Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the Banyan Bell website (banyanbell.com) and the personalized audio story service we provide (together, the “Service”). Banyan Bell (“we,” “us,” “our”) is operated from Maryland, United States.

By using the Service or placing an order, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction, whichever is greater) to place an order. By ordering, you represent that you are of legal age and have the authority to provide information about the child for whom the story is personalized.

2. The Service

Banyan Bell produces personalized audio bedtime stories drawn from Indian heritage, aimed at children ages 3–8. Each story is written from traditional sources, reviewed line-by-line by a human, personalized with details you provide (child's first name, favorite thing, optionally a best friend's name), and narrated by our chosen voice via text-to-speech.

We may add, remove, or modify features and content at any time. We do not guarantee that any specific story, voice, feature, or pricing will remain available.

3. Pricing and payment

Prices are shown on the site at the time of purchase. Current launch price for one personalized story is $7 USD (a discount from the standard $10 anchor price). Prices may change; the price displayed at the moment of your order is the price you pay for that order.

Payment is processed by Stripe. Charges appear on your statement as “Banyan Bell” or a similar descriptor. We do not store your credit card number. All transactions are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated.

4. Delivery

We aim to deliver the finished audio to the email address you provided within 24 hours of payment. Delivery times may extend if we need additional review or if operational issues arise; we will communicate delays via email.

Audio is delivered as a link to a hosted MP3 file. You are responsible for keeping the delivery email address accurate and for downloading or saving the file if you wish to retain a copy beyond our hosting.

5. Refunds and cancellations

We offer full refunds under the following conditions:

• You request a refund by email at hello@banyanbell.com within 30 days of your order, for any reason.
• We decline to fulfill your order (for example, if your submitted information does not meet our content guidelines). In that case, we automatically refund the full amount.
• A material defect in the delivered audio that we are unable to correct.

Refunds are returned to the original payment method and typically appear within 5–10 business days, depending on your bank. You will always receive the full amount you paid; Stripe's base processing fee is not returned to us and represents our cost for the transaction.

Rerecordings are free.If a name is mispronounced or a passage doesn't land, reply to your delivery email and we will regenerate the audio at no additional cost.

6. Intellectual property and license

All story templates, cover art, brand marks, narration voices, and website content are owned by Banyan Bell or our licensors and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws. Underlying traditional stories are drawn from public-domain source material.

When you purchase a personalized story, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to download, listen to, and privately share the audio file with your immediate family and household. You may not:

• Sell, rent, or otherwise commercially distribute the audio.
• Publicly perform or broadcast the audio (including uploading it to public platforms).
• Use the audio, brand, or content to train AI or ML models.
• Modify the audio to misrepresent its content or origin, or to produce derivative works for distribution.
• Remove or obscure any Banyan Bell attribution embedded in or associated with the audio.

7. Content and conduct

You agree not to submit information that is unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, obscene, hateful, or otherwise objectionable, or that infringes another person's rights. We reserve the right to reject any order for any reason, including if the information you submit violates these Terms or if we cannot produce a story that meets our cultural or age-appropriateness standards. Rejected orders are refunded in full.

8. Disclaimers and warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.” TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free; that defects will be corrected; or that the content or the Service is free of viruses or other harmful components. You use the Service at your own risk.

9. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL BANYAN BELL, ITS FOUNDER, OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, USE, OR GOODWILL, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STATUTE, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT WE HAVE BEEN INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

OUR TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM, OR (B) FIFTY U.S. DOLLARS ($50). SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR LIABILITIES; IN THOSE JURISDICTIONS, OUR LIABILITY IS LIMITED TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

10. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Banyan Bell and its founder, contractors, and licensors from and against any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to: (a) your use of the Service; (b) your violation of these Terms; (c) your violation of any right of another person or entity; or (d) your submission of information that violates applicable law.

11. Governing law and venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Maryland, United States, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. Subject to Section 12 (arbitration), you agree that any court action must be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Maryland, and you consent to personal jurisdiction and venue in those courts.

12. Dispute resolution and arbitration

Informal resolution first. Before filing any formal claim, you agree to try to resolve the dispute informally by contacting us at hello@banyanbell.com. Most disputes are resolved this way.

Binding arbitration.If informal resolution fails, any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, and judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. The arbitration shall take place in Maryland or via video conference, at the arbitrator's discretion. Each party will bear its own costs and fees except as required by the AAA rules.

Class action waiver.You and Banyan Bell agree that each may bring claims against the other only in your or its individual capacity and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class or representative proceeding. Unless we and you agree otherwise, no arbitrator or judge may consolidate more than one person's claims or preside over any form of a representative or class proceeding.

Small claims exception. Either party may bring a qualifying claim in small claims court, provided the matter remains only in that court, on an individual (non-class) basis.

Opt out. You may opt out of arbitration by emailing hello@banyanbell.com with subject “Arbitration Opt-Out” within 30 days of first accepting these Terms.

13. Termination

You may stop using the Service at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access at any time for any reason, including violation of these Terms. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including IP, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, governing law, and arbitration) will survive.

14. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will update the “Last updated” date and, if changes are material, we will notify affected users by email. Continued use of the Service after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

15. Miscellaneous

Entire agreement: These Terms and our Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and Banyan Bell concerning the Service and supersede any prior agreements.

Severability: If any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full force and effect.

No waiver: Our failure to enforce any right or provision does not waive that right or provision.

Assignment: You may not assign these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

Force majeure: We are not liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control (e.g., outages of third-party services we depend on, natural disasters, war).

16. Contact

Questions about these Terms?

Email: hello@banyanbell.com
Banyan Bell, Maryland, United States