Terms of service

1. What Mahallat is

Mahallat is software. It lets a business ("the shop" or "the merchant") run an online store, take orders, record the sales it makes in its shop, manage stock, customers and deliveries, and keep its customers informed about their orders.

The shop is always the seller of record. When a customer buys from a store built on Mahallat, the contract of sale is between the customer and the shop. Mahallat is not a party to that sale, does not own or ship the goods, and never receives, holds or transfers the customer's money. Payments (cash on delivery, Whish, bank transfer or any other method the shop offers) go directly from the customer to the shop.

2. Your account

• You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter into a contract to open an account.
• Give accurate information and keep it up to date, including a phone number and email address where we can reach you.
• Keep your password and login codes private. You are responsible for what happens under your account and for the team members you invite and the permissions you give them.
• Tell us straight away if you think someone else has access to your account.

3. Free trial, plans, billing and renewals

Every new store starts with a free trial of 14 days with the features of the Starter plan. No card or payment is needed to start it. When the trial ends, the store needs a paid plan, paid by Whish, to stay live and keep selling. Nothing is charged automatically: if you do not choose a plan, the store goes offline until you do.

After the trial, Mahallat is a paid subscription. The plans and their prices are shown in US dollars on mahallat.io. You pay monthly, or yearly at the price of 10 months. There is no free plan and we charge no fee on your sales.

• Nothing renews by itself. Before each period ends we remind you, and you pay the next month or year by Whish from Settings, Billing. To stop, you simply do not pay the next period, or you write to us; the store stays active until the end of the period you paid for.
• You pay by Whish, to the Mahallat Whish account shown on your Billing page, and send us the reference or a screenshot of the transfer. A plan starts or continues when we confirm the payment. A plan paid during the free trial starts at once and ends the trial.
• Third-party costs are yours: your own domain name, delivery companies, payment providers and any tax due on your sales.
• We may change prices. We will tell you at least 30 days before a change applies to you, and it only applies from your next payment.
• If a period is not paid when it ends, your store stays open for 5 more days (the grace days) and we remind you. A payment made during those days continues from the day the period ended. After them, the store shows customers a "temporarily closed" page and your dashboard is read-only until you pay. Nothing is deleted while the store is closed.

Payments are final: monthly and yearly subscriptions are not refunded.

4. Your content and your data

Everything you put into Mahallat (products, photos, texts, prices, your customers and orders) stays yours. You give us the permission we need to host, copy, display and process it in order to run the service for you, for example to show your products on your store, send order emails to your customers and send alerts to you.

You confirm that you have the right to use the content you upload, including photos and brand names. You can export your products, orders and customers at any time.

5. Acceptable use

You agree to follow the Acceptable use policy: no illegal or prohibited goods, no fraud, no spam and no abuse of the service. We may remove content or suspend a store that breaks it.

6. Services from other companies

Some features rely on other companies: Meta (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) for catalogues and for the WhatsApp messages you send from your own account, Whish and banks for payments, delivery companies, domain registrars, Google for maps and listings, email and push notification services, and the hosting providers that run our servers. Their own terms apply to your use of their services, and we are not responsible for their availability or decisions (for example Meta limiting a catalogue or Whish suspending an account).

7. Availability and changes

We work to keep the service available and your data safe, and we back it up. We do not promise that it will never be interrupted: maintenance, internet or power problems and failures at our providers can happen. We tell you in advance about planned maintenance that could affect your store.

We improve the service all the time. We may add, change or remove features. If we remove a feature that is an important part of your plan, we tell you at least 30 days before.

8. Suspension and closing an account

You can close your account at any time. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, the Merchant agreement or the Acceptable use policy, that puts customers or other users at risk, or when the law requires it. Except in urgent or serious cases we warn you first and give you time to fix the problem.

After an account is closed you have 30 days to export your data. After that we delete it, except what the law requires us to keep (for example billing records).

9. Our software and brand

The Mahallat software, templates, designs and brand belong to us. Your subscription gives you the right to use them to run your store while your account is active. You may not copy, resell or reverse engineer the service, or use the Mahallat name and logo in a way that suggests we endorse you, without our written permission. Store templates may be customised freely inside the editor.

10. Disclaimers

The service is provided as it is and as available. To the extent the law allows, we do not give guarantees beyond those written in these terms, for example that the service will meet every need of your business or that it will generate a given level of sales.

11. Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows, Mahallat is not liable for indirect losses such as lost profits, lost sales, lost data you could have exported, or damage to reputation, and our total liability for any claim related to the service is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the event that caused it.

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, such as liability for fraud or for serious misconduct.

12. Claims about your store

Because the shop is the seller, you are responsible for claims from your customers or from third parties about your products, prices, deliveries, content or use of personal data, and you agree to cover Mahallat's reasonable costs if such a claim is brought against us because of your store.

13. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of Lebanon. If a disagreement arises, write to us first: most problems are solved in a conversation. If it cannot be solved within 30 days, the courts of Beirut have jurisdiction, unless the law gives you the right to go to another court.

14. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. The date at the top shows the latest version. If a change matters for you, we tell you at least 30 days before it applies, by email, WhatsApp or a notice in your dashboard. If you do not agree, you can cancel before it applies.

15. Contact

Mahallat, Lebanon. WhatsApp +961 76 305 783 or email hello@mahallat.io.