Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between Mars Network Services, Inc., a Florida corporation ("we," "us"), and the business that creates or uses an E-Rate Workbench workspace ("Customer," "you"). They cover the website at erateworkbench.com and the app at app.erateworkbench.com (together, "Workbench"). By creating a workspace, starting a trial or using Workbench, you agree to these Terms. If you accept them for a company, you confirm you have authority to bind it. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information.

1. The service

Workbench is web software for E-Rate service providers. It monitors public USAC data, screens Form 470 filings against your rules, tracks bids and quotes, and follows funding requests and awards. Features depend on your plan. We improve Workbench over time and may add, change or retire features, but we won't materially reduce the core features of your plan during a term you've paid for.

2. Accounts and users

• Users sign in with single-use links sent to their email address. Each user must keep their email account secure. Accounts can't be shared.
• Users must be your employees or contractors acting for you. Your plan includes a set number of users, and you can add more for an additional fee.
• Workspace owners manage users and roles (owner, bidder, viewer). You are responsible for your users' actions in your workspace and for removing people who should no longer have access.
• Tell us right away at support@erateworkbench.com if you believe someone has accessed your workspace without permission.

3. Free trial

New workspaces get a free 7-day trial that includes Pro features, limited to 3 quote checks and 3 exports. A payment card is required to start a trial. The subscription starts when the trial ends unless you cancel before then by emailing support@erateworkbench.com. Trials are provided as-is, without the commitments in sections 10 and 12.

4. Plans, fees and renewal

• Plans and prices. Plans, user counts and prices are shown on our home page and at checkout when you subscribe. Annual billing is 12 months for the price of 11.
• Term. Subscriptions run for 12 months. You can pay the full year up front or in monthly installments. Monthly installments are a way to pay for the 12-month term, not a month-to-month plan.
• Additional users. Users added during a term are billed for the rest of that term.
• Renewal. Subscriptions renew for another 12 months unless either party gives notice at least 30 days before the term ends. We'll tell you about any price change at least 45 days before it applies to a renewal.
• Payment. Fees are due as stated on your order or invoice. Prices don't include taxes, which you pay except for taxes on our income. If a payment is more than 15 days late, we may suspend the workspace after giving you notice.
• Refunds. Fees are non-refundable except as these Terms say otherwise.

5. Your data

"Customer Data" means what your users enter or upload, such as rules, price books, quotes, bid decisions and notes. You own your Customer Data. You give us permission to host, process and display it only as needed to provide, secure and support Workbench for you. We won't use Customer Data to build benchmarks, pricing insights or other products for other customers. We may use aggregate information about how Workbench is used, which does not reveal your pricing, quotes or bid decisions, to run and improve the service.

You are responsible for having the right to provide your Customer Data. Workspace owners can ask for an export of Customer Data during the term and for 30 days after it ends. After that, we delete Customer Data as described in our Privacy Policy.

6. Public data and E-Rate compliance

Workbench shows data from USAC Open Data as USAC publishes it. That data can be incomplete, delayed or wrong, and USAC's own systems are the official record. Screening results, distances, budget estimates, pricing benchmarks and win odds are estimates to support your judgment, not guarantees.

You are solely responsible for complying with E-Rate program rules and all FCC and USAC requirements, including competitive bidding rules, gift rules, lowest corresponding price, and record retention. Workbench does not file forms or submit anything to USAC for you. Nothing in Workbench is legal, compliance or financial advice. E-Rate Workbench is not affiliated with or endorsed by USAC or the FCC.

7. Acceptable use

You and your users will not:

• use Workbench in violation of any law or E-Rate program rule;
• try to access another customer's workspace or data, or get around access controls or rate limits;
• probe, scan, overload or attack Workbench, or upload malicious code;
• resell, sublicense or give third parties access to Workbench outside your own business;
• scrape or bulk-export Workbench to build or train a competing product;
• use Workbench to send unsolicited bulk messages; or
• suggest that you or Workbench is affiliated with USAC or the FCC.

8. Confidentiality

Each party will protect the other's non-public business information with at least reasonable care, use it only for purposes of this agreement, and share it only with people who need it and are bound to keep it confidential. This doesn't apply to information that is public through no fault of the receiving party, was already known to it, or was independently developed. Either party may disclose information when legally required, after giving notice where allowed.

9. Our software

We own Workbench, including its software, design, name and logo. These Terms give you the right to use Workbench during your subscription; they don't transfer ownership. If you send us suggestions or feedback, we may use them without obligation to you.

10. Availability and support

We use commercially reasonable efforts to keep Workbench available, apart from planned maintenance and events outside our control. Nightly data updates depend on USAC Open Data being available and may be delayed when it isn't. Support is provided by email at support@erateworkbench.com during business hours, Eastern Time. We don't offer a service-level agreement unless we sign one with you in writing.

11. Suspension and termination

• We may suspend access if payment is overdue as described in section 4, if your use creates a security risk, or if you break section 7. We'll give notice when we reasonably can and restore access once the issue is fixed.
• Either party may end the agreement if the other materially breaches it and doesn't fix the breach within 30 days of written notice.
• When the agreement ends, access ends. If you end it because of our uncured breach, we'll refund prepaid fees for the unused part of the term. If we end it because of your breach, any fees remaining for the term become due.
• Sections 5 (export and deletion), 6, 8, 9 and 12 through 17 survive termination.

12. Warranties and disclaimers

We will provide Workbench in a professional manner, and it will perform materially as described in our documentation. If it doesn't, tell us, and we'll work to fix it. If we can't within a reasonable time, you may end your subscription and receive a refund of prepaid fees for the unused part of the term. That is your sole remedy for a breach of this warranty.

Except as stated above, Workbench is provided "as is" and "as available." We disclaim all other warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We do not guarantee that you will win any bid, receive any funding, or that public data shown in Workbench is accurate or complete.

13. Limitation of liability

Neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, bids, contracts, E-Rate funding or data, even if told they were possible. Each party's total liability arising out of this agreement is limited to the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim. These limits don't apply to your payment obligations, to either party's indemnification obligations, or to liability that can't be limited by law.

14. Indemnification

You will defend and indemnify us against third-party claims arising from your Customer Data, your bids and E-Rate filings, or your use of Workbench in violation of these Terms or the law. We will defend and indemnify you against third-party claims that Workbench, as we provide it, infringes their intellectual property rights. The indemnified party must give prompt notice, reasonable cooperation, and control of the defense to the indemnifying party.

15. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute will be heard in the state or federal courts serving Flagler County, Florida, and both parties consent to those courts.

16. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. We'll post the new version here, and for material changes we'll email workspace owners at least 30 days before they take effect. Fee changes apply only at renewal, as described in section 4. If you keep using Workbench after a change takes effect, the updated Terms apply.

17. General

• These Terms, your order and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between us about Workbench. If they conflict, your signed order controls, then these Terms.
• Neither party may assign this agreement without the other's consent, except to a successor in a merger, acquisition or sale of the relevant business.
• Neither party is responsible for delays caused by events beyond its reasonable control. This doesn't excuse payment obligations.
• We send notices to the email address of your workspace owners. You send notices to support@erateworkbench.com.
• If a provision is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. Not enforcing a provision is not a waiver of it.
• The parties are independent contractors.

18. Contact