Buyer Agreement

This is a legal contract between you (the “buyer”) and HireGeeks.com, governed by and interpreted according to the laws of the State of New Jersey and United States Federal Law. If you are under 18 years of age and thus unable to enter into a legally binding contract, you certify that a parent or legal guardian has agreed to these terms, as well as those of the HireGeeks.com terms of service, on your behalf.

Definitions

The following terms are defined:

“We”, “our”, etc.

HireGeeks.com

“Buyer”

A person or entity that is capable of depositing funds, creating projects, or accepting work.

“Geek”

A person or entity that is capable of bidding on projects, submitting work, or withdrawing funds.

“Website”

The website belonging to HireGeeks.com, http://www.hiregeeks.com.

Acceptance of Conditions

This is an agreement between you and HireGeeks.com. Use of the service provided to buyers by HireGeeks.com (the “service”) constitutes acceptance of these terms and conditions. If you do not wish to abide by these terms and conditions, you must stop using the service immediately.

You additionally agree that you accept the general terms of service of HireGeeks.com.

Termination

This agreement shall be valid as long as you remain a buyer. Either party may, at its discretion, terminate this agreement for any reason. If this agreement is terminated, you must stop using the site as a buyer immediately.

Accuracy of Information

Any information that you submit must be, to the best of your knowledge, accurate. You agree that you are not knowingly infringing upon any intellectual property laws by posting this information. In the event that you are found to be infringing upon intellectual property laws, you claim full responsibility for your infringement and agree to indemnify HireGeeks.com in any claims stemming from the infringement.

Sharing of Contact Information

You agree not to share any contact information with any other users of the site, except for the purpose of sharing contact information with a geek after that geek's bid on one of your projects has been accepted by you. You are allowed to contact the geek using that information, rather than through the site, on subsequent projects, but by doing so, you forfeit all protections, including the escrow process, normally granted to you by HireGeeks.com on these projects. You agree not to hold HireGeeks.com responsible for liability resulting from any contact outside of the HireGeeks.com website with another user.

Offsite Funding / Tips

Furthermore, you agree that any financial exchange between yourself and a geek on a project posted on the HireGeeks.com website must take place through HireGeeks.com's escrow system. You agree not to use the tip system as a substitute for escrowed payments or any other previously agreed-on payments. You agree to pay any penalties, up to twice the sum of the tip and bid amount or $10, whichever is greater, that HireGeeks.com may levy upon you if you are found to be abusing the tip system.

Transfer of Copyright

HireGeeks.com projects are to be considered “works for hire” between independent contractors. Typically, this means that copyright is transferred from the geek to the buyer. However, the buyer and geek may negotiate the transfer of copyright by including their terms in the project/bid descriptions. In the event that any of the buyer's information, including, but not limited to, financial information, is found to be fraudulent, copyright is transferred back to HireGeeks.com, which agrees to exclusively opt to either pay the geek the remaining amount owed by the buyer and retain the copyright or transfer the copyright back to the geek. If the geek's financial information is found to be fraudulent, the geek may retain the copyright on the work, but all funds paid out to the geek are forfeit and will either be paid back to the buyer or retained by HireGeeks.com, at HireGeeks.com's discretion.

Both the buyer and geek agree to grant HireGeeks.com and its personnel a nonexclusive license to examine any answers, work, or other deliverables in order to investigate the quality and completeness of the deliverables or to resolve disputes. Though we will investigate with utmost care, HireGeeks.com disclaims liability for any incidental damage that may occur to deliverables during investigation.

Prior Negotiations

Both the buyer and geek agree that any prior negotiations do not take precedence over the terms of this agreement or that of the HireGeeks terms of service.

Refunds and Chargebacks

Refunds may be given on a case-by-case basis, totally or partially, solely at the discretion of HireGeeks.com. On a project, they are usually given through the dispute resolution process. The HireGeeks fee is typically non-refundable, but HireGeeks may, at its sole discretion, grant refunds of some or all of its fees on a project. Under no circumstances will refunds be given for tips.

You agree not to charge back deposited funds to HireGeeks.com. If you have a grievance, you may bring it to us via the dispute resolution process or some other form of contact. If your request is reasonable, you will likely be given a refund. However, if you charge funds back in spite of this clause, you will be deemed in violation of this clause, and your account will be blocked. Additional penalties, such as forfeiture of all funds in escrow, may be imposed by HireGeeks.com if the circumstances warrant them. You agree to reimburse HireGeeks.com for any cost we undertake to collect funds from you and agree to any penalties we may impose upon you for violation of this clause.

Indemnity

You agree to indemnify HireGeeks.com and its agents from any claim related to your use of the service or website. If such a claim arises, HireGeeks.com will provide you with written notification.

Duplicate Accounts

You agree that you will not create more than one active account at any time. If you open a new account, you must close the old one. Additionally, you must specify in the biography section of your profile what your old account name was. You agree that if HireGeeks discovers a duplicate account, we may close one or both accounts at our discretion.

Ratings

HireGeeks or its personnel may remove ratings that are inaccurate, artificially inflated (that is, from an account that is known to be duplicate), suspicious, threatening, libelous, or illegal. We may also remove ratings at the request of the user that gave the rating.

Acceptance of Work

By accepting the work performed by a geek, you certify that you are satisfied with the completeness and quality of the work. Once you accept the work, the geek is under no further obligation to work on your project.

Last modified: Tuesday, 28-Mar-2006 05:51:00 PST