Legal
AVL Websites Service Agreement
Version avl-service-agreement-v1.6
This is the agreement every AVL Websites customer electronically signs before their website build begins. Figures below reflect the plan selected above; your actual agreement will reflect the plan you choose.
Version avl-service-agreement-v1.6
1. Services
This Agreement is between you and Asheville Productions LLC, doing business as AVL Websites ("AVL Websites"). AVL Websites will design, build, host, maintain, and support a professional website for your business under the Growth plan at $297/month. Plan services include hosting, security, routine maintenance, and the features included in the selected package. Plan prices do not include any applicable taxes.
2. No Separate Build Fee
There is no separate upfront fee for the website build. Your first monthly plan payment is due at enrollment.
3. Billing Start Date
Your first monthly payment is charged when you enroll. Monthly billing then recurs on that same day of each month (or on the last day of a shorter month) using the payment method provided at enrollment. Billing does not depend on your website's launch date and continues while your website is being built, including during any delay in providing content, photos, access, or approvals.
4. Initial Service Term
The initial service term is 12 months beginning at enrollment (the date of your first monthly payment). After the initial term, service continues month to month on the same plan at the same monthly rate until you change plans, exercise the Website Ownership Option, or otherwise end service under this Agreement. You may move to a higher plan at any time; moving to a higher plan does not restart the initial term. You may move to a lower plan only after the initial term is complete. Plan changes take effect on the next billing date, without proration. Requests to move to a lower plan must be made at least 7 days before that billing date. After any plan change, whether higher or lower, you will remain on the new plan for at least 3 months before changing plans again. When you move to a lower plan, existing website content (including pages, landing pages, and delivered imagery) remains, but ongoing services not included in the lower plan end on the effective date; any work you request to modify or simplify the site is quoted in advance. An "update request" is a change to existing content on one page or section, such as text, photos, business hours, or a promotion, generally requiring about 30 minutes or less; new pages, new features, major layout changes, and redesigns are not update requests. Unused update requests do not roll over.
5. Website Ownership Option
You may purchase ownership of your website at any time. After the initial 12-month term, the ownership price is $3,000. During the initial term, the ownership price is $3,000 plus the early termination fee that actually applies under Section 12 at the time of purchase, which is never more than the maximum stated there ($742.50 for this plan) and, before launch, is reduced by plan payments already collected as described in Section 12(b). The 14-Day Launch Assurance in Section 12 does not reduce, waive, or replace the ownership price. Until ownership is purchased, AVL Websites retains ownership of the site build while you retain ownership of your business content, logos, the photos you provide, and your domain name.
6. Your Responsibilities
You agree to provide the content, images, logos, and business information needed to build the site, and to review and approve the completed website in a timely manner. AVL Websites aims to launch your website within 7 to 14 days after receiving all required materials and access, subject to your timely approvals. This is a target, not a guarantee, and it is measured from when the required materials and access are received, not from enrollment.
7. Intellectual Property & Ownership During the Service Term
The website code, design files, and technical build created for you remain the property of AVL Websites during your service term. This is not a "work made for hire" arrangement under copyright law — it is a service relationship in which AVL Websites retains ownership of the build it creates while your service is active, and grants you full use of your website as intended for your business. If and when you exercise the Website Ownership Option in Section 5, AVL Websites' ownership of the code and design automatically transfers to you at that time under this Agreement, with no further paperwork required. You retain full ownership of everything you provide to AVL Websites — your business name, logos, trademarks, written content, photos, videos, and customer information — at all times, whether or not you ever exercise the Website Ownership Option. Any photos or video produced by Asheville Productions as part of your plan are licensed to you for your own business use (website, social media, print, and elsewhere) on a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free basis once delivered; Asheville Productions keeps the underlying copyright and may display the finished work in its own portfolio.
8. Domain Names
If you already own a domain name, it stays registered in your name and account — AVL Websites may manage DNS settings on your behalf during your service term, but this never transfers ownership of your domain to AVL Websites. If you don't yet have a domain and ask AVL Websites to register one for you, it will be registered in your name and account, not AVL Websites'. Your domain is always yours, whether or not you stay with AVL Websites.
9. Confidentiality
Each party agrees to keep the other party's non-public business information confidential and to use it only as needed to provide or receive the services under this Agreement. This does not restrict either party's use of information that is already public, independently known, or required to be disclosed by law.
10. No Guarantee of Results
AVL Websites builds and maintains professional websites and, where applicable, AI-assisted communication tools, but does not guarantee specific business outcomes. AVL Websites does not promise a particular search engine ranking, a specific volume of leads, calls, or sales, a certain amount of website traffic, or any particular return on investment. Search engines, advertising platforms, and customer behavior are outside AVL Websites' control. Where your plan includes an AI Chat Assistant or AI Voice Receptionist, you understand that AI-generated responses are based on the business information you provide and may occasionally be incomplete, delayed, or inaccurate; AVL Websites will use commercially reasonable efforts to keep the AI's information current but does not guarantee the AI's answers will always be perfectly accurate. Callers and chat visitors are always told they are interacting with an AI, consistent with AVL Websites' standing practice.
11. Payment Method; Failed Payments
(a) Authorization. Payment information is collected and stored by Stripe, a PCI-compliant payment processor. AVL Websites never stores your full card number or security code. You authorize AVL Websites to charge the payment method provided at enrollment for the monthly plan fee beginning at enrollment and each month after that. (b) If a payment fails. If a monthly plan charge is declined or cannot be collected, AVL Websites will notify you by email, will follow up with you personally within 2 business days, and will retry the charge automatically during the 14 days after the first failed charge (the "recovery period"). You may update your payment method at any time through the secure link in that notice or by contacting AVL Websites. AVL Websites does not charge late fees, interest, or reinstatement fees. (c) Expired or replaced cards. Your card issuer may update your card details automatically. If it does not, AVL Websites will remind you before your card expires so that you can update it. (d) Revoked authorization or blocked charges. You may revoke your authorization for future charges by written notice to AVL Websites. Revoking authorization, or asking your bank or card issuer to block or stop charges, does not by itself cancel this Agreement; to cancel, give written notice under Section 12, and the cancellation takes effect when AVL Websites receives it. If AVL Websites learns that you have revoked or stopped authorization, it will not attempt that charge again, will contact you within 2 business days to arrange another payment method or to confirm whether you are cancelling, and the timeline in (e) and (f) applies from the date of the declined charge, without automatic retries. (e) Pausing service. If an amount remains unpaid at the end of the recovery period, AVL Websites may pause work on your website and take it offline after giving you at least 7 days' written notice. While service is paused, AVL Websites will not attempt any charge, and any monthly plan charge that falls due during the pause is waived. A pause does not extend the initial term. If you pay the past-due amount (the unpaid monthly plan charges that fell due before the pause began), AVL Websites will restore your website at no additional charge, and monthly billing resumes on your regular billing date. Your domain remains yours throughout, as described in Section 8. (f) Ending service for nonpayment. If an amount remains unpaid 30 days after the first failed charge, AVL Websites may end the service by written notice. This is treated as a cancellation that takes effect on the date of that notice: all future monthly plan charges stop, and Section 12 applies, including the maximum in Section 12(b) or (e), the credit for plan payments collected before launch, and the fee basis in Section 12(f). Monthly plan charges waived under (e) remain waived. Before launch, any unpaid monthly plan charges and any termination charge together will not exceed the maximum that applies under Section 12(b). After launch, unpaid monthly plan charges that fell due before any pause remain owed, separate from any early termination fee, as described in Section 12(e). No other amount is added.
12. Cancellation & Early Termination
(a) When a cancellation takes effect. During the initial term, a cancellation takes effect when AVL Websites receives your written notice (email or text). AVL Websites stops future recurring monthly plan charges as of that date, and if a recurring monthly plan charge is collected after that date, AVL Websites will refund it. Any early termination fee that applies is handled separately, as described below. A cancellation by you does not by itself entitle you to a refund of monthly plan payments already made; refunds apply only as stated in this Section. (b) Cancelling before your website launches. If you cancel before your website launches, the monthly plan payments AVL Websites has already collected from you count toward the early termination maximum of 2.5x the monthly plan price ($742.50 for this plan). Any additional termination charge will not exceed that maximum minus the monthly plan payments already collected, and will never be less than $0. This credit does not by itself entitle you to a refund of payments already made. (c) If AVL Websites cannot deliver before launch. If, before launch, you notify AVL Websites in writing of a material problem with the service, AVL Websites will acknowledge your notice within 2 business days and will aim to correct the problem within 10 business days after receiving it; any extension must be agreed in writing. If AVL Websites is unable to deliver the agreed website service, or is unable to reasonably correct the material problem within that period or an extension agreed in writing, you may cancel without an early termination fee and AVL Websites will refund the monthly plan payments you made for the undelivered website service. A missed launch target does not by itself qualify, and neither does a delay caused by waiting on content, photos, access, or approvals from you. (d) 14-Day Launch Assurance. For 14 days after your website launches, you may notify AVL Websites in writing of a material concern with the delivered website or service. AVL Websites will have a reasonable opportunity to address or correct it. If AVL Websites is unable to reasonably correct a material issue you raised during that period, you may end the service without the early termination fee, and AVL Websites will refund the unused portion of any monthly plan payment that covers the period after your cancellation takes effect, calculated by daily proration over the actual paid billing period. The Launch Assurance is not a full money-back guarantee. The waiver applies only in that case; changing your mind, changing business direction, deciding not to continue, or choosing another provider does not by itself qualify. The Launch Assurance does not transfer ownership of the website or any source code, design assets, templates, proprietary systems, or other AVL Websites materials, which remain AVL Websites property unless you complete the Website Ownership Option in Section 5, and it cannot be used to acquire the website for less than the ownership terms. Third-party costs, domains, licensed assets, separately quoted work, pass-through expenses, and other nonrecoverable expenses do not become refundable because the Launch Assurance is invoked; amounts properly earned or nonrecoverable are handled under the rest of this Agreement and applicable law. (e) Cancelling after launch, during the initial term. Otherwise, if you cancel after your website launches and before the 12-month initial term is complete, the early termination fee is up to 2.5x the monthly plan price ($742.50 for this plan). It is separate from the monthly plan payments for service already provided. This is a capped fee based on your plan — not a percentage of your remaining contract. You are never billed for all of your remaining months. (f) How the early termination fee is determined. The early termination fee is based on the documented work AVL Websites has completed and its unrecovered costs, and may be less than the maximum. It will never exceed the maximum that applies under (b) or (e). No cost is counted more than once, and costs are never added on top of the maximum. Any early termination fee or other final balance, including unpaid amounts owed under Section 11(f), will be sent to you as an itemized invoice with a secure payment link; AVL Websites will not charge it automatically to your saved payment method. (g) After the initial term. After the initial 12-month term, service continues month to month with no early termination fee; 30 days' written notice (email or text) before your next billing date applies. The early termination fee is separate from the Website Ownership Option fee in Section 5. Full details are in the published AVL Websites cancellation policy at avlwebsites.com/cancellation-policy. (h) Your website after cancellation. If your website has launched and you cancel under this Section, your website stays live for 30 days after your cancellation takes effect, and no monthly plan charge is due for those 30 days; any early termination fee that applies is invoiced as described in (f). If your website has not launched when your cancellation takes effect, AVL Websites is not required to complete or launch it. If service ends for nonpayment under Section 11(f), your website goes offline, or stays offline if it was paused, and is not restored. In every case, content you own under Section 7 is available to you on request.
13. Limitation of Liability
To the fullest extent permitted by North Carolina law, each party's total liability to the other for any claim arising from this Agreement or the services provided under it — however the claim is framed, and including obligations under Section 14 — is limited to the total amount you actually paid AVL Websites in the 12 months immediately before the claim arose. Neither party is liable to the other for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including lost profits, lost revenue, lost leads, or loss of business opportunity, even if advised such damages were possible. This limitation does not apply to either party's payment obligations already due, or to liability arising from gross negligence, willful misconduct, or any liability that cannot legally be limited.
14. Indemnification
You agree to defend and hold AVL Websites harmless from any third-party claim arising from content, images, information, or materials you provide for your website, your misuse of the website or AI services, or your violation of any law — including telemarketing, texting, or do-not-call laws applicable to how you use your website or AI features. AVL Websites agrees to defend and hold you harmless from any third-party claim that the website template, design system, or code AVL Websites builds and provides to you — apart from content you supplied — infringes another party's copyright or trademark. Each party's indemnification obligation is subject to the Limitation of Liability in Section 13.
15. Dispute Resolution; Governing Law
This Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute arising from this Agreement or the services provided under it will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Buncombe County, North Carolina, and both parties consent to that venue.
16. Business Continuity; Assignment
AVL Websites' full Website Terms of Use, including its provisions on service discontinuation, business transfers, and successor providers (avlwebsites.com/terms-of-use), are incorporated into this Agreement by reference and apply to your service, subject to the order of precedence in Section 17. AVL Websites may assign this Agreement to a successor entity that continues to provide substantially the same services; a sale, merger, or reorganization of AVL Websites does not by itself end this Agreement or your rights under it.
17. Entire Agreement; Survival; Amendments
This Agreement, together with the AVL Websites Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and published cancellation policy (avlwebsites.com/cancellation-policy), is the entire agreement between you and AVL Websites regarding your website service and replaces any prior discussions or proposals about it. If the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, cancellation policy, or any other document incorporated into this Agreement conflicts with this Agreement, this Agreement controls. AVL Websites may update its terms for future customers. A change to your own pricing, term, or cancellation terms applies to you only if you agree to it in writing. Sections that by their nature should continue after this Agreement ends — including payment obligations already owed, confidentiality, intellectual property, indemnification, limitation of liability, and dispute resolution — survive termination or expiration of this Agreement.
18. Electronic Acceptance
Typing your full legal name and checking the acceptance box constitutes your electronic signature and acceptance of this agreement. The accepted name, plan, agreement version, date, time, contact information, IP address, browser details, and a copy of the agreement text you accepted are recorded with your enrollment.