Terms of Service for Your AI Receptionist

Last updated: October 27, 2026

The service and its operator

TypeScience, trading as After Hours Answering HQ, provides the website and AI receptionist service under these terms. We sell the service online, with a browser demo followed by a free trial and an onboarding chat. These terms describe the subscription and the responsibilities that come with using it for your business.

Your receptionist answers business calls once you forward them to the service. You choose whether to forward all calls or only calls that meet your no-answer, busy or after-hours settings. The receptionist uses the business information and call instructions you provide during setup and through later settings changes.

Your account and setup

You start with an email sign-in link and an onboarding conversation with the AI. The conversation covers your services, service area, hours, price policy, urgent situations and the people who should receive urgent calls. We also use the business website you identify to help prepare your receptionist.

You are responsible for the accuracy of the information you give the AI. Tell it what your business does, what it does not do and how calls should be handled when the office is closed. Review your settings when your hours, services or on-call arrangements change.

We provide a local number in your area code and a forwarding guide for your carrier or phone system. Setup includes a test call before you go live. Use that call to check your greeting, intake instructions and urgent call route against the way your business works.

Free trial and payment details

The free trial lasts 14 days and is capped at 100 minutes. A card is required before call forwarding goes live. You can try the browser demo without signing up before deciding whether to begin this trial.

The trial converts to a paid subscription only with a card on file. We send a reminder email two days before conversion. Review the plan and its included minutes before that point so you understand the subscription that will follow the trial.

Monthly charges and usage

The subscription costs $249 per month and includes 500 AI minutes. Additional usage costs $0.20 per extra minute, with overage minutes billed monthly. Your dashboard shows usage alongside your calls, recordings, transcripts and settings.

Your subscription renews monthly until you cancel it online. Billing is handled by our payment processor, and we do not store full card numbers. Contact support@afterhoursansweringhq.com for help with an account, charge or usage question.

Cancellation and a lapsed plan

You can cancel online in one click, and cancellation takes effect at the end of your paid month. The service is month to month. Keep your forwarding and backup arrangements in mind when planning how calls will reach you after the subscription ends.

If a plan lapses, calls go to your backup number or voicemail. Keep that backup route current so it reflects where you want callers to go. Your business remains responsible for keeping another way to be reached, including when the receptionist is not handling its calls.

Greetings, recording and disclosure

The receptionist states at the start of each call that it is a virtual assistant and that the call is recorded. These notices cannot be switched off. Your business is responsible for its greeting and policies within those service requirements.

You should review the information your greeting and call instructions give callers. The receptionist answers as your business using the information you supply, so inaccurate instructions can lead to inaccurate answers. Update those instructions when a closure, service restriction or other business policy changes.

Messages and urgent calls

Your receptionist asks intake questions, takes messages and flags urgency according to the rules you set. We deliver call alerts by email and app push notification, with a summary, urgency tag, transcript and recording. A daily digest email is also part of the service.

You decide what counts as urgent, who receives urgent calls and the order in which people are contacted. The receptionist can warm transfer an urgent call or page your on-call person. For a warm transfer, that person hears a short summary and presses 1 to accept the call.

The AI can make mistakes, so you are responsible for reviewing summaries and keeping a backup way to be reached. Treat your urgent call instructions as business decisions that need to match your actual availability. Change them when responsibility passes to a different person.

Appointment and language options

The receptionist can book appointments into Google Calendar or collect details for a callback if you prefer. Your setup instructions should reflect the option you want callers to use. Appointment handling follows the business information you provide to the receptionist.

The service speaks English and Spanish, and callers can switch between those languages during a call. It also politely ends spam and robocalls. These features sit alongside the message taking and urgent call rules you choose for your business.

Optional website chat and lead follow-up

Website chat is an add-on that uses the same business knowledge and rules on your own site. Consent-based lead follow-up calls are a separate add-on for people who submit your web form. These options extend the service beyond answering calls forwarded from your business number.

Lead follow-up requires a form submission and a consent checkbox naming your business, with prior express written consent for the call. You are responsible for the consent records for these follow-ups. This feature is not available for cold calls, lists or purchased leads.

The follow-up service calls within about a minute, between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. in the recipient's time zone. It makes one attempt plus one retry and honors opt-outs at once. Set up your form and consent records around this limited follow-up purpose.

Acceptable use and service limits

You must not use the service for illegal activity, cold calling, robocalling, impersonation or harassment. We may suspend service for abuse. Your business is responsible for the policies and instructions it asks the receptionist to follow.

Healthcare use involving protected health information is not permitted, and we do not offer the service for medical, dental or therapy practices. Choose another service for those uses. The receptionist described in these terms is for the supported business call handling functions on this website.

Emergencies and safety instructions

The receptionist is not an emergency service or a replacement for 911. Its safety scripts instruct callers reporting gas smells, CO alarms, sparks or burning smells, or flooding near electricity to get everyone out and call 911 or the utility from outside. For a fire, the scripts instruct callers to get everyone out first, then call 911 from outside. If the caller reports a medical emergency or anyone in danger, the scripts instruct them to hang up and call 911 right now. The service then alerts your business.

Your on-call rules control business escalation after that safety instruction. They identify who should be notified and what your business considers urgent. Do not use a receptionist transfer or page as the caller's emergency response route.

Caller information and data processing

Your business decides what caller information is collected and why, and we process it on your behalf. These data processing terms are part of your service agreement. You are responsible for the business instructions that determine what the receptionist asks callers to provide.

We collect call audio, recordings, transcripts, summaries and caller numbers to provide the service. Recordings are kept for your selected period of 30 or 90 days and then deleted. Transcripts and summaries remain while the account is open and are deleted within 30 days after closure or on request.

Calls, website and demo chats, recordings, transcripts and summaries of trial and customer accounts may be reviewed by authorized staff for quality, support and abuse prevention. Access is limited to those purposes.

We do not sell personal information or use callers' data for our own marketing. The privacy policy for accounts and callers explains collection, service provider categories, retention and privacy requests. Customers and callers can send privacy requests to privacy@afterhoursansweringhq.com.

Service basis and liability limit

We provide the service as is, and the AI can make mistakes. Our liability is capped at the fees paid in the prior 12 months. Consider that limit alongside your responsibility to review summaries and maintain a backup contact route when deciding how to use the receptionist.

Governing law, changes and contact

These terms are governed by the law of California. We notify customers of changes to the terms by email. The date at the top of this page identifies when this version was last updated.

Email support@afterhoursansweringhq.com for service or terms questions. There is no phone sales process: you evaluate the service through the website, browser demo and AI onboarding conversation. When you are ready, request a free trial; we email your sign-in link when the trial is ready so you can review your business instructions during setup.