Marketplace buyer terms

DRAFT for legal review. This text describes how the marketplace works today. It has not been reviewed by a lawyer and is not yet binding.

1. Who you contract with

The marketplace at the marketplace address of serp.ac ("we", "us") sells a content placement service: publishing your content or links on third-party websites listed in our catalog. We are the seller and merchant of record. You pay us, and we are responsible to you for delivering the service. Website owners ("publishers") are our independent suppliers; you do not enter into a contract with them.

These terms apply in addition to the serp.ac Terms of Service. If they conflict, these terms prevail for marketplace orders.

2. Orders and prices

• Each order is for one placement on one listed website, with the placement type, niche, target URLs and anchor texts you choose. Prices are in US dollars and include the niche surcharge shown at checkout. Taxes may be added where required by law.
• Prices shown are those at the time of payment. Later price changes by a publisher do not affect paid orders.
• You are responsible for the content you supply (articles, links, anchor texts). It must be lawful in the publisher's and your jurisdiction. All niches are accepted, but publishers may decline any order.

3. Payment and escrow

• You pay by card through Stripe (or with marketplace credit). We hold the amount until the order completes ("escrow"). The publisher is only credited after the placement has been verified.
• If the publisher does not accept the order within the acceptance period, rejects it, or you cancel before acceptance, you receive a full refund to your original payment method.

4. Delivery, verification and completion

• After the publisher submits the published URL, we check automatically that the page loads, is on the listed website, contains every agreed link with the agreed anchor text and link attribute, and is not set to noindex. Failed checks are sent back to the publisher to fix.
• After a passed check, a hold period starts (currently 7 days). During it you may request a revision or open a dispute. If you do neither, the order completes automatically. You may also approve it earlier.
• Whether Google indexes the page is recorded but is not a condition of completion.

5. Link guarantee

• For a period after completion (currently 6 months) we re-check the placement. If a link is removed or changed from dofollow to nofollow, we notify the publisher and give them time to restore it (currently 7 days).
• If it is not restored, you receive a refund of the order price as marketplace credit or to your original payment method, as decided by us.
• The guarantee does not cover changes caused by you (for example, a changed or removed target page), the website ceasing to exist due to events outside the publisher's control after a refund has been issued, or search-engine rankings and traffic.

6. Disputes

You can open a dispute while an order is being delivered or during the hold period. We review the order, the messages between you and the publisher and the automatic checks, and may refund in full or in part, release the payment, or extend the delivery time. Our decision on marketplace orders is final, without prejudice to your statutory rights.

7. Marketplace credit

Credit from refunds can be used for future marketplace orders. It has no cash value and is not transferable, except where the law requires otherwise.

8. Chargebacks

Please contact us before disputing a payment with your bank. A chargeback on a completed order may lead to suspension of your account.

9. Liability

We do not guarantee rankings, traffic or any other result of a placement. Our total liability for an order is limited to the amount you paid for it, except where the law does not allow such a limitation.

10. Contact

Questions about an order: use the order's message thread or contact our support.