Terms of Service

The plain-language rules for working with me. No legalese maze — just what we each owe each other so there are no surprises.

Using this site or hiring me for a project means you agree to these terms. If something here doesn't fit your project, we talk about it and put the exception in writing before work starts.

These terms cover services offered through hdritchie.com only — Zerqor Labs is a separate venture.

1. What I do

I build AI chatbots, websites, and hosting setups for small businesses, and provide related tech support. All work is remote — I don't do in-person meetings, and all selling, demos, and delivery happen by email, phone, or video.

2. How a project starts

Written quote first. Every project starts with a quote that spells out the scope, the price, what's included, and the timeline. Nothing starts on a handshake or a chat message alone.
50% deposit. A deposit of half the quoted price is required before any work begins. It's invoiced through PayPal (Goods & Services) and is non-refundable once work has started, because it covers reserved time.
Balance on delivery. The remaining 50% is due when the finished work is delivered, before handover of final files, credentials, or ownership.
Timelines. Your quote includes a timeline, and I hit it when approvals and content arrive on schedule — delays on your side push delivery back accordingly.

3. Revisions

Each package includes the revision rounds stated in your quote. If you want changes beyond that — new features, extra pages, a different direction — that's additional work, quoted and agreed in writing before I do it. Small fixes to things that don't match the agreed scope are on me.

4. Your responsibilities

Accurate information. You provide the business information the project is built from — services, prices, hours, policies — and you're responsible for its accuracy.
Timely approval. Projects stall when approvals stall. Review and testing rounds need your response within a reasonable time (we'll agree what that is in the quote).
Your content, your rights. Any text, images, or logos you supply must be yours to use. You're responsible for having the rights to them.

5. AI chatbots: accuracy and limitations

This is the section most chatbot sellers skip. I'd rather you read it here than learn it the hard way:

I'm an implementer, not an AI lab. I build and host your chatbot myself, using established AI models I don't train or control — no chatbot builder does.
AI can be wrong — and can be manipulated. AI systems sometimes state things that aren't true, and clever visitors can deliberately steer them off-script with adversarial prompts (the industry calls this prompt injection; it's how a dealership bot once got talked into "selling" a truck for $1). No builder, on any platform, can promise a chatbot will never make a mistake.
What I do about it. Every bot I ship has guardrails: it answers from business content you provide and approve, it stays inside its topic, and anything uncertain — especially pricing, quotes, or commitments — gets handed to a human instead of answered by the AI. This isn't a one-time fix; I keep testing and tightening those guardrails, including with adversarial prompts, and you review and approve the bot's behavior before it goes live.
What the bot says isn't a contract. Statements a chatbot makes about your prices, availability, or terms are informational only and are not binding on your business unless confirmed by you or your staff. Courts have held companies responsible for false statements their chatbots made — which is exactly why the approval and guardrail steps above are part of every build.
Conversation review. I may review chatbot conversations to check for abuse, fix problems, and improve the bot. I don't routinely read them, and I never sell or share their contents.

6. No guaranteed outcomes

A chatbot, a website, or any optimization work I do is built to help your business — better customer experience, more inquiries, less missed business after hours. But no tool can guarantee more sales, more traffic, or any specific business result. Too much depends on factors outside my control: your market, your pricing, your follow-through. What I do guarantee is the work itself: I'll build it right, test it properly, and keep improving it within the scope we agreed.

7. Liability

If something goes wrong on my end, my total liability is limited to the fees you paid for the project in question. I'm not liable for indirect or consequential losses — lost profits, lost customers, downtime costs — beyond that cap. This is a starting position for small-business work; larger projects can negotiate different terms in writing.

8. Ownership

Once the balance is paid in full, the finished work is yours — website files, chatbot configuration, and content created for the project.

9. Monthly chatbot hosting

If you choose the managed option, I host your chatbot for a flat monthly fee (currently $50/month):

What's covered. Hosting, maintenance, the AI usage costs, and keeping the bot online and working. No accounts for you to manage, no per-message charges, no surprise bills.
Monthly conversation allowance. Managed hosting covers up to 3,000 chatbot conversations a month — far more than a typical local business sees. If you ever approach that, I'll flag it and we'll talk about the next tier before anything changes; no surprise cutoffs.
Billed monthly, cancel anytime. Invoiced monthly; cancel with written notice and the bot stays up through the end of your paid period.
If payment lapses. If a payment is more than 14 days late, I may pause the bot until the account is current, then bring it back online once paid.
Your content stays yours. The bot's configuration and the business content I built for you are yours — if you cancel, I'll hand over everything needed to run it elsewhere.

10. Price changes

My prices follow my costs. The monthly hosting fee is tied to what I pay for AI API usage and cloud infrastructure — if those underlying costs rise significantly, the hosting fee may adjust. I'll give you 30 days' written notice before any increase takes effect, and the rate for your current paid period never changes mid-period.

One-time build prices are locked by your written quote (section 2) — an approved quote never changes.

11. Third-party costs

Some projects need things I don't sell — domain registration, for example. Those costs are yours and sit between you and the provider. My quote covers my work only, and I'll always flag third-party costs before you spend anything.

12. Showing the work

I may show finished work in my portfolio and marketing unless you ask me not to in writing before the project wraps. If anything about your project is sensitive, just say so — no questions asked, it stays out.

13. Tech support: access and data

Remote access. Most tech support is remote — by hiring me to fix something, you're authorizing me to access the systems needed to do the job. I'll only touch what's relevant to it.
Back up first. Before any significant work, back up anything you can't afford to lose — or ask me to handle it. I'm careful, but disks fail and updates go sideways, and I'm not responsible for data that wasn't backed up.
Passwords. Don't send me passwords unprompted — if I need one, I'll tell you how to share it securely.

14. Ending a project early

Either of us can end a project with written notice. The deposit covers work completed up to that point; if the completed work is worth more than the deposit, the difference is invoiced. Delivered work is yours once paid for.

15. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

16. Site analytics

This site uses Google Analytics to see, in aggregate, which pages get visited — no names, and I don't sell or share that data. It uses cookies to do that counting; you can block it with your browser settings or a blocker if you prefer.

17. Changes to these terms

I may update this page from time to time. The version posted here is the current one; your project's quote locks in the terms that apply to that project.

18. Contact

Questions about these terms: use the quote form on the services page or reach me through any channel listed on this site.

19. International clients

These terms also apply to clients outside the United States, with the following additions:

Remote service, no local establishment. All work is done remotely from the United States. I do not have an office, branch, or local establishment in any other country, and no local office is implied by a service-area page.
Prices in USD. Prices are in US dollars unless otherwise agreed in writing in your quote.
Your local taxes. You are responsible for any local taxes, duties, or VAT that apply in your country to your purchase. Those are not included in my quoted prices unless your written quote says otherwise.
Payment. Payment is in USD via PayPal (Goods & Services) or Fiverr escrow, as agreed in your written quote.
Governing law unchanged. Section 15 still applies: these terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
English terms control. If a translated page differs from these English terms, the English terms control.

Please note: I'm not a lawyer, and this page is a plain-language starting template — not legal advice. For high-stakes projects, have an attorney review it before relying on it.