Terms and conditions

These terms govern the software service PETAL provides to a hairdresser or salon (a business-to-business relationship). PETAL’s processing of your clients’ personal data is governed by the separate Data Processing Agreement (DPA), and how we handle your own data by the privacy policy.

1. Definitions

“PETAL”, “we”, “us” — Petal UK Ltd (trading as “PETAL”), a company incorporated in England and Wales (company number pending). “Salon”, “you” — the business that subscribes to the Service. “Service” / “Platform”— the PETAL software-as-a-service platform. “Platform Fee”— PETAL’s commission on each client deposit taken through the Service: 2% of the deposit or 50p, whichever is higher. No Platform Fee is charged while your account is on the paid tier. “Card Processing Fee”— the fee Stripe charges to process a client’s card payment, as actually recorded by Stripe for that payment. It depends on the card used (for example, 1.5% + 20p for a standard UK card, and more for premium or non-UK cards). “Subscription Fee”— £14.99 per calendar month for the optional paid tier, once it is released. (Petal UK Ltd is not currently VAT-registered, so these are all-in prices with no VAT added at present.) “Stripe”— our third-party payment processor.

2. The agreement, and how it is formed

These Terms, together with the DPA and Privacy Policy, form the agreement between you and PETAL. By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to be bound by them. The person doing so confirms they have authority to bind the Salon.

3. Business-to-business relationship

The Service is provided to businesses for use in the course of their trade. Many UK hairdressers are sole traders; a sole trader using the Service to run their business is contracting for business purposes and is treated as a business customer, not a consumer. By creating an account you confirm you are using the Service as a business.

4. The Service and your licence to use it

Subject to these Terms and payment of any fees that apply, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable right to access and use the Service for your Salon’s internal business purposes. Phase 1 includes your diary, bookings you add and manage yourself, client profiles and notes, and optional client deposits. To take deposits you connect your own bank account through Stripe, and you also agree to Stripe’s terms for connected accounts. A deposit your client pays is processed by Stripe and paid out to your connected bank account less the Card Processing Fee and any Platform Fee; how deposits are refunded is set out in our deposit policy. The Service does not store any client’s card details and does not automatically charge clients for no-shows. We may improve, modify, add or remove features, and may operate a global “kill-switch” to disable a feature if a serious fault arises.

5. Eligibility, accounts and security

You must be a business operating in the United Kingdom. You are responsible for all activity under your account and for keeping login credentials confidential. Two-factor authentication is required for Owner accounts. You are responsible for your Authorised Users and their roles. Notify us without undue delay at petalbookingsystem@gmail.com of any unauthorised access.

6. Your obligations as a Salon

You will use the Service only for lawful business purposes; be responsible for the accuracy, quality and legality of your Client Data and for having a valid lawful basis to process it; obtain and maintain any consents required from your clients and staff (including for any directory listing and any marketing); comply with your own obligations as a data controller; and keep your account and payment details current.

7. Acceptable use

You must not use the Service to store or transmit unlawful material; upload personal data you have no lawful basis to process; send marketing without valid consent and a working unsubscribe (in breach of PECR); attempt to gain unauthorised access to other salons’ data or our systems; introduce malware; reverse-engineer the Service; resell it; or place unreasonable load on it. Each salon’s data is strictly isolated — you must not attempt to circumvent that isolation.

8. Fees, billing, renewal and price changes

The core Service is free: your diary, bookings, client profiles and deposits carry no monthly charge. Stripe’s Card Processing Feeis deducted from every deposit a client pays you through the Service, on every plan. It is Stripe’s charge, not PETAL’s, and PETAL does not pay it for you. While you are on the free tier, PETAL’s Platform Fee of 2% of the deposit, or 50p, whichever is higher, is also deducted. The rest is sent to your connected Stripe account once Stripe has confirmed its fee (usually within an hour), and paid out to your bank weekly. If a deposit is refunded in full, the Platform Fee on it is refunded too; if it is partly refunded, the same proportion of the Platform Fee is refunded. Stripe does not return its Card Processing Fee when a deposit is refunded, so that fee stays with you: the refunded amount, less any Platform Fee we refund, is taken back from your Stripe balance. If that deposit has not reached your Stripe balance yet, we take it back once it has. Any part that cannot be taken back that way, because it has already been paid out to your bank or has still not been taken back 30 days after the refund, is deducted from your future deposits, as is the Card Processing Fee on a full refund.

We issue your client’s refund straight away (it can take 5–10 working days to reach their card); what is due back from you is recovered afterwards, as described above. If your Stripe balance ever goes below zero, Stripe may take the difference from your connected bank account. There are two exceptions, where PETAL pays the Card Processing Fee instead of you: when our own double-booking protection has to refund a client automatically, and when a client pays using an old payment link that PETAL has already replaced with a new one and we refund them automatically.

The optional paid tier, once released, costs £14.99 per calendar month and is entirely your choice to take up. Payments are collected in advance through Stripe; card details are held by Stripe (PCI-DSS) and PETAL does not store your full card details. A paid Subscription is a rolling monthly agreement that renews automatically until cancelled. If a payment fails we may retry it and move your account to a past-due state. We give at least 30 days’ notice of any price change. You may cancel at any time via billing settings or by emailing petalbookingsystem@gmail.com; cancelling stops the next renewal and you keep access until the end of the paid month. Subscription Fees are non-refundable and we do not provide pro-rata refunds.

9. Suspension and termination

You may end the agreement by closing your account (email us and we will close it for you) and cancelling any paid Subscription. We may suspend access where payment is overdue, where we reasonably believe you are in material breach of acceptable use, or where necessary to protect the Service or personal data. We may terminate on 30 days’ notice for convenience, immediately for an unremedied material breach, or immediately on insolvency. Accrued fees remain payable; surviving clauses continue.

10. Data retention on exit (“never held hostage”)

On cancellation, non-payment lock, or termination, your account is locked but your data is retained for approximately 90 days so you can export it or return, after which it is deleted. We will not withhold your data as leverage. You are responsible for taking your own export before the window ends.

11. Data protection

In providing the Service, PETAL processes your clients’ and staff’s personal data on your behalf: you are the controller and PETAL is the processor, governed by the separate DPA (which prevails on data-processing matters). Each party complies with the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018. How PETAL handles data for which it is the controller is explained in the privacy policy.

12. Our obligations and service availability

We provide the Service with reasonable skill and care and use commercially reasonable efforts to keep it available, but do not guarantee it will be uninterrupted or error-free. During Phase 1 there is no formal uptime SLA and no service credits. We may carry out planned or emergency maintenance. Support is by email at petalbookingsystem@gmail.com, Monday to Friday.

13. Early-release notice

During Phase 1 the Service is provided as a newly launched, early-release product. It is functional and built to a high standard, but features may change and occasional issues may occur. This does not reduce our duty of reasonable skill and care or any non-excludable statutory right.

14. Warranties and disclaimers

Except as expressly stated and to the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service is provided “as is” and “as available”, and we disclaim other implied terms (satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose, non-infringement) except those that cannot lawfully be excluded. Any figures the Service shows are tools to assist you, not financial, accounting, tax or legal advice; verify figures before relying on them, and keep your own records.

15. Intellectual property

All intellectual property in the Service, its software, design and branding (including the “PETAL” name and “Where Elegance Meets Efficiency”) remains owned by PETAL or its licensors. You retain all rights in your Client Data and grant PETAL a licence to host and process it solely to provide, secure, back up and support the Service. We may use fully anonymised, aggregated data to operate and improve the Service.

16. Limitation of liability

Nothing excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything that cannot lawfully be excluded. Subject to that, we are not liable for loss of profit, revenue, business, goodwill, loss from client no-shows or cancellations, loss or corruption of data (beyond reasonable backups), or indirect or consequential loss. Our total aggregate liability in any 12-month period is limited to the greater of the fees you paid us (Subscription Fees and Platform Fees) in the preceding 12 months or £1,000.

17. Indemnity

You will indemnify PETAL against reasonable losses arising from third-party claims to the extent caused by your Client Data or content, your breach of your obligations or acceptable use, or your unlawful use of the Service.

18. Force majeure

Neither party is liable for failure or delay (other than payment obligations) caused by events beyond its reasonable control. If such an event continues for more than 30 days, either party may terminate on written notice.

19. Other revenue streams and future services

PETAL intends to offer, separately and in future, an Amazon affiliate programme and a professional-development course marketplace. These are not part of the Phase 1 subscription Service and will be governed by their own additional terms when launched.

20. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms and will give at least 30 days’ notice of any material change. If a change materially disadvantages you, you may cancel before it takes effect; continuing to use the Service afterwards means you accept the update.

21. General

These Terms, the DPA and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement regarding the Service. You may not assign the agreement without our consent; we may assign it in a reorganisation, merger or sale. Nothing creates a partnership or agency. A person who is not a party has no rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999. If any provision is unenforceable, the rest continues in force.

22. Governing law and jurisdiction

This agreement is governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction. The parties will use reasonable efforts to resolve disputes in good faith first.

23. Contact us

Petal UK Ltd (trading as “PETAL”), 59 Brockmans Close, Minster, Ramsgate, CT12 4ET. Support, general and legal enquiries: petalbookingsystem@gmail.com.