Terms of Use

Status: draft for legal review. Not yet in force.

Effective date: [[EFFECTIVE_DATE]] Last updated: [[LAST_UPDATED_DATE]]

1. Agreement and acceptance

These Terms are between you and SkillSplore Limited (trading as SkillSplore), a New Zealand registered company, company number 9449842, New Zealand Business Number [[BUSINESS_IDENTIFIER]].

Our registered office address is recorded on the New Zealand Companies Register and can be looked up by company number.

You accept these Terms by ticking the acceptance box when you create an account. We record which version you accepted and when. If we publish a materially different version, we will ask you to accept it again.

2. Eligibility

Anyone may hold a SkillSplore account, including people under 18.

If you are under 18, one thing works differently: lessons you arrange yourself are online only. You can search, post what you want to learn, message people who teach, and arrange online lessons, all on your own.

For an in-person lesson, a parent or guardian posts the request from their own account and stays responsible for it. We will not arrange a face-to-face meeting between a young person and an adult through an account held by that young person.

3. What SkillSplore is

SkillSplore is a moderated noticeboard and communication platform. We help people find someone who may be able to teach them a subject or skill.

SkillSplore is not an employer, an agency, a school, a training provider, or a guarantor. We do not employ the people listed and they are not our agents. We are not a party to the agreement you make with another user.

We review provider profiles before they become public. That review is not a guarantee of anyone's identity, qualifications, safety, competence or conduct. We do not continuously monitor every interaction on the platform.

4. Your account

You must provide accurate information, protect your login credentials, keep your details current, and tell us promptly if you think your account has been compromised.

You must not transfer or sell your account, or create a new account to evade a suspension.

5. If you offer to teach

You must: describe your experience, qualifications and registrations honestly; state your pricing clearly, including anything that is not included; hold any licence, registration or certification the law requires for what you offer, and keep it current; disclose material limitations on what you can offer; comply with your own tax and business obligations; maintain appropriate professional boundaries, particularly with young people; protect information learners give you, and not use it for anything else; avoid misleading claims about outcomes, results or affiliations; not claim or imply a verification you do not hold; comply with the child-safety rules in our Safety Policy.

6. If you are learning, or arranging learning for a child

You should: describe what you need honestly; assess for yourself whether a particular person is suitable; confirm the price and what is included before the first session; take sensible steps for your own safety, and read our Safety Policy; supervise a child appropriately, and not leave a child alone with someone you have not satisfied yourself about; not request anything unlawful; avoid disclosing sensitive information you do not need to disclose.

7. Agreements between users

The agreement for a lesson is between you and the other user. SkillSplore is not a party to it unless we expressly introduce a separate service and tell you so.

Before you start, agree: the scope; the time and duration; the format; the location; the price and what it covers; the cancellation terms; how and when payment is made; who provides materials; safety arrangements; supervision arrangements for a child; and what happens if a session is missed or a refund is sought.

8. Payments

Users currently arrange payment for lessons directly with each other. SkillSplore does not process those payments, does not hold anyone's money, and does not provide escrow, buyer protection, seller protection or a payment guarantee.

We do not guarantee that a provider will be paid, or that a learner will receive a refund. A payment dispute is between the two users.

Nothing in this section limits rights you have under consumer law that cannot be excluded — see section 18.

9. SkillSplore's own fees

9.1 Profile activation fee

We intend to charge a one-off profile activation fee of NZD 12.99 to publish a tutor profile. It is a single charge, not a subscription, and it does not renew.

The first 50 tutors to publish a profile pay nothing. Places are allocated in the order profiles are submitted for review, and once they are gone they are gone. If you are within the first 50 we will tell you so before you submit, and you will not be asked for payment details at all.

Drafting note: at the date of this draft the fee is NOT switched on. No user has been charged and no payment has been taken.

9.2 Before we charge you

We will tell you clearly, before you are charged: the price; the currency; whether GST is included; that it is a one-off charge; and the refund position.

You will always be shown the amount and asked to confirm before any payment is taken. We will never charge a card without you actively starting a payment.

9.3 How payment is handled

Payment is taken through a third-party payment processor's own secure checkout page. SkillSplore never receives or stores your card number, expiry date or security code.

9.4 Refunds

If we charge you a profile activation fee and your profile is then rejected at review, we will refund the fee.

If you change your mind after paying but before your profile is published, contact us at admin@skillsplore.org.

Nothing in this section limits rights you have under consumer law that cannot be excluded — see section 18. In particular, a fee paid for a service that is not supplied is refundable regardless of what this section says.

9.5 Other fees

We may in future introduce subscriptions, promotions, advertising, sponsorships or other optional paid services. Each would be disclosed clearly before any charge, on the same terms as above.

We make no permanent promise about the level of any future fee.

10. Your content

You keep ownership of what you post.

You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, display, format, adapt for display, moderate and distribute your content only to the extent reasonably needed to operate and provide the platform and its features to you and to other users.

We do not claim ownership of your content. We will not use your content in marketing material without asking you separately.

The licence ends when you remove the content or close your account, except for: copies retained in ordinary backups until those cycles expire; content already lawfully supplied to another user; and records we must keep for legal, safety or dispute purposes.

11. Reviews

A review must be based on a genuine, eligible interaction, and must be honest, relevant and respectful.

You must not: fabricate a review; pay for or sell reviews; offer or accept an inducement to write, change or remove a review; use a review to threaten or extort someone; or include another person's private information in a review.

We may remove a review that breaches these rules. We do not remove a review simply because its subject dislikes it.

12. Academic work

SkillSplore is for learning. We do not encourage using it to obtain work to submit as your own, and we may remove listings that openly advertise doing so.

Institutions treat that as misconduct, and the consequences fall on the learner. What you agree with another user is between the two of you.

13. Prohibited conduct

You must not use SkillSplore for: fraud or deception; impersonation; harassment; threats; unlawful discrimination; anything involving the exploitation or sexual abuse of children; sexual services; unsafe private contact with a minor; supplying drugs; facilitating violence; extremist violence; facilitating self-harm; distributing malware; unauthorised access to systems; harvesting personal data; spam; fake profiles; fake reviews; infringing someone's intellectual property; providing a regulated service without the required licence; misrepresenting qualifications; or circumventing our safety, moderation or enforcement controls.

14. Safety

Our Safety Policy sets out practical guidance for meeting online and in person, arranging sessions involving children, checking qualifications, handling payment carefully, and reporting concerns.

That guidance is exactly that — guidance. Following it reduces risk. It does not eliminate risk, and we do not guarantee anyone's safety.

15. Regulated services

Some services are regulated and may be restricted, reviewed or removed. These include, without limitation: medical advice or treatment; psychological treatment or therapy; legal advice; financial advice; electrical work; plumbing and gasfitting; building work; childcare; first-aid certification; driving instruction; and hazardous sports instruction.

If you offer anything in a regulated field, you are responsible for holding the required licence, registration or certification. We may ask for evidence and may remove a listing pending it.

Our full list is in the Prohibited Services Policy.

16. Moderation

Where we consider it reasonably necessary and proportionate, we may: review content; issue a warning; restrict the visibility of content; remove content; limit access to features; suspend an account; terminate an account; preserve evidence; and refer a matter to the police or another authority.

Where it is appropriate and lawful to do so, we will tell you what we have done and why, and give you an opportunity to respond. Where there is a serious and immediate risk — particularly to a child — we may act first and explain afterwards.

We do not continuously monitor every interaction, and we do not promise to detect every breach.

17. Service availability

We do not guarantee that SkillSplore will be available without interruption or error.

We may carry out maintenance, change or remove features, or discontinue the service. Where we plan a material change or a discontinuation, we will give reasonable notice where we can. Unplanned outages and security incidents may not allow for notice.

18. Your consumer rights

Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts or modifies any right, guarantee, warranty or remedy you have under law that cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified — including under the New Zealand Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and Fair Trading Act 1986, and the Australian Consumer Law, where those apply to you.

Where a term in these Terms would otherwise conflict with such a right, that right prevails and the conflicting term does not apply to that extent.

19. Disclaimers

To the extent permitted by law, and subject always to section 18: SkillSplore is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis; we do not warrant that any provider is safe, suitably qualified, competent, insured, licensed or verified beyond what a badge on their profile expressly states; we do not warrant that any learner will engage a provider, or pay them; we do not warrant any particular learning outcome; we are not responsible for the accuracy of information a user supplies about themselves.

We do not say that we bear no responsibility in any circumstance, and we do not ask you to waive rights you cannot lawfully waive.

20. Limitation of liability

Subject to section 18, and to the extent permitted by law: we are not liable for loss that was not reasonably foreseeable; we are not liable for loss of profit, loss of opportunity, or loss of data, arising from your use of the platform; our total aggregate liability to you in connection with the platform in any 12-month period is limited to the greater of (a) the total amount you paid to SkillSplore in that period, …