Terms of Service

Last updated: October 19, 2026

1. Acceptance of Terms

By creating an account or using Dear Patience (the “Service”), operated by Rootstock Lab LLC (“we”, “us”, “our”), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

2. Description of the Service

Dear Patience is an email relay service that introduces intentional delays, modelled on distance, to letters. Letters are sent to a Dear Patience address and delivered to the recipient’s real email after the delay chosen for that correspondence. You can correspond with people whether or not they have an account.

3. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old to use the Service. By signing up you confirm that you are. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we will close it and delete its data. The Service is not offered to people in the European Union, the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom.

4. Your Account

You sign in with a code we email to you, so anyone who can read your email can sign in as you: you are responsible for keeping your email account secure. Each account is tied to a unique Dear Patience address and a real email address. You may not impersonate another person or register an address that is misleading or offensive.

5. Acceptable Use

You agree not to use the Service to:

• Send spam, unsolicited bulk messages, or commercial advertising.
• Harass, threaten, or abuse other users.
• Transmit malware, phishing links, or any malicious content.
• Violate any applicable law or regulation.
• Invite people you don’t know, or invite anyone at an address you don’t believe is theirs. An invitation is an email we send in your name to someone who hasn’t signed up.

We may close accounts that violate these rules.

6. Your Letters

Your letters are yours. You keep whatever rights you have in what you write. To run the Service, we need your permission to store your letters, copy them, hold them for their delay and deliver them, and to show your name and Dear Patience address on them. You give us that permission, without charge, for that purpose only, and as our Privacy Policy describes. It ends when a letter is deleted, except for the copies the Privacy Policy says remain for a short time afterwards.

You are responsible for what you send. By sending a letter you confirm you have the right to send it, and that it doesn’t break these terms or the law. We don’t review letters before they go, and we aren’t responsible for what other people write to you.

7. Message Handling

Letters are held on our servers until their delivery delay elapses. How we store, delete and access them is set out in our Privacy Policy.

8. Availability

We aim to keep the Service running reliably but cannot guarantee uninterrupted availability. Delays, outages, or data loss may occur.

9. Plans and Billing

Dear Patience is free to use. We may set an allowance on how many letters a free account can send each quarter, and offer a paid plan that lifts it. Whether we do, and the current allowance and price, are shown on our support page. Our limits against abuse, such as how many new people you can write to in a day, apply to every account, on any plan.

If you have a paid plan, the following applies. The paid plan renews automatically. It is charged in advance and renews every three months until you cancel. Payments are processed by Stripe; we do not receive or store your card details.

You may cancel at any time from your desk. Cancelling stops the next charge, and your paid plan continues to the end of the three months you have already paid for; after that the account continues on the free plan. If you delete your account while on the paid plan, the plan ends at once and the rest of the three months is not refunded. If a charge looks wrong to you, write to us at support@dearpatience.com.

When your paid plan starts, we email you its terms and how to cancel, and we email you a reminder of them at least once a year, ahead of a renewal.

If we introduce or change an allowance or a price, our support page and your desk will show it. If we raise the price of a paid plan you already have, we will email you at least 7 days, and no more than 30 days, before the new price is first charged, and say how to cancel before it is.

10. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE”. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, ROOTSTOCK LAB LLC DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT PROMISE THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT EVERY LETTER WILL BE DELIVERED, OR DELIVERED ON TIME.

11. Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, ROOTSTOCK LAB LLC WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF DATA, PROFITS OR GOODWILL, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE, INCLUDING LOST LETTERS OR DELIVERY LATER THAN EXPECTED, EVEN IF WE WERE TOLD SUCH DAMAGES WERE POSSIBLE.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SERVICE IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE AND FIFTY US DOLLARS ($50).

Some places don’t allow these exclusions or limits, so some of them may not apply to you. Nothing in these terms limits liability that the law does not allow to be limited.

12. Indemnification

If someone brings a claim against Rootstock Lab LLC because of a letter you sent, an invitation you made, your breach of these terms or your breaking the law, you agree to cover the reasonable costs of that claim, including legal fees, and any damages awarded. We will tell you promptly about any such claim, and you may take part in defending it.

13. Termination

You may delete your account at any time. We may also close your account for violation of these terms, or for any other reason with reasonable notice. Closing an account deletes it, and its data is deleted as our Privacy Policy describes. If we close an account on the paid plan for any reason other than a violation of these terms, we will refund the unused part of the three months already paid for.

Sections 6 (as to your responsibility for what you sent), 10, 11, 12, 15 and 16 continue to apply after an account is closed.

14. Changes to These Terms

We may update these terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by email. Continued use of the Service after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

15. Governing Law and Disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Colorado, USA, without regard to its rules on conflicts of law. Any dispute relating to these terms or the Service will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Denver, Colorado, and you and we both agree to their jurisdiction. Either of us may instead bring a claim in small claims court where it qualifies. Before bringing a claim, please write to us at terms@dearpatience.com so that we can try to resolve it informally first.

16. General

These terms and our Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about the Service. If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, that part will be limited as little as possible and the rest stays in effect. Our not enforcing a right is not a waiver of it. You may not transfer your rights under these terms to anyone else; we may transfer ours to a business that takes over the Service, and if we do, we will tell you by email.

17. Contact

Questions about these terms? Reach us at terms@dearpatience.com.