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Terms of Service

Bertrand AI — Terms of Service

Version 1.17 — revised 3 October 2026. The version a Client accepts during onboarding is logged against their submission.

1. Parties

This Agreement is between:

James Patient, a sole trader trading as Bertrand AI ("Bertrand AI", "we", "us"), of Spring House, The Drive, Guildford, GU5 0QW, Surrey, United Kingdom

and

the Client — the business named on the applicable Order Form / onboarding submission ("Client", "you").

Together, the "Parties".

2. Definitions

3. The Service

3.1 Bertrand AI will configure and operate an Assistant for the Client based on the Client Content, deployed via the plan selected on the Order Form (Solo Cover / Off-Hours Cover / Full-Time Agent / High Volume / Multi-Site / Enterprise).

3.2 The Service depends entirely on Third-Party Providers continuing to operate. Bertrand AI does not own or control the underlying voice, telephony, or AI infrastructure and cannot guarantee uptime beyond what those providers themselves guarantee.

3.3 Bertrand AI will use reasonable efforts to notify the Client of any known Third-Party Provider outage materially affecting the Service, and to restore service as soon as reasonably practicable.

4. Client Content and responsibilities

4.1 The Client is solely responsible for the accuracy of all Client Content — pricing, opening hours, service descriptions, and FAQs — supplied for the Assistant. The Assistant answers based on what it is told; Bertrand AI does not independently verify Client Content against reality.

4.2 The Client must review the generated Assistant configuration (system prompt and opening line) before the Assistant goes live, and promptly notify Bertrand AI of any required correction.

4.3 The Client must keep Client Content up to date (e.g. price changes, holiday closures) and understands that a failure to do so may result in the Assistant giving outdated information to Callers.

5. Mandatory disclosure and emergency escalation

5.1 Every Assistant's opening line must, at all times, clearly and audibly identify the Assistant as an AI receptionist acting on the Client's behalf (Bertrand AI's standard default: "Hi, you're through to [assistant name] — I'm the AI receptionist for [company]."). This is a regulatory requirement (Ofcom guidance on automated/AI calls identifying themselves), not a stylistic choice, and the Client may not instruct Bertrand AI to remove, obscure, or bury this disclosure.

5.2 Every Assistant is configured with a standing instruction that, whenever a call reasonably appears to involve an emergency, health and safety risk, or urgent risk of harm or serious loss, the Assistant will both (a) tell the Caller to contact the emergency services directly, in every such case and whether or not an escalation contact has been nominated, and (b) alert the Client's nominated emergency/escalation contact. The Client must nominate a working emergency/escalation contact as part of onboarding and keep it current. That contact is a means of alerting the Client and is never a substitute for the instruction in (a): the Assistant cannot know whether a nominated contact is awake, available or able to answer, and on plans providing cover outside the Client's opening hours it will routinely be operating at times when they are not. As with the disclosure in Section 5.1, the Client may not instruct Bertrand AI to remove, weaken or make conditional the instruction in (a).

5.3 The Assistant is not, and must not be represented as, a substitute for emergency services.

5.4 A telephone number supplied by Bertrand AI cannot be used to call the emergency services. Numbers provisioned for the Client through Bertrand AI's telecommunications provider do not carry access to 999 or 112. This does not affect the Client's own existing lines, which are unchanged, and does not affect an Assistant's handling of an emergency incoming call, which is governed by 5.2 and 5.3. The Client is responsible for ensuring that any premises relying on a number supplied by Bertrand AI retains a separate means of contacting the emergency services.

6. Fees and payment

6.1 No setup fee is payable for a Client's first location. A one-off setup fee of £250 is payable for each additional location added to the Client's account. It covers building, registering and reviewing that location's Assistant, and is collected by Direct Debit under Section 6.4 when the additional location is submitted, before that work begins. An additional location setup fee is non-refundable once Bertrand AI has begun the Assistant configuration work described in Section 3.1 for that location. Where Bertrand AI does not begin that work, or is unable to deliver the location's Assistant, the setup fee is refunded in full.

6.2 Recurring fees are as set out in the Order Form, per the plan selected (Solo Cover / Off-Hours Cover / Full-Time Agent / High Volume / Multi-Site / Enterprise), and are billed monthly in advance - the Client is charged for each coming month before that month's Service is provided, not afterwards. The Client's first seven days of Service are provided free of charge. The free period, and therefore all billing, begins only once Bertrand AI has confirmed the Assistant is complete and ready and has delivered it to the Client — not when the Assistant is first provisioned. Bertrand AI reviews each Assistant before delivery, and no fee accrues for any period before that review is complete. This free period is given once per Client account and is not repeated on renewal, on a change of plan, or when a further location is added. The first Billing Date falls seven days after that delivery, and recurring fees then fall due on the monthly anniversary of that date (the "Billing Date"). Where the Client operates more than one location, an additional location fee of £150 per month for each location beyond the first is charged alongside the recurring plan fee, on the Client's existing Billing Date. A location added after the free period in this Section has ended does not attract a further free period; its fee begins at the first Billing Date after that location's Assistant has been delivered, and no part-period amount is charged for the days before it. A location that has been submitted but not yet delivered does not attract the additional location fee. The one-off setup fee for that location is charged separately under Section 6.1.

6.3 Each plan includes an allowance of Assistant call minutes for each monthly billing period under Section 6.2 - the period running from one Billing Date to the next - pooled across every location on the Client's account: Solo Cover - 350 minutes (single location only); Off-Hours Cover - 750 minutes; Full-Time Agent - 1,500 minutes; High Volume - 4,000 minutes; Multi-Site - 6,000 minutes; Enterprise - 8,000 minutes. Minutes are shared rather than allocated per location, so unused minutes at one location offset heavier use at another. The allowance is per billing period and does not roll over: minutes unused at the end of a period do not carry into the next one and are not refunded or credited. The allowance pays for the Assistant being available throughout the period, which it is whether or not the Client's callers use it, rather than for a quantity of minutes the Client owns. Each additional location adds 300 minutes to the Client's pooled allowance, from the first Billing Date after that location's Assistant is delivered. A location that has been submitted but not yet delivered adds no minutes, as it attracts no fee. Usage beyond the pooled allowance is billed at £0.60/minute (Solo Cover), £0.40/minute (Off-Hours Cover and Full-Time Agent), £0.34/minute (High Volume), £0.30/minute (Multi-Site), or £0.27/minute (Enterprise). Each call is rounded up to the next whole minute for the purposes of both the allowance and any overage; part-minutes are not carried over or aggregated between calls. Call minutes are measured by the Assistant platform on which the Service runs, and that measurement is the one used for billing. Because usage can only be measured after the fact, overage is necessarily calculated and collected in arrears - shortly after each billing period ends - separately from the in-advance recurring fee in Section 6.2, which is collected at the start of the following period. Live calendar integration (real-time appointment availability checking and booking into the Client's calendar) is included with every plan. Off-Hours Cover provides Assistant cover outside the Client's stated opening hours only: calls received during opening hours are routed to the Client's own staff line and then to voicemail, and are not answered by the Assistant. All other plans provide Assistant cover at any time the Client chooses, including during opening hours. Reaching the included allowance does not suspend or interrupt the Service: the Assistant continues to answer calls for the remainder of the billing period, and those calls are billed at the overage rate above. Solo Cover is available only to sole traders and other individuals working alone, and covers a single location. A Client whose telephone calls are also answered by employees, contractors or other staff is not eligible for Solo Cover and requires Off-Hours Cover or above. Bertrand AI checks eligibility before an Assistant is deployed. Where Solo Cover has been taken by a Client who does not meet this condition, Bertrand AI may move that Client to the lowest plan for which they are eligible by giving at least 30 days' written notice under Section 16.1, the change taking effect from the first Billing Date after that notice period ends; if the Client does not wish to move, the Client may terminate under Section 13.2 by giving notice before the change takes effect.

6.4 All fees under this Section (the recurring monthly fee and any overage) are collected automatically by Direct Debit through Bertrand AI's payment processor, GoCardless, under the Direct Debit Guarantee. The Client authorises this mandate during onboarding, after submitting the onboarding form and before the Assistant is deployed: Bertrand AI will not deploy an Assistant, and the Client cannot access it, until a valid mandate is in place. The Client must keep valid, funded bank account details on file for the mandate to remain active. Authorising the mandate does not itself result in a charge - no amount is collected until the first Billing Date under Section 6.2, and nothing at all is collected if the Client cancels before then.

6.5 Fees are non-refundable except where required by law. In particular: because the recurring fee is billed in advance under Section 6.2, if the Client cancels or the Service otherwise ends partway through an already-paid period, no refund or credit is given for the unused remainder of that period — the Service continues to be available until the end of the period already paid for, and the Agreement then ends. This applies equally to cancellation by the Client and to suspension or termination by Bertrand AI under Section 13. See Section 13.2 for how any additional days beyond that already-paid period are charged during a notice period.

6.6 If a Direct Debit collection fails, or the Client's mandate becomes invalid, cancelled, or expired, Bertrand AI will notify the Client and attempt to re-collect. Bertrand AI may suspend the Service under Section 13.3 if the amount owed remains unresolved.

6.7 Bertrand AI may change the recurring monthly fee, the included monthly minute allowance, or the overage rate set out in Sections 6.2 and 6.3 by giving the Client at least 30 days' written notice in accordance with Section 16.1. Any such change takes effect from the first Billing Date falling after the end of that notice period. Price changes are not retrospective: they do not affect any month already paid for in advance under Section 6.2, or any overage already accrued under Section 6.3 before the change takes effect. The one-off setup fee in Section 6.1 is not affected once it has been paid.

6.8 If the Client does not wish to continue at the revised fee, the Client may terminate this Agreement under Section 13.2 by giving notice before the change takes effect. In that case the Service continues at the existing fee until the end of the period the Client has already paid for, and the revised fee is not charged. If the Client does not terminate and continues to use the Service on or after the date the change takes effect, the revised fee applies from that date.

6.9 Bertrand AI will use reasonable endeavours to notify the Client by email when the Client's usage in a billing period reaches approximately 50%, 75% and 100% of the plan's included allowance, sent to the address held under Section 16.1. These notifications are a courtesy to help the Client manage usage and are not a condition of the Client's liability: a failure to send, or the Client's failure to receive or read, any such notification does not waive, reduce or otherwise affect overage properly incurred under Section 6.3. The Client may in addition set a usage cap in the dashboard. A cap is off by default and takes effect only if the Client enables it; where enabled, the Assistant stops answering calls once the cap is reached and does not answer again until the next billing period begins, and the Client accepts that calls arriving in the meantime will not be answered by the Assistant, will not be escalated under Section 5.2, and will be missed in the same way as a call to a line nobody picks up.

6.10 Annual plans. The Client may instead choose to be billed annually. The annual fee is ten times the monthly fee for the selected plan, paid once annually in advance, and covers twelve months of Service — two months' fee is not charged. Any additional location fee under Section 6.2 is charged on the same annual basis and at the same ten-for-twelve rate. The single free period in Section 6.2 applies in the same way and, being once per account, is not given again if the Client later moves between monthly and annual billing. The first annual Billing Date falls seven days after delivery, with subsequent annual Billing Dates on the yearly anniversary of that date. Overage under Section 6.3 is not included in the annual fee and continues to be calculated and collected in arrears against each monthly Billing Period. An annual plan cannot be cancelled partway through a paid year: the Client may give notice at any time under Section 13.2, and that notice takes effect at the end of the year already paid for, at which point the Agreement ends and no further amount is charged. In line with Section 6.5, no refund or credit is given for the unused remainder of a paid year. Cancelling ends the renewal; it does not unwind the term.

7. Third-party providers and data processing

7.1 In providing the Service, Bertrand AI acts as a data processor in respect of any personal data of Callers (including call audio, transcripts, and any personal data disclosed during calls). The Client is the data controller of that Caller personal data — the Client has the direct relationship with its Callers and is responsible for having a lawful basis for processing and for providing Callers with a privacy notice (Bertrand AI provides a template for this at onboarding).

7.2 Bertrand AI will only process Caller personal data to provide the Service, in accordance with the Client's instructions as reflected in the Client Content and Order Form.

7.3 The Client consents to Bertrand AI's use of the Third-Party Providers listed in Section 2 as sub-processors. Bertrand AI will notify the Client of any change of sub-processor that materially affects the processing of Caller personal data.

7.4 Both Parties will comply with their respective obligations under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

7.5 On termination, Bertrand AI will delete or return Caller personal data held on the Client's behalf within 30 days, except where retention is required by law. This 30-day period applies specifically to Caller data processed under Section 7.1 during an active Client relationship — it is separate from Section 7.6.

7.6 Separately from Caller data above, Bertrand AI acts as the data controller (not processor) for the Client's own contact details supplied at onboarding (e.g. the named business contact's name, role, phone, and email) and for any prospective client's personal data collected before a Client relationship exists — including onboarding submissions that are never approved or are rejected, and leads captured through Bertrand AI's own website demo assistant. This data is processed on the lawful basis of Bertrand AI's legitimate interest in operating and following up on sales enquiries. Where such personal data does not result in an active Client relationship, Bertrand AI retains it for no longer than 12 months from the last contact with that prospect, after which it is deleted. This retention period and its rationale are set out in full in Bertrand AI's public Privacy Policy.

7.7 New telephone numbers are subject to regulatory registration. Where the Client asks Bertrand AI to supply a new UK telephone number, United Kingdom regulations require that number to be registered to the Client's business, with the Client named as the end user, before it can be brought into service. That registration is reviewed by Bertrand AI's telecommunications provider and typically takes five to seven working days from the point the Client's details and supporting documents are complete. Bertrand AI does not control the length or the outcome of that review.

7.8 What happens to the Client's Assistant when this Agreement ends. The Assistant is withdrawn from service immediately: its telephone number is released and the Assistant stops answering calls. Its configuration — the services, opening hours, answers and voice settings built during onboarding — is retained for 12 months and then deleted. That period exists for the Client's benefit, not Bertrand AI's: it means a Client who cancels in error, or who returns within 12 months, can be restored without rebuilding their Assistant from nothing. Three limits apply to it. First, Caller personal data is not kept for this period — it is governed by Section 7.5 and deleted or returned within 30 days regardless. Second, any named individual's details held within the configuration — for example a staff member's name, or an escalation telephone number — are removed within 30 days on the same footing as Section 7.5, so a restoration after that point will ask the Client to supply them again. Third, deletion at 12 months is automatic and enforced by a scheduled process, not left to someone to remember, and the Client does not have to ask for it. The Client may ask for the configuration to be deleted sooner at any time, and Bertrand AI will do so.

7.9 Because the Assistant is not delivered until its number is live, this period falls before the Delivery Date, and accordingly before the free period and the first Billing Date under Section 6. The Client is not charged while waiting for a new number. A Client who instead keeps an existing number and forwards calls to the Assistant, or who ports a number already in service, is not subject to this registration period and may be delivered as soon as the Assistant is ready.

8. Intellectual property

8.1 The Client retains all rights in Client Content.

8.2 Bertrand AI retains all rights in the underlying Service, including the automation workflows, call-routing logic, prompt templates, and any Bertrand AI IP incorporated into the Assistant configuration.

9. Case studies and references

9.1 Where the Client has been offered discounted pilot pricing in exchange for a case study (as described on Bertrand AI's website at the time the Client signed up), the Client agrees to reasonably cooperate with Bertrand AI in producing one, including permitting Bertrand AI to use the Client's business name, logo, and a short description or quote about the Client's experience of the Service in Bertrand AI's marketing materials, website, and sales conversations.

9.2 Outside of Section 9.1, Bertrand AI will not publicly name the Client as a user of the Service, or use the Client's name, logo, or any Caller data, in marketing materials without the Client's prior written consent.

9.3 The Client may withdraw consent given under this Section at any time by written notice to Bertrand AI (see Section 16), and Bertrand AI will stop using the Client's name/logo/quote in any materials first published after that notice, though this does not require retraction of materials already distributed before the notice was received.

10. Warranties and disclaimers

10.1 The Service is provided "as is". Bertrand AI does not warrant that the Assistant will be error-free, uninterrupted, or that its responses will always be accurate — the Client acknowledges that the Assistant is an AI system and may occasionally misunderstand a Caller, mishear an accent, or generate an incorrect response despite the guardrails in Section 5.

10.2 Except as expressly stated in this Agreement, all warranties, conditions, and terms implied by statute or common law are excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.

11. Limitation of liability

11.1 Nothing in this Agreement excludes or limits liability for: (a) death or personal injury caused by negligence; (b) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or (c) any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited (including under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977). This carve-out cannot be removed or narrowed by either Party.

11.2 Subject to Section 11.1, Bertrand AI's total aggregate liability to the Client arising out of or in connection with this Agreement, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), or otherwise, will not exceed the greater of (a) the total fees paid by the Client in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) £1,000.

11.3 Subject to Section 11.1, Bertrand AI will not be liable for any indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, loss of business, or loss of reputation, even if such loss was foreseeable.

11.4 Bertrand AI is not liable for any failure or delay caused by a Third-Party Provider's outage, error, policy change, or discontinuation, beyond the obligations in Section 3.3.

12. Indemnity

12.1 The Client will indemnify Bertrand AI against any claim, loss, or liability arising from: (a) inaccurate, misleading, or unlawful Client Content supplied to Bertrand AI; or (b) the Client's breach of Section 4 or Section 5.

12.2 Bertrand AI will indemnify the Client against any claim, loss, or liability arising from Bertrand AI's breach of its data processing obligations under Section 7.1–7.4 (Caller data processed as a data processor on the Client's behalf), to the extent such claim arises from Bertrand AI's own act or omission and not from the Client's own instructions, Client Content, or breach of this Agreement. This Section 12.2 is subject to the liability cap in Section 11.2.

13. Term and termination

13.1 This Agreement begins on the date the Assistant is delivered to the Client under Section 6.2 and continues for successive Billing Periods — monthly, or annually where the Client has chosen an annual plan under Section 6.10 — until terminated.

13.2 The Client may terminate this Agreement at any time, with no notice period, either by the method in Section 16.1 or by using the "Cancel my subscription" function in the Client's dashboard; where given via the dashboard, cancellation is treated as effective at the time of that action, and Bertrand AI will confirm it and the resulting end date by email in accordance with Section 16.1. Where the Client has already paid for the current month in advance under Section 6.2, the Service continues until the end of that paid period, and no refund is given for any unused part of it (Section 6.5). No further amount of any kind is charged after cancellation: no notice-period fee, no pro-rated charge, and no further monthly collection. This does not affect overage already accrued under Section 6.3 before cancellation for calls the Assistant has already answered: that amount remains payable and is collected in arrears in the ordinary way, shortly after the billing period in which it was incurred ends. Bertrand AI will state the amount and the calls it covers when confirming the cancellation. Where the Client cancels before any payment has been collected, including during the free period under Section 6.2, nothing is charged at all and the Service ends immediately on cancellation rather than continuing to the end of that period. Bertrand AI may terminate this Agreement on 30 days' written notice to the Client under Section 16.1.

13.3 Bertrand AI may suspend or terminate the Service immediately if fees are overdue by more than 7 days, or if the Client instructs Bertrand AI to remove the disclosure or emergency-escalation safeguards in Section 5.

14. Force majeure

14.1 Neither Party is liable for any failure or delay in performing its obligations under this Agreement (other than payment obligations) caused by events beyond that Party's reasonable control, including natural disaster, fire, flood, war, civil unrest, act of government, national or regional internet or power infrastructure failure, or industrial action — provided the affected Party notifies the other as soon as reasonably practicable and uses reasonable efforts to mitigate the impact.

14.2 This Section is separate from, and does not limit, Section 3.2's specific allocation of risk for Third-Party Provider outages, which applies regardless of whether such an outage also independently qualifies as a force majeure event.

15. Assignment

15.1 The Client may not assign, transfer, or sub-contract this Agreement or any of its rights or obligations under it without Bertrand AI's prior written consent.

15.2 Bertrand AI may assign or transfer this Agreement, in whole, to a successor entity carrying on the same business (for example, if Bertrand AI later incorporates as a limited company), provided the successor assumes all of Bertrand AI's obligations under this Agreement unchanged, and Bertrand AI gives the Client reasonable written notice of the change.

16. Notices

16.1 Any formal notice under this Agreement (including notice of termination, breach, or withdrawal of consent under Section 9.3) must be in writing and sent by email to: (a) if to Bertrand AI, hello@bertrandai.uk; (b) if to the Client, the contact email address given on the Client's Order Form / onboarding submission, or any updated address the Client has since notified in writing or changed using the account contact email function in the Client's dashboard. A notice is treated as received on the next business day after it is sent.

16.2 Routine operational communication (support queries, Client Content updates, billing queries) does not need to follow this Section and may be sent through Bertrand AI's normal channels.

17. Dispute resolution

17.1 If a dispute arises under this Agreement, a senior representative of each Party (for a sole-trader Client, the owner; for Bertrand AI, the proprietor) will first attempt in good faith to resolve it informally within 14 days of either Party raising it in writing, before either Party commences formal legal proceedings.

17.2 This Section does not prevent either Party from seeking urgent injunctive relief, or from exercising Bertrand AI's suspension rights under Section 13.3, at any time without first following this process.

18. General

18.1 Governing law and jurisdiction: This Agreement, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with it (including non-contractual disputes or claims), is governed by, and the Parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of, the part of the United Kingdom in which the Client is based, as follows: (a) if the Client is based in England or Wales, the law of England and Wales and the courts of England and Wales; (b) if the Client is based in Scotland, the law of Scotland and the courts of Scotland; and (c) if the Client is based in Northern Ireland, the law of Northern Ireland and the courts of Northern Ireland.

18.1A The Client is "based" in the part of the United Kingdom given as the answer to "Where is the business based?" on the Client's onboarding submission or Order Form or, if that question was not answered, the part of the United Kingdom in which the business address given on that submission is situated.

18.2 If any provision of this Agreement is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in full force.

18.3 This Agreement, together with the Order Form, is the entire agreement between the Parties regarding the Service.

18.4 Variation: Except for fee changes made under Section 6.7, no variation of this Agreement is effective unless agreed in writing by both Parties. The version of these Terms the Client accepted at onboarding is the version that governs this Agreement, and it does not stop applying because a newer version exists. Bertrand AI maintains a current public version for new Clients; publishing it has no effect on an existing Client. A newer version applies to the Client only if Bertrand AI gives the Client at least 30 days' written notice under Section 16.1, together with a plain summary of what has changed, and it then applies from the end of that notice period. If the Client does not wish to accept it, the Client may terminate this Agreement under Section 13.2 by giving notice before it takes effect, in which case Sections 6.5 and 13.2 govern what remains payable. If the Client does not terminate and continues to use the Service on or after the date the newer version takes effect, that constitutes acceptance of it.