Terms of Service

Who we are and what you are agreeing to

BuzzMeBro is a registered business in Canada, operating from Toronto, Ontario. In these terms, “we”, “us” and “BuzzMeBro” mean BuzzMeBro, and “you” means the person who signs up for the service.

By creating an account or using the service, you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the service.

What the service does

BuzzMeBro gives your apartment its own local phone number. You give that number to whoever manages your building and ask them to change the number your lobby buzzer dials. When a visitor buzzes your unit, we call every phone on your resident list at the same time, and whichever person answers can open the door by pressing the digit their building uses.

You may add up to four phones to one apartment. This is a fair-use limit and it is enforced by the service. If you need more, contact us before you sign up rather than after.

What the service is NOT

This clause is the most important one in this document, so it is near the top.

• BuzzMeBro is not a security system. It does not monitor your building, detect intruders, verify who is at the door, or prevent anyone from entering. It relays a phone call.
• It is not an emergency service. Never use it to contact police, fire or ambulance. Call 9-1-1.
• It does not replace your building’s own systems, and it cannot open a door your building’s panel is not already able to open.
• It depends on things we do not control — your building’s buzzer panel and its telephone line, your mobile carrier, your phone’s signal and its battery, and our telephony provider. Any of these can fail.

You are responsible for deciding who you let into your building. Anyone who can answer a phone on your resident list can open your door.

Your account and phone verification

You must be at least 18 and must live at, or be authorised by the resident of, the apartment you are setting up. You confirm that you are entitled to change the phone number your building’s buzzer calls for your unit.

We verify every phone number by sending a one-time code to it. Keep your account details accurate; a resident list that is out of date is a door that rings the wrong people.

The people you add

When you add someone to your apartment, you are telling us that they live there, or otherwise have your and their agreement to be called by your buzzer, and that you have their permission to give us their phone number for that purpose.

Every person you add is told, verified by one-time code before their phone will ring, and notified when the resident list changes. Anyone on the list can leave at any time. Adding a person who has not agreed to be added is a breach of these terms.

Your buzzer number

We buy your number when you pay, from a telephone number range local to your building. We cannot guarantee a specific number, area code or prefix. If no suitable local number is available we will tell you before you are charged.

The number is provided for use with the service. You cannot port it away, resell it, use it as a general-purpose phone line, or have it ring anywhere other than your apartment.

Changing the number your building’s panel calls is done by your building — usually management, a landlord, or your building’s own resident portal. We write the message for you, but we cannot make that change on your behalf, and how quickly it happens is up to your building.

Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• use the service to grant building access to anyone you are not entitled to admit;
• use it for any unlawful purpose, or to harass, defraud or impersonate anyone, including by presenting the number as a line it is not;
• resell, sublicense or share the service outside your own apartment;
• attempt to interfere with, overload, reverse engineer or gain unauthorised access to the service, or to probe its security other than through a good-faith report to security@buzzmebro.com;
• use it in a way that breaches your lease or your building’s rules.

Price, billing and taxes

The service is $11.99 per apartment per month, or $109.00 per apartment per year, in Canadian dollars, plus applicable taxes (GST/HST). One price covers everyone on your resident list; there is no per-person charge.

If you pay yearly, cancelling means we do not renew: your buzzer keeps working to the end of the twelve months you paid for, and we do not refund part of a year.

Billing renews automatically until you cancel. Payments are processed by Stripe; we never see or store your card details. If a payment fails we will tell you and give you a grace period to fix it before service is affected — and your door keeps working during that period.

We may change the price on 30 days’ notice before it applies to you.

Referrals

If a friend signs up with your referral code, you each get three months free once they have paid their first invoice. Free months apply one after the other so none are wasted, and there is no limit on how many friends you refer.

A referral is between two different apartments. Adding a roommate to your own apartment is not a referral. Credits have no cash value, cannot be transferred or refunded, and we may withhold them where a referral is not genuine.

Cancelling, and what happens to your number

You can cancel at any time from your account. Service continues to the end of the period you have already paid for; we do not pro-rate a partial month.

After that we hold your number for 15 days while your building changes your buzzer to another number — we write that message for you too. If you change your mind inside those 15 days you keep the same number and there is nothing to reprogram. After 15 days the number is released and cannot be recovered.

Your buzzer stops working when the number is released. Make sure your building has moved the panel to another number before the hold expires.

Availability and degradation

We aim to keep the door working, and we design for it: when part of the system is unavailable the service degrades to a simpler mode rather than failing to ring. We do not offer a guaranteed uptime commitment at this price, and we do not promise the service will be uninterrupted or error-free.

We may change, suspend or withdraw features. Where a change materially reduces what you are paying for, we will give you notice and you may cancel.

Suspension and termination

We may suspend or end your account if you breach these terms, if payment fails and is not resolved, if we are required to by law or by a telecommunications provider, or if the account is being used in a way that risks other people’s safety or our ability to operate. Where circumstances allow, we will tell you first.

Disclaimers and limits on liability

Nothing in these terms limits any right you have under Canadian consumer protection law that cannot be limited by agreement, and nothing here excludes liability for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by our negligence.

Subject to that, the service is provided “as is”. We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, and our total liability to you in any 12-month period is limited to the fees you paid us in that period.

We are not responsible for what your building’s panel, your landlord, your carrier or your phone does, for a visitor being unable to reach you, or for anyone you or a person on your resident list chooses to let in.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. If a change is material we will tell you before it takes effect, and continuing to use the service after that date means you accept it. The “last updated” date at the top always reflects the current version.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada that apply there. The courts of Toronto, Ontario have jurisdiction, without affecting any right you have to bring a claim where you live.

Contact

Questions about these terms: support@buzzmebro.com. Privacy requests: privacy@buzzmebro.com. Security reports: security@buzzmebro.com.