OpenBazaar Peer ID: QmStHRBiqH7uAnTSfn5GejPco1raTSEAEYJ12nssvb7ov2
- Goal
- Summary
- General Policies
- The Arbitration Process
- Moderator’s Availability
- Privacy and Legality
- Unethical Transactions
- Other communication channels
The primary goal of this Moderation Agreement is to solve any dispute or issue that may arise between two parties- a buyer and a vendor (seller)- doing business on OpenBazaar. The focus is to solve the dispute in a fair and quick manner.
The secondary goal of this Moderation Agreement is to facilitate the adoption of decentralized marketplace as well as reliable, permissionless and decentralized p2p cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Moderation is not a source of income for the moderator, it is purely an effort aimed to strengthen OpenBazaar as a community. The service fee taken by a moderator is to cover the time spent solving each given dispute.
Prompt and unbiased dispute resolution. Both parties involved will be contacted before making the final decision. Both parties are expected to respond in three (3) business days. If you fail to provide the necessary information in this period, the case will be decided based on the information and evidence in my possession. I'm online most of the time almost all of the days, so you can expect your issue to be resolved in a timely manner without any bias towards any of the parties involved.
You can be assured that any dispute will be resolved based on the terms of the contract. If the dispute lies outside of the agreed upon terms, the original terms of contract will be supplemented (but not replaced) by my own policies, which are summarized below under General Policies.
| Scenario | Result |
|---|---|
| Buyer agrees to shipping with no tracking | It's not the vendor's fault if the package doesn't arrive |
| Tracking status doesn't change for 10 days or the package is listed as lost | The buyer is refunded |
| The vendor doesn't ship the item on time | The vendor has two days to prove shipment, or the buyer is refunded |
| Cancellations and returns | The terms must be agreed upon in advance, not after the sale |
| Damaged goods | The person who shipped the item is responsible |
| Vendor ships the wrong item | The buyer is refunded and is not responsible for returning the incorrect item |
| No contact in 3 days | Your position in the dispute is voided |
| Privacy concerns | Information will never be divulged to a third party |
| Illegal transactions | I don’t guarantee my service for such transactions |
The buyer and vendor should agree in advance as to how the order will be delivered and tracked. All physical good shipments should include a tracking number if possible. Including one makes the arbitration process much easier and transparent for all parties.
- If no tracking is used, the vendor will not be responsible if the item is never received.
- If tracking is used, but the tracking status does not change for 10 business days, or the package is listed as lost, the vendor will be responsible for refunding the buyer.
If a shipment (physical goods only) is lost or the tracker fails to update for ten (10) business days then the buyer will have two (2) business days in order to notify the moderator they would like to wait longer. If the buyer fails to respond responsibility for the failed shipment falls on the vendor and funds will be released to the buyer.
The buyer must provide substantial proof of the incorrect item. Vendors will be given three (3) business days to respond to the claims before funds will be released to the buyer. The party who ships the item (whether the vendor or the buyer for a return) should assure proper packaging so that the item is not damaged during transport. Proper insurance should be acquired, and damaged goods will be considered the fault of the person shipping the item. It is highly recommended to take good quality photos to showcase the issue in hand which will lead to a faster resolution of the situation.
The terms for cancellation of an order or returning an item (including shipping costs) should be agreed upon before sale. Lacking an agreement, all sales are final, and any return shipping costs will be at the expense of the buyer.
- All complaints concerning the quality of the item will be judged based on the vendor's return policy.
- If reasonable proof is provided that the vendor shipped the wrong item, funds will be returned to the buyer, and the buyer will not be responsible for returning the incorrectly shipped item.
- If the vendor does not ship the item 2 days following the maximum estimated time provided to the buyer, funds will be returned to the buyer after confirmation from the vendor that the item was not shipped.
In order to properly moderate transactions involving digital delivery, a method to prove transfer to buyer is necessary. All information required to prove transfer should be included within the transaction. It is the vendor’s responsibility to make sure the method and information are available and documented within the transaction.
Funds will be released only at the end of a thorough investigation. Both the buyer and vendor will be contacted at least twice, allowing ample opportunity to determine the details of the dispute.
A reasonable effort will be made towards finding a mutual agreement upon resolution. If no such resolution is possible, I will return funds based on my assessment of the facts. In most cases, as the result of a breach of contract, one party will be sided with and all funds will be returned to that party. When it is not possible to determine with certainty the factual basis of the dispute, the funds will be split between the two parties in proportion to my assessment of the likelihood of each party's case.
If the buyer fails to release funds 48 hours following delivery of the item, I will contact the buyer using all available forms of communication. If a response is not received within three (3) additional days, funds will be released to the vendor.
If the buyer or vendor does not respond to the moderator within three (3) days, their position in the dispute will be considered void. Most disputes should be resolved within a maximum of three (3) days (due to the volatility in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies), but it is acknowledged that force majeure situations may sometimes interfere with either the buyer or seller responding in a timely manner. If you have some force majeure situation, please contact me and we can agree to prolong the period up to two (2) more business days (5 business days in total) in which you should tell your side of the story and provide evidence. I keep my rights to stick to three (3) days as a final deadline for resolving disputes and two (2) additional days in force majeure situation may be granted, but are not guaranteed.
The buyer and seller should be aware that I might not reside in their time zone. I will strive to respond to all inquiries within 12 hours, but you should allow up to 24 hours to receive a response. In rare cases it may take me 48 hours to respond. Feel free to contact me in case you have any additional questions. I’m online most of the time on business days and weekends. You can also reach me at cryptogoods@protonmail.com if you find email to be more convenient form of communication.
The moderator will under no circumstances divulge the private information in an OpenBazaar contract to a third party. If, for debugging reasons, it is necessary to contact the developers (or another form of support group) and provide technical details concerning the transaction, this will be done providing the least possible amount of personal information but only with the consent of both the buyer and vendor. If there is no such consent, there will be no private information shared whatsoever.
No attempt will be made to determine the legality of any transaction. All transactions will be treated as a contract between two responsible individuals. If contacted by law enforcement, no private information will be divulged.
If I find a transaction to be unethical, I will take no action in the arbitration of the dispute. If you find this policy ambiguous, please contact me before choosing me as a moderator.
You can also reach me at cryptogoods@protonmail.com in case you find email to be more convenient form of communication.