This Free Trial Master Agreement (the “Trial Agreement”) applies when Down South Systems, LLC (“Down South Systems,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) offers you a free trial of the managed website Subscription, and your Service Order identifies the offer as a trial. It is offered case by case and is not a published plan.
It works alongside our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, which are incorporated here in full. Capitalized words not defined here have the meaning given in the Terms of Service. Where this Trial Agreement and the Terms of Service conflict, this Trial Agreement controls for the trial period and for the conversion charge described in Section 3; the Terms of Service control everything else.
1. What the trial is
A free trial moves when you pay, not what you buy. You receive the same plan, the same website, and the same Customer System stated on your Service Order. What changes is that nothing is charged at checkout: the activation fee and your first Subscription month are deferred to the end of the trial period instead of being collected before we begin.
You are entering a paid Subscription with a free introductory period. It is not a quote, an estimate, or a no-obligation preview. If you do nothing, it converts to paid service and your card is charged as Section 3 describes.
2. When the trial starts and how long it lasts
The trial begins on the Launch Date — the day your website is published — not on the day you accept this Trial Agreement. Design, build, revision, and onboarding time before publication does not consume the trial. Your Service Order states the trial length; unless it says otherwise, the trial runs 30 calendar days from the Launch Date.
Where a launch-ready website is delayed by something under your control, Section 1 of the Terms of Service applies: we give written launch-ready notice, and the Launch Date is deemed to occur seven calendar days later. The trial starts on that deemed date. This prevents an indefinite free period created by an unanswered request for content, credentials, or approval.
We confirm the actual trial start and end dates to your billing contact in writing when the site goes live.
3. What you are charged when the trial ends
On the day the trial ends, we charge the payment method you saved at checkout for the activation fee plus your first Subscription month, as one payment. Your Service Order and the checkout page both state that exact amount and the date it will be charged before you accept. For the published plans, that amount is:
| Plan | Activation fee | First month | Charged at trial end |
|---|---|---|---|
| Presence | $500.00 | $147.00 | $647.00 |
| Complete System | $500.00 | $297.00 | $797.00 |
After that charge, your Subscription continues monthly at the plan price on the anniversary of the conversion date, at the price then in effect, until you cancel. Section 4 of the Terms of Service governs price changes and requires at least 30 days' advance notice.
We send a reminder to your billing contact before the charge — ordinarily seven days and again three days beforehand — stating the amount, the date, and how to cancel. A failure to send or receive a reminder does not by itself cancel the trial or the charge, but we will always honor a cancellation you sent on time.
4. Your authorization to charge the saved card
To begin a trial you must supply a valid payment method through our payment processor's secure hosted page. Nothing is charged at that time; the card is verified and stored for the later charge. Down South Systems never receives or stores your full card number or security code.
By accepting this Trial Agreement you authorize us to charge that saved payment method, without you being present, for the conversion amount in Section 3 on the trial end date, and for each Subscription amount and other amount owed afterward under the Terms of Service. You confirm you are authorized to use that payment method and to bind the business identified on the Service Order. You may replace the payment method at any time by contacting us; keeping a valid method on file is your responsibility.
5. How to cancel before you are charged
You may cancel at any time during the trial, for any reason, and you will owe nothing. The 30 days' written notice required by Section 12 of the Terms of Service does not apply to a cancellation during the trial period.
To cancel, email [email protected] from your billing contact address, or reply to any trial reminder, and say you want to cancel the trial. A cancellation received before the end of the trial end date stops the conversion charge entirely. We will confirm the cancellation and the effective date in writing. If a charge is ever taken after a timely cancellation, we refund it in full.
6. What happens if you cancel or the charge does not go through
The website license in Section 13.1 of the Terms of Service runs only while a Subscription is active. A trial that ends without converting ends that license.
- If you cancel during the trial, we unpublish the website and close the Customer System on or shortly after the trial end date. Nothing is charged.
- If the conversion charge is declined, we notify you and make reasonable retry attempts. If it remains unpaid, we may unpublish the website and suspend access, and the Subscription does not begin. Section 11 of the Terms of Service governs suspension and termination for nonpayment.
- Your own material is yours either way. Client Content, your customer data, and any domain we registered in your name are handled under Sections 13.2, 13.3, and 17 of the Terms of Service and are returned or transferred on request, independent of whether the trial converted.
- The site itself is not transferred by a lapsed trial. Website source is available only through the buyout in Section 13.3 of the Terms of Service, which is priced from the Standalone Website Value recorded on your Service Order.
7. The trial replaces the 30-day guarantee
A trial and the Section 7 money-back guarantee are the same protection, offered two different ways, and they do not stack. The Section 7 guarantee returns your money if you are dissatisfied in the 30 days after launch. A trial gives you those same days without taking your money first.
Accordingly, where your Service Order identifies a trial, the trial period replaces the Section 7 satisfaction period, and the Section 7 guarantee does not begin again when the trial converts. Everything else in Section 7 continues to apply, including Section 7.1 on prepaid months you do not receive, and nothing here limits a right you have under applicable law or payment-network rules.
8. What the trial does not include
- Usage-based charges are not free during the trial. Text messaging, voice minutes, and similar per-use communication charges under Section 6 of the Terms of Service are billed as they occur, through the usage balance funded by your payment method, from the day your Customer System is configured.
- AI & Growth Systems engagements are excluded. Section 4.1 of the Terms of Service work requires a separately signed Growth Services Agreement and is never included in, or extended by, a trial.
- Separately quoted project work is excluded, as is website change work beyond your plan's included monthly allowance, which is billed at the rate stated in Section 4 of the Terms of Service.
- Third-party costs are excluded, including domain registration and renewal, carrier and A2P 10DLC registration fees, paid media, and any license you ask us to buy on your behalf.
9. One trial for each business
A trial is available once for each business. It is not available to a business that has already had a trial or an active Subscription with us, and it may not be renewed, extended, transferred, stacked with another promotion covering the same month, or used to obtain repeated free periods through a renamed or related entity. We may decline or end a trial where we reasonably believe it is being used that way, or where the account is being used in a manner Section 14 of the Terms of Service prohibits.
We may also stop offering trials at any time. That does not change a trial already underway.
10. Service during the trial
During the trial you receive the plan on your Service Order in full, including its included website-change allowance, and we support it exactly as we support a paying client. Section 19 of the Terms of Service applies: we do not promise leads, appointments, conversions, search placement, or any other result, during the trial or after it.
11. How you accept this agreement
You accept this Trial Agreement by selecting the identified checkbox on your private Service Order page, confirming your name and title as the authorized representative of the business, and completing the secure card-verification step. Because no payment is taken at that moment, that combination — the checkbox, the representative confirmation, and the completed card verification — is the acceptance event for a trial, in place of the activation-fee payment described in Section 29 of the Terms of Service.
You agree to transact and receive records electronically. We record the accepted version of this Trial Agreement, the Terms of Service, and the Privacy Policy, together with each document's content fingerprint, the acceptance timestamp, the Service Order details, and the payment-method verification identifier, and we email your billing contact a written confirmation identifying that record. You may request a paper copy at any time.
12. Everything else
All other terms of our relationship — acceptable use, your communications-compliance obligations, call recording, intellectual property and the website buyout, confidentiality, privacy and data processing, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, binding individual arbitration and the class-action waiver with its 30-day opt-out, governing law, and notices — are set out in the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and apply during and after the trial without change.
We review this Trial Agreement at least twice each year, with review dates shown beside it. Before a material revision takes effect we give at least 30 days' notice by email or site notice. A revision never changes the trial length, conversion amount, or conversion date recorded on a Service Order already accepted.
13. Contact us
Down South Systems, LLC
Address: 201 Rue Beauregard, Ste. 202, Lafayette, LA 70508, USA
Email: [email protected]