AI and LLM usage policy

This policy explains how Verbinden LLC, DBA Main Street Christmas Lights (“Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) uses artificial intelligence (AI) tools in our customer-facing operations and marketing, and sets our terms for third-party AI systems accessing our website content. It works alongside our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy — where those documents address a topic in more detail (data handling, what’s binding, liability), they control.

Where We Use AI

We use AI tools to help run parts of our business more efficiently. Currently, that includes:

1.1 Customer Service Chat/Voice Assistant. Some of your first interactions with us — through our website chat, text messages, or phone system — may be handled in whole or in part by an automated AI assistant rather than a person. You can request a human team member at any time.
1.2 Quoting & Scheduling. Initial estimates, availability, and scheduling responses may be generated with AI assistance based on the information you provide. AI-generated estimates are preliminary only — they are not a binding quote, contract, or Service Agreement until confirmed in writing by an authorized member of our team, consistent with our Terms of Service.
1.3 Marketing Content. Some website copy, social media posts, or marketing images may be created or enhanced with AI tools. Where a marketing image is AI-generated or digitally enhanced rather than a photo of actual completed work, we aim to make that reasonably clear; actual installed displays may vary from illustrative marketing images.

What AI Doesn’t Do

AI tools we use do not have authority to bind Company to a contract, waive any term of our Terms of Service, quote a final price, or make representations beyond what’s in our published Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and any signed Service Agreement.
If something an AI assistant tells you conflicts with our Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, or your signed Service Agreement, those documents control.
AI outputs can contain errors. We encourage you to confirm any quote, scheduling detail, or service commitment with a human team member before relying on it.

Your Data & AI

Any customer information processed through our AI-assisted tools (chat, quoting, scheduling) is handled under the same terms as the rest of our systems — see our Privacy Policy, including Section 3 (Who We Share Information With). We do not use your personal information to train third-party AI models.

AI Training & Content Use Permissions

The text, images, pricing information, and other content on our website are the property of Verbinden LLC, DBA Main Street Christmas Lights, and are protected by copyright and other applicable law.

We do not consent to automated scraping, crawling, or indexing of our website content for the purpose of training third-party artificial intelligence or machine-learning models, without our prior written permission.
This does not restrict standard search-engine indexing (e.g., Google Search) intended to help customers find our business, or normal browser access by visitors.
Where technically supported, our website’s robots.txt file reflects this preference for AI-training crawlers specifically (see the technical note below).

Technical note for whoever maintains this website: robots.txt is a voluntary standard — well-behaved crawlers respect it, but it is not a legal enforcement mechanism on its own. Reserving a right in this policy is a separate act from blocking a crawler, and the two do not have to match.

Two different kinds of automated agent visit this site, and they should be treated differently:

Training crawlers collect content in bulk to train models. These are the agents this policy reserves rights against. Examples include GPTBot, CCBot and Bytespider.
Retrieval agents fetch a page at the moment a person asks a question, so an assistant can answer and cite the source. Examples include ChatGPT-User, Google-Extended and ClaudeBot.

Retrieval agents are deliberately permitted. Being cited by an AI assistant when someone asks about commercial Christmas lighting in Dallas Fort Worth is a source of customers, in the same way that appearing in search results is. Blocking those agents would remove the company from those answers without meaningfully protecting anything, because they are not the agents that train models.

Accordingly, robots.txt allows standard search engines (Googlebot, Bingbot) and the retrieval agents named above. The list of AI crawlers changes as new ones appear and should be reviewed periodically; the distinction to apply when reviewing is training versus retrieval, not AI versus non-AI.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy as our use of AI tools changes. The version posted on our website governs.

Contact Us

Verbinden LLC, DBA Main Street Christmas Lights PO Box 705, Roanoke, TX 76262 Phone: 817-710-6899

This document is a general-purpose template and has not been reviewed by an attorney. AI disclosure law is new and moving fast — a few states (Utah, California, and others) have specific statutory requirements for disclosing AI chatbot use to consumers, and those requirements vary. Have a Texas-licensed attorney confirm this policy meets current disclosure requirements for any state where you actively market, especially around the customer-service chatbot (Section 1.1).