SKILLSCHAT TERMS OF SERVICE
1. Hi there
Thank you for visiting SkillsChat. Please read these Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy as you must agree to both documents as a condition of using our Service. There’s nothing in here that should cause you to be too alarmed, except for the contractual requirement that you shave a stripe down the middle of your head if you use our Service. Just kidding… or are we? Read this Agreement and you’ll find out!
2. Definitions
Throughout this document, we may use big fancy city lawyer words or phrases, and it is important that you understand the meaning of them. The following is a non-exhaustive list of definitions of words and phrases found in this document:
“Agreement” refers to these Terms of Service;
“SkillsChat” refers to our company, known as “SkillsChat LLC”; our Site; our Service; a magical hamster who can find gold ore if you feed him cornflakes, or a combination of all or some of the preceding definitions, depending on the context in which the word is used;
“Service” refers to the services that we provide through our Site, including our Site itself;
“Site” refers to our website, www.skillschat.com;
“User” refers to anyone who uses our Service, including general visitors to our Site;
“You” as in, “Hey, you!” refers to the person who is entering into this Agreement.
3. Description of Service
SkillsChat provides an online marketplace to connect students and teachers learning sessions via a video chat interface (i.e. Skype… communicating with video like this is Star Trek stuff, people—welcome to the future!). Teachers can post profiles on the Site which are searchable by prospective students. Teachers set their online availability and price. SkillsChat is designed for Users aged 13 and up.
4. Eligibility
In order to use our Service, you must meet a number of conditions, including but not limited to:
- You must not be in violation of any embargoes, export controls, or other laws of the United States or other countries having jurisdiction over this Agreement, SkillsChat, and yourself. For example, if the Office of Foreign Assets Control prohibits conducting financial transactions with nationals, residents, or banks of your country, you must not use our Service. Please do not use our Service if your name starts with a Fidel and ends with a Castro.
- You must be the minimum age required to enter into a contract in the area in which you reside, and, in any event, must not be less than 13 years of age. We know it’s weird that the government says you shouldn’t be allowed to learn using our Service if you’re under 13, but we lost our entire Washington lobbyist budget on a high stakes game of Tiddlywinks, so we’re powerless to stop it.
- You must provide us with personal information, payment information and other information that we deem necessary to provide you with our Service.
5. Nature of Service
SkillsChat is provided on an as-is, where-is basis. You agree that you are solely responsible for determining whether the use of SkillsChat is right for you, and to hold SkillsChat harmless for any loss which may arise from or relate to your use of our Service. Basically, if a teacher decides to tell you that Napoleon Bonaparte is a type of Norwegian cheese, you can’t complain to SkillsChat if you fail a test. Please do your due diligence.
6. Rules of Use
You must not:
- Violate the laws of the United States, its states, or any foreign political entity or intergalactic military alliance having jurisdiction over this Agreement, whether or not the foreign political entity is a country or a subdivision (such as a state or province) or municipality (such as a city, town, county, or region) of a foreign country.
- Post or send anything violent, threatening, pornographic, racist, hateful, or otherwise objectionable according to the opinion of SkillsChat or its delegates. “Objectionable” shall be deemed to include anything that tries to encourage disco to make a comeback.
- Infringe on anyone’s intellectual property rights, defame anyone, impersonate anyone, or otherwise be a poopy head (i.e., violate the rights of a third party).
- Hack, crack, phish, SQL inject, or otherwise compromise the security or integrity of the SkillsChat Site, Service, or its Users’ computers.
- Do anything else which could bring SkillsChat into disrepute or violate the rights of any person.
7. Payment and Refund Policy
Payment for service may be made via credit card or PayPal. We apologize, but due to recent anti-money laundering regulations we are no longer allowed to barter our Service in exchange for flamingo eggs. Unless otherwise stated, all prices are denominated in United States dollars.
Refunds shall be available for:
- Cancellations which occur within 24 hours of the time that a session is scheduled.
- Situations where the teacher does not appear for the scheduled session time.
- Customer dissatisfaction with the session. Refunds for such cases shall only be available for the student’s first session with that particular teacher.
- Zombies interfering with SkillsChat’s operations, if the rise of said zombies was caused by SkillsChat. If not, such zombie attacks are covered by our Force Majeure section, found further below.
Additional terms surrounding payments, pricing and refunds may be published on our Site and are hereby incorporated into this Agreement by reference.
8. Our Copyright
SkillsChat’s copyright is important because it protects our content from being diminished in its uniqueness by third parties known in highly technical legal terms as “uncreative plagiarizing jerk faces.” You agree not to copy, distribute, display, disseminate, or otherwise reproduce any of the information on the Site without receiving our prior written permission.
9. Your Copyright
SkillsChat must be assured that it has the right to use the content that is posted to its Service by its Users. Such content may include, but is not limited to, photographs, videos, text, audio, and other materials. Whenever submitting content to our Service, you agree that you are granting us a non-exclusive, universal, perpetual, revocable, sublicensable, commercial and non-commercial right to use, distribute, sell, publish, and otherwise make use of the content that you submit to us to the extent that is necessary to provide you with our Service—you may revoke this license at any time by providing us with reasonable notice and we will take reasonable steps to attempt to remove your content from our Site as soon as possible. You warrant to us that you have the right to grant us this right over the content, and that you will indemnify us for any loss resulting from a breach of this warranty and defend us against claims regarding the same.
10. Trademarks
“SkillsChat” is a trademark used by us, SkillsChat LLC, to uniquely identify our Site, Service, and business. It is registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office under serial number 86253963. You agree not to use this phrase anywhere without our prior written consent. Additionally, you agree not to use our trade dress (or our wedding dress), or copy the look and feel of our Service or its design, without our prior written consent. You agree that this paragraph goes beyond the governing law on intellectual property law, and includes prohibitions on any competition that violates the provisions of this paragraph, including starting your own competing business.
11. Revocation of Consent
We may revoke our consent for your use of our intellectual property, or any other permission granted to you under this Agreement, at any time. You agree that if we so request, you must take immediate action to remove any usage of our intellectual property that you may have engaged in, even if it would cause a loss to you. We therefore recommend that you not write “SkillsChat” on any awesome sports car or yacht that you own because we will probably just use this clause to turn it into our awesome sports car or yacht.
12. Copyright & Trademark Infringement
We take copyright infringement very seriously—in fact, most of our scary camp stories revolve around copyright infringement. We have therefore registered a Copyright Agent with the United States Copyright Office, which limits our liability under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If you believe that your copyright has been infringed, please dry your tears, drink some tea to calm down, and send us a message which contains:
- Your name.
- The name of the party whose copyright has been infringed, if different from your name.
- The name and description of the work that is being infringed.
- The location on our website of the infringing copy.
- A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted work described above is not authorized by the copyright owner (or by a third party who is legally entitled to do so on behalf of the copyright owner) and is not otherwise permitted by law.
- A statement that you swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information contained in this notification is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or have an exclusive right in law to bring infringement proceedings with respect to its use.
You must sign this notification electronically d send it to our Copyright Agent at help@skillschat.com.
Although U.S. law does not provide for a similar procedure for trademark infringement, we recommend that you send us similar information to that above in regards to any allegation of trademark infringement, and we will address it as soon as practicable.
13. Communications Decency Act
Similar to the DMCA provisions above, United States law—specifically Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act—creates a defense for us for the actions of third parties in regards to any defamatory content (nasty false words said by big meanies) posted through our Service. Although we are not liable for defamatory words posted through our Service by our Users even if given notice, we do prohibit defamation under this Agreement and we may, if we believe the situation warrants it, take action against the offending User. Please notify us at help@skillschat.com if any of our Users have posted anything that you believe is defamatory.
14. Representations & Warranties
THIS SECTION IS REALLY IMPORTANT SO WE’RE GOING TO TYPE LIKE WE’RE YELLING IT AT YOU THROUGH A MEGAPHONE EVEN THOUGH IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD AND WE AREN’T ACTUALLY “THINKING ANY LOUDER” AS WE TYPE THIS FOR YOU. WE MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE MERCHANTABILITY OF OUR SERVICE OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. YOU AGREE THAT YOU ARE RELEASING US FROM ANY LIABILITY THAT WE MAY OTHERWISE HAVE TO YOU IN RELATION TO OR ARISING FROM THIS AGREEMENT OR OUR SERVICES, FOR REASONS INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, FAILURE OF OUR SERVICE, NEGLIGENCE, OR ANY OTHER TORT. TO THE EXTENT THAT APPLICABLE LAW RESTRICTS THIS RELEASE OF LIABILITY, YOU AGREE THAT WE ARE ONLY LIABLE TO YOU FOR THE MINIMUM AMOUNT OF DAMAGES THAT THE LAW RESTRICTS OUR LIABILITY TO, IF SUCH A MINIMUM EXISTS.
YOU AGREE THAT WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE IN ANY WAY FOR DAMAGES CAUSED BY THIRD PARTIES WHO MAY USE OUR SERVICES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO PEOPLE WHO COMMIT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INFRINGEMENT, DEFAMATION, TORTIOUS INTERFERENCE WITH ECONOMIC RELATIONS, OR ANY OTHER ACTIONABLE CONDUCT TOWARDS YOU.
YOU AGREE THAT WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR ANY FAILURE OF THE GOODS OR SERVICES OF OUR COMPANY OR A THIRD PARTY, INCLUDING ANY FAILURES OR DISRUPTIONS, UNTIMELY DELIVERY, SCHEDULED OR UNSCHEDULED, INTENTIONAL OR UNINTENTIONAL, ON OUR WEBSITE WHICH PREVENT ACCESS TO OUR WEBSITE TEMPORARILY OR PERMANENTLY.
YOU AGREE THAT WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR ANY BREACH OF CONTRACT, TORT, OR OTHER WRONGFUL ACT COMMITTED AGAINST YOU BY A STUDENT, TEACHER, OR ANY OTHER USER.
THE PROVISION OF OUR SERVICE TO YOU IS CONTINGENT ON YOUR AGREEMENT WITH THIS AND ALL OTHER SECTIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT. NOTHING IN THE PROVISIONS OF THIS “REPRESENTATIONS & WARRANTIES” SECTION SHALL BE CONSTRUED TO LIMIT THE GENERALITY OF THE FIRST PARAGRAPH OF THIS SECTION.
For Jurisdictions that do not allow us to limit our liability:Notwithstanding any provision of these Terms, if your jurisdiction has provisions specific to waiver or liability that conflict with the above then our liability is limited to the smallest extent possible by law. Specifically, in those jurisdictions not allowed, we do not disclaim liability for: (a) death or personal injury caused by its negligence or that of any of its officers, employees or agents; or (b) fraudulent misrepresentation; or (c) any liability which it is not lawful to exclude either now or in the future.
IF YOU ARE A RESIDENT OF A JURISDICTION THAT REQUIRES A SPECIFIC STATEMENT REGARDING RELEASE THEN THE FOLLOWING APPLIES. FOR EXAMPLE, CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS MUST, AS A CONDITION OF THIS AGREEMENT, WAIVE THE APPLICABILITY OF CALIFORNIA CIVIL CODE SECTION 1542, WHICH STATES, “A GENERAL RELEASE DOES NOT EXTEND TO CLAIMS WHICH THE CREDITOR DOES NOT KNOW OR SUSPECT TO EXIST IN HIS OR HER FAVOR AT THE TIME OF EXECUTING THE RELEASE, WHICH IF KNOWN BY HIM OR HER MUST HAVE MATERIALLY AFFECTED HIS OR HER SETTLEMENT WITH THE DEBTOR.” YOU HEREBY WAIVE THIS SECTION OF THE CALIFORNIA CIVIL CODE. YOU HEREBY WAIVE ANY SIMILAR PROVISION IN LAW, REGULATION, OR CODE THAT HAS THE SAME INTENT OR EFFECT AS THE AFOREMENTIONED RELEASE.
OKAY, WE CAN STOP YELL—er, yelling now.
15. Indemnity
You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless for any claims by you or any third party which may arise from or relate to this Agreement or the provision of our service to you, including any damages caused by your use of our App or acceptance of the offers contained on it. You also agree that you have a duty to defend us against such claims and we may require you to pay for an attorney(s) of our choice in such cases. You agree that this indemnity extends to requiring you to pay for our reasonable attorneys’ fees, court costs, and disbursements. In the event of a claim such as one described in this paragraph, we may elect to settle with the party/parties making the claim, and you shall be liable for the damages as though we had proceeded with a trial.
To summarize, we can make you pay for stuff that you do that costs us money, and we don’t have to spend time in court getting yelled at by a man who sits higher than us and wears a black dress if we decide to simply pay the plaintiff. You agree that you will still have to cover all of the costs involved in such cases.
16. Choice of Law
This Agreement shall be governed by the laws in force in the State of Hawaii. The offer and acceptance of this contract are deemed to have occurred in the State of Hawaii. The attack on Pearl Harbor occurred in the State of Hawaii. For more facts about the State of Hawaii, please contact your local Hawaii-ologist.
17. Forum of Dispute
Because state law no longer permits surfing competitions to resolve complex legal disputes, you agree that any dispute arising from or relating to this Agreement will be heard solely by a court of competent jurisdiction in the State of Hawaii. Specifically, where the subject matter of a dispute is eligible for it, you agree that any disputes shall be heard solely within the Small Claims Court division of the District Court of the County of Hawai`i – Third Circuit in and for the State of Hawaii (“Small Claims Court”).
If a dispute claims multiple claims and one or more of those claims would be eligible to be heard by the Small Claims Court, you agree not to bring the other claims against us and to instead proceed within the Small Claims Court.
If you would be entitled in a dispute to an amount exceeding the monetary jurisdiction of the Small Claims Court, you agree to waive your right to collect any damages in excess of the monetary jurisdiction and instead still bring your claim within the Small Claims Court. At the time of the drafting of this Agreement, the monetary jurisdiction of the Small Claims Court is $5,000 for claims and $40,000 for counterclaims.
You agree that if a dispute is eligible to be heard in Small Claims Court but you would be entitled to an additional or alternative remedy in a higher court, such as injunctive relief, you will waive your right to that remedy and still bring the dispute within the Small Claims Court.
If you bring a dispute in a manner other than in accordance with this section, you agree that we may move to have it dismissed, and that you will be responsible for our reasonable attorneys’ fees, court costs, and disbursements in doing so.
You agree that the unsuccessful party in any dispute arising from or relating to this Agreement will be responsible for the reimbursement of the successful party’s reasonable attorneys’ fees, court costs, and disbursements.
18. Force Majeure
You agree that we are not responsible to you for anything that we may otherwise be responsible for, if it is the result of events beyond our control, including, but not limited to, acts of God, war, insurrection, zombie attacks, riots, terrorism, crime, Martian invasions, labor shortages (including lawful and unlawful strikes), embargoes, postal disruption, communication disruption, unavailability of payment processors, unavailability of Limburger cheese, failure or shortage of infrastructure, shortage of materials, or any other event beyond our control.
19. Severability
In the event that a provision of this Agreement is found to be unlawful, conflicting with another provision of the Agreement, or otherwise unenforceable, the Agreement will remain in force as though it had been entered into without that unenforceable provision being included in it.
If two or more provisions of this Agreement are deemed to conflict with each other’s operation, SkillsChat shall have the sole right to elect which provision remains in force. We may do this by competing to see who can hold the best luau or we may simply pick the one that is best for SkillsChat.
20. Non-Waiver
SkillsChat reserves all rights afforded to us under this Agreement as well as under the provisions of any applicable law. Our non-enforcement of any particular provision or provisions of this Agreement or any applicable law should not be construed as our waiver of the right to enforce that same provision under the same or different circumstances at any time in the future.
21. Termination & Cancellation
We may terminate your access to our Site and Service at our discretion without explanation, though we will strive to provide a timely explanation in most cases. Our liability for refunding you, if you have paid anything to us, will be limited to the amount you paid for goods or services which have not yet been and will not be delivered, except in cases where the termination or cancellation was due to your breach of this Agreement, in which case you agree that we are not required to provide any refund or other compensation whatsoever.
Under no circumstances, including termination or cancellation of our Service to you, will we be liable for any losses related to actions of other Users.
22. Assignment of Rights
You may not assign your rights and/or obligations under this Agreement to any other party without our prior written consent. We may assign our rights and/or obligations under this Agreement to any other party at our discretion. We probably won’t do this because SkillsChat is cool and we enjoy working with our customer.
23. Amendments
We may amend this Agreement from time to time. When we amend this Agreement, we will post the changes here and e-mail you to inform you that this Agreement has been amended. Your continued use of our Service shall constitute your acceptance of any such amendments.
24. California Users and Residents
Pursuant to California Civil Code Section 1789.3, any questions about pricing, complaints, or inquiries about SkillsChat must be addressed to our agent for notice and sent via certified mail to that agent. For our agent’s most current contact information, please send a request to help@skillschat.com.
Lastly, California users are also entitled to the following specific consumer rights notice: The Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs may be contacted in writing at 1625 North Market Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95834, or by telephone at (916) 445-1254 or (800) 952-5210.
And no, you don’t have to shave a stripe down the middle of your head by using our Service. Thanks for reading the whole Agreement.
Last Modified: April 27, 2014