based on Lunokhod´s Moderator policies (https://gist.github.com/lunokhod/cd8a6dd45f6d8f6e813c959db79b742f) OpenBazaar Peer ID: QmYVyFewX92osZSTfBnFkDDTTsEmHNfYfa5wK9fh5SbBaY
- Summary
- General Policies
- The Arbitration Process
- Moderator Timeliness
- Privacy + GDPR
- Jurisdictional Legality
Moderators play a critical role in marketplace ecosystems like OpenBazaar for ceating trust and in alleviating risk to both the buyer and seller. Not only do they facilitate the resolution of disputes, but they also allow funds to be transferred when a resolution between the two parties is not possible.
In choosing me as a moderator, 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.
| 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. |
| Cancelations and returns | The terms must be agreed upon in advance, not after the sale. |
| Damaged packaging | Buyer has right to refuse delivery and can be refunded, if appropiate claim is submitted to shipping company. |
| Damaged goods: dead on arrival | Buyer is refunded after providing proof of damaged goods (DOA) claims within 2 business days. |
| Vendor ships the wrong item | The buyer is refunded and is not responsible for returning the incorrect item, except if something else has been agreed upon or is stated in vendor's ToS. |
| Vendor ships poor quality item | The buyer must provide substantial proof about these claims. Sellers will be given three (3) business days to respond to the claims before funds will be released to the buyer. |
| No contact in 3 days | Your position in the dispute is voided. |
| Privacy concerns | Confidentiality is of upmost importance. GDPR rules apply whenever possible. I will never release information to a third party. |
| Customs seizes goods | If goods are accompanied with proper documentation, but are confiscated/seized due to specific regulations for the shipped goods, funds will be released to seller. |
| Customs clearance + abandonment | If buyer needs to pay additional fees/taxes for importing goods to his country its his responsibility to do so. If shipment is then abandonned (tracking status unchanged for 10 days) seller will receive funds. |
| Jurisdictional legality of transactions | Any transaction that does not comply 100% with the laws of the buyer, seller and/or moderator will be considered void and no actions will be taken from the moderator. |
The buyer and vendor should agree in advance as to how the order will be delivered and tracked.
- 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.• In case of international shipments, the buyer is responsible for customs clearance and paying the necessary fees and/or additional taxes. In case of abandonment (tracking status doesn’t change for more than 10 business days), funds will be released to the buyer
- In case that the international shipments have not been accompanied by appropriate documentation by the vendor and he doesn’t provide them timely on request so that the shipment can be cleared by customs within 10 business days, the buyer will be refunded
- In case that due to restrictions or other legal regulations the shipment gets confiscated by customs the buyer will be held responsible and the funds will be released to the seller.
- If you have any questions regarding customs clearance and proper documentation that needs to be provided, and also the additional fees/taxes that need to be paid for customs clearance, please contact your shipping company like DHL/UPS.
The terms for cancelling 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.
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. The vendor also should make sure to test the item properly to avoid any Dead-On-Arrival claims.
Transactions that involve services or the delivery of digital goods should provide a means of verifying that the service or content was in fact rendered or delivered. All information required to prove contract fulfilment must be included within the transaction. If no such verification process was agreed upon, the vendor will not be responsible if there is a dispute. I recommend in order to release funds to the seller of digital goods, that the seller must either 1) Send undeniable proof of delivery or 2) Send the good to the moderator, who will send it to the buyer. The buyer will then have three (3) business days to raise a dispute before funds will be released to the seller.
In the case of a dispute, both sides will present their evidence. Reasonable effort will be made towards a mutually agreed resolution, while being impartial and unbiased.
If no resolution can be agreed upon, then the evidence will be weighed and a decision will be made. If it cannot be determined which the responsible/rightful party exactly is, then funds will be split based on the assessment of the moderator.
Funds will be released only at the end of a thorough examination of provided evidence from both parties. 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 mutually agreed 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 and responsibility.
If the buyer fails to release funds 48 hours following delivery of the item, I will try to contact the buyer using all available forms of communication. If a response is not received within 3 additional days, funds will be released to the vendor.
If the buyer or vendor does not respond to the moderator within 3 business days, their position in the dispute will be considered void. Most disputes should be resolved within a maximum of three days, but it is acknowledged that personal commitments may sometimes interfere with either the buyer or seller responding in a timely manner. If asked, and if provided a reasonable explanation, under rare circumstanes I will extend all deadlines by up to one week.
The buyer and seller should be aware that I might not reside in their time zone (UTC+1). I will strive to respond to all inquiries within 8 hours, but you should allow up to 12 hours to receive a response. In rare cases, such as when I am traveling internationally, it may take me up to 24 hours to respond. If you need a more timely response choose a moderator closer to or within your own timezone.
The moderator will under no circumstance divuldge or disseminate any private information in an OpenBazaar contract to a third party. All information will be handled according to GDPR-Standards as required by EU-Law (since I am residing within the EU). Both parties -buyer and seller- agree and consent to the processing (where processing definies a broad spectrum of activities ranging from reading, filing, saving, editing, sending, emailing, deleting of any kind of file or data) of their personal information (Name, address, email etc.) for the specific purpose of moderation, arbitration and dispute resolution and for this purpose alone. If for any reason a third party has to be contacted for the above mentioned purpose, this will be done only with the consent of both parties. 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 only with the consent of both the buyer and vendor. Please note, that refusing to consent to the processing of your personal information might result in me not being able to moderate the arbitration process/dispute. All data, files and personal information regarding the arbitration process will be securely deleted/destroyed after the completion of the arbitration process.
All transactions will be treated as a contract between two responsible individuals. No attempt will be made apriori to determine the legality of any transaction. If however in the process of the arbitration it becomes clear, that the transaction does not comply with the jurisdictional binding laws of the buyer, seller and/or moderator (ie. selling/buying/posessing etc. of these kind of goods is prohibited) it will be considered void (for the purposes of the arbitration process/dispute) and no further actions will be taken from the moderator. In this case, it will be left to the buyer and seller to resolve the dispute on their own. Moderator is located in Germany/European Union. Please take all of the above into consideration before you select me as your moderator. If you are unsure whether your physical/digital goods fall into a prohibited category, please contact me first before selecting me as moderator.