AuctionRaiser User Agreement : Terms of Use

The following describes the terms on which AuctionRaiser offers you access to our services.

Introduction

By using the services available on and from AuctionRaiser.com (the "Site") you are agreeing to the following terms.  

This Agreement is effective on February 1st, 2006 for current users, and upon acceptance for new users.

Using AuctionRaiser

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;
  • fail to deliver items purchased from you, unless the buyer fails to meet the posted terms, or you cannot authenticate the buyer's identity;
  • manipulate the price of any item or interfere with other user's listings;
  • circumvent or manipulate our fee structure, the billing process, or fees owed;
  • post false, inaccurate, misleading, defamatory, or libelous content (including personal information);
  • transfer your AuctionRaiser account and/or 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 AuctionRaiser, or the interests or property of AuctionRaiser users;
  • copy, modify, or distribute content from the Site and/or AuctionRaiser's copyrights and trademarks;
  • harvest or otherwise collect information about users, including email addresses, without their consent.

Abusing AuctionRaiser

AuctionRaiser and the 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.

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 AuctionRaiser 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 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 the Oklahoma Corporation Code, 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. Further, we cannot guarantee continuous or secure access to our services, and operation of the Site 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 Site. 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.

Access and Interference

Much of the information on the Site is updated on a real-time basis and is proprietary or is licensed to AuctionRaiser 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 AuctionRaiser 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.

 

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 our 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.  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 AuctionRaiser Privacy Policy (below).   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 AuctionRaiser's national registered agent (in the case of AuctionRaiser) or to the email address you provide to AuctionRaiser 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.

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.

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.

 

Privacy Policy

Scope

This privacy policy describes how we handle your personal information for our services available through the www.AuctionRaiser.com (the "Site") and applies generally to our Service.  By accepting the Privacy Policy and the User Agreement, you expressly consent to our collection, storage, use and disclosure of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is effective upon acceptance for new users and is otherwise effective on February 1st, 2006.

Collection

You can browse the Site without telling us who you are or revealing any personal information about yourself. Once you give us your personal information, you are not anonymous to us. If you choose to provide us with personal information, you consent to the transfer and storage of that information to our servers located in the United States.

We may collect and store the following personal information:

  • email address, physical contact information, and (depending on the service used) sometimes financial information, such as credit card or bank account numbers:
  • transactional information based on your activities on the Site (such as bidding, buying, selling, item and content you generate or that relates to your account):
  • shipping, billing and other information you provide to purchase or ship an item:
  • community discussions, chats, dispute resolution, correspondence through the Site, and correspondence sent to us:
  • computer sign-on data, statistics on page views, traffic to and from the Site, and ad data: other information, including IP address and standard web log information: and
  • supplemental information from third parties. (For example, if you incur a debt to AuctionRaiser, we will generally conduct a credit check by obtaining additional information about you from a credit bureau, as permitted by law. As another example, if the information you provide cannot be verified, we may ask you to send us additional information (such as your driver license, credit card statement, and/or a recent utility bill or other information confirming your address), or to answer additional questions online to help verify your information.)

Marketing

We don't sell or rent your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes without your explicit consent. We may combine your information with information we collect from other companies (such as demographic data) to improve and personalize our services. 

Use

Our primary purpose in collecting personal information is to provide you with a safe, smooth, efficient, and customized experience. You agree that we may use your personal information to:

  • provide the services and customer support you request;
  • resolve disputes, collect fees, and troubleshoot problems;
  • prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities, and enforce our User Agreement;
  • customize, measure, and improve our services and the Site's content and layout;
  • tell you about targeted marketing, service updates, and promotional offers based on your communication preferences; and compare information for accuracy, and verify it with third parties.

Our Disclosure of Your Information

We may disclose personal information to respond to legal requirements, enforce our policies, respond to claims that a listing or other content violates the rights of others, or protect anyone's rights, property, or safety.

We may also share your personal information with:

  • members of our corporate family to help detect and prevent potentially illegal acts and provide joint services; (Our corporate affiliates will market only to users who request these services.)
  • service providers under contract who help with our business operations; (such as fraud investigations, bill collection, affiliate and rewards programs and co-branded credit cards)
  • other third parties to whom you explicitly ask us to send your information; (or about whom you are otherwise explicitly notified and consent to when using a specific service)
  • law enforcement or other governmental officials, in response to a verified request relating to a criminal investigation or alleged illegal activity; (In such events we will disclose name, city, state, telephone number, email address, User ID history, fraud complaints, and bidding and listing history.)
  •  other business entities, should we plan to merge with, or be acquired by that business entity. (Should such a combination occur, we will require that the new combined entity follow this privacy policy with respect to your personal information. If your personal information will be used contrary to this policy, you will receive prior notice.)

Without limiting the above, in an effort to respect your privacy and our ability to keep the community free from bad actors, we will not otherwise disclose your personal information to law enforcement, other government officials, or other third parties without a subpoena, court order or substantially similar legal procedure, except when we believe in good faith that the disclosure of information is necessary to prevent imminent physical harm or financial loss or to report suspected illegal activity.

Activity Associated with User IDs

Your User ID is displayed throughout the Site and is therefore available to the public. All of your activities on the Site will be traceable to your User ID. Other people can see your bids, items that you have purchased in the past, items for sale, storefronts, feedback, ratings and associated comments, and so on. Notices are sent to other community members regarding suspicious activity and policy violations on the Site and refer to User IDs and specific items. Therefore, if you associate your name with your User ID, the people to whom you have revealed your name to will be able to personally identify your AuctionRaiser activities.

Using Information from AuctionRaiser

Our Site enables you to share personal and financial information in order to complete transactions. We encourage you to disclose your privacy practices and respect the privacy of other users. We cannot guarantee the privacy or security of your information and therefore we encourage you to evaluate the privacy and security policies of your trading partner before entering into a transaction and choosing to share your information. To help protect your privacy, we allow only limited access to other users' contact, shipping and financial information in order to facilitate your transactions. When users are involved in a transaction, they may have access to each other's name, User ID, email address, and other contact and shipping information. In all cases, you must give other users a chance to remove themselves from your database and a chance to review what information you have collected about them.

You agree to use user information only for:

  • AuctionRaiser-transaction-related purposes that are not unsolicited commercial messages.
  • Other purposes that a user expressly chooses.

Cookies

We use "cookies" (small files placed on your hard drive) on certain pages of the Site to help analyze our web page flow, customize our services, measure promotional effectiveness, and promote trust and safety.

A few important things you should know about cookies are that:

  • We offer certain features that are only available through the use of cookies.
  • We use cookies to help identify you and maintain your signed-in status.
  • Most cookies are "session cookies," meaning that they are automatically deleted from your hard drive at the end of a session (when you close your browser window).
  • You are always free to decline our cookies if your browser permits, although doing so may interfere with your use of the Site.
  • You may encounter cookies from third parties on certain pages of the Site that we do not control. (For example, if you view a web page created by another user, there may be a "cookie" placed by that web page.)

No spam, spyware or spoofing

We and our users do not tolerate spam. Make sure to set your AuctionRaiser notification preferences so we communicate to you as you prefer. You are not licensed to add other AuctionRaiser users, even a user who has purchased an item from you, to your mail list (email or physical mail) without their express consent. To report AuctionRaiser related spam or spoof emails to AuctionRaiser, please forward the email to spam@AuctionRaiser.com or spoof@AuctionRaiser.com. You may not use our communication tools to send spam or otherwise send content that would violate our User Agreement. 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 (via Refer a Friend or other tool), 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.

Account Protection

Your password is the key to your account. Use unique numbers, letters, and special characters and do not disclose your AuctionRaiser password to anyone. If you do share your password or your personal information with others, remember that you are responsible for all actions taken in the name of your account. If you lose control of your password, you may lose substantial control over your personal information and may be subject to legally binding actions taken on your behalf. Therefore, if your password has been compromised for any reason, you should immediately notify AuctionRaiser and change your password.

Accessing, Reviewing and Changing Your Personal Information

You can see, review and change most of your personal information by logging into the Site. Generally, we will not manually modify your personal information because it is very difficult to verify your identity remotely. You must promptly update your personal information if it changes or is inaccurate. Once you make a public posting, you may not be able to change or remove it. Upon your request, we will close your account and remove your personal information from view as soon as reasonably possible, based on your account activity and in accordance with applicable law. We do retain personal information from closed accounts in order to comply with law, prevent fraud, collect any fees owed, resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, enforce ourUser Agreement, and take other actions otherwise permitted by law.

Security

Your information is stored on our servers located in the United States. We treat data as an asset that must be protected and use lots of tools (encryption, passwords, physical security, etc.) to protect your personal information against unauthorized access and disclosure. However, as you probably know, third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications, and other users may abuse or misuse your personal information that they collect from the Site. Therefore, although we work very hard to protect your privacy, we do not promise, and you should not expect, that your personal information or private communications will always remain private.

Third Parties

Except as otherwise expressly included in this Privacy Policy, this document addresses only the use and disclosure of information we collect from you. If you disclose your information to others, whether they are bidders, buyers, or sellers on our Site or other sites throughout the Internet, different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of the information you disclose to them. Since AuctionRaiser does not control the privacy policies of third parties, you are subject to the privacy policies of those third parties. We encourage you to ask questions before you disclose your personal information to others.