Engoss

Terms of Use

Terms of Use

Terms and Conditions

 Effective Date: January 4, 2022

Introduction

Contract

When you use our Services you agree to all of these terms. Your use of our Services is also subject to our Cookie Policy and our Privacy Policy, which covers how we collect, use, share, and store your personal information.

You agree that by clicking “Join Now”, “Join Engoss”, “Sign Up” or similar, registering, accessing or using our services (described below), you are agreeing to enter into a legally binding contract with Engoss (even if you are using our Services on behalf of a company). If you do not agree to this contract (“Contract” or “Terms and Conditions”), do not click “Join Now” (or similar) and do not access or otherwise use any of our Services. If you wish to terminate this contract, at any time you can do so by closing your account and no longer accessing or using our Services.

Services

This Contract applies to Engoss.com, Engoss-branded apps, Engoss Learning and other Engoss-related sites, apps, communications and other services that state that they are offered under this Contract (“Services”), including the offsite collection of data for those Services, such as our ads and the “Apply with Engoss” and “Share with Engoss” plugins. Registered users of our Services are “Patrons” and unregistered users are “Visitors”.

Engoss

You are entering into this Contract with Engoss (also referred to as “we” and “us”).

Key Terms 

“Engoss” is a One-Stop-Website for all Engineering disciplines to network with other Engineers and Engineering firms, collaborate to resolve Engineering related issues, work on projects while getting paid and learn from each other. Engoss acts only as a conduits for Engineers to work with each other to solve complex issues and complex projects.

“Engosser” or “Freelancers” are users who offer and perform services on behalf of the Patrons through Engoss

“Patrons" or "Clients” are any users other than (“Engosser” or “Freelancer”) who request a services and or purchases a services from an Engosser. Patrons can be individuals or representatives of a company. 

“Engineer Share '' is an open-source service Engoss provides to its Patrons and Engosser's to request help/feedback/troubleshooting help on Engineering related projects or Engineering related issues. Every input generated by the users will have a response from both Engoss AI and the website community of engineers.

Engoss AI: This is a 3rd party tool that's integrated into Engoss to help with answering troubleshooting issues.

“Engineering Services " or "Private Project” or Private Work are services offered on Engoss that are performed by an “Engosser” and are confidential and not made public. 

“Request For Services” also known as RFS, is a request made by a "Patron" or "Client" to Engosser to submit a proposal to work on client Engineering projects or Engineering issues.

“Engossium” is an open source service Engoss offers to our “Patrons” and “Engosser” to learn and discuss educational materials. 

“Escrow” or “Payment Services Provider”  are services Engoss provides to Patrons/Engosser for the solely of delivering, holding, or receiving payment for jobs or services engaged through  Engoss.

Modification

We may make changes to the Contract.

We may modify this Contract, our Privacy Policy and our Cookies Policy from time to time. If we make material changes to it, we will provide you notice through our Services, or by other means, to provide you the opportunity to review the changes before they become effective. We agree that changes cannot be retroactive. If you object to any changes, you may close your account. Your continued use of our Services after we publish or send a notice about our changes to these terms means that you are consenting to the updated terms as of their effective date.

Your Account

You will keep your password a secret

You will not share an account with anyone else and will follow our rules and the law.

Patrons are account holders. You agree to: (1) use a strong password and keep it confidential; (2) not transfer any part of your account (e.g., connections) and (3) follow the law and our list of Dos and Don’ts and Professional Community Policies. You are responsible for anything that happens through your account unless you close it or report misuse.

As between you and others (including your employer), your account belongs to you. However, if the Services were purchased by another party for you to use (e.g. Recruiter seat bought by your employer), the party paying for such Service has the right to control access to and get reports on your use of such paid Service; however, they do not have rights to your personal account

Engosser Verification

Engosser are encouraged to fill out as much information on their profile to increase their reputation with clients. An in-complete profile may lead to less project being assigned to the Engosser by the client.

Verification

To be verified with a green check mark all Engosser's must fill out their profiles completely in addition to the photo ID. Admin will review your profile and determine if your profile meets the criteria's to become an Engosser. Criteria's admin looks at are complete and accurately describing your professional experience, skills, name, and uploading proper identification.

Payment

You’ll honor your payment obligations and you are okay with us storing your payment information. You understand that there may be fees and taxes that are added to our prices.

Refunds are subject to our policy.

If you buy any of our paid Services (“Private Project” or “Private Work”), you agree to pay us the applicable fees and taxes and to additional terms specific to the paid Services. Failure to pay these fees will result in the termination of your paid Services. 

No refund shall be paid out to Clients if the private project was marked as complete by both Client and Engosser.

Payment Gateway

Engoss utilizes Stripe Connect as the payment gateway for transactions between Engoss users. Stripe Connect also acts as an Escrow system for Engoss. When payment is made by the client for a specific project Strip Connect acts as a middle man by holding the project funds until project work is complete and all party have agreed to the completed project. Once all party is satisfied with the project work then both parties can mark project as complete. Once project is marked as complete projects funds are then disbursed from the stripe account into the Engosser account. At this point no refund request will be allowed. It is the hiring client responsibility to ensure project delivered meets the requirement that was originally agreed upon by both Client and Engosser at the start of the project.

Minimum Payout

There is a minimum payout stripe connect will allow to process and this varies by country. Reference https://stripe.com/docs/payouts#minimum-payout-amounts for more information on the minimum payout.

Maximum Payout

All project cost must not exceed 999,999.99

Processing Fee

Stripe Fee

Stripe Connect charges a processing fee of 2.9%+30¢ for every transaction that is made between Engoss users. Processing fee are non-refundable after payment is made by the client.

Engoss Fee

For every private project submitted and completed by an Engosser an Engoss service fee shall be added to the total transaction. The estimated Engoss service fee is 5.5% of the project quote. This service fee is refundable.

Notices and Messages

You’re okay with us providing notices and messages to you through our websites, apps, and contact information. If your contact information is out of date, you may miss out on important notices.

You agree that we will provide notices and messages to you in the following ways: (1) within the Service, or (2) sent to the contact information you provided us (e.g., email, mobile number, physical address). You agree to keep your contact information up to date.

Please review your settings to control and limit messages you receive from us.

Sharing

When you share information on our Services, others can see, copy and use that information.

Our Services allow messaging and sharing of information in many ways, such as your profile, articles, group posts, links to news articles, job postings, messages and in Mails. Information and content that you share or post on the “Engineer Share” may be seen by other Members, Visitors or others (including off of the Services). Where we have made settings available, we will honor the choices you make about who can see content or information (e.g., message content to your addressees, sharing content only to Engosser connections, restricting your profile visibility from search engines, or opting not to notify others of your Engoss profile update). For job searching activities, we default to not notifying your connections network or the public. So, if you apply for a job through our Service or opt to signal that you are interested in a job, our default is to share it only with the job poster.

We are not obligated to publish any information or content on our Service and can remove it with or without notice.

Rights and Limits

Your License to Engoss

You own all of the content, feedback and personal information you provide to us, but you also grant us a non-exclusive license to it.

We’ll honor the choices you make about who gets to see your information and content, including how it can be used for ads.

As between you and Engoss, you own the content and information that you submit or post to the Services, and you are only granting Engoss and our affiliates the following non-exclusive license:

A worldwide, transferable and sub licensable right to use, copy, modify, distribute, publish and process, information and content that you provide through our Services and the services of others, without any further consent, notice and/or compensation to you or others. These rights are limited in the following ways:

You can end this license for specific content by deleting such content from the Services, or generally by closing your account, except (a) to the extent you shared it with others as part of the Service and they copied, re-shared it or stored it and (b) for the reasonable time it takes to remove from backup and other systems.

We will not include your content in advertisements for the products and services of third parties to others without your separate consent (including sponsored content). However, we have the right, without payment to you or others, to serve ads near your content and information, and your social actions may be visible and included with ads, as noted in the Privacy Policy. If you use a Service feature, we may mention that with your name or photo to promote that feature within our Services, subject to your settings. The private projects are subject to confidentiality between Parton and Engosser. Information shared between each party will be kept confidential and not shared with anyone else outside of those parties. 

Service Availability

We may change or end any Service or modify our prices prospectively.

We may change, suspend or discontinue any of our Services. We may also modify our prices effectively prospectively upon reasonable notice to the extent allowed under the law.

We don’t promise to store or keep showing any information and content that you’ve posted. Engoss is not a storage service. You agree that we have no obligation to store, maintain or provide you a copy of any content or information that you or others provide, except to the extent required by applicable law and as noted in our Privacy Policy.

Other Content, Sites and Apps

Your use of others’ content and information posted on our Services, is at your own risk.

Others may offer their own products and services through our Services, and we aren’t responsible for those third-party activities.

By using the Services, you may encounter content or information that might be inaccurate, incomplete, delayed, misleading, illegal, offensive or otherwise harmful. Engoss generally does not review content provided by our Members or others. You agree that we are not responsible for others’ (including other Members’) content or information. We cannot always prevent this misuse of our Services, and you agree that we are not responsible for any such misuse. You also acknowledge the risk that you or your organization may be mistakenly associated with content about others when we let connections and followers know you or your organization were mentioned in the news. 

Engoss may help connect Members offering their services (career coaching, problem solving, etc.) with Members seeking services. Engoss does not perform nor employs individuals to perform these services. You must be at least 18 years of age to offer, perform or procure these services. You acknowledge that Engoss does not supervise, direct, control or monitor Members in the performance of these services and agree that (1) Engoss is not responsible for the offering, performance or procurement of these services, (2) Engoss does not endorse any particular Member’s offered services, and (3) nothing shall create an employment, agency, or joint venture relationship between Engoss and any Member offering services. (4) Engoss do not hire Engosser, so it is the responsibility of the Client to review Engosser credentials/profile to determine if they are the best fit for their project. (5) Engoss is not responsible for Confidentiality agreement between Engosser and Patron. This responsibility falls on the "Patron" or "client" and Engosser if the need arises.

Similarly, Engoss may help you register for and/or attend events organized by Members and connect with other Members who are attendees at such events. You agree that (1) Engoss is not responsible for the conduct of any of the Members or other attendees at such events, (2) Engoss does not endorse any particular event listed on our Services, (3) Engoss does not review and/or vet any of these events, and (4) that you will adhere to these terms and conditions that apply to such events. (5) Engossers are responsible for obtaining a general liability insurance policy with amounts that are sufficient to cover all risks associated with the performance of their services. (6) Patron who submit a request for work is responsible for determining if a Confidentiality agreement is needed between themselves and the Engoss prior to assigning project to Engosser.

Limits

We have the right to limit how you connect and interact on our Services.

Engoss reserves the right to limit your use of the Services, including the number of your connections and your ability to contact other Members. Engoss reserves the right to restrict, suspend, or terminate your account if you breach this Contract or the law or are misusing the Services (e.g., violating any of the Dos and Don’ts or Professional Community Policies).

Intellectual Property Rights

We’re providing you notice about our intellectual property rights.

Engoss reserves all of its intellectual property rights in the Services. Trademarks and logos used in connection with the Services are the trademarks of their respective owners. Engoss, and “in” logos and other Engoss trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used for our Services are trademarks or registered trademarks of Engoss.

Disclaimer and Limit of Liability

No Warranty

This is our disclaimer of legal liability for the quality, safety, or reliability of our Services.

ENGOSS AND ITS AFFILIATES MAKE NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY ABOUT THE SERVICES, INCLUDING ANY REPRESENTATION THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, AND PROVIDE THE SERVICES (INCLUDING CONTENT AND INFORMATION) ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, ENGOSS AND ITS AFFILIATES DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED OR STATUTORY WARRANTY, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF TITLE, ACCURACY OF DATA, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Engossers are responsible for obtaining a general liability insurance policy with amounts that are sufficient to cover all risks associated with the performance of their services.

Exclusion of Liability

These are the limits of legal liability we may have to you.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW (AND UNLESS ENGOSS HAS ENTERED INTO A SEPARATE WRITTEN AGREEMENT THAT OVERRIDES THIS CONTRACT), ENGOSS, INCLUDING ITS AFFILIATES, WILL NOT BE LIABLE IN CONNECTION WITH THIS CONTRACT FOR LOST PROFITS OR LOST BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES, REPUTATION (E.G., OFFENSIVE OR DEFAMATORY STATEMENTS), LOSS OF DATA (E.G., DOWN TIME OR LOSS, USE OF, OR CHANGES TO, YOUR INFORMATION OR CONTENT) OR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES.

Termination

We can each end this Contract, but some rights and obligations survive.

Both you and Engoss may terminate this Contract at any time with notice to the other. On termination, you lose the right to access or use the Services. The following shall survive termination:

  • Our rights to use and disclose your feedback;

  • Members and/or Visitors’ rights to further re-share content and information you shared through the Services;

  • Any amounts owed by either party prior to termination remain owed after termination.

Engoss “Dos and Don’ts”

 Dos

You agree that you will:

  • Provide accurate information to Engoss and keep it updated;

  • Use your real name on your profile

  • Use the Services in a professional manner.

  • Be respectful to other users 

  • Be professional 

  • Keep “Private Projects Services” confidential between “Engosser” and “Patron or client”, unless Patron waives right to share this information with the public. 

 Don’ts

You agree that you will not:

  • Make/post/share any derogatory/inflammatory information on Engoss

  • Make/post/share any political based information on Engoss

  • Make/share/post  sexually explicit post  on Engoss

  • Make/share/post  incitement of violence or promote violent ideologies  on Engoss

  • No harassment, dogpiling or doxing of other user  on Engoss

  • Make/share/post  false or illegal information  on Engoss

  • Create a false identity on Engoss or misrepresent your identity

  • Override Engoss security

  • Create software, tools, script to copy files and data from Engoss

  • Violate intellectual property right of Engoss

  • Post/share anything containing viruses or harmful code to harm Engoss

  • Reverse engineer Engoss services in order to gain access to Engoss

  • Develop Bots to access Engoss

Note: Any deviation from the rules established within this do’s and don’t section will result in possible removal or termination of your account. 

Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

In the unlikely event we end up in a legal dispute, depending on where you live, you and Engoss agree to resolve it in Georgia courts using Georgia law, United States courts using United States law, or in your local courts using local law.

If you live in the Designated Countries, the laws of the United States govern all claims related to Engoss's provision of the Services, but this shall not deprive you of the mandatory consumer protections under the law of the country to which we direct your Services where you have habitual residence. With respect to jurisdiction, you and Engoss agree to choose the courts of the country to which we direct your Services where you have habitual residence for all disputes arising out of or relating to these Terms and Conditions, or in the alternative, you may choose the responsible court in the United States.

For others outside of Designated Countries, including those who live outside of the United States: You and Engoss agree that the laws of the State of Georgia, U.S.A., excluding its conflict of laws rules, shall exclusively govern any dispute relating to this Contract and/or the Services. You and Engoss both agree that all claims and disputes can be litigated only in the federal or state courts in Dekalb County Georgia, USA, and you and Engoss each agree to personal jurisdiction in those courts

General Terms

Here are some important details about the Contract.

If a court with authority over this Contract finds any part of it unenforceable, you and we agree that the court should modify the terms to make that part enforceable while still achieving its intent. If the court cannot do that, you and we agree to ask the court to remove that unenforceable part and still enforce the rest of this Contract.

This Contract (including additional terms that may be provided by us when you engage with a feature of the Services) is the only agreement between us regarding the Services and supersedes all prior agreements for the Services.

If we don't act to enforce a breach of this Contract, that does not mean that Engoss has waived its right to enforce this Contract. You may not assign or transfer this Contract (or your membership or use of Services) to anyone without our consent. However, you agree that Engoss may assign this Contract to its affiliates or a party that buys it without your consent. There are no third-party beneficiaries to this Contract.

You agree that the only way to provide us legal notice is at the addresses provided in Section 10.

Complaints Regarding Content

Contact information for complaints about content provided by our Members.

We respect the intellectual property rights of others. We require that information posted by Members be accurate and not in violation of the intellectual property rights or other rights of third parties. We provide a policy and process for complaints concerning content posted by our Members.

Dispute Resolution 

Below are a list of scenarios and resolution 

1.      Unresponsive Engosser

a.      If  Engosser does not respond within 24 hours of the deliverable time agreed upon by both parties, Client will be entitled to a refund. Client is advised to contact Admin by https://engoss.com/support or by emailing support@engoss.com for Engoss Admin to review and investigate issue. Allowable time for investigation before refunds is processed is 5 days (Note: the 5 days does not include the time it takes for the refund to be processed. Refunds typically takes about 5-10 days to be processed back to the clients accounts).

2.      Client do not review the delivered project at the end of the milestone

a.      If Client do not respond to the review and mark project as complete or dispute the completed project within the 10 days grace period, payment will be automatically disbursed/released to the Engosser at the end of the 10 days.

3.      Client is not satisfactory with project work

a.      Users have option to notify Engosser for redo/rework through the messaging board. once both client and engosser have agreed to the rework client will send a request for an extension with the agreed upon new due date. Both client and engosser need to approve the new extension period for the project.

b.     If there’s no resolution after rework is complete or Engosser claims delivered project matches the deliverables agreed upon at the start of the project and Engosser declines the rework. Then client is advised to contact the Engoss Admin through https://engoss.com/support or by emailing support@engoss.com. Admin reviews and investigates issue. Allowable time for investigation before refunds is processed is 5 days.  Admin will compare initial deliverables to final completed project to determine if the project meets the required project deliverables. Upon completion of the investigation Admin shall either disburse funds back to the client or disburse funds to the Engosser. And email will be sent to both party on the outcome of the investigation.

Cancellation Policy

Project cannot be canceled once client makes payment for the project.

Refunds Policy

Any refunds paid back to the client will take about 5-10 days for the transaction to be processed. For refundable funds the processing fee will not be refunded see processing fee section.

Contact Us

If You have any questions, comments, disputes or suggestions about our information policies which aren’t answered here, please contact us by email at: support@engoss.com