Terms of Service

These terms govern your use of VendBuddy at vendbuddy.io. By creating an account or using the service, you agree to them. If you do not agree, do not use the service.

1. What VendBuddy is

VendBuddy is a software platform for vending machine operators. It provides lead discovery, location scoring, route management, contract generation, and related tools. We are a software tool. We are not a vending broker, a placement agency, or a guarantor of business results.

Some features (Growth Coach, AI Discovery) are powered by artificial intelligence and generate responses automatically. AI-generated content is informational only, may be inaccurate, and is not professional advice. See our Privacy Policy for details on how these features work and what data they use.

2. Accounts

• You must be at least 18 years old and legally able to enter contracts in your jurisdiction
• You are responsible for keeping your password confidential and for all activity under your account
• One account per person; don't share credentials
• We may suspend or terminate accounts that abuse rate limits, use disposable or anonymous email services, attempt to bypass billing, or otherwise violate these terms

3. Free credits

• New accounts receive 5 free lead credits
• Credits are consumed as you use credit-gated features (primarily the Lead Finder)
• Free credits do not expire but are non-transferable and non-refundable

4. Paid plans and billing

• Paid plans are billed monthly or annually through Stripe
• Subscriptions auto-renew at the end of each billing cycle until cancelled
• Cancel at any time from the app under Billing › Manage subscription › Cancel subscription, through the contact form, or by emailing hello@vendbuddy.io; cancellation takes effect at the end of your current paid period, and you keep your remaining credits until then
• Refunds: A refund is available on your first subscription payment only, within 7 days of that payment, and only if no credits have been used since it. All three conditions apply. Renewal payments and one-time credit packs are non-refundable once charged, except where the law in your jurisdiction requires otherwise. If you do not qualify, you can cancel at any time and your plan stays active until the end of the period you already paid for. To request one, reply to any VendBuddy email or use the contact form before the window closes; cancelling in the app first is not required. Where the law in your jurisdiction gives you a longer window or a broader right, that law applies.
• Digital products (kits, playbooks, bundles, spreadsheets, prompt packs, lead lists and the done-for-you kits): Not useful? Email us within 7 days of purchase for a full refund. To request it, email hello@vendbuddy.io or reply to your receipt, from the email address you ordered with; no proof or explanation is needed. Purchases made before October 23, 2026 keep whatever their product page promised at the time of purchase. Credit packs and subscriptions follow the rules above.
• Price changes: we will notify you by email at least 30 days before a price change takes effect on your plan

Buddy Bucks

• Buddy Bucks are a loyalty reward, not money: they have no cash value, are not withdrawable, cannot be exchanged for cash or refunded, are not transferable between accounts, and do not carry dollar-for-dollar value. 10,000 Buddy Bucks can be redeemed for $1.00 of value on VendBuddy only: extra credits, loyalty credit bundles (paid members), digital products, and up to 20% of a paid subscription renewal, up to $25 of redemption value per account per month.
• You earn them in the app: one daily spin (a button you click once a calendar day, America/New_York; the prize is drawn at random by our server from a fixed prize table, the same for every account, with the odds shown next to each prize, and is always at least a small win), claim-streak bonuses, paid months and tenure milestones, levels and achievements, and occasional time-limited boosts whose countdown is real.
• Paid members' Buddy Bucks do not expire while the subscription is active. When a paid subscription actually ends (at the end of the period you paid for, not when you click cancel; a paused or past-due subscription keeps its balance until it actually ends) the whole balance is forfeited, and a returning subscriber starts a new balance. Free accounts forfeit their balance after 30 days without a login; the wallet warns you from day 23.
• Buddy Bucks cannot be bought. We may change how Buddy Bucks are earned or spent, or end the program, with notice in the app.

5. Your content and our platform

• The VendBuddy software, interface, copy, logos, and trademarks belong to us. You may not scrape, reverse-engineer, copy, resell, or create derivative works based on the platform.
• The data you create or upload (your leads, routes, contract drafts, notes) stays yours. We only use it to deliver the service to you and for internal aggregate analytics.

6. User content and submissions

This section covers anything you submit through the service beyond your private account data — questions typed into the public Growth Coach widget, referral or feedback submissions, support messages, and any other content you type, upload, or send us (“User Content”).

• You own your User Content. By submitting it, you grant VendBuddy a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, store, process, reproduce, and display it solely to operate, provide, secure, and improve the service — including sending it to third-party processors described in our Privacy Policy (for example, sending a Growth Coach question to Anthropic’s API to generate a response).
• You are responsible for what you submit. You represent that you have the right to submit your User Content and that it does not infringe anyone’s rights, contain unlawful material, or violate any applicable law.
• We don’t pre-screen, but we can remove. We do not actively monitor User Content, but we may review, remove, or restrict access to any User Content that violates these terms or applicable law, without notice.
• Indemnification. You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold VendBuddy harmless from any claim, damage, liability, cost, or expense (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of your User Content or your violation of this section.
• If you believe content on VendBuddy infringes your copyright, email hello@vendbuddy.io with a description of the material and your rights in it, and we will investigate.

7. Acceptable use

Don't:

• Automate, script, or scrape the service beyond your account's normal rate limits
• Resell, sublicense, or white-label the platform without written permission
• Use the service for any illegal purpose or to harass, defraud, or deceive others
• Attempt to compromise other accounts, bypass authentication, or exploit security vulnerabilities (report issues to hello@vendbuddy.io instead)

8. Service availability

We aim for high uptime but do not guarantee uninterrupted service. We provide no SLA for trial accounts. Paid customers who experience sustained outages may request prorated credit at our discretion by emailing hello@vendbuddy.io.

9. Third-party data, estimates and our guides

Lead information, demographics, and location scoring are generated from third-party data APIs. We do our best to surface useful signals, but accuracy is not guaranteed. Revenue estimates, opportunity scores, and location recommendations are informational — not promises of business outcomes. You are responsible for verifying any information before taking action on it.

General information only. Our blog posts, guides, state and city pages, calculators, templates, scripts, newsletters and other content are general information for educational purposes. They are not legal, tax, accounting, financial, investment or insurance advice, and using them does not create a professional or advisory relationship with VendBuddy.

Check before you act. Laws, permits, tax rules, age restrictions and fees change and vary by state, county and city. Before you rely on anything we publish, confirm it with the official source (for example your state revenue department, health department or licensing office) and, where it matters, a licensed attorney, accountant or other qualified professional. You are responsible for the decisions you make and for complying with the laws that apply to you.

Examples, not promises. Revenue, income, profit, commission and payback figures in our content are examples or ranges drawn from public sources, operator reports or our own estimates. They are not guarantees or typical results. Your results depend on your locations, machines, products, effort, costs and market conditions, and you can lose money.

Templates. Contracts, agreements and other templates we provide are starting points, not legal documents reviewed for your situation. Have a local attorney review them before you sign or ask anyone else to sign.

Images. The charts, diagrams and cover cards on our blog and city guides are made by VendBuddy and carry a small vendbuddy.io mark. You are welcome to share or embed them, including in articles, slides, social posts and AI answers, as long as the mark stays visible and you credit vendbuddy.io with a link to the page the image came from. Please do not crop the mark or present an image as your own. Photos credited to a photographer in the caption come from Wikimedia Commons under a public-domain or CC0 licence and are shared on those terms. For any other use, such as print, resale or a product listing, email hello@vendbuddy.io.

Data license. The research data and CSV downloads on our research pages (including the Vending Location Index and the vending commission rates dataset) are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). You may copy, share and adapt them for any purpose, including commercially, as long as you credit “VendBuddy (vendbuddy.io)” with a link to the source page the data came from and say if you changed it. The license covers the dataset tables and CSV files only, not third-party documents we cite or link to. Chart and diagram images on those pages stay under the image terms above.

10. Disclaimers

The service is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability, or non-infringement. We do not warrant that the service will meet your business goals, generate revenue, or secure placements.

11. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability for any claim arising out of or related to the service is limited to the amount you paid VendBuddy in the 12 months preceding the claim. We are not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages — including lost profits or lost business opportunities.

12. Termination

We may terminate or suspend your account at any time for violations of these terms. You may cancel your account at any time. Termination does not entitle you to a refund except as described in Section 4.

13. Dispute resolution — binding arbitration

Informal resolution first. Before filing any arbitration or lawsuit, you agree to first contact us at hello@vendbuddy.io and describe the dispute. We will try to resolve it informally. If we can’t resolve it within 60 days, either side may proceed as described below.

Agreement to arbitrate. You and VendBuddy agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these terms or your use of the service (except as carved out below) will be resolved by binding, individual arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act, administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court. This applies to claims already existing or arising in the future, and survives if you stop using the service.

Class action waiver: arbitration will be conducted on an individual basis only. You and VendBuddy each waive any right to bring or participate in a class, collective, or representative action. The arbitrator has no authority to combine more than one person’s claims or to preside over any form of a class or representative proceeding. If this class-action-waiver sentence is found unenforceable as to a particular claim or remedy, that claim or remedy (and only that one) will proceed in court, and the rest of this arbitration section still applies to everything else.

• Where: arbitration will take place in the county of your residence, or another location we mutually agree on, and may be conducted by phone, video, or on written submissions where the AAA’s rules allow it.
• Carve-outs: either side may instead bring an individual claim in small claims court if it qualifies, and either side may seek injunctive relief in court for misuse of intellectual property, unauthorized access, or violation of the Acceptable Use section.
• Fees: we will pay AAA filing fees for claims under $10,000 that are not frivolous, consistent with AAA Consumer Rules and applicable law.
• 30-day opt-out: you may opt out of this arbitration section entirely by emailing hello@vendbuddy.io with the subject line “Arbitration Opt-Out” within 30 days of the date you first agreed to these terms (or, for existing accounts, within 30 days of October 12, 2026). Opting out does not affect any other part of these terms.

14. Governing law

These terms, and any claim carved out of arbitration above, are governed by the laws of the United States and the State of Delaware, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. Any such claim will be brought in state or federal courts located in Delaware, and you consent to that jurisdiction.

Use outside the United States. Our content is written mainly for the United States, and even there rules differ by state and city. If you use VendBuddy from another country, laws on vending, food, tobacco, taxes, data and contacting businesses may be very different. You are responsible for complying with the laws where you live and operate.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. We will notify active users by email at least 30 days before any material change takes effect. Continued use of the service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance.

16. Contact

Questions or concerns about these terms: hello@vendbuddy.io