Terms of Service

Planning Bell is operated by Hekima Solutions Inc. (“Planning Bell”, “we”, “us”), with a mailing address at 7915 152A Ave NW, Edmonton, Alberta T5C 3A1, Canada. These terms are a binding agreement between you and Hekima Solutions Inc.

You accept them when you send a request, reply YES to confirm one, apply as a vendor, log in to a vendor account or accept a lead. If you do not agree, do not use Planning Bell. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information and forms part of these terms.

You must be at least 18 and able to make a contract. If you use Planning Bell for a business, you confirm you have authority to bind it, and “you” includes that business.

The short version at the top of this page and the section titles are a guide only. The full text is what applies.

We advertise to people planning events in the Edmonton area, confirm each request on WhatsApp, check it against a vendor’s service, area and smallest job, offer it to one approved vendor for each service the customer asked for, and help book a call between them. Matching is automatic; a person at Planning Bell reviews requests our checks cannot settle.

We do not provide event services ourselves. Vendors are independent businesses, not our employees, agents or partners, and we are not anyone’s agent. We do not set vendors’ prices, and price ranges we show are a rough guide only.

Approving a vendor means we reviewed their application. It is not an endorsement, and we do not check their work, licences, insurance, food safety or background. Checking a request means it passed our automatic checks. It does not mean the customer will hire anyone.

We may change, pause or stop any part of Planning Bell, including the services, event types and areas we cover and how and whether we advertise.

Any agreement for event services is made directly between the customer and the vendor. We are not a party to it and are not responsible for it. Quotes, deposits, payments, contracts, cancellations, refunds, safety and the quality of the work are between the two of you.

If something goes wrong, tell us at support@planningbell.com. We may help, or act on a vendor’s account, but we do not have to resolve a dispute between a customer and a vendor.

To the extent the law allows, you release Planning Bell from claims arising out of a dispute between a customer and a vendor. This does not release us from our own legal duties, such as our duties under privacy law.

Planning Bell works over WhatsApp, with SMS and email as backups. By giving us your number you agree that we can message you about your request or your vendor account. These service messages include request confirmations and one reminder, match results, lead offers, call times and reminders, questions about whether a call happened, login codes, statements and invoices, and notices about these terms.

• Service messages are part of how Planning Bell works. Reply STOP to any WhatsApp or SMS message to stop them. For a customer this closes the request. For a vendor it pauses new offers, because we can no longer reach you, and we will send account notices by email.
• We do not send news, offers or other marketing unless you separately agree to receive it. If we ever ask, it will be a separate choice that is never pre-ticked and never a condition of using Planning Bell, and every marketing message will let you unsubscribe.
• Reply HELP for help. How many messages you get depends on your request or account.
• We do not charge for messages. Your carrier’s message and data rates may apply.

You agree that these terms, notices, statements, invoices and other records can be given to you electronically, and that ticking a box, replying to a message or clicking a button to accept something is as binding as a signature.

You agree not to:

• give false details, use someone else’s number, or send a request for an event you are not planning or helping to plan
• use anyone’s contact details from Planning Bell for anything other than the request they came with
• harass, threaten, defraud or discriminate against anyone
• give a false answer about whether a call happened, or ask or pressure anyone else to
• copy, scrape, frame or resell our site, content or leads, or use them to build or train a competing service
• try to get into accounts or systems that are not yours, test their security without our written permission, or interfere with how Planning Bell works, including with automated messages
• break any law, including privacy and anti-spam law

The Planning Bell name and logo, the site, its text (including these terms and our privacy policy), its design and our messages belong to Hekima Solutions Inc. and are protected by copyright and trademark law. You may not copy or use them without our written permission, except to link to our site.

You keep ownership of what you give us, such as event details or a vendor’s business name and links. You give us a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use it to run and promote Planning Bell: for example to show a vendor a lead, to show a customer the vendor they were matched with, or to decide where to run our ads.

We advertise Planning Bell on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram and share some information with them to measure and target those ads, as our Privacy Policy explains. A customer’s contact details are shared only if they tick the separate, optional box on the request form. A vendor’s service, area and event types, and their contact details in hashed form, may be used for this unless the vendor opts out by emailing support@planningbell.com; opting out does not affect their account. We will not name a vendor or use their photos in our ads without asking first. Our site also uses cookies for analytics and ad measurement, which anyone can turn off with the Cookie preferences link at the bottom of every page, as the Privacy Policy explains.

If you send us feedback or ideas, we may use them without owing you anything.

Town and city names and positions come from GeoNames, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Place suggestions as you type come from Google.

We work to keep Planning Bell running and our checks accurate, but we provide it “as is” and “as available”. As far as the law allows, we make no promises beyond those written in these terms, and we do not promise that:

• Planning Bell will always be available, on time or free of errors, or that WhatsApp, SMS or email will always get through
• a customer will be matched, or a vendor will be available, accept, show up or do good work
• a vendor will get any number of leads, calls or bookings, or any return on the fees they pay
• information a customer or vendor gives us is true

Nothing in these terms takes away any right you have under Alberta’s Consumer Protection Act or any other law that cannot be waived or limited by agreement. Where such a law applies, these terms apply only as far as it allows.

As far as the law allows:

• we are not liable for what a customer or vendor does or fails to do, including the event services, a missed call, a cancelled event, or a deposit paid to a vendor
• we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential losses, such as lost profits, revenue, bookings, goodwill or data, even if we were told they were possible
• our total liability to a vendor for all claims is limited to the greater of the fees that vendor paid us in the 12 months before the event that led to the claim, and CA$100
• our total liability to a customer for all claims is limited to CA$100, since customers pay us nothing

These limits do not apply to liability for our fraud, gross negligence or wilful misconduct, for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or to any other liability that the law does not allow us to limit.

A vendor will defend and compensate Hekima Solutions Inc., its directors, staff and contractors for any claim, loss, fine or cost (including reasonable legal fees) arising from:

• the vendor’s event services, products, food, premises, staff or subcontractors
• any agreement or dispute between the vendor and a customer
• the vendor’s breach of these terms or of any law, including privacy, anti-spam, consumer, food-safety, tax and licensing law
• the vendor’s use or loss of a customer’s personal information

We will tell the vendor about the claim promptly and may take part in our defence with our own lawyer. The vendor may not settle a claim in a way that admits fault for us or binds us without our written consent.

We may update these terms. We will post the new version here with a new version number and date.

• For customers, the terms in place when you send a request apply to that request.
• For vendors, we will tell you by WhatsApp or email at least 30 days before a change to fees, billing, credits or your rights takes effect. Other changes take effect when posted. A change needed for legal, security or fraud reasons may take effect sooner, and we will tell you as soon as we can.
• A fee change never applies to an offer we have already sent you.
• If you do not agree with a change, you can stop using Planning Bell, and a vendor can close their account before it takes effect. If you keep using Planning Bell after a change takes effect, the new terms apply.

If you have a problem with us, email support@planningbell.com first and give us 30 days to try to fix it. Either side may still go to court sooner for urgent relief, such as stopping a misuse of personal information or of our content, or to stop a limitation period running out.

These terms are governed by the laws of Alberta and the federal laws of Canada that apply there. Any dispute that is not resolved goes to the courts of Alberta sitting in Edmonton, and you and we accept their jurisdiction. Smaller claims can go to the Alberta Court of Justice (Civil). There is no arbitration requirement, and nothing here stops a consumer from using any court or complaint process the law gives them.

• These terms, the Privacy Policy and anything they refer to are the whole agreement between you and us about Planning Bell, and replace anything said or written before. Nothing on our landing pages or in our ads changes them.
• If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, that part is limited or removed as little as needed and the rest still applies.
• If we do not enforce a term straight away, we have not given up the right to enforce it later.
• You may not transfer your rights or duties under these terms without our written consent. We may transfer ours to a company that controls, is controlled by or is under common control with Hekima Solutions Inc., or to a buyer of Planning Bell, and will tell vendors if we do.
• We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by things outside our reasonable control, such as outages at WhatsApp, Twilio, our hosting or payment providers, power or internet failures, or changes made by ad platforms.
• Sections that by their nature should continue after you stop using Planning Bell continue, including fees owed, the handling of customer details, the limits on our liability, the vendor indemnity and this disputes section.
• Nothing in these terms creates a partnership, employment, franchise or agency relationship.

Help, accounts and billing

support@planningbell.com, including disputes about a charge and privacy requests.

General and legal notices

info@planningbell.com, or by mail to Hekima Solutions Inc., 7915 152A Ave NW, Edmonton, Alberta T5C 3A1, Canada.

Notices to you

We send them to the WhatsApp number or email you gave us. A notice counts as received on the day it is sent, or the next business day if sent after 5 pm Edmonton time or on a weekend or holiday. Keep your contact details up to date.

You do not pay Planning Bell anything and you do not need an account. Vendors pay us for the calls we book. Any price you agree with a vendor is between you and them.

You tell us about your event, the services you need (up to three), a budget range for each, your first name and your WhatsApp number. You tick a box that says “I am 18 or older. Share my details with one vendor per service and message me about this request.” That is your consent for us to share your details with one vendor per service, as explained below and in our Privacy Policy. A second box, about sharing your details with our advertising partners, is optional: leaving it empty does not change your request.

• Give true details, and only your own number. Vendors plan their time around them.
• We send a WhatsApp message to confirm. Nothing goes to any vendor until you reply YES. If you have not replied after 24 hours we send one reminder, and after 48 hours we close the request.
• We may decline a request that does not pass our checks: for example, an event date that has passed or is too soon, an area we do not cover, or a request that repeats a recent one.
• The link to your request page is private to you. Anyone who has it can see your request’s status, so do not share it.

For each service, we offer your request to one approved vendor who covers your area and whose smallest job fits your budget. Before they take it, they see your event details but not your name or number. Once they accept it or propose a call time, they see your first name and WhatsApp number so the call can happen.

If that vendor does not take your request in time, we may offer it to another vendor for the same service, one at a time. We never offer your request to several vendors for the same service at once. If no vendor is available, we tell you, and your details are not shared for that service.

• You do not have to hire the vendor. What you agree with them is up to you and them.
• Get quotes and agreements in writing, and check what a deposit covers and whether it is refundable before you pay it.
• About two days after your call we ask on WhatsApp whether you spoke with the vendor, whether you booked them and how it went from 1 to 5. Please answer honestly: your answer decides whether the vendor is charged and counts toward their rating.
• Vendors also tell us how each call went. If vendors report that a request was not a real event, or that you were rude or unsafe, we may check your next request by hand before matching it, or stop matching you.
• Tell us if a vendor misses the call, behaves badly, or uses your details for anything other than your request.

Reply STOP to stop our messages; it also closes your request. To have your request and details deleted, message us on WhatsApp or email support@planningbell.com. The Privacy Policy explains what we delete and the little we have to keep.

You apply with your service, the events you do, your area, your smallest job, your weekly cap, your contact details and at least one link to your work. We confirm your WhatsApp number with a code. We review every application and may approve it, put it on a waitlist or decline it, at our discretion and without having to give a reason. We keep the number of vendors per service and area small, so a good application can still be waitlisted.

When we approve you, we send a login link by WhatsApp. You log in with your phone number and a one-time code. Keep your phone and codes secure: you are responsible for everything done in your account, and must tell us at once if you think someone else has used it.

Before your first lead, you accept these terms and either add a card or choose e-transfer billing.

To check your work, we may ask for the Google Business listing of your own business (we read its rating, review count, phone number and website), photos, videos or galleries of real events, and any permit or insurance the law or your service needs, such as a food handling permit from your local health authority. Everything you give us must be your own and true, and a Google listing can be linked to only one vendor account. Keep permits and insurance valid and upload new ones before they expire. We may check again at any time.

You are an independent business. You set your own prices and decide which jobs to take. You promise that the details in your application and account are true and kept up to date, and you are responsible for:

• the services you provide, and your contract with each customer
• any business licence, permit, food establishment permit, food safety certification and insurance that the law or your work requires, and showing us proof if we ask
• following the law, including consumer protection, privacy, anti-spam, human rights and tax law
• your own taxes, including any GST you must charge your customers
• keeping your area, smallest job and weekly cap accurate

When a request fits you, we send you an offer. It shows the event type, date, guests, area, budget range, the checks it passed, and your fee for the lead. You can accept it, propose a call time, or decline it.

• Each offer has a deadline, shown on it (currently 4 hours after it is sent). If you have not responded by then, or you decline, we may offer the lead to another vendor and it is no longer yours.
• While an offer or lead is yours, we do not offer that customer’s request for the same service to any other vendor.
• That is the only exclusivity we give. You are not the only vendor for your service or area on Planning Bell, and the customer is free to talk to other businesses, hire someone else, or send us a new request later.
• You see the customer’s first name and number once you accept or propose a call time. Use them only for that request (see Customers and their details).
• We do not promise any number of offers. We never send you more leads in a week than your weekly cap.

• You pay a flat fee for each billable call. The fee depends on your service and is shown on every offer before you accept it. The fee on an offer is the fee for that lead, even if fees change later. You can ask us for your current fee at any time.
• Your first billable call is free. This applies once per business, not per account or phone number.
• There is no sign-up fee, subscription, minimum spend or commission on jobs you win. We charge nothing for offers you decline or let expire, or for calls that are not billable.
• Fees are in Canadian dollars and do not include GST. If we are registered for GST, we add it at the current rate and show our GST number on your statement.

After the call time, we ask you and the customer separately what happened: the call happened, the customer did not show, or the vendor missed it. “The call happened” means you and the customer spoke about the request, by phone, video or in person, at the booked time or at another time you arranged between yourselves.

Billable

You and the customer both say the call happened.

Billable

The customer says the call happened and you do not answer within 48 hours of the call time. By not answering in that time, you accept the customer’s answer.

Not billable

Any other result, including when the customer does not answer, says they did not show, or says you missed the call. Repeated missed calls can lead to your account being paused.

Answers disagree

If you and the customer give different answers, we review the messages and records we have and decide. The outcome and a short reason appear on your statement, and you can dispute it as explained in Statements and payment.

The fee pays for a call with a checked customer. Whether the customer books you is up to you and them.

You can flag a lead within 48 hours of the call time. A flag for one of these reasons is credited automatically, so the call is not charged:

Wrong number

The number does not reach the person who sent the request.

Outside area

The event is outside the area you set.

Duplicate

You already had this customer for the same event.

Not looking

The customer is not looking for your service.

These are not reasons for a credit: the customer did not book you, chose someone else, found you too expensive, changed their plans, cancelled the event, or was slow to reply after the call. A flag after the 48 hours is not accepted.

We may review any flag. If a flag turns out to be untrue, or an account flags far more often than others for no clear reason, we may reverse the credit on a later statement, tell you why, and review the account. We may also issue a credit ourselves when something went wrong on our side. Credits reduce your statement total; they have no cash value and cannot be transferred.

You set the most leads you want in a week, and we never send you more than that. You can change it at any time; a lower cap applies to offers sent after you change it.

Every Monday we send a statement for the previous week, Monday to Sunday, Edmonton time. It lists each lead sent, each billable call, each credit and the total. Every charge points to a call.

Card

You authorise us to charge the week’s total to your card on file in one charge, on or after the statement date, through our payment processor Stripe. If a charge fails, we may try again and ask you to update your card. We never see or store your full card number.

E-transfer

We send an invoice. Pay it by Interac e-Transfer to the address on the invoice within 7 days.

If you think a statement is wrong, email support@planningbell.com within 30 days of the statement date, saying which lines and why. We reply within 10 business days. If we agree, we credit your next statement or refund you. A statement you do not dispute within 30 days is treated as accepted, except for an error caused by our fraud.

Please use this process before asking your bank to reverse a card charge. A chargeback for a charge you did not first dispute with us, or one we have already decided, is a reason to pause your account.

• If an invoice is still unpaid 7 days after we send it, or a failed card charge is not fixed within 7 days, we pause new leads until you pay.
• Leads you already accepted stay yours while paused, and calls that happen are still billed.
• Amounts more than 30 days overdue carry interest at 1% a month (12.68% a year), and you pay our reasonable costs of collecting them.
• We pause new leads automatically if your average customer rating is below 3.5 across 5 or more ratings in 12 months, or after 3 strikes in 6 months. A strike is a complaint we have looked into and upheld.
• If a permit or insurance you gave us expires and you have not uploaded a new one within 7 days, we pause new leads until you do.
• If you report that a customer did not answer but the customer tells us you spoke, we treat the call as happened and it is billed. Repeated no-answer reports lead to a review of your account.
• If we pause you, reply on WhatsApp or email support@planningbell.com and we answer within 5 business days. We do not publish ratings.

When you take a lead, you receive personal information about the customer. You receive it as an independent organization, and you are responsible for it under Canadian privacy law. You agree to:

• use it only to talk to that customer about their request, and to do any job they hire you for
• not add the customer to a mailing list or send them marketing unless they give you their own consent, as Canada’s anti-spam law requires
• not sell, share or publish it, and keep it secure, with access only for people in your business who need it
• tell us within 48 hours if it is lost, stolen or seen by someone who should not have it
• delete it when you no longer need it, and within 10 days of us telling you the customer asked for deletion, unless they have hired you
• never ask for card or bank details over WhatsApp or text
• show up to booked calls, be honest about your prices and availability, and treat customers with respect

There is no contract term. You can pause or close your account at any time by telling us. You still pay for billable calls that already happened, and calls on leads you have already accepted, on your final statement.

We may pause or close your account, or stop offering a service or area, for any lawful reason, with 14 days’ notice. We may pause or close it straight away if you:

• do not pay, or reverse a charge without disputing it with us first
• repeatedly miss calls or ignore offers
• misuse a customer’s details, or receive serious or repeated complaints
• flag leads untruthfully, give false call answers, or ask a customer to say a call did not happen
• give us false information, or break these terms or the law
• put customers, us or anyone else at risk

We will tell you why, unless the law, an investigation or someone’s safety prevents it. When an account closes, open offers end and we send a final statement.