Terms of Service

1. Our Refund Policy

I run a small business too. I know what it feels like to spend money on something that doesn't quite fit, and I know how much it matters when a company makes that easy to walk back. So this policy is written to be clear, fair, and short.

This page covers refunds for three things: your annual RCA membership, the Crystal Trophy add-on (which is a physical product), and individual guide purchases for non-members.

Membership Refunds

You have 14 days from the date you joinedto request a refund — as long as your membership's core features haven't been substantively used yet.

We deliver value to your membership quickly: the moment you claim your badge, publish your directory listing, complete the AI visibility setup, or work through more than two premium guides in the member library, your membership has done what it's supposed to do. Once any of those things has happened, the refund window closes — but if you change your mind before any of them, just reach out and we'll process the refund.

Your membership is considered substantively used once any one of these has happened:

• Your verified-trust badge is claimed — you've downloaded the award badge or embedded it on your site.
• Your "Best of" directory listing for your city is published — your verified profile is live on our public directory.
• Your AI visibility setup is completed — we've performed the work to submit your business profile to the AI search platforms (this happens 48 hours after you claim, so you have a window).
• You've used the resource library — you've accessed more than two of the premium guides in the member portal.

Refunds are also issued, no questions asked, for accidental duplicate charges or for genuine technical problems that prevent you from accessing your membership.

For requests on the $199 annual membership, we'll offer the option of a quick 15-minute call before processing — sometimes there's a fix or a clarification that resolves the issue faster than a refund. The call is offered, not required. If you'd rather we just process the refund, just say so.

Crystal Trophy Add-On

The Crystal Trophy is a custom physical product, so it has its own rules. Five scenarios cover what happens.

Individual Guide Purchases (for non-members)

If you bought a single premium guide as a non-member, you have 7 days from the date of purchase to request a refund — easy and no questions asked. After 7 days, the guide is yours to keep.

How to Request a Refund

You can request a refund two ways:

1. Sign in to your member portal and submit a refund request from your account.
2. Or email hello@reviewerschoiceawards.org with your business name and the reason for the request.

We respond to all refund requests within two business days. Approved refunds reach your card or bank account within 3–5 business days, depending on your bank.

2. Membership Terms

A Reviewers Choice Award membership covers one business — the business that qualified through our review-data evaluation. Each business has its own membership account; you can't share a single membership across multiple businesses or move it between unrelated entities.

Billing and renewal

Membership is annual. The first year is $149 with the launch early-bird code, or $199 at the standard rate. Renewals are charged at $199 per year on the anniversary of your first payment, automatically. We'll email you a receipt every time we charge your card.

If we ever change the renewal price, we'll email you at least 30 days before your next renewal date. If you don't want to pay the new price, you can cancel before that date and your card won't be charged.

Cancellation

You can cancel any time from inside your member portal. Cancellation stops the next renewal — your membership stays active for the rest of the period you've already paid for, and your badge, directory listing, and AI visibility setup remain live until that date. After your paid period ends, your directory profile is unpublished and your award is no longer marked as current-year.

We don't prorate cancellations mid-period. If you'd like a refund of unused time, that's covered under Section 1 above.

When an award lapses or is revoked

Awards are re-evaluated annually against current review data. If your business no longer meets the qualifying thresholds at re-evaluation, we let you know first and explain which criterion shifted. You have a grace period to address it (e.g., respond to recent negative reviews, fix a Google Business Profile issue) before the award is marked lapsed. Lapsed memberships are not auto-renewed.

We may revoke an award (and terminate the membership without refund) if we discover review manipulation, paid-review schemes, fraudulent business representation, or other behavior that violates Section 4 below. We don't do this lightly — you'll get a chance to respond before any revocation is final.

Account transfer

Memberships are tied to the qualifying business, not to the person who claimed them. If your business is sold or transferred to a new owner, the membership can transfer with the business — but we need to be told and to confirm the new owner is committed to the same review-integrity standards. Email us before any transfer; we don't charge for it but unannounced transfers may invalidate the membership.

3. Award Display License

While your membership is active, you have permission to display the Reviewers Choice Award badge, certificate, and trust widget on your website, social media, marketing materials, and physical premises. The license is non-exclusive, non-transferable, and royalty-free — it costs nothing beyond your active membership.

How you can use the assets

• Display the badge on your website — footer, header, about page, anywhere you'd display a normal trust signal.
• Embed the trust widget — the code we provide must link back to your verification page; please don't modify the link or strip it out.
• Print the certificate — hang it in your office, frame it for the lobby, hand a copy to a customer who asks.
• Mention the award in marketing — social posts, press releases, customer communications. We just ask that the language be accurate (you're a current-year recipient, not a perpetual award holder).

What you shouldn't do

• Don't modify the badge, certificate, or trust widget artwork — including stripping the year, changing the colors, or removing the link to your verification page.
• Don't display the award after your membership has expired or been revoked. The badge artwork itself is owned by us; the license to display it ends with the membership.
• Don't apply the badge or the "Reviewers Choice Award" name to a different business than the one that earned it.
• Don't use the Reviewers Choice Awards name, logo, or other trademarks for any purpose other than displaying your own award. The brand assets aren't licensed for general use.

If your membership ends — whether through expiry, cancellation, refund, or revocation — please remove the badge and certificate from your active display surfaces within 30 days. Linking to old archived blog posts that mention the award is fine; representing yourself as a current award holder isn't.

4. Acceptable Use

The whole point of the Reviewers Choice Award is that it's based on real customer reviews of real businesses. The behaviors below undermine that — so they're prohibited, and engaging in them ends the membership without refund.

Not allowed

• Review manipulation — paying for positive reviews, paying to remove negative reviews, soliciting reviews from people who weren't actually customers, posting reviews of your own business under false identities, or using third-party services that do any of the above.
• Misrepresenting the business — claiming an award for a business other than the one that qualified, providing false information during the eligibility check, or impersonating a different business in the directory.
• Misusing the platform — scraping the directory, automating eligibility checks beyond reasonable rate limits, reverse-engineering our scoring methodology to game it, or attempting to access another member's portal account.
• Using the brand on misleading sites — displaying the badge or trust widget on sites that misrepresent your business, host pirated content, or otherwise wouldn't pass a basic legitimacy test.
• Harassment — using the platform, the member portal, or the contact channels to harass our team, other members, or third parties.

Consequences

We investigate suspected violations directly with the member first. If a violation is confirmed, the consequences are: award revocation, membership termination without refund, removal from the public directory, and revocation of the badge display license. For serious violations (review fraud, business impersonation), we may also report the activity to the relevant review platforms and, where appropriate, to law enforcement.

We don't do this lightly. The vast majority of members operate in good faith; this section exists to protect the integrity of the award for everyone, not as a hair-trigger.

5. Disclaimers and Liability

Service provided as-is

We work hard to keep the platform running reliably, the eligibility-check methodology accurate, and the AI visibility setup effective — but we provide the service "as-is" without warranties. We don't guarantee any specific business outcome from membership: not a specific increase in customers, not a specific search ranking, not a specific level of AI tool surfacing. AI tools update on their own schedules and we have no control over what any individual one decides to surface.

Liability cap

To the maximum extent allowed by law, our aggregate liability to you for any claim arising out of or related to your membership or use of the platform is limited to the total amount you've paid us in the twelve months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim. We're not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages, including lost profits or lost business opportunities.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold Aesthetic Laser Institute Inc. (d/b/a Reviewers Choice Awards) harmless against claims, damages, costs, and reasonable attorneys' fees arising from your misuse of the badge, certificate, trust widget, or directory listing — including violations of Section 4 above and any third-party claims that your business representation misled them.

Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. The exclusive venue for any dispute is in Texas.

Before either of us files a formal claim, we agree to try to resolve the dispute informally — email us, tell us what's wrong, and give us 30 days to make it right. Most issues resolve there. If informal resolution fails, the dispute will be settled by binding arbitration administered under standard commercial arbitration rules, except that either party may pursue claims in small-claims court where eligible. Class actions and class arbitration are waived.

6. Changes to These Terms

We may update these terms over time as the service evolves. The date at the top of this page ("Last updated") reflects when we last made a change.

For material changes — anything that meaningfully affects how the service works, what you pay, what data we handle, or what either of us can or can't do — we'll email active members at least 30 days before the change takes effect. If you don't want to accept a material change, you can cancel before it takes effect with no penalty (and we'll refund any prepaid time pro-rata, even outside our normal refund policy, since it's our change forcing your hand).

For non-material changes (typos, clarifications, links, formatting), we just update the page and the "Last updated" date.

7. Contact

Questions about these terms or anything else?

Email us at hello@reviewerschoiceawards.org. I read every message.

For postal correspondence: Aesthetic Laser Institute Inc. (d/b/a Reviewers Choice Awards). Address available on request — contact hello@reviewerschoiceawards.org

— Tonya