Terms of Service

1. Who we are

Beacon Web Services (“BWS,” “we,” “us,” “our”) builds, hosts, and maintains websites for local businesses. By creating an account or using our services, you (“Customer,” “you,” “your”) agree to these Terms of Service (“Terms”). If you don’t agree, don’t sign up.

2. The service

BWSprovides website design, hosting, and maintenance under monthly subscription plans (“Plans”). We use AI tools as part of our design and development process — see Section 13 for important details about that. Plan tiers, prices, and included features are listed at /get-started and on your billing dashboard, and may change with notice.

Plans include edit requests(quantity varies by tier — see your plan details). If something on your site is wrong, missing, or out of date, you tell us and we fix it — usually within 24–48 hours of the request — at no extra charge.

The Premium plan includes up to 50 pages under fair use. Additional pages beyond this limit require prior approval.

3. Cancellation, refunds, and credits

3.1 Cancellation

You can cancel at any time from your account dashboard or by emailing us. There are no contracts and no commitments. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period — we don’t prorate partial months. Your site, dashboard access, and any included email accounts remain available until the end of the period you’ve already paid for.

3.2 Pre-shipment cancellation

Signing up authorizes us to begin building your site. The first month’s payment is non-refundable, even if you change your mind before the site goes live. If you need to cancel a build that hasn’t shipped yet, email us — we’ll stop work, but you will not receive a refund.

3.3 No refunds for shipped work

Once your site is shipped (live and accessible at its URL), all payments to date are final and non-refundable for any reason. This includes situations where you change your mind, decide to use a competitor, go out of business, or are dissatisfied with the result. Dissatisfaction is not grounds for a refund— instead, use your included edit requests to fix anything you don’t like, free of charge.

3.4 If we drop the ball

If we fail to deliver your initial site in a reasonable timeframe (target: 48 hours, but we don’t guarantee this), we will credit your account with free months equivalent to the delay after the site ships. We will not refund cash for the delay.

3.5 Add-ons

You can cancel individual add-ons without canceling your whole plan. The cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period — the add-on remains active until then.

3.6 Plan downgrades

You can downgrade your plan at any time. The downgrade takes effect at the end of your current billing period. Features included in your old plan that aren’t in the new plan (for example, a contact form on Pro that isn’t on Starter) will stop working at that time.

4. Auto-renewal

Plans automatically renew on a monthly basis until you cancel. Your card on file with our payment processor (Square) will be charged automatically at the start of each billing period. You will receive an email receipt for every charge. To stop renewals, cancel your plan from the dashboard or by emailing us before the next billing date.

5. Domains

Domain registration is not included in any monthly Plan. Domains are billed separately, up front, in full, and are non-refundable.

For standard top-level domains (.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .us, .co), BWS will register the domain on your behalf for a flat fee of $25 per year, billed annually. This fee covers the registrar cost plus our handling. Renewals are automatically billed annually until you cancel the domain.

For premium or specialty top-level domains (such as .io, .ai, .law, .health, .nyc, and similar), or any domain whose registrar cost exceeds BWS’s standard rate, you are responsible for purchasing the domain yourselfat your own registrar (Namecheap, GoDaddy, etc.) and pointing it at our nameservers. We’ll help you configure DNS, but we won’t register or own the domain on your behalf.

Domain ownership and transfer.If we registered a domain for you, you may request a free transfer to your own registrar at any time. We’ll initiate the unlock and provide the auth code within 5 business days. We do not hold domains hostage.

6. Site migration to other hosts

If you want to move your site away from BWS to another hosting provider, we offer paid migration assistance for a flat fee of $99. Migration takes 7–10 business days from receipt of payment and includes:

• An export of your site files (HTML, CSS, images) in a format compatible with most static hosts
• Documentation of any add-on integrations (contact forms, Google Reviews widgets, etc.)
• One round of DNS guidance to point your domain at the new host

Migration does not include rebuilding your site for a different platform (e.g., converting to WordPress or Squarespace), training, or post-migration support. Site migration is paid up front and is non-refundable once started. If you don’t want to pay for migration, you’re welcome to take screenshots of your site and rebuild it yourself anywhere you like.

Email mailbox migration.If your account includes email through our partner provider, we offer a paid migration plan for backing up and exporting email mailboxes — pricing quoted on request. Without a paid migration plan, we will not assist with email backup or transfer. If you cancel without arranging a migration, your mailbox will be terminated and its contents lost. You are responsible for backing up your own email before canceling.

7. Acceptable use

BWS is built on top of payment processors and infrastructure providers (especially Square) that have strict acceptable-use policies. If we lose our processor account because of your business, we lose the ability to operate. Accordingly, we maintain a strict prohibited-content list. Engaging in any of the following will result in immediate termination, no warning, no refund, and a permanent ban from BWS:

7.1 Illegal

• Anything that violates U.S. federal, Pennsylvania state, or local Philadelphia law
• Counterfeit goods, fake IDs, replica anything
• Stolen merchandise

7.2 Cannabis, vapes, tobacco, alcohol delivery

• Marijuana, cannabis, THC products of any kind
• CBD products of any kind
• E-cigarettes, vapes, vape juice, vape hardware
• Tobacco, cigarettes, cigars, hookah, shisha, kratom, kava, “legal highs”
• Drug paraphernalia
• Online alcohol delivery or retail

7.3 Firearms and weapons

• Firearms, ammunition, magazines, accessories
• Knives marketed as weapons, explosives, fireworks
• Body armor, tactical gear, stun guns, pepper spray

7.4 Adult content and services

• Pornography, sexually explicit material
• Escort services, “companionship,” sugar dating, hookup apps
• Adult entertainment venues, massage parlors with adult overtones

7.5 Gambling

• Casinos, sportsbooks, sports betting, daily fantasy sports
• Online lottery, raffles, sweepstakes, bingo halls, poker rooms

7.6 Financial high-risk

• Cryptocurrency, NFTs, ICOs, token sales, crypto mining hardware
• Debt collection, debt relief, credit repair, debt consolidation, bail bonds, bankruptcy attorneys, pawnshops
• Check cashing, payday lending, short-term loans
• “Investment opportunities,” forex education, day-trading courses
• Multi-level marketing (MLM), pyramid schemes, network marketing, “biz opps”

7.7 Health misinformation and quackery

• Anti-vaccine content
• Weight-loss programs, “miracle cures,” “detox” programs, cleanses
• Supplements making medical or health claims
• Homeopathy, energy healing, crystal healing, faith healing
• Conversion therapy
• “Cure” claims for any disease

7.8 Spiritual and fortune-telling services

• Psychics, palm readers, tarot, fortune telling, mediums, spiritual advisors
• Astrology services with predictive claims

7.9 Hate, extremism, and harassment

• Hate speech or content targeting protected classes
• Extremist content, terrorist sympathy material
• Holocaust denial, genocide denial
• Election interference, election misinformation
• Doxxing, harassment campaigns

7.10 Fraud, scams, and deception

• Phishing, malware, spam operations
• “Get rich quick” schemes, fake reviews, review-manipulation services
• Document forgery, counterfeit branding
• Telemarketing or robocalling operations
• Negative-option billing, free-trial scams

7.11 Copyright and IP infringement

• Pirated content, torrent sites, illegal streaming, file lockers
• Trademark infringement, scraped content, content farms
• Stolen logos, knockoff branding

7.12 Regulated industries we’re not equipped for

• Healthcare requiring HIPAA compliance — we cannot provide BAA-level infrastructure
• Education requiring FERPA compliance
• Financial services requiring PCI Level 1 certification
• Sites collecting data from children under 13 (COPPA)

7.13 Catch-all

BWSreserves sole and absolute discretion to refuse service or terminate any account for any reason, with or without notice, including but not limited to: business activities that conflict with our payment processor’s acceptable-use policies; business activities likely to generate disputes or chargebacks; business activities that may harm BWS’s reputation; or business activities the BWS team simply does not wish to be associated with. No reason is required.

8. Customer content

You retain ownership of any content you provide to BWS (your business name, logo, photos, copy, hours, prices, branding). By providing content, you grant BWSa worldwide, royalty-free license to host, display, modify, and distribute that content for the purposes of operating your website and providing the service. You represent and warrant that you have the right to provide all content you submit, that it doesn’t infringe any third party’s rights, and that it complies with Section 7.

BWS owns the underlying website templates, code, design system, and infrastructure. You receive a license to use them for your site for as long as your subscription is active. Migration to another host (Section 6) includes your content and a static export, but does not include BWS’s underlying templates or code.

9. Chargebacks

If you dispute a BWS charge with your bank or card issuer instead of contacting us directly, and the dispute is not withdrawn within 48 hours:

• BWS will immediately terminate your account
• Your site will be taken offline
• Your data will be removed from active service within 24 hours
• You will be permanently banned from using BWS in the future

If you have a billing question or believe a charge is incorrect, contact us first at hello@beaconwebservices.com. We will work with you to resolve any honest billing issue. Chargebacks should be a last resort, not a first one.

10. Liability cap

To the maximum extent permitted by law, BWS’s total cumulative liability to any customer in any 12-month period is capped at the total amount that customer paid BWS in the prior 12 months.BWSis not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages of any kind, including lost profits, lost business, lost goodwill, lost data, or business interruption, even if we’ve been advised of the possibility of such damages.

The service is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, uninterrupted availability, or error-free operation. We make a best-effort attempt to keep your site online but do not guarantee any specific uptime.

11. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless BWS, its owners, employees, contractors, and partners from any claims, damages, costs, or expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of:

• Your use of the service
• Any content you provide to BWS
• Your violation of these Terms
• Your violation of any third party’s rights, including intellectual property rights
• Your violation of any applicable law

12. Force majeure

BWS is not liable for delays or failures resulting from events outside our reasonable control, including but not limited to: natural disasters, fires, floods, pandemics, acts of war or terrorism, internet infrastructure failures, payment processor outages, third-party hosting outages, government action, or acts of God.

13. AI-assisted builds

BWS uses artificial intelligence tools (large language models, image generation, code generation) as part of its design and development process. While every site is reviewed by a human before going live, AI tools can occasionally produce factual errors, broken links, awkward phrasing, or unintended visual results.

Customers are responsible for reviewing their site for accuracy and reporting any issues. BWS will correct reported issues at no charge under the edit requests included in every plan.BWSmakes no warranty as to the accuracy, completeness, or originality of AI-assisted output beyond the customer’s right to request edits. Errors in AI-generated content are not grounds for a refund.

14. Account termination by BWS

BWS may suspend or terminate your account at any time, with or without notice, for any reason, including but not limited to: violation of these Terms, violation of Section 7 (acceptable use), failed payment, chargeback, request from law enforcement, or for no reason at all. Termination by BWS for cause (including violation of Section 7) is not refundable. Termination by BWS without cause may, at our sole discretion, include a prorated credit for unused time.

15. Changes to these Terms

BWS may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be communicated to active customers via email at least 30 days before the change takes effect. Continued use of the service after the change date constitutes acceptance of the new Terms.

16. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia County, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute arising out of or related to these Terms or the service shall be resolved exclusively in the state and federal courts located in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

17. Contact

18. Entire agreement

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and BWSwith respect to the service. They supersede any prior agreements, communications, or marketing materials. If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full force and effect.