Terms of Service

Last updated: 20 July 2026

These Terms of Service (the "Terms") govern your access to and use of Howzit, a South-Africa-focused SMS marketing app for Shopify operated by Mika Dekker, trading as AskMario ("Howzit", "we", "us" or "our"). Howzit is available at askmario.co.za. By installing or using Howzit, you (the Shopify merchant, "you" or the "Merchant") agree to these Terms.

1. Acceptance of Terms

By installing, accessing or using Howzit, you confirm that you have read, understood and agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Data Processing Addendum (DPA) and Privacy Policy, which are incorporated into these Terms by reference. If you are entering into these Terms on behalf of a business, you represent that you have the authority to bind that business. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not install or use Howzit.

2. Description of the Service

Howzit is an SMS marketing application for Shopify stores. The service lets you:

• Send SMS marketing campaigns and automations, including abandoned-checkout recovery, welcome, post-purchase and winback messages.
• Operate a two-way conversational inbox for customer service.
• Capture and manage SMS marketing consent from your customers.
• Track revenue attribution and view reporting on your messaging performance.

Howzit delivers SMS through a third-party gateway and relies on a number of subprocessors (including Shopify, SMSPortal, Neon and Fly.io) to provide the service. Data is processed within the EU (Frankfurt) and South Africa.

3. Merchant Responsibilities

You are solely responsible for how you use Howzit to communicate with your customers. In particular, you agree that you will:

• Obtain and maintain valid, demonstrable consent from your customers before sending them any SMS marketing.
• Only message people who have given you consent to be contacted, and stop messaging anyone who withdraws that consent.
• Comply with all applicable laws and codes governing SMS marketing, including the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), the Consumer Protection Act (CPA), the WASPA Code of Conduct, and any other applicable SMS or marketing laws.
• Not send unlawful, misleading, deceptive, harassing, or otherwise prohibited content.
• Ensure that the personal data you supply to, or process through, Howzit was lawfully collected and may lawfully be used for the purposes for which you use Howzit.

You remain responsible for the accuracy and lawfulness of your contact lists and message content. Howzit provides tools to help you comply, but the obligation to comply rests with you.

4. Billing

Howzit is billed entirely through Shopify App Pricing. There are two components, and both appear on your Shopify invoice:

• A monthly subscription, charged in advance through Shopify under Shopify App Pricing and subject to Shopify's billing terms.
• Usage-based SMS pricing. Every SMS part you send is charged at the published per-SMS rate for your monthly volume: the month's total sends pick one rate, and that rate applies to every SMS sent in that month. Usage is reported to Shopify and billed in arrears on your next Shopify invoice, rather than paid for in advance.

Your usage is always visible. There is no spend ceiling and no approval step — sends are never paused waiting for authorisation. Instead the app keeps your usage in view: the dashboard and Settings show how many SMS you have sent in the current billing month, and each campaign shows its own SMS count before you send it. Plans that predate this pricing may include a monthly SMS amount; where one exists it is used first, before any SMS is charged.

Sending also requires an active plan. If your subscription is inactive or frozen, sends will not go out until it is active again. Test sends are free and are limited in number per day.

All charges are collected by Shopify under Shopify's billing terms. Prices are shown in US dollars because that is the currency Shopify bills apps in; your Shopify invoice will reflect Shopify's conversion.

5. Acceptable Use

You agree to use Howzit responsibly and in a way that protects your customers and the integrity of the SMS channel. You must not:

• Send spam, bulk unsolicited messages, or messages to people who have not consented to receive them.
• Send phishing messages or any content intended to deceive, defraud, or harvest personal or financial information.
• Smuggle in untracked or disguised links. Howzit strips URLs from outbound message text so that only Howzit's own tracked link is sent, and you must not attempt to circumvent this.
• Ignore or suppress opt-outs. Every message includes a free opt-out ("Reply STOP"), and you must honour all opt-out requests. A STOP unsubscribes the contact, adds them to the suppression list, and writes the opt-out back to Shopify.
• Use Howzit for any unlawful, harmful, or abusive purpose, or in any way that violates the rights of others.

Howzit only sends to subscribed contacts. Outbound traffic is screened against the WASPA Do-Not-Contact list by our network provider, and merchants can suppress additional numbers themselves. Howzit never sells personal data and performs no automated decision-making with legal or similarly significant effects.

6. Data Protection Roles and the DPA

In respect of your customers' personal data, you are the data controller and Howzit acts as your data processor. This means you determine the purposes and means of processing, and Howzit processes personal data on your behalf and on your documented instructions.

The details of this relationship, including the categories of personal data, purposes of processing, subprocessors, security measures, retention periods and data subject rights handling, are set out in our Data Processing Addendum (DPA), which forms part of these Terms. Data subject rights are honoured through Shopify's mandatory privacy webhooks (customer data requests, customer redaction, and shop redaction), and an automated nightly retention purge enforces data minimisation.

7. Service Availability and No Warranty

Howzit is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. While we take reasonable steps to keep the service secure and available, including TLS in transit, AES-256 encryption at rest, and platform security controls, we do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free from delays, including in the delivery of SMS messages, which depend on third-party gateways and mobile networks outside our control. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, whether express or implied, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

8. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Howzit and its operator will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, or goodwill, arising out of or in connection with your use of, or inability to use, the service. Nothing in these Terms limits any liability that cannot lawfully be limited. You remain responsible for your own compliance obligations and for the messages you choose to send.

9. Suspension and Termination

You may stop using Howzit at any time by uninstalling the app from your Shopify store. Following uninstallation, the personal data associated with your shop is purged in accordance with our retention schedule.

We may suspend or terminate your access to Howzit, with or without notice, if you breach these Terms, use the service in a way that is unlawful or harmful, put your customers or the SMS channel at risk, or where we are required to do so to comply with the law or a request from a competent authority. We may also suspend sends where your plan is inactive, or where you have not yet approved further SMS spend.

10. Changes to the Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time, for example to reflect changes to the service, our subprocessors, or legal and regulatory requirements. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, provide additional notice. Your continued use of Howzit after changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the updated Terms.

11. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of South Africa, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. You agree to the jurisdiction of the South African courts for any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or your use of Howzit.

12. Contact

If you have any questions about these Terms, you can reach us at mika@askmario.co.za.

Questions? Contact mika@askmario.co.za.