch, Phone Features are offered only to customers in the United States, and only for phone numbers and recipients in the United States. We enforce this technically. We may expand it later, with a new version of this Addendum.

1.3 Voice is not offered. Voice calling (with a voice provider such as Grok Voice through xAI) is planned and is in early access only. It is not for sale and is not part of any plan. Section 11 says how voice would work if and when it is offered.

2. Charges, shown before you activate

Before you activate Phone, the console shows these charges and asks you to authorize them:

$19 per phone number per month
a one-time Phone setup fee of $49 per workspace, charged when you activate Phone (this covers the work of registering your business with carriers; it is not a promise that a carrier will approve it)
SMS and MMS usage: the allowance included with Phone, and the rate for each message beyond the allowance. These are shown in the console and on the pricing page.
the spend cap you choose for the workspace (Section 2.2)

Plus applicable taxes and regulatory fees.

2.1 Billing. These charges are added to your subscription invoice under Section 14 of the Terms. Number fees renew monthly with your subscription. The setup fee, number fees and usage charges are not refundable (Section 14.8 of the Terms).

2.2 Spend caps. Workspace owners can set a monthly spend cap per workspace for Phone usage. We alert the owner when usage reaches 80% of the cap. When usage reaches the cap, outbound texts stop (a hard stop) until the cap is raised or the next period begins. Replies to STOP and HELP, and opt-out handling, do not stop. Carriers report some usage with a delay, so messages that were already sent or in transit when the cap was reached still count toward your charges.

2.3 If you cancel. The monthly number fee stops renewing. Your numbers stay active until the end of the paid period, and then we release them to the carrier. If you want to keep a number, ask support@emlbot.com to port it out before the paid period ends (Section 9.3). Messages not yet sent when access ends are not sent.

3. Who is responsible for what

Customer is responsible for communications. As between Customer and EVKII, Customer is responsible for selecting recipients, establishing the purpose of communications, supplying or approving instructions and content, obtaining required consent, and complying with laws applicable to communications initiated through its workspace. This allocation does not exclude duties or liability that applicable law imposes independently on EVKII.
EVKII is the platform. We provide numbers, routing, storage and safeguards through our carrier partners. We apply the rules your workspace chooses, and we add business identity and opt-out language to texts as described in this Addendum. Whether EVKII or Customer is a sender or caller under a particular law depends on the facts and on that law. Nothing in this Addendum, or in a registration, says otherwise.
Registration as your agent. You authorize EVKII to file toll-free verification, 10DLC brand and campaign registration, and any other carrier registration in your business's name, using the information you give us. You confirm that the information, including your legal business name, tax ID or registration number, website, contact details, use case, sample messages and opt-in method, is true and complete, and you will update it when anything changes. False or misleading registration information is a serious breach.
Registration does not certify compliance. Carrier registration and vetting do not certify that your messaging is lawful, and they do not create an exception to this Addendum, the Acceptable Use Policy, a carrier's rules or the law.

These are EMLbot's platform rules. The law differs by technology, purpose, destination and exemptions, and you must meet the law that applies to you as well.

Get consent first. Do not text anyone unless you have documented consent for that kind of message. For marketing or promotional texts, EMLbot's rule is prior express written consent: a signed (including electronically signed) agreement that clearly authorizes your business to send marketing texts to that number, and that says consent is not a condition of purchase.
An existing customer relationship is not consent for every marketing text.
Consent is per program and not transferable. Consent given to you does not cover your affiliates, clients or partners, and consent for one program (such as order updates) does not cover another (such as marketing).
Tell people what they are signing up for at opt-in: your business name, the type of messages, frequency, that message and data rates may apply, how to get help (HELP), and how to stop (STOP), with a link to your terms and privacy policy.
A person who texts first gives you permission to reply within the scope of that conversation, not to start marketing.
Keep proof. Keep a record of each consent (who, what number, when, how, the language shown, and the IP address or other evidence) for at least 5 years after the consent ends, and give it to us within 2 business days if a carrier, regulator or court asks. Our consent and suppression records help, but they do not replace yours.
Imports. If you import contacts with consent, you confirm the consent is valid for your use. We may ask for proof or sample it.

5. Do Not Call and calling limits

Scrub numbers against the National Do Not Call Registry and any applicable state lists before any telemarketing text or call, and keep your own internal do-not-call list.
No outbound marketing calls through EMLbot, with any voice (AI or human).
Never call or text 911 or other emergency lines, hospital or patient rooms, healthcare facility lines, or numbers where the called party is charged, unless the law allows it and the person consented.
Product limits. EMLbot limits bots to 10 texts a day to a person who has not replied, and (when voice is offered) to 3 outbound call attempts per person per day. These are EMLbot limits. They are not a legal safe harbor. Stricter limits apply where state law requires them.

6. Quiet hours

Send texts only between 9:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. in the recipient's local time. This is EMLbot's default. It is narrower than the federal window of 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. It does not replace stricter state rules, holidays or Sunday restrictions that apply to you.
If we cannot determine the recipient's local time, we hold the message. An area code does not show where a person is now, so we do not treat it as proof. A held message is sent when we can show that the recipient's local time is within the window.
Replies. We permit only lawful replies within the scope of a recipient-initiated exchange, and opt-out confirmations and HELP replies, outside the window. There is no exemption for a live conversation in general, and no marketing is allowed outside the window.
The interface, this policy and the scheduler all use the same 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. window. Do not disable quiet hours or work around them.

7. Opt-outs and HELP

STOP means stop. Opt-out keywords (STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT, REVOKE, OPTOUT) and any other reasonable way a person says they want no more messages ("please stop texting me", saying so on a call, an email) must be honored. EMLbot suppresses keyword opt-outs automatically and right away. For opt-outs that reach your bots in other ways, your workspace must record them in EMLbot immediately, which is EMLbot's rule even where the law allows more time.
Queued and repeated messages. An opt-out cancels messages already queued, retries and duplicates for that number.
One confirmation only. After an opt-out, you may send one message confirming it, and nothing else. EMLbot sends it for keyword opt-outs.
HELP. HELP or INFO must get a reply with your business name, how to reach support, and how to opt out. EMLbot sends it using your registered details.
Opt-out handling never pauses, including when your workspace is suspended, past due, unpaid or canceled. We keep minimal suppression records so a number that opted out is not contacted again, as the Data Retention Schedule describes.
Re-subscribe only when the person asks (for example, START or UNSTOP).

8. Message content

Identify yourself. The first message to each person must include your business name and opt-out instructions. EMLbot adds them if they are missing.
Prohibited content on Phone, in addition to the Acceptable Use Policy: sex and adult content; hate; alcohol, firearms, tobacco, vaping and cannabis or CBD; high-risk financial offers (payday loans, debt relief, debt collection, credit repair, crypto offers); gambling; illegal drugs; get-rich-quick or work-from-home offers; and any content carriers prohibit. Carrier verification of a use case does not make a prohibited category allowed.
Links. No public link shorteners. Links must point to domains you control and have verified in EMLbot.
No phishing or spoofing, and no content designed to evade carrier filters (such as misspellings, symbol substitution, or rotating content or numbers).
Message frequency must match what you told people at opt-in.

9. Numbers

9.1 Assignment. Numbers are assigned to your workspace for use with EMLbot. You do not own them. Do not hoard numbers, rotate numbers to evade filtering, or keep unused numbers.

9.2 Reclaiming. We may reclaim a number that has been unused for 90 days, is unpaid, or is misused, as carrier rules permit.

9.3 Porting out. While your subscription is active and your number is in good standing, you can ask support@emlbot.com to port a number to another provider. Whether a port is possible depends on the carriers' rules. We will tell you if it is not, and why. To keep a number after you cancel, ask for the port before your paid period ends, because we release numbers at the end of the period.

10. Safeguards and automatic enforcement

To protect recipients and carrier standing, EMLbot enforces rules in software. Among other things, we may, without notice:

block a text that fails consent, quiet hours, content or contact rules
limit sending speed and apply warm-up limits to new numbers
automatically pause a number and alert your workspace owner if, for example, volume spikes far above normal, the opt-out rate passes 2% in 24 hours, carrier filtering passes 5%, or several people complain within a day
suspend Phone Features for your workspace while we investigate

These safeguards help you comply. They are not legal advice and do not guarantee compliance. We will tell you what happened and why where it is safe and lawful to do so.

11. Voice, when offered

Voice is not offered today. If and when we offer it, these rules will apply, and voice will need its own activation and its own acceptance:

Separate activation and acceptance. An authorized person must separately turn on voice and accept voice terms, including any additional charges, before any call is placed or answered. Voice is not available during the free trial.
Provider. Voice would use a provider that we select (currently planned: X.AI LLC, through Grok Voice). We will list it on the subprocessors page, and the provider's terms for personal data must be satisfied before activation.
Say it's AI, first. Any call where a bot or AI voice speaks must tell the person, in the first sentence, that they are speaking with an automated assistant or AI, and name your business. The bot must answer truthfully if asked whether it is a person.
Recording and transcription. Several states require the consent of every party before a call is recorded. Treat every call as needing legally effective consent from all parties before any recording or transcription starts, with a clear notice and a workable way to decline. If the person declines, stop recording and transcription, or end the call. "Recording off" must mean that audio is not saved and that live transcription is also off.
No outbound marketing calls, and no voice cloning of a real person without that person's documented, express permission. AI-generated voices are treated as artificial voices under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, so calls using them need the consent that law requires.
Offer a person where you can. If a caller asks for a human and you have one available, the bot should transfer or take a message.

12. NO EMERGENCY CALLS

EMLBOT NUMBERS AND BOTS CANNOT CALL OR TEXT 911 OR ANY EMERGENCY SERVICE. THEY DO NOT PROVIDE LOCATION INFORMATION TO EMERGENCY RESPONDERS. DO NOT RELY ON EMLBOT FOR EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS. You must make sure your users, and anyone who may contact or use an EMLbot number, know this. Bots that receive messages or calls about an emergency should tell the person to hang up and call 911.

13. Carriers, fees and fines

Carriers can filter, block, delay or reject messages and calls, and change their rules at any time. We do not promise delivery.
Carrier charges. Carrier fees, registration fees and surcharges, and any fine or penalty that a carrier, registry or regulator actually assesses because of your traffic or your registration information, are passed through to you when we can show the assessment and its connection to your workspace. We will give you the supporting records, and you can dispute an assessment by writing to support@emlbot.com within 30 days of the invoice. We will review it in good faith. You do not owe a charge merely because your workspace was involved.
You will cooperate with any carrier or regulator inquiry about your traffic, including giving consent records and message samples.

14. Records and retention

We keep Phone records as the Data Retention Schedule and the Privacy Policy describe. In short: message content follows your workspace's retention settings and is deleted 30 days after workspace closure; message and call metadata are kept for 4 years; carrier registration data is kept while the registration is active plus 4 years; and minimal consent and suppression records are kept for as long as needed to honor opt-outs. These records may be used to answer carrier, regulatory and legal requests.

15. Indemnity and liability

Section 21 of the Terms (indemnification), as narrowed in that section, applies to third-party claims about texts sent from your workspace to the extent caused by your content, your unlawful messaging or your material breach. The disclaimers and the limits of liability in the Terms apply to Phone Features, including the exceptions in Section 20.3 of the Terms.

16. Changes

Carrier and legal rules for texting and calling change often. We may update this Addendum on shorter notice than the Terms require when a carrier or legal change makes it necessary. Material changes that are not required by carriers or law get 30 days' notice and a new acceptance by an authorized person in the console.

17. Contact

support@emlbot.com for support and billing; abuse@emlbot.com for abuse; legal@emlbot.com for legal notices. By mail: EVKII, Inc., 7040 Avenida Encinas, Suite 104-441, Carlsbad, CA 92011, USA.