Terms of Service

Who we are and these terms

Morning Hello is run by its two founders from Shreveport, Louisiana. These terms are an agreement between Morning Hello and the account holder, the person who signs up. By creating an account, you agree to these terms and to the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the service.

What the service is

Morning Hello sends one text message a day, at a time the account holder picks, to a person living alone, asking how they are, and a second message with a question about their life. It keeps their answers, and their recordings when they choose to record one, emails the people in their circle each week about the check-ins and the life story answers, texts the main contact when the day's check-in is answered, and, when a check-in goes unanswered, sends the person a reminder and then texts the main contact and one more person if needed; when a reply needs attention, it texts the main contact and one more person if needed. That is the whole of it.

What the service is not

Morning Hello is not a medical service, an emergency service, or a substitute for either. We do not diagnose, advise, or call for help. We do not call emergency services and we do not send anyone to anyone's door. When a check-in goes unanswered or a reply needs attention, we text the people described above, and they decide what to do. A text message can be delayed or fail to arrive, and a person can choose not to reply; nothing here is a guarantee that a problem will be noticed. If someone is in immediate danger, call 911.

Your account

You must be at least eighteen to create an account, and every phone number you enter must be a United States mobile number. Keep your password to yourself: you are responsible for what is done with your account.

Your responsibilities

Because the service texts people other than the account holder, the account holder agrees to the following.

• You have talked to the person receiving check-ins, they understand what the messages are and who they are from, and they have agreed to receive them. If they cannot agree for themselves, you have the legal authority to agree for them, and they do not object.
• Every phone number you enter belongs to the person you say it belongs to, and each of those people agrees to receive messages from us.
• You will keep the numbers, the time, and the circle up to date, and you will remove anyone who asks not to be contacted.
• You will not use the service for anyone who has asked not to receive it.

The 14-day trial, the price, and automatic renewal

The first 14 days are free, with no card to start. To continue after the trial, add a card and pay the monthly price shown on the Pricing page. A card added at least two days before the trial ends is first charged on the day it ends, and on the same date each month after that; a card added in the trial's last two days, or after it has ended, is charged at once. If no card is added by the end of the 14 days, the messages pause and nothing is charged.

The subscription renews automatically each month, at the price shown on the Pricing page, charged to the card on file, until you cancel. If a charge fails, we email you and the card is tried again over the following days, with the messages continuing meanwhile; if it still fails, the messages pause until a card is on file.

If the price changes, we email you at least one week and no more than one month before the new price applies, with how to cancel. Prices include everything the service does; there is nothing else to buy.

Cancelling

You may cancel at any time from Billing in Settings, or by email at support@morninghellos.com. The subscription runs to the end of the month already paid for and the messages stop then; there is no charge after that and no refund of the month in progress. Cancelling stops future charges. It does not close the account or delete anything: nothing already written or recorded is erased, and the archive stays as it was. To close the account or have the archive deleted, email us, as the Privacy Policy describes.

SMS terms

Morning Hello sends a short text message each day to a person living alone, asking how they are, and a second message with a question about their life. When they reply, the main contact in their circle gets a short text saying so. If a check-in goes unanswered, the main contact, and one more person if needed, is texted so that someone can check on them.

The person receiving check-ins gets up to two messages a day, plus a reminder when a check-in goes unanswered and an occasional reply to a message they send. The main contact gets one short message on each day the check-in is answered. Otherwise, people in their circle receive a message only when there is something to tell them: a code to confirm their phone, a check-in with no reply, a reply that needs attention, or a change to the account. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply.

The person receiving check-ins, and anyone in the circle, can stop messages to their own phone at any time, whatever the account holder has set up, by replying STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT, OPTOUT, or REVOKE. Messages to that phone stop at once. Anyone can also ask us to stop texting their phone by emailing support@morninghellos.com, and we will stop within ten business days. Reply START to begin again, and HELP for help. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. The full program is on the SMS Consent page.

Their words

The answers a person writes or records belong to them, and the people in their circle can read them and listen to them. We keep them as they were sent, we never edit them afterwards, and we use them only to run the service: to show them to the circle, to send the weekly email, to write out a recording as text, to tidy that text when the person asks, to check each reply for the things we text about, and to choose the next question. We do not sell them, share them for anyone else's purposes, or use them to build anything unrelated to this account.

To do those things, we need permission to store, copy, process, and show those words and recordings. The account holder gives us that permission, and confirms that the person receiving check-ins has agreed to it. The permission covers only the uses above, and it ends for anything that is deleted.

A recording should be of the person answering. If someone else can be heard in it, the person recording is responsible for having their agreement.

Acceptable use

The service may not be used to harass anyone, to contact a person without their agreement, to enter numbers that are not yours to enter, or to interfere with the service or with other accounts.

Suspending or closing an account

We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, that a phone carrier asks us to stop texting, or that puts someone at risk. We will tell the account holder by email when we can. You can close your account at any time by emailing us.

If we ever stop offering the service, we will tell account holders by email at least a month before, refund any month paid for and not yet used, and give each account holder a copy of the archive.

Changes to the service

We may change or improve the service. If a change takes away something the service already does for you, we will tell the account holder by email before it happens.

Covering claims about the numbers you enter

If someone makes a claim against Morning Hello because a phone number you entered did not belong to the person you said it did, or because someone whose number you entered had not agreed to receive messages, you agree to cover the reasonable costs of that claim, including legal fees, to the extent the law allows.

Limits on liability

The service is provided as it is. Text messages depend on carriers and phones we do not control, and a message can be delayed or fail to arrive; the service is not a medical, emergency, or care service, and it must never be relied on as one. To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for any loss that follows from a message that was late, missing, or misread, or for any indirect or consequential loss, and our total liability for anything arising from the service is limited to the amount you paid for it in the twelve months before the claim. Some states do not allow some of these limits, so they may not all apply to you.

Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Louisiana, without regard to its rules on conflicts of law, and by the laws of the United States. If something goes wrong, write to support@morninghellos.com first; most questions are settled that way. A dispute that cannot be settled between us is brought in the state or federal courts for Caddo Parish, Louisiana, unless the law of your state gives you the right to bring it where you live.

General

These terms, the Privacy Policy, and the SMS Consent page are the whole agreement between us. If any part of these terms cannot be enforced, the rest still applies. If we do not enforce a term straight away, we have not given it up. We may transfer this agreement to a company that takes over Morning Hello, and we will tell you by email if we do; you may not transfer your account without our agreement. We send notices to the account holder's email address, and you can send notices to support@morninghellos.com.

Changes

If these terms change in a way that matters, the account holder is told by email before the change takes effect. Continuing to use the service after that date means accepting the new terms.