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MakeSense Terms of Service
These terms are an agreement between you and MakeSense Embedded Systems, South Africa ("we", "us"). They apply when you create a MakeSense account, use the MakeSense app or cloud service, take a plan, or buy hardware from us. If you do not agree to them, do not use the service.
1. The service
MakeSense consists of controllers and sensors installed on your site, the MakeSense app, and a cloud service that stores readings, delivers settings and alerts, and lets you monitor and control your devices remotely. Automations are stored in your account and run on the controller itself. The cloud service is needed for remote access, history, alerts and sharing, but not for the controller to keep running its program.
2. Your account
- You must be 18 or older to create an account.
- Keep your sign-in details secret. You are responsible for what is done through your account and through people you share devices with.
- Give a working email address. We use it for sign-in, billing and important notices about the service.
- You can delete your account at any time. See Delete your account.
3. Plans and billing
The plans and their limits are listed on the plans page. Starter is free. Professional and Business are paid monthly. The limits that apply to a device are those of the device owner's plan.
- Prices are in South African rand. MakeSense is not VAT-registered, so no VAT is charged.
- Billing is monthly in advance, from the day the paid plan starts, as a recurring payment through PayFast. You start, change and cancel a paid plan on Your plan, signed in with your MakeSense account. PayFast processes the payments; we never see or store your card details.
- Upgrades take effect immediately. The new price applies from your next billing date; we do not charge the difference for the rest of the current month.
- Downgrades and cancellations take effect at the end of the current billing month. You keep the plan you paid for until then. We do not refund the unused part of a month, except as set out in section 4.
- Failed payments. If a payment fails, we tell you and you have 7 days to pay. After that the account moves to Starter.
- Price changes. We give at least 30 days' notice by email before a new price applies to your plan. You can cancel before it takes effect.
4. Cooling-off period
If you take a paid plan through an electronic transaction, you may cancel it within 7 days of the agreement without giving a reason and get a full refund, as the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act provides. Cancel on Your plan and email us to ask for the refund.
5. Moving to a smaller plan
- History. When the change takes effect, readings older than the new plan's history period are removed. Export anything you want to keep before then.
- Devices over the limit. All your devices keep running their programs and keep receiving commands and updates. Readings from devices beyond the new limit are not stored until you are back within it. You choose which devices stay connected.
- Automations, widgets and shared users over the limit stay as they are. You cannot add more until you are within the limit.
We never stop, clear or change a program on your controller because of your plan or a payment.
6. Assist and priority assist
Professional includes Assist and Business includes Priority assist: help from us with planning, building and reviewing your automations. We give this help with care, but you remain responsible for checking that an automation does what your installation needs before you rely on it (see section 8).
7. Hardware
- Hardware is sold once-off, at the price in your written quote. A quote is valid for the period stated on it.
- Hardware carries the warranty stated in your quote, and never less than the Consumer Protection Act requires.
- You do not need a paid plan to buy or use hardware.
8. Installation and safe use
MakeSense controllers switch real equipment such as pumps, valves, heaters and motors. You are responsible for:
- having the controller and the equipment it switches installed by a competent person, and by a registered electrician where the law requires it;
- the design of your automations, including the fail-safe state of each output, and testing them before relying on them;
- independent protection wherever a wrong output could cause injury, damage or loss, such as float switches, pressure switches, thermal cut-outs and emergency stops. A controller, an app or a network connection must not be the only safeguard.
9. Acceptable use
Do not use MakeSense to break the law, to attack or overload the service, to access accounts or devices that are not yours or shared with you, or to reverse engineer the cloud service. We may suspend an account that does any of these, and we will tell you why.
10. Your data
Your readings, settings and automations remain yours. We use them only to run the service, as described in the privacy policy. How long readings are kept depends on your plan.
11. Availability
We work to keep the cloud service available, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted access. The service depends on the internet, on your network and on providers we use. We may carry out maintenance, and we try to do so at quiet times. Your controllers keep running their programs during an outage.
12. Liability
To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, such as lost crops, stock, production or profit, arising from the use of the service or of a controller, or from the cloud service being unavailable. To the extent the law allows, our total liability for the cloud service in any 12 months is limited to what you paid us for plans in that period. Nothing in these terms limits your rights under the Consumer Protection Act or any liability that cannot be limited by law.
13. Ending the agreement
You can stop using the service and delete your account at any time. We may end the service for an account that seriously or repeatedly breaks these terms, after telling you why. If we ever stop offering the cloud service as a whole, we will give at least 90 days' notice so you can export your data; your controllers keep running their programs.
14. Changes to these terms
If we change these terms we will update the date at the top. For changes that affect you materially, we tell you by email at least 30 days in advance, and you can cancel before they apply.
15. Law
These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa.
16. Contact
MakeSense Embedded Systems, South Africa
Email: info@makesensesystems.co.za