Terms of Service

1. Agreement to these Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a legal agreement between you and not yet configured ("we", "us", "the operator"), which operates the Braid Shift application and website (the "Service"). not yet configured

By creating an account, posting or claiming a shift, booking an appointment, or making or receiving a payment through the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy, Acceptable Use Policy and Refund & Cancellation Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

If you use the Service on behalf of a business, you confirm that you are authorised to accept these Terms for that business.

2. What Braid Shift is

Braid Shift is a marketplace and software tool that helps independent hair braiders, salon owners and clients find each other, schedule work and appointments, and handle payments.

We are not a salon, a staffing agency, an employment agency, a party to any agreement between users, or a provider of hair or beauty services. Any agreement for services is directly between the users involved — for example, between a salon and a braider, or between a salon and a client. We do not supervise, direct or control how work is performed.

Using Braid Shift does not create an employment, agency, partnership, joint venture or franchise relationship between you and us.

3. Eligibility and your account

• You must be at least 18 years old and legally able to enter into contracts to use the Service.
• You must provide accurate, current information about yourself and the business you represent, and keep it up to date.
• You are responsible for keeping your login credentials confidential and for all activity that happens through your account.
• One account per person or business. Do not share accounts, impersonate anyone, or create accounts to evade a restriction or suspension.
• Tell us promptly if you believe your account has been accessed without your permission.

4. Your role and responsibilities

• Braiders: you are an independent professional. You decide whether to apply for or claim a shift, you set your own availability, and you are responsible for your tools, your technique, your qualifications and your taxes.
• Salon owners: you are responsible for your salon, its staff, its workspace, its client relationships and the accuracy of the shifts, services and prices you publish.
• Clients: you are responsible for the accuracy of your booking details, for showing up on time, and for paying the salon's balance directly where the Service only collects a deposit.

5. Subscriptions and paid features

Some features are paid. Salon owners need an active subscription plan to publish shifts, and braiders may choose an optional Pro plan. Current plans, prices and what each plan includes are shown in the app before you buy.

Paid plans are billed in advance, monthly or annually, and renew automatically until cancelled. Cancelling stops future renewals; it does not refund the period already paid. See the Refund & Cancellation Policy for details.

Prices, plan features and the availability of paid features may change. We will show material price changes in the app before they take effect. Paid features are unlocked on the server once a payment is confirmed; we are not responsible for access problems caused by incorrect payment details you supplied.

6. Shift postings, applications and assignments

A salon's shift posting is an invitation to apply or claim, not a binding offer of employment. A shift becomes an assignment when the salon accepts a braider through the Service.

Salons must describe shifts accurately, including the services required, the pay, the schedule, the location and any special requirements. Braiders must apply only for work they are qualified and able to perform, and must not misrepresent their experience.

Once an assignment is made, both sides must act in good faith: show up as agreed, arrive on time, and communicate promptly if something changes.

7. Booking deposits and client payments

When a client books a salon service through the Service, the client pays a deposit at checkout to confirm the appointment. The salon sets the deposit, and it is shown before payment.

Braid Shift charges the salon a platform commission on shift payments (currently 10%). Booking deposits paid by a first-time client carry a first-time client commission (currently 15%). The commission is deducted from the salon's payout; it is not added to the client's price.

Deposits are generally non-refundable once paid, including when a client cancels or does not attend, because they compensate the salon for reserved time. Where a salon cancels an appointment, or where a refund is required by law, the Refund & Cancellation Policy explains how to ask and how we handle it.

The balance of the service price is a matter between the client and the salon. The Service may not process it.

8. Shift payments, earnings and payouts

Salons pay braiders through the Service after a shift is completed. Completed shift payments are credited to the braider's earnings balance, less the platform commission.

To withdraw a balance, you add a bank account and request a payout. Payout requests are reviewed before they are sent, and payouts are made by bank transfer to the account you supplied. Payout times are estimates, not guarantees.

You are responsible for the accuracy of your bank details. We are not responsible for funds sent to an account you entered incorrectly, and we may need to verify your identity or your account before releasing funds.

We are not a bank and do not provide banking, escrow or money transmission services. Balances shown in the app are records of amounts owed to you for completed work, not deposit accounts, and earn no interest.

Do not use the Service to move money between accounts for any purpose other than genuine work performed through the Service.

9. Independent providers — licensing, insurance and safety

We do not perform background checks, licence checks or insurance checks on users. We do not verify that a braider is licensed where licensing is required, that a braider carries insurance, or that a salon meets health, safety, sanitation or zoning requirements. A "verified" badge or profile detail means only what the app says it means and is not a guarantee of anything.

You are responsible for confirming the qualifications, licensing, insurance and suitability of anyone you work with before you work with them, and for complying with the licensing, insurance, tax and safety rules that apply to you.

Braiding and salon work involves close physical contact and the use of chemicals and hot tools. Meet and work in professional, safe settings, follow applicable sanitation and safety requirements, and use your own judgement about any arrangement you enter into.

Report any safety concern or unsafe user through the in-app reporting tools or the Contact & Legal Requests page. We may remove content, restrict or suspend accounts, or involve law enforcement where appropriate.

10. Taxes

Each user is responsible for their own taxes, filings, licences and registrations arising from work arranged through the Service. We do not withhold taxes, and we do not act as an employer or payer of wages. Where we are legally required to report payments, we will do so and may ask you for the information needed to comply.

11. Cancellations, no-shows and disputes between users

Salons may cancel a posted shift, braiders may withdraw from an assignment with reasonable notice, and clients may cancel an appointment subject to the salon's cancellation terms. The Refund & Cancellation Policy describes deposits.

A party affected by a cancellation, a no-show or poor work may leave an honest review and may contact us. We are not a court and we do not adjudicate disputes over the quality of services, pricing agreed directly between users, or damage caused by one user to another. We may, but are not obliged to, review accounts that repeatedly cancel, no-show or receive credible reports.

12. Your content and the licence you give us

You keep ownership of the content you upload — photos, portfolio images, posts, reviews, profile text and messages. To operate the Service you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, display, resize and distribute that content as needed to run and promote the Service, for as long as your content is on the Service.

You confirm that you own or have permission to use everything you upload, that your content does not infringe anyone's rights, and that you have the consent of any identifiable person shown in a photo you upload.

Public content — profile details, portfolio photos, posts, salon listings and reviews — is visible to other users and, for salon and braider profiles, to the public. Do not upload anything you are not comfortable being public.

We may remove or refuse content that breaks these Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy, that we believe is unlawful, or that we are required to remove.

13. Reviews and ratings

Reviews must be honest and based on a real experience between the reviewer and the reviewee. Reviews, ratings and any aggregate scores are opinions, not statements of fact by us, and we do not endorse them.

We may remove reviews that are fraudulent, retaliatory, abusive, off-topic, or that contain personal information about someone else.

14. Acceptable use

Your use of the Service must comply with the Acceptable Use Policy, which forms part of these Terms. In short, you must not use Braid Shift to defraud anyone, to harass or threaten anyone, to break the law, to interfere with the Service, to access data you are not authorised to access, or to misuse other users' information.

15. Moderation, suspension and termination

• We may investigate accounts and content in response to reports, and we may ask you for information to understand what happened.
• We may remove content, issue a warning, restrict features, suspend an account, or terminate an account if we reasonably believe these Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy have been broken, if a user creates risk for others, if required by law, or to protect the Service.
• You may stop using the Service at any time and delete your account from Settings. Deleting your account cancels your access and ends your paid features, and outstanding obligations — such as a commission on a completed shift, a pending payout review, or a booking you have already confirmed — still apply.
• If we terminate your account for a serious breach, you are not entitled to a refund of paid fees, and access to funds may be held while we resolve pending payments or investigations.

16. Third-party services

The Service relies on third-party providers: hosting and database infrastructure, payment processing through Base44 Payments, transactional email, map tiles and image delivery. Their terms and privacy practices apply to the parts of the Service they provide. We are not responsible for a third party's acts or omissions, or for links to sites we do not control.

Payments made through the Service are processed by our payment provider. We never see or store your full card number.

17. Disclaimers — no warranty

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, to the fullest extent permitted by law. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure, error-free, that any shift, applicant, booking or client will be found, that a user will show up, that work will be of a particular quality, or that a payment will be recovered.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so parts of this section may not apply to you. Nothing in these Terms excludes rights you have that cannot legally be excluded.

18. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we, and our owners, officers, employees, contractors and agents, are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost earnings, lost bookings, lost data, loss of goodwill, or the cost of substitute services, whether arising from the Service, from a user's conduct, or from a dispute between users.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability for all claims relating to the Service is limited to the greater of (a) the total fees you paid to us in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim, and (b) one hundred US dollars (US$100).

This allocation of risk is a fundamental basis on which we offer the Service. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including for fraud, wilful misconduct, or death or personal injury caused by our negligence where such liability cannot be excluded.

19. Indemnification

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the operator and its owners, officers, employees, contractors and agents from claims, damages, losses, liabilities and reasonable legal costs arising out of: your use of the Service; your content; your breach of these Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy; work or services you arrange through the Service; or your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.

This does not apply to the extent a claim results from our own negligence or misconduct, and it does not require you to indemnify us for anything that cannot lawfully be indemnified.

20. Dispute resolution and governing law

Please contact us first at not yet configured. Most concerns can be resolved informally, and we ask that you raise a concern with us before starting formal proceedings.

These Terms are governed by the laws of not yet configured, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Subject to any mandatory consumer protections that apply where you live, you and we agree to bring disputes in the courts located in that jurisdiction, and each party consents to their jurisdiction and venue.

21. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms as the Service or the law changes. When we make a material change we will publish a new version and ask you to accept it before continuing to use the Service. Continuing to use the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms.

The current version is 1.0, effective not yet configured.

22. General

If a provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, Acceptable Use Policy and Refund & Cancellation Policy, are the entire agreement between you and us about the Service. You may not assign your rights under these Terms without our written consent; we may assign ours in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of assets.

23. Contact and reporting violations

Questions about these Terms, notices, and reports of violations: not yet configured. You can also report a user or a listing from the in-app reporting control on a profile, or through the Contact & Legal Requests page.

We aim to acknowledge legal and privacy requests promptly and to respond within the time required by applicable law.