Terms of Service
The following describes the terms on which Build-A-Bid offers you access
to our services and serves as a binding contract between you and
Build-A-Bid once you agree to this Terms of Service.
Introduction
Welcome to Build-A-Bid, a website powered and owned by Build A Bid, LLC,
an Iowa limited liability company (“Build-A-Bid”). By using the services
on the Build-A-Bid website at www.buildabid.com (the “Site”), you are
agreeing to our Privacy Policy and to the following terms, including
those available by hyperlink, (together, the "Terms of Service") with
Build-A-Bid.
Before you may become a member of Build-A-Bid, you must read and accept
all of the terms and conditions in, and linked to, this Terms of Service
and the Privacy Policy. We strongly recommend that, as you read this
Terms of Service, you also access and read the linked information.
This Agreement is effective on March 1st, 2007 for current users, and
upon acceptance for new users.
Using Build-A-Bid
While using the Site, you will not:
post content or items in an inappropriate category or areas on the
Site;
violate any laws, third party rights, or our policies;
use the Site if you are not able to form legally binding
contracts, are under the age of 18, or are temporarily or indefinitely
suspended from our Site;
circumvent or manipulate our fee structure, the billing process,
or fees owed to Build-A-Bid;
post false, inaccurate, misleading, defamatory, or libelous
content (including personal information);
transfer your Build-A-Bid account and User ID to another party
without our consent;
distribute or post spam, chain letters, or pyramid schemes;
distribute viruses or any other technologies that may harm
Build-A-Bid, or the interests or property of Build-A-Bid users;
copy, modify, or distribute content from the Site and Build-A-Bid
's copyrights and trademarks; or
harvest or otherwise collect information about users, including
email addresses, without their consent.
You agree to use user information only for:
Build-A-Bid transaction-related purposes that are not unsolicited
commercial messages;
using services offered through Build-A-Bid or
other purposes that a user expressly chooses.
Abusing Build-A-Bid
Build-A-Bid and its community work together to keep the Site working
properly and the community safe. Please report problems, offensive
content, and policy violations to us.
Without limiting other remedies, we may limit, suspend, or terminate our
service and user accounts, prohibit access to our website, remove hosted
content, and take technical and legal steps to keep users off the Site
if we think that they are creating problems, possible legal liabilities,
or acting inconsistently with the letter or spirit of our policies. We
also reserve the right to cancel unconfirmed accounts.
No Spam, Spyware or Spoofing
We do not tolerate spam. Make sure to set your notification preferences
so we communicate with you as you prefer. You are not licensed to add
other Build-A-Bid users, to your mail list (email or physical mail)
without their express consent. To report Build-A-Bid related spam or
spoof emails to us, please forward the email to info@buildabid.com. You
may not use our communication tools to send spam or otherwise send
content that would violate our Terms of Service. We do filter and
automatically scan messages before they are sent for viruses and other
illegal or prohibited content but do not permanently store email
messages sent through these tools. If you send an email to an email
address that is not registered in our community, we do not permanently
store that email or use that email address for any marketing purpose. We
do not rent or sell these email addresses.
Fees and Services
When you list a job or use a service that has a fee you have an
opportunity to review and accept the fees that you will be charged,
which we may change from time to time. Jobs, materials or services that
include a fee are jobs for which you accept a bid from a contractor on a
project. In such cases, Build-A-Bid will charge 5% of the lowest bid
made via the Site up to $5,000 and 1% of the amount above $100,000;
provided, however, if the lowest bid is 10% or more lower than the next
lowest bid, the fee will be based upon the second to lowest bid. Changes
to that policy are effective after we provide you with at least fourteen
days' notice by posting the changes on the Site. We may choose to
temporarily change the fees for our services for promotional events (for
example, free listing days) or new services, and such changes are
effective when we post the temporary promotional event or new service on
the Site.
Unless otherwise stated, all fees are quoted in U.S. Dollars. You are
responsible for paying all fees and applicable taxes associated with the
Site in a timely manner with a valid payment method. If your payment
method fails or your account is past due, we may collect fees owed using
other collection mechanisms. (This includes charging other payment
methods on file with us, retaining collection agencies and legal
counsel, and for accounts over 180 days past due.)
Content License
When you give us content, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide,
perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable (through multiple
tiers) right to exercise the copyright, publicity, and database rights
(but no other rights) you have in the content, in any media known now or
in the future. (We need these rights to host and display your content.)
Liability
You will not hold Build-A-Bid responsible for other users' actions or
inactions, including things they post. You acknowledge that we are not a
traditional auctioneer. Instead, the Site is a venue to allow anyone to
offer, sell, and buy just about anything, at anytime, from anywhere, in
a variety of pricing formats and venues, such as stores, fixed price
formats and auction-style formats. We are not involved in the actual
transaction between buyers and sellers. We have no control over and do
not guarantee the quality, safety or legality of items advertised, the
truth or accuracy of listings, the ability of sellers to sell items, the
ability of buyers to pay for items, or that a buyer or seller will
actually complete a transaction.
We do not transfer legal ownership of items from the seller to the
buyer, and nothing in this agreement shall modify the governing
provisions of California Commercial Code § 2401(2) and Uniform
Commercial Code § 2-401(2), under which legal ownership of an item is
transferred upon physical delivery of the item to the buyer by the
seller. Unless the buyer and the seller agree otherwise, the buyer will
become the item's lawful owner upon physical receipt of the item from
the seller, in accordance with California Commercial Code § 2401(2) and
Uniform Commercial Code § 2-401(2). Further, we cannot guarantee
continuous or secure access to our services, and operation of the Sites
may be interfered with by numerous factors outside of our control.
Accordingly, to the extent legally permitted, we exclude all implied
warranties, terms and conditions. We are not liable for any loss of
money, goodwill, or reputation, or any special, indirect, or
consequential damages arising out of your use of our Sites.
Some
jurisdictions do not allow the disclaimer of warranties or exclusion of
damages, so such disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you.
Regardless of the previous paragraph, if we are found to be liable, our
liability to you or to any third party is limited to the greater of (a)
the total fees you paid to us in the 12 months prior to the action
giving rise to the liability, and (b) $100.
Release
If you have a dispute with one or more users, you release us (and our
officers, directors, agents, subsidiaries, joint ventures and employees)
from claims, demands and damages (actual and consequential) of every
kind and nature, known and unknown, arising out of or in any way
connected with such disputes. If you are a California resident, you
waive California Civil Code §1542, which says: "A general release does
not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to
exist in his favor at the time of executing the release, which if known
by him must have materially affected his settlement with the debtor."
Access and Interference
The Site contains robot exclusion headers. Much of the information on
the Site is updated on a real-time basis and is proprietary or is
licensed to Build-A-Bid by our users or third parties. You agree that
you will not use any robot, spider, scraper or other automated means to
access the Site for any purpose without our express written permission.
Additionally, you agree that you will not:
take any action that imposes or may impose (in our sole
discretion) an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our
infrastructure;
copy, reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, distribute,
or publicly display any content (except for Your Information) from the
Site without the prior expressed written permission of Build-A-Bid and
the appropriate third party, as applicable;
interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the
Site or any activities conducted on the Site; or
bypass our robot exclusion headers or other measures we may use to
prevent or restrict access to the Site.
Privacy
We do not sell or rent your personal information to third parties for
their marketing purposes without your explicit consent. We use your
information only as described in the Build-A-Bid Privacy Policy. We view
protection of users' privacy as a very important community principle. We
store and process your information on computers located in the United
States that are protected by physical as well as technological security
devices. You can access and modify the information you provide us and
choose not to receive certain communications by signing-in to your
account. We use third parties to verify and certify our privacy
principles. For a complete description of how we use and protect your
personal information, see the Build-A-Bid Privacy Policy. If you object
to your Information being transferred or used in this way please do not
use our services.
Indemnity
You will indemnify and hold us (and our officers, directors, agents,
subsidiaries, joint ventures and employees), harmless from any claim or
demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party
due to or arising out of your breach of this Agreement, or your
violation of any law or the rights of a third party.
No Agency
No agency, partnership, joint venture, employee-employer or
franchiser-franchisee relationship is intended or created by this
Agreement.
Notices
Except as explicitly stated otherwise, legal notices shall be served on
Build-A-Bid 's registered agent (in the case of Build-A-Bid) or to the
email address you provide to Build-A-Bid during the registration process
(in your case). Notice shall be deemed given 24 hours after email is
sent, unless the sending party is notified that the email address is
invalid. Alternatively, we may give you legal notice by mail to the
address provided during the registration process. In such case, notice
shall be deemed given three days after the date of mailing.
Resolution of Disputes
If a dispute arises between you and Build-A-Bid, our goal is to provide
you with a neutral and cost effective means of resolving the dispute
quickly. Accordingly, you and Build-A-Bid agree that we will resolve any
claim or controversy at law or equity that arises out of this Agreement
or our services (a "Claim") in accordance with one of the subsections
below or as we and you otherwise agree in writing. Before resorting to
these alternatives, we strongly encourage you to first contact us
directly to seek a resolution by going to the Contact Us page. We will
consider reasonable requests to resolve the dispute through alternative
dispute resolution procedures, such as mediation or arbitration, as
alternatives to litigation.
Law and Forum for Disputes - This Agreement shall be governed in
all respects by the laws of the State of California as they apply to
agreements entered into and to be performed entirely within California
between California residents, without regard to conflict of law
provisions. You agree that any claim or dispute you may have against
Build-A-Bid must be resolved by a court located in Santa Clara County,
California, except as otherwise agreed by the parties or as described in
the Arbitration Option paragraph below. You agree to submit to the
personal jurisdiction of the courts located within Santa Clara County,
California for the purpose of litigating all such claims or disputes.
Arbitration Option - For any claim (excluding claims for
injunctive or other equitable relief) where the total amount of the
award sought is less than $10,000, the party requesting relief may elect
to resolve the dispute in a cost effective manner through binding
non-appearance-based arbitration. In the event a party elects
arbitration, they shall initiate such arbitration through an established
alternative dispute resolution ("ADR") provider mutually agreed upon by
the parties. The ADR provider and the parties must comply with the
following rules: a) the arbitration shall be conducted by telephone,
online and/or be solely based on written submissions, the specific
manner shall be chosen by the party initiating the arbitration; b) the
arbitration shall not involve any personal appearance by the parties or
witnesses unless otherwise mutually agreed by the parties; and c) any
judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any
court of competent jurisdiction.
Improperly Filed Claims - All claims you bring against Build-A-Bid
must be resolved in accordance with this Resolution of Disputes Section.
All claims filed or brought contrary to the Resolution of Disputes
Section shall be considered improperly filed. Should you file a claim
contrary to the Resolution of Disputes Section, Build-A-Bid may recover
attorneys' fees and costs up to $1000, provided that Build-A-Bid has
notified you in writing of the improperly filed claim, and you have
failed to promptly withdraw the claim.
Additional Terms
Each of these policies may be changed from time to time. Changes take
effect when we post them on the Site. When using particular services on
the Site, you are subject to any posted policies or rules applicable to
services you use through the Site, which may be posted from time to
time. All such policies or rules are hereby incorporated into this
Agreement.
General
If any provision of this Agreement is held to be invalid or
unenforceable, such provision shall be struck and the remaining
provisions shall be enforced. In our sole discretion, we may assign this
Agreement in accordance with the Notices Section. Headings are for
reference purposes only and do not limit the scope or extent of such
section. Our failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others
does not waive our right to act with respect to subsequent or similar
breaches. We do not guarantee we will take action against all breaches
of this Agreement.
We may amend this Agreement at any time by posting the amended terms on
the Site. Except as stated elsewhere, all amended terms shall
automatically be effective 30 days after they are initially posted on
the Site. Additionally, we will notify you through the Site's message
center tools.
This Agreement may not be otherwise
amended except in a writing signed by you and us. This Agreement sets
forth the entire understanding and agreement between us with respect to
the subject matter hereof. The following Sections survive any
termination of this Agreement: Fees and Services (with respect to fees
owed for our services), Release, Content License, Liability, Indemnity
and Resolution of Disputes.
