Abarn.nz Legal Stuff

Who these are for and how we’ll update:

• By using the site, you acknowledge and agree that you’ve had sufficient opportunity to read and agree to the terms. We’ve tried to keep them short so you can actually read them.
• These terms apply to activity within the site https://www.abarn.nz, its services or apps used in providing the Abarn.nz marketplace.
• These terms are binding between you as a “user” of the Abarn.nz marketplace and “Abarn.nz” as the market place provider.
• These terms are for both people in search of services “service seekers” and people/businesses who provide those services “service providers”. Where the terms only apply to one or other of these groups, we’ll call it out. Otherwise assume the terms apply to both parties.
• From time to time we may amend these terms and other terms relating to your use of Abarn.nz (e.g. offer terms and service features). If we believe this may have a material impact for users, we will let you know about the changes. We will generally try and give you two weeks’ notice of any changes, but occasionally we may also need to make more urgent changes that are effective immediately.

How the service works:

• We believe in empowering business rather than controlling it. So Abarn.nz doesn’t actually provide the service or do the job requested. I.e. we don’t fix your leaky tap. Rather, we focus on making it super easy to FIND, BOOK, PAY and REVIEW the service provider who can fix your tap.
• Because of that, we provide mechanisms like ratings and reviews and service providers can get badges for credentials, so service seekers can make a more informed decision about who to hire. Because service providers do the jobs, we can’t give any assurances or guarantees of the services they provide.
• Our service lets service seekers and providers post information, rate and review past jobs, and develop profiles. We believe users should be responsible for the accuracy of their own information, what they post, and deciding how they want to interpret information about others. We believe on balance, that allowing this to happen as freely and openly as possible will provide for a more robust and transparent marketplace. With this in mind, we do not provide any assurances on the accuracy of information users post on the site. That said, we expect users to always be transparent and honest in using the site.
• If, after any scoping, quoting or site visits, you agree to “lock it in” that a job will be done, and the terms are clear, then there’ll be a legally enforceable agreement between you. It’s up to you to sort out what the terms of the job are (e.g. price and what’s in and out of scope) and to clarify anything important. The terms of the job will take account of things that you say to each other, both through the site and outside of it. The agreement is between the two of you – we aren’t a party to it ourselves. We also aren’t acting as an agent on behalf of the service seeker or service provider.

Reviews and ratings:

The reviews and ratings made within the site are an essential element of the service for everyone. We ask all users of the service to be mindful of that and treat them with the due consideration and respect they deserve.

Specifically, we expect you to:

• Complete your reviews and ratings as soon as practically possible following the completion of the job or service. Your glowing (or not so glowing) review may help that business win their next job.
• Be specific in your comments on what drove the decision for the rating you’ve given – particularly for those really high or really low ratings.
• Give others a chance to make things right if they have let you down. If they make things right after you’ve already given a particular rating, we absolutely will allow you to update the rating.
• It shouldn’t need to be said, but please be respectful & constructive – it’s not a place to make personal or unfair comments about each other.
• Feedback needs to relate to a specific job.

We reserve the right to remove any reviews or comments at our sole discretion. If we consider that any comments or reviews are abusive, threatening, offending, defamatory or otherwise inappropriate, they will be removed from the site. If you notice any like this, please click the button to report them to us.

Service Seekers:

We make Abarn.nz available so that when you need something, you can find service providers who can provide that something.

Personal & intended use only:

• Abarn.nz is available to service seekers who are using it for personal use.
• Service providers looking for service providers to help with jobs can also use the site as service seekers (i.e. you can wear two hats in this way).
• At this stage, we are generally allowing businesses who need to get a up to 10 jobs done per month to also use Abarn.nz as service seekers. That said, we may in our sole discretion stop any business user from using the site. If you are a business looking to complete more than 10 jobs per month, you need to get our express permission before using Abarn.nz as a service seeker.
• If you’re not sure if you should be using Abarn.nz as a service seeker, please contact us before trying to do so.
• You may only use the site to contact a service provider for the purposes of genuinely looking at getting a job done, and not for other purposes.

Genuine commitment:

• When you post a job, you are expected to act in good faith. We expect that if you post a job, you genuinely intend to use a service provider if you find someone that meets your criteria. Service providers often spend considerable time in quoting for work and consulting with you, so we encourage all users to respect that time and effort.

Fees, scope of work & payment:

• It’s free to post jobs that you want service providers to pick up.
• It’s you and the service provider’s responsibility to agree on what work will be done, how it will be done, how much it will cost, and when / how the service provider will be paid.
• Service providers may have additional fees for services in some situations. E.g. an urgent call out fee for 24-hour emergency plumbing. Such additional services and cost should be made clear to you by the provider. It’s up to you whether you want to take up those services or not.

Use the service at your own risk:

• While we want you to have a great experience and to make it easy for you to get things done, it’s up to you to do your homework on service suppliers. You need to interpret the information that’s available to you, and decide who you are (or are not) comfortable in using, and take reasonable precautions when engaging with a service provider. This is all your call and your responsibility.
• We make no promises about the accuracy of information that service providers put on the site, and we are not responsible for checking this. This includes any credentials, qualifications or badges the service provider may have, and any information, documents, evidence or photos they put on the site.
• We are also not responsible for checking any information, documents, photos or past reviews/ratings that service providers use to get badges (these are issued either automatically based on ratings, number of jobs etc, or through third parties either directly or indirectly).
• We instead try and replicate how things would happen if you were dealing face to face. We generally allow providers to upload photos or evidence to support credentials and badges so you can view these and make your own judgements about them. Similar to how things would happen in a face to face meeting, if a provider hands you documents about themselves or says things about their credentials to you, you need to satisfy yourself that it’s all above board.
• There are a number of ways you can make your own enquiries about service providers. E.g. you can often check a service provider’s professional credentials by searching the register of their industry body (e.g. you can search the registers of the Electrical Workers Registration Board and the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board).
• Just like if you were getting work done in any other situation, you should use common sense when it comes to giving service provider access to your property, including if you are thinking about sharing any security information with them.

Service providers:

We make Abarn.nz available to better connect NZ’s awesome businesses to NZers looking for awesome businesses. Specifically, we want to make it easier to find you, allow you to spend less time travelling in traffic, take less time to get paid, find more of the work you love.

We provide this service for all businesses – large and small, registered as a company or not, long running or just starting out, professionally qualified or qualified through experience. If you do great things for customers, we think we can help them find you, book with you, pay you and promote your business.

Genuine commitment

• When you use the service, you need to act in good faith and be genuinely willing to provide the services you’ve registered for. Just like we require service seekers to genuinely intend to use a service provider from the site, this cut both ways and we expect the same genuine intention from you.

Being available, responsive & active on the site

• We rely hugely on service providers responding to customer queries/requests, following up on estimates, and giving reviews. So, we expect you to:
• Stay active on the site, and make yourself available to respond to service seekers.
• Be in touch when you say you will.
• Follow up with the service seeker appropriately where you’re asked if you’re interested in a particular job and would like to receive a call, or you’re asked for an estimate/quote.
• Take calls immediately following a request to call from customer, or to otherwise be available to provide an estimate or contact the customer by 10pm the following day.

Quotes and estimates

• We also expect you to be clear in your quotes and estimates.
• We know some jobs in particular are very difficult to quote accurately, and may change based on unexpected events or choices your customers may make. We don’t expect you to find a miraculous way to avoid these but your estimates do need to be your best and most accurate estimate for the service, based on what you know.
• We also expect you to be helpful in your responses to customers by providing a brief description of how your estimate is made up and outlining the big choices or things that could make significant changes to your estimate.

Your profile

• To allow customers the most efficient way to find, book, pay and promote your business –you need to keep an accurate, up-to-date and complete profile. E.g. your contact details, recent work, hours of work preferences/availability, type of work you’re interested in etc.
• You can upload evidence of formal credentials or qualifications/licences that you have, to help build your profile. These need to be valid and up-to-date (not expired) and must relate to yourself as the service provider.
• You can also go through verification processes to get badges, if you feel this will set you apart from the competition, eg police check badge or similar.
• We may at times choose to award badges to your profile for achieving certain benchmarks within the platform. E.g. reaching a certain number of jobs, or consistently high user ratings.
• Where you upload documents to support your credentials or qualifications, you need to make sure you have the appropriate permission to use the documents in this way, and for Abarn.nz to use them in connection with your profile on the site.

Quality & Workmanship:

• To get great reviews and be promoted you obviously need to be doing a great job. Because we don’t do the jobs ourselves, we aren’t able to give service seekers any assurances or guarantees about the services they get. Rather, our system of ratings and reviews is intended to set these expectations.
• That said, there are a couple of bottom lines that you need to meet. You warrant to service seekers that you will always:
• Use reasonable care and skill in completing work, and make sure any materials used are of acceptable quality, having regard to what the service seeker wants to get done
• Make sure that your work is legit – i.e. that you will comply with all laws and rules that apply to the services that you provide.

Fees:

• Abarn.nz invests in marketing and brand awareness to drive job volume and send those jobs to business based on the services you are interested in providing, your proximity to the job and a number of other assessments completed by our algorithm like your profile completeness score as the more complete your profile the easier it is for a customer to select you. Here’s the basics you need to understand:
• Any business can create a free profile including registering their interests in particular job types e.g. plumbing repair work, interior painting work, fence building etc.
• Based on your preferred job types we send you jobs leads from customers in your area that you can choose to accept.
• Each job lead you are sent will have a set price to accept it. The price to accept the job leads may vary from job to job depending on the value of the work and will generally this be within a range of $5-$20. E.g. a one of house clean may cost $5 whereas a $20,000 house painting job may cost $20.
• The price to accept any job lead will be clearly shown on each lead so you can make an informed decision when accepting any particular job lead.
• To accept leads you can top up when it suits – there is no minimum top up value but to accept a job lead you will need to have sufficient credit available.
• Your top up balance lasts for 6 months from your last top up.
• Jobs that have seen low interest from businesses and may be re-sent the morning after being posted for a discounted fee.
• If a customer chooses to withdraw a job that you have accepted, we will credit the cost of that job lead back to your top up balance.
• All fees, top up credit & promotional offers are non-refundable. If you’re unhappy for some reason with the service we’ve provided, we encourage you to let us know and outline the reasons for that in writing. We are happy to consider any issues you raise on their merits. If we choose to issue a refund, this is at our discretion.

Assigning leads to businesses

• We run a number of algorithms and logic to put job opportunities in front of service providers most willing and able to provide an excellent experience for that particular job. We can’t share too much detail on those algorithms and logic, but here are the basics to help you increase the number of leads made available to a service provider:
• We want to provide work to those businesses close to the job – makes sense to spend less time travelling or sitting in traffic.
• If your customers love your work, we want to find you more of them. So we’ll also look for those with great ratings and reviews.
• We want to make it easy for customers to make an informed decision and not just base it on price alone. So we’ll look for those that have more complete profile pages.
• In summary, if you’re looking for more opportunities and wish to be included in the pool notified about opportunities more often, simply focus on the areas above.
• We will continue to change and improve these algorithms and may do so without notice. This may change the size of the pool notified about a given opportunity. That said we also want to help you make the most of the service so you can expect to see updates about the areas you should focus.

Disputes

• We understand it’s important for both service seekers and service providers to get things sorted with confidence.
• If there happens to be a dispute between the service seeker and provider on a job, again you are responsible for managing this directly between yourselves. We expect you to be open, honest and respectful with each other. If you’re still not able to resolve a dispute, you can also try avenues such as the Disputes Tribunal or an industry/professional body (if the service provider is a member).

Payments

• It’s your choice how you want to be paid or pay for jobs. You can pay through any of the options listed for the service provider.
• We don’t act as a middleperson for payment. We don’t take deposits, or hold onto payments for a while before passing them on.
• If there are any payment disputes between service providers and service seekers (including about non-payment or refunds), you are responsible for managing this directly yourselves. We expect you to be open, honest and respectful with each other. We are not responsible for resolving payment disputes.
• If a request for payment has been made by a provider to a seeker through the Abarn.nz service, we’ll also send reminders to the seeker where there is money owing to the provider - we all forget things now and then and need a reminder so the provider can pay their own bills and wages. If you’re all paid up and still getting reminders, let the service provider know and they can mark you as all paid up.

Terminating / restricting access:

While we want as many people as possible to enjoy the benefits of the service, we may permanently or temporarily restrict or terminate users’ access to the site. This is at our sole discretion. Where we deem it appropriate, we may provide a reason for any such actions but we reserve the right not to do so.

Examples of where we may restrict or terminate your access include where:

• there’s abusive or threatening behavior on the site
• you otherwise breach our rules or guidelines on reviews and ratings
• you otherwise breach these terms
• you have consistently poor ratings or reviews
• we need to do so for legal reasons

At our discretion, we may also apply systems or rules that terminate or restrict users’ access based on unsatisfactory ratings or reviews. If we do this, the systems or rules we apply will be set at our sole discretion, and while we may choose to share them with you, we will not be under any obligation to do so.

Other things we need to cover off with you:

So that we can continue to offer this service, and keep making it more and more useful for you, there are some other things that we need to cover off in case anything goes wrong. If you’re not sure about any of these, please just ask us.

• We don’t warrant that the site or service (including any related applications) are free from viruses, will operate uninterrupted, or will be free from errors. We may cease to make the site available at any time. This may be for reasons outside of our control, or for any other reason at our sole discretion.
• To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable to you for any claim for loss in connection with the services. This includes for any direct, indirect or consequential loss, or for any loss of revenue, profits, goodwill, business or anticipated business, anticipated savings or for any business interruption or loss of data, whether direct or indirect and whether or not that loss was (or ought to have been) contemplated. “In connection with the services” includes use of the site (by you or anyone else), the site’s availability, any material published on the site, any use of a payment method on the site, and any goods or services provided in relation to the site.
• If you are service provider, you agree that you are using Abarn.’s services for the purposes of a business as defined in the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 (“CGA”), and you agree that (to the maximum extent permitted by law), the provisions of the CGA do not apply to services that Abarn.nz provides to you.
• Any links on the site to third-party sites (including service providers’ sites) are provided only for convenience. We don’t endorse third party sites, and aren’t responsible for their content. Nonetheless, because we want to protect the integrity of our site, we welcome any feedback about linked sites.
• In accordance with good internet practice, we ask that you ask for our permission before linking to this site.
• You may only access the website using standard web browsers. You may not use a scraper, robot or ‘bot’, or any other automated method to access the site or content in the site.
• We own (or are licensed to use) all intellectual property and other proprietary rights in the site. This includes the components of the site itself (including the text, graphics, and layout used and the ‘look and feel’ of the site), and the software and other materials that underlie it. You may not reproduce, copy, redistribute, adapt, or create derivative works from, any part of the site.
• We own all intellectual property rights in new content created in connection with use of the site (e.g. user generated content such as reviews, job listings, or service provider listings). You may only use such content for the purpose of your use of the site or your own personal use, and not for any other purpose.
• Where you post, create or upload content (including any text, photos, or documents) to the site, you warrant that you have all necessary licenses or permissions to do so, and for the content to be used in connection with the site.
• You must not post, create or upload content on the site that is abusive, threatening, offending, defamatory or otherwise inappropriate or in breach of any laws. We reserve the right to remove any content from the site at our sole discretion. If you come across any inappropriate content, please report this to us.
• You agree to fully indemnify us against any claim from another person in connection with your use of the site, any services or goods you receive or provide in relation to the site, any content you post or upload to the site, any content you create on the site, and any failure by you to comply with these terms.
• You may not attempt to modify, compromise, or introduce anything (including any virus, worm, trojan horse, keystroke logger, timebomb or spyware) to the site, including its layout, user experience, or any software, code or network contained within it or underlying it.
• If you breach these terms and for whatever reason we don’t enforce our rights under the terms, that doesn’t mean that we have waived those rights.
• This agreement and the use of this site are governed by the laws of New Zealand.

Data, privacy and information

Keeping you in control of your data and its use

Abarn.nz works by enabling you to share data about services you need or services you offer others. To better manage this, Abarn.nz put you in control of what data you share and when. This policy explains the choices you have. It also sets out how Abarn.nz uses the information that you provide

• In your settings you can see and amend the type of data and use of that data at any time.
• Where we can we will provide you with choices about what data you share with others and how that data is used. N.B. sometimes we need to capture and store data for the operation of the site and won’t offer the option to opt out e.g. username and password or a contact email address to notify you of service changes.
• We may publish aggregated information about usage patterns like “plumbing jobs this summer are up 5% on the same period last year”, but this won’t include any personally identifiable information about you.
• We’re committed to protecting your privacy and do not disclose information about individuals or machines/ devices outside of the terms of this policy unless you have chosen for us to do so
• We do not sell information that would identify you personally.
• We will at times share information about you with our trusted partners if we believe in good faith doing so will enhance experiences for you. E.g. if you change your address on our site, we update that information with other businesses.
• We will use your data to send you marketing information and make promotional offers to you or enable our related companies, trusted partners and third-party service providers to do the same on our behalf.
• You may access personal information we hold about you where it is stored in such a way that it can be readily be retrieved.
• We may use aggregated, anonymized or personally identifiable data about how people use this service to enhance Abarn.nz, and to create other new products and services. We may also share aggregated, anonymized data/insights with other trusted organizations to enable them to enhance their products and services, and to create new services. We will maintain your privacy at all times.
• If the personal information we hold about you is not accurate or complete, then you may ask us to correct it.

Specific data captured and example use

We think it’s important be clear about the data we capture and how we may use it, so here’s what we capture, how we intend to use it, and what is mandatory to use the site effectively v what you can switch on/off in your preferences. (open circle = optional, filled circle = mandatory)

1. service seeker Contact details (Mandatory: name, email, phone, address, job/service address)
2. To show your first name, street name and suburb to service providers when you post a job. E.g. "Jessie from Kingsley St, Westmore (no opt out)
3. To contact you for important service messages (no opt out)
4. To contact you for key marketing/product launches
5. To present related services or offerings from our partners for you (we’re picky about how often we do – we don’t like spam either)
6. Contact details service providers profile/business page (Mandatory: name, email, phone, business address, profile image and/or logo, previous work photos, payment preferences services offered)
7. To show your contact details for service seekers to make direct contact with you (no opt out)
8. To match your business with available job leads.
9. To allow service seekers to review your business.
10. To contact you for important service messages (no opt out)
11. To show your contact details for service seekers to make direct contact with you (no opt out)
12. To contact you for key marketing/product launches
13. To present related services or offerings from our partners for you (we’re picky about how often we do this and how relevant the offer may be – we don’t like spam either)
14. Social or Gmail Data when using social sign-on (Basic profile information e.g. Name, profile photo, and account login credentials to enable social login).
15. To enable social login if you have chosen this as your preference when registering your account.
16. To upload your profile photo if you chose to use this as your Abarn.nz Profile photo.
17. To enable more seamless sharing of information from your Abarn.nz account to your social logins. E.g. share a post that you have just registered your business on Abarn.nz so you can be found by friends and family on Facebook.
18. Location data
19. To find suitable service providers nearest to the required service requested address – less travel has to be a good thing right (no opt out)
20. To show your first name to service providers when you post a job. E.g. "Jessie from Kingsley St, Westmore (no opt out)
21. To inform service seekers or service providers how long it may take them to reach an appointment location or that someone is now waiting.
22. Payment data (stored credit/debit card details)
23. To allow simplified payment release from service seekers to service providers (without having to re-type card details)
24. To process job, lead top up payments & refunds to/from service providers.
25. Review, ratings, profile summary and speed of payment (star rating for overall and sub categories, comments and responses, time since first registration, badges and credentials):
26. To allow community reviews and support the integrity of marketplace (no opt out)
27. To show potential service providers how other service providers have rated service seekers to deal with. It’s only fair right.
28. Number of reviews/ratings “25 reviews, average 4.7stars to demonstrate the volume of reviews to service seekers and providers.
29. Time registered on the site e.g. “member since 2015” to help put context to the job volume, reviews and other profile data. E.g. newer users may not have as many reviews.
30. Badge and credentials for service providers and seekers to show specific qualities that may be of interest to the other party e.g. “certified builder” or “master plumber”.
31. Number of jobs posted v completed e.g. 4 jobs completed of 10 to help service providers understand service seekers likelihood to proceed with the job being posted.
32. Average days to pay e.g. 4 days. To help service providers understand service seekers average time to pay.
33. To priorities/sort who will won’t receive job postings.
34. Information used to manage your security (username and password information, device information, system preferences, geo location data, site/app use, email and mobile authentication data)
35. To prove identity and protect your digital login.
36. To allow you to manage your data capture and use settings
37. To allow you to manage preferences on the site to get the most of the services.
38. Transaction, use & posting data
39. To record and report on uptake of the site’s services at an aggregated level e.g. 350 plumbing jobs currently active in West Auckland.
40. To provide business insights back to service providers or seekers e.g. “demand for cleaners is 10% higher this month”, “your win rate is 5% higher than other plumbers in West Auckland”.
41. Contacts with us (login frequency, time stamp, live chat or call records)
42. To tailor our communications to you (manageable via communication preferences).
43. To allow users and Abarn.nz to recall previous transactions, conversation, help records.
44. To support future training and improvement for our teams.

General data captured by site visits

As a user of our website and applications, we collect and store information like most websites. We collect this data primarily so we can understand how you use of our site & services, assess the effectiveness of our activities such as how we are performing for certain things like marketing effectiveness, and information that allows us to offer better and more personalized experiences for our members. The types of general information we collect are noted below:

• the IP address of your machine when connected to the Internet and the domain name from which you are accessing the Internet
• the operating system and the browser your computer use, and any search engine you are using
• your browsing behavior within our site and the sites you came from or went to after our site/service
• the date and time you are visiting
• the URLs of the pages you visit
• the domain name of the page you visit after leaving our website.
• Location information to enable services like professionals nearby your location.

Cookies

Like a lot of websites, we place a “cookie” on the hard drive of your computer when you visit our site.

• These tracking cookies do not contain personal information (though they do identify the computer or mobile device you use to visit the site). A cookie is a file which allows us to track and target the interests of users, and serve ads based on your prior visits to websites. E.g. if you’ve visited our site and search for plumbers, and you later chose to visit another site where we have bought advertising like the NZ herald, we can show you a plumbing ad for our service instead of an electrician ad.
• We also use cookies to help us remember save your preferences for future visits and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future.
• At your discretion, we may offer you to store and access cookies on your machine that allow you to bypass the process of re-entering your username each time you access our website.
• You can delete cookies from your website browser at any time and also permit third parties to place or modify cookies on your computer or mobile device on our behalf.
• While we recommend that users enable cookies on their browsers in order to enjoy all the features of this site, the decision remains yours.

Location

Similarly, we may determine location, including IP address, GPS, location data captured within Abarn.nz app that allow core functionality of the site and experience such as finding service providers nearby, or notifying service seekers when service providers have or are about to arrive at their address for the upcoming appointment.

Data Protection

We know your data and privacy are important to you and as a result we enlist the following security to protect that data:

• We protect your information through a unique username and password (the password is selected by you)
• We protect certain sensitive communications with our website through server authentication and secure connections. We use secure servers to operate our services.
• All supplied sensitive/credit information is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and then encrypted into our Payment gateway providers database only to be accessible by those authorized with special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the information confidential.

While we endeavor to protect the privacy of your account and personal information we hold, we cannot guarantee complete security at all times and a lot of what you do/don’t do will impact the security of your data. To help us protect your data we’d ask that you:

• Select strong password(s) and unique pin number(s), and ensure you change these regularly,
• Protect your password and/or other sign-on mechanism appropriately,
• Limit access from your computer or device and browser application by using your devices access restriction capabilities such as laptop passwords, phone security pins or biometric protection. If you don’t have these in place, we’d suggest signing out of our site/application after you have finished accessing your account

Account Deletion

You have the right to delete your account and all associated data at any time. To do so, simply navigate to My > My Account > Delete, and confirm the action. Once confirmed, all data related to your account will be permanently removed from our system.