Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of These Terms

By creating an account or using the Services, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Services.

If you use the Services on behalf of a company or other organisation, you represent that you have authority to bind that organisation, and "you" refers to that organisation.

2. Accounts and Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old to use the Services. You must provide accurate registration information and keep it up to date. You are responsible for all activity under your account and for keeping your credentials secure. Notify us promptly at customersupport@scriptypointer.com if you believe your account has been compromised.

Accounts are separated by role. The same email address may hold both a Client account and a Professional account; each is a distinct account under these Terms.

Business Client accounts require a corporate email domain. We may verify, using automated means, that a submitted company name plausibly corresponds to the email domain used. A verification badge reflects that automated check only and is not a guarantee about the business.

3. The Nature of Our Service

We are a marketplace and payment facilitator, not a party to your contracts. Any agreement to perform work is between the Client and the Professional. We are not an employer, staffing agency, contractor, or subcontractor of either party.

Professionals are independent contractors. Nothing in these Terms creates an employment, partnership, joint venture, or agency relationship between us and any User, or between Users and each other except as they agree.

Each User is solely responsible for their own tax obligations, licensing, insurance, and compliance with laws applicable to the work performed.

We provide matching suggestions generated by automated systems, including AI. Match scores are estimates to help you decide, not assessments of competence, and we do not warrant that any User is suitable for any project.

4. Escrow, Milestones, and Automatic Release

Posting a project is free. When a Client hires a Professional, the full project budget is charged to the Client's payment method and held in escrow through our payment processor, Stripe, before work begins.

Work is divided into milestones. A Professional submits a milestone; the Client reviews it and either approves it, requests a revision, or opens a dispute. Approval releases that milestone's payment, less the applicable platform fee, to the Professional's connected payout account.

A Professional must complete identity verification and connect a payout account before funds can be released to them. Escrow will not be released to an account without a valid payout method. Once released, funds settle on our payment processor's standard payout schedule; we do not control that timing.

We hold escrowed funds through Stripe on behalf of the parties. Escrowed funds are not held in trust, do not accrue interest for Users, and are not insured deposits.

5. Fees

Clients pay no platform fee. The project budget a Client funds is the amount charged.

Professionals pay a platform fee deducted from each milestone payment. The rate applied at the time of each payout depends on the Professional's standing:

Professionals with fewer than 5 reviews are treated as being in good standing and are not placed in the reduced-standing tier, so a single dissatisfied Client cannot move you into it.

The fee is calculated on each milestone amount at the moment that milestone is released, so a change in standing affects future payouts rather than past ones. We may change these rates prospectively on notice; changes do not apply to milestones already funded.

Payment processing, currency conversion, and payout fees charged by Stripe are separate from our platform fee and are governed by Stripe's terms.

6. Disputes, Refunds, and Ending a Project Early

Revisions. A Client may return a submitted milestone for revision with written notes instead of approving or disputing it.

Disputes. Either the Client or the hired Professional may open a dispute on a project. Opening a dispute freezes the remaining escrow for that project immediately and stops any pending automatic release.

Our role in disputes. If the parties do not resolve a dispute themselves, we may review the project record — including milestone submissions, revision history, and messages exchanged through the Services — and issue a resolution allocating the remaining escrowed funds between the parties. By using the Services you authorise us to make this allocation and to instruct our payment processor accordingly, and you agree that our determination is final as between you and us with respect to the escrowed funds.

We are not an arbitrator, court, or licensed dispute resolution body. Our resolution decides only the disposition of escrowed funds. It does not determine your legal rights against the other party, and nothing prevents either party from pursuing legal remedies against the other independently.

Ending a project early. A Client may end an in-progress project before completion. Milestones already approved remain paid; the remaining escrowed balance is refunded to the Client. A Professional who wishes to stop work should raise it with the Client or open a dispute.

Chargebacks. Initiating a payment chargeback instead of using the dispute process may result in suspension of your account. We will provide the project record to the card network when responding.

7. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• Misrepresent your identity, skills, experience, employment history, or business.
• Take payment or arrange payment outside the Services for work introduced through the Services, in order to avoid platform fees.
• Use the Services for unlawful purposes, or to access systems or data you are not authorised to access.
• Harass, threaten, discriminate against, or abuse another User.
• Upload malware, attempt to disrupt the Services, or circumvent rate limits, authentication, or verification.
• Scrape, resell, or redistribute other Users' profile or project data.
• Create an account to evade a suspension.

Because Professionals may be granted access to Clients' systems, credentials, and data, misuse of that access is a serious breach of these Terms and may be reported to law enforcement.

8. Your Content

You retain ownership of the content you submit, including resumes, portfolios, project briefs, logos, and messages. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, display, and process that content solely to operate and improve the Services — including processing it through automated and AI systems for matching, effort estimation, and content moderation, as described in our Privacy Policy.

You represent that you have the rights necessary to submit your content and that it does not infringe anyone else's rights or breach any confidentiality obligation you owe.

Work product. Ownership of work delivered under a project is a matter between the Client and the Professional. We claim no ownership of it. If ownership matters to you, agree it in writing with the other party before work begins.

9. Verification and Background Checks

Some features require identity verification through Stripe Identity. Background checks, where offered, are performed by Checkr. You consent to these checks where you request or require them, and you authorise us to receive and act on their results.

Verification badges and background check results reflect information provided by third parties at a point in time. We do not independently confirm any User's skills, qualifications, licensing, insurance, or fitness for a project, and a badge is not our endorsement or guarantee. You remain responsible for your own diligence before hiring or accepting work.

10. Suspension and Termination

You may stop using the Services at any time and may delete your account from your account settings. Account deletion is not available while a project has funded escrow or a hired Professional, or while a payout balance is outstanding; those must be resolved first so that funds are not stranded. Deleting a Client account also deletes that Client's unfunded projects.

We may suspend or terminate an account, with or without notice, for breach of these Terms, suspected fraud, chargeback abuse, or where required by law. Suspension blocks sign-in. Where an account with funds in escrow is suspended, we will complete or unwind affected projects in a manner we consider fair to both parties before releasing or refunding the balance.

Sections 3, 5, 8, and 11 through 14 survive termination.

11. Disclaimers

The Services are provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Services will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free, that matching results will be accurate, or that any User will perform as expected.

We do not screen Users beyond the automated verification described in section 9. You interact with other Users at your own risk.

12. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost revenue, lost data, or business interruption, arising out of or relating to the Services, whether based in contract, tort, or any other theory, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the Services will not exceed the greater of (a) the total platform fees we received from you in the twelve months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred United States dollars.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or the limitation of certain damages, so some of the above may not apply to you.

13. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Scripty Solutions LLC and its officers, employees, and agents from any claim, demand, loss, or expense, including reasonable legal fees, arising out of your use of the Services, your content, your breach of these Terms, or your dealings with another User.

14. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, without regard to its conflict of laws rules.

Any dispute between you and us arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Virginia, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

Disputes between a Client and a Professional about the work itself are between those parties. Section 6 governs only the disposition of escrowed funds.

15. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes we will update the date at the top of this page and, where the change materially affects your rights, notify you through the Services or by email. Changes apply prospectively. Continued use of the Services after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms. Milestones already funded remain governed by the Terms in effect when they were funded.

16. Contact

Questions about these Terms: customersupport@scriptypointer.com