Carrot Terms of Service (legal stuff)

Last modified 5/15/2020 – Honesty. Integrity. Ethics. And Fun. That’s what we’re about… and we like to work with customers who live and work the same way. If you live life the same way, great! We’ll get along swimmingly. Please read our terms of service below so we’re all on the same page :-)

Here, you can review the most current version of the Terms of Service at any time. Carrot, LLC (together with its officers, directors, employees, agents, subsidiaries, and affiliates, “Carrot”) reserves the right to update and change the Terms of Service by posting updates and changes to the Carrot website. You are advised to check the Terms of Service from time to time for any updates or changes that may impact   Your continued use of the website following the amendment confirms your consent to the amendment.  Any new features that augment or enhance the current service, including the release of new tools and resources, are subject to these terms.

Violation of any of the terms may result in the termination of your account.

By using the Carrot.com services (“Service”), you are agreeing to be bound by the following terms and conditions:

  1. You must provide your legal full name, a valid email address, and any other information requested in order to complete the signup process.
  2. Your login may only be used by one person — a single login shared by multiple people is not permitted.
  3. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and password. We are not liable for any loss or damage from your failure to comply with this security obligation.
  4. You are responsible for all content posted and activity that occurs under your account.
  5. Use of Carrot Content On Non-Carrot Websites Is Prohibited: You will use and post Carrot’s content (including our blog posts from our Content Marketing system) on Carrot’s sites without posting the content on another platform. Posting any of our stock website content, Content Marketing articles, Automated Content articles, or any content written by Carrot on any website outside of our system is prohibited. We will pursue any website hosting any of our copyright protected content with a request to cease and desist and/or we will pursue every measure possible including requesting the web host to remove the website containing the protected material.
  6. Carrot has a world-class website backup protocol with multiple redundancies, stronger than that of traditional web hosts; however it is your sole responsibility to save any unique content you create and add to your website in an external location periodically. Examples could include copying and pasting a VideoPost transcription into a Google Drive document for external access in the future.
  7. If you have a free account you may not block ads.
  8. You may not remove our branding from your account.
  9. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.  We do not verify the accuracy of content posted on the website.  Any agreements you make with others through the website are strictly between you and the third party.  Investigate appropriately before dealing with someone you do not know.  We are not responsible or liable for any claim, loss, or damage, of any kind related to your use of the website.
  10. You promise and warrant that you will not use the website to:
    1. Gather or extract any data or content;
    2. Post or send anything that is false, fraudulent, or misleading;
    3. Post or send anything that is unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, or sexually explicit;
    4. Post anything that does not belong to you, that you do not have the legal right to post, or that impersonates someone else;
    5. Send any unsolicited advertisements (SPAM);
    6. Reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, resell or exploit any portion of the website.
  11. Your content may be transferred unencrypted over various networks.
  12. Your site may be used in any Carrot publication without payment or any other consideration
  13. If your bandwidth usage exceeds 300 MB/month or significantly exceeds the average bandwidth usage of our other customers, we reserve the right to immediately disable your account or throttle your file hosting until you reduce your bandwidth consumption.
  14. We may collect information you provide to us.  We may share your personal information if required to do so by law or in order to enforce these terms.
  15. YOU ARE USING THE WEBSITE ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE WEBSITE IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS-IS” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND.  ALL EXPRESS AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT OF PROPRIETARY RIGHTS ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
  16. WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES DUE TO YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE.
  17. Our Legal Terms shall be treated as though it were executed and performed in Oregon, United States and shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Oregon, the United States without regard to conflict of law principles.
  18. IF YOU ARE DISSATISFIED WITH THE WEBSITE, YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ANY PART OF THESE TERMS, OR HAVE ANY OTHER DISPUTE OR CLAIM WITH US OR ANOTHER USER OF THE WEBSITE, YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY AGAINST US IS TO DISCONTINUE USING THE WEBSITE.  OUR LIABILITY RELATED TO YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE IS LIMITED TO $100 IN THE AGGREGATE FOR ALL CLAIMS. ANY CLAIM YOU MAY HAVE RELATED TO YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE MUST BE COMMENCED BY FILING SUIT IN DOUGLAS COUNTY, OREGON, WITHIN ONE (1) YEAR OF THE EVENT UPON WHICH THE CLAIM IS BASED FIRST OCCURRED.
  19. You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any claim or demand, including attorney fees and court costs, made by any third party related to your use of the website.
  20. Carrot reserves the right to adjust pricing of plans and/or services at any time, which includes but is not limited to existing user accounts and/or new user accounts. As with any other expense in your business, as we improve and innovate on our product we incur more expenses to create a better and better tool for your business.
  21. If you think copyright infringement is occurring on the website, please follow our procedures for Notification of Copyright Infringement. We will terminate, in appropriate circumstances, your membership if you are the source of repeat copyright infringements. “Pre-stocked” content available as part of the Service from the website is our copyrighted property and can only be used on websites hosted on our platform with active account holders of our Service. The look and feel of the website is copyright ©2009-2021 by Carrot, LLC. All rights reserved. You may not duplicate, copy, or reuse any portion of the HTML/CSS or visual design elements without express written permission from us.
  22. We do not screen any content you post.  We do have the right, in our sole discretion, to remove any content from the website.
  23. We do not allow the creation of forms or other material that would capture and store sensitive information on the sites including but not pertaining entirely to social security numbers.
  24. If we fail to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the terms, we do not waive that right or provision.  These terms constitute the entire agreement between us and govern your use of the website, superseding any prior agreements between us (including, but not limited to, any prior versions of the Terms of Service).
  25. Your account may be terminated at any time for violation of these terms.  In the event your account is terminated, no refund will be due to you. Termination will result in the deactivation or deletion of your account or your access to your account, and the forfeiture and relinquishment of all content in your account.
  26. One powerful advantage with Carrot is we’re dedicated to being the highest performing website solution in the industry. We get this by continually testing changes and ideas on our clients’ websites. By joining Carrot you agree to allow our team to proactively run conversion split tests on your website with the intention of improving conversion rates over the long-term, with or without notice. Carrot has the right to run tests on websites with or without notice but you always have full access to the data and results of every test we run on your website(s) by simply requesting the results at any given time.

Payment, Trials, Refunds, Upgrading and Downgrading Terms

  1. A valid credit card is required to sign up for all accounts. You will be charged for the first month when you sign up. All monthly fees are due in advance on a monthly basis.
  2. If your card is declined and your credit card is not updated within 10 days, we reserve the right to cancel your account and deactivate your sites.
  3. Our system will continue to automatically attempt to process an active account’s overdue invoices for 30 days.
  4. Carrot will attempt to communicate if your account is in arrears. Communications include, but are not limited to, email, chat, sms/text, phone calls, and ringless voicemails.
  5. If you cancel your subscription within 30 days of signing up, you will be refunded your first month upon your request.  If you cancel your account after 30 days of signing up, you will not receive a refund and the account will remain active for your remaining subscription time.
  6. If you have chosen the option to pay one annual payment for your subscription, the renewal and cancellation policy is the same as above. You have a full 30 days to try out your account and cancel within that time to receive a full refund, per these terms. There are no pro-rated refunds on annual accounts if you cancel more than 30 days after the initial purchase.
  7. Each customer is entitled to only 1 refund under our 30-day guarantee. If you sign up and cancel within 30 days of signing up and receive a refund then sign up at a later date, you’re not eligible for a refund if you cancel again within the first 30 days.
  8. Each customer is limited to one special or discount upon signing up for a subscription.
  9. There is a 3% refund fee for each invoice that is refunded outside of the 30-day money-back guarantee.
  10. If your account was canceled and you return to Carrot, you will be reactivated under the current plans and rates.
  11. For any upgrade or downgrade in plan level, your credit card will automatically be charged the new rate on your next billing cycle.
  12. Downgrading your account may cause the loss of content, features, or capacity of your account. We do not accept any liability for such loss.
  13. Sales Tax. All fees are exclusive of taxes, which we will charge as applicable. You agree to pay any taxes applicable to your use of the Subscription Service and performance of Consulting Services. You shall have no liability for any taxes based upon our gross revenues or net income. If you are located in the European Union, all fees are exclusive of any VAT and you represent that you are registered for VAT purposes in your member state. At our request, you will provide us with the VAT registration number under which you are registered in your member state.  If you do not provide us with a VAT registration number prior to your transaction being processed, we will not issue refunds or credits for any VAT that was charged. If you are subject to GST, all fees are exclusive of GST.

Cancelation and Termination

  1. To cancel your account, you must log into your account at carrot.com/account/subscription and click the “Request Cancelation” button. Cancellations won’t be considered final until you’ve clicked the “Cancel Subscription” button inside of your account on your end. You fully control your own cancellation process. Immediately when you click the Cancel Subscription button our system stops all future billings. We may reach out to you to get feedback or see if we can help you afterward, but all future billings stop once you click the Cancel Subscription button for that subscription.
  2. Cancellation is effective the day after you confirm your cancellation via email with our support team.  Future monthly/annual charges will not be charged after the date of cancellation. There are no refunds on monthly or annual payments already made. The annual plan is intended for customers who are committed to utilizing Carrot in their business for at least 12 months and want the discount in exchange.
  3. Upon cancellation, all of your content may be immediately and automatically be deleted from the Service. This information can not be recovered once your account is canceled.
  4. CHARGEBACKS — In our history as a business, we pride ourselves in great customer service and helping our customers reach their goals. If our website isn’t a good fit for you, it’s your responsibility to cancel in a timely manner inside your account by clicking the “Cancel Subscription” button per the terms of this agreement. If you call your credit card company and claim you canceled when you did not formally request to cancel in our secured account, you agree to fully compensate us for all costs we incur as a result of your actions, which may include chargeback fees and attorney fees.

SEO Service Terms

  1. You understand and accept that the practice of search engine optimization is risky and that results are not guaranteed due to certain factors being outside our control.
  2. SEO results are not guaranteed. Previous poor SEO supplied by others may cause a devalue in rankings.
  3. Google frequently make changes to the search engine algorithm which may impact your results.
  4. Google does not publish its 200+ ranking factors.
  5. We will not commence any work until you have paid for the Service.
  6. You understand and accept that you may see no improvement of your website rankings or that there is the chance of a search engine not including your website in their search index.
  7. We make no warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, infringement, or arising from a course of performance or dealing. Our service is provided AS-IS.
  8. Failure to make payment per the contract agreement will result in penalties and the account will go to collections. If you have an active Carrot website with us Carrot has the right to terminate your website account if there is a default in your SEO service payments.

IDX Set Up Service Terms

  • You understand that the fee to set up your MLS listings on each Carrot website is a 1-time fee that will result in Carrot submitting paperwork to the IDX broker on your behalf. There is no guarantee that your MLS application will be approved and we will only submit to your local MLS what you submit through our intake form.
  • There is a monthly or annual fee to have access to the IDX integration feature on your Carrot website. If there is a lapse in payment the IDX service will cease and be removed from your website(s) and in order to reactivate and add IDX back to your website and submit paperwork to your local MLS, another setup fee will be required to re-add the IDX service after a lapse in the account.
  • You understand that in some cases the local MLS provider will charge a fee to use their listing service and we will pass that fee along to you with no markup.
  • You understand that if we are not able to successfully charge your card on file we are required to suspend your account’s access within 72 hours of a payment lapse to the IDX and MLS service so fees are not incurred on our behalf.
  • You understand you are fully responsible to follow all of the requirements of your MLS provider and will follow them while using Carrot’s platform. We are not responsible for any violations, fines, sanctions, or any other penalties you incur from a result of misuse, whether known or unknown, of the IDX or Carrot Agent services.
  • You understand there is paperwork that we will require you to sign so we can submit your paperwork to the IDX provider. We cannot proceed until you sign the necessary documents and we are not responsible for incorrect information submitted to your local MLS. If the resubmission is required for your IDX setup paperwork to your local MLS provider there may be a resubmission fee to do so.

Managed User Master Account Terms

  1. Managed User account owners may only market and/or sell the Carrot services as part of a higher value package that includes other high-value products or services that the end customer is paying at least 3x the retail value of the website plan as it is sold and listed on our website. For example, if you are providing your customer with a 1 website package that sells at the retail value on the carrot.com website for $69/mo, the package your customer is purchasing from you must be at least 2x that amount ($138/mo or annual equivalent) unless otherwise agreed upon in writing with Carrot.
  2. You agree that you cannot sell any Carrot products or services as stand-alone products or services or as the main and/or highest value element of the package as it may cause confusion or dilution in the marketplace for the Carrot product line.
  3. Pricing: Pricing is on a per active user basis and depends on the level of account and number of websites we’ve agreed upon in writing that your clients will receive.  Please refer to the signed agreement for the pricing details of your account.
  4. Term: Managed user master accounts require a minimum 6-month agreement with a MINIMUM billing of $100/mo during that 6-month term with a 60 day grace period from the time we set up your Managed User account where we’ll waive the minimum billing requirement to help you learn the platform and ramp things up.
  5. Copyright: The copyright terms that are lined out in our main terms of service also apply fully to the Managed User and the Managed Users end user fully. Carrot fully owns all content and design elements that come on our websites by default all or in part and may not be used outside of the Carrot website platform.
  6. Payment: A monthly invoice will be generated and sent to you with charges for all active users on your account at 11:59 pm PST on the 15th of each month. Payments are due immediately. Payments will be considered late 30 days past the date of the invoice and will incur a 2% per month penalty.
  7. Active User Counts: You agree that it is fully your responsibility as the Managed User account owner to ensure that your account is accurate.  If a customer cancels your service, it’s your responsibility to cancel out the customer from the Managed User interface to remove them from your “actives” list for billing. All active users at 11:59 pm PST on the 15th of each month will be counted in and invoiced for.
  8. Support: Billing support with your end user is fully your responsibility since you are collecting the payment from the customer on your end. It’s your responsibility as the Managed User account owner to help the customer set up the CNAMEs for their domain names.  All other everyday technical support on the use of the Carrot products is provided through our normal support channels that our direct customers enjoy access to.
  9. Cancellation: 30 days notice must be given to cancel your Managed User Master Account. Cancellation must happen by email to support@carrot.com only.