Certified Member Terms and Conditions

This agreement sets out the terms and conditions ('Terms and Conditions') applicable to members of the service operated by AgoraPros.com who have applied to become recognized as Certified Members. Applicants (referred to as 'Certified Members') must agree to the following Terms and Conditions. In the event a Certified Member(s) breaches or otherwise fails to comply with any provision of these Terms and Conditions then in addition to any other remedy available to AgoraPros.com, AgoraPros.com may terminate the participation of such member in the Certified Member(s) program and may withhold any paid fees.

 

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

AgoraPros.com shall have absolute discretion as to whether or not it accepts a particular applicant for participation in the Certified Member program.

 

POSTING INFORMATION

Certified Members must always post accurate, detailed and professional information on AgoraPros.com, whether it be in a bid, in the project description, or on the message board. Unspecific and incomplete project descriptions or bid descriptions are unacceptable. Offensive and harassing comments will not be tolerated. Certified Members must always be polite and courteous to other members, as they represent the best AgoraPros.com has to offer. Certified Programmers must create a detailed portfolio in their AgoraPros.com account and never provide the URL to their own website portfolio. Portfolios can contain URLs to any files or graphics relevant to it.

 

COMMUNICATION

Certified Members must always communicate with the other parties involved in their project, often and throughout the duration of the project. Lack of communication is the cause of most disputes on AgoraPros.com, therefore, Certified Members must be dedicated to avoiding such problems. Too many e-mails are always better than too few, when it comes to updating or requesting updates from the other party. It is strongly recommended that Certified Members make use of instant messenging software (ICQ, MSN, AOL, etc), and phone support is also a welcomed bonus. Certified Members who fail to reply to communications by parties involved in their project within 48 hours could have their Certified Member(s) membership revoked, unless a valid excuse is provided. When planned absences arise, Certified Members must notify the other party by e-mail in advance.

 

DISPUTE RESOLUTION

Certified Members must always conduct themselves professionally during any dispute with another party, whether they believe they are right or not. Certified Member(s) will try their best to resolve problems without the help of AgoraPros.com staff, and without requesting a project cancellation. Third party dispute resolution methods are recommended, such as SquareTrade.com, which provide free tools to help you. If it becomes necessary, Certified Members will accept any decision AgoraPros.com staff makes regarding their dispute, including refunding or completing a payment.

 

PAYMENTS

Certified Webmasters must always use the AgoraPros.com escrow system to pay freelancers, and it is highly recommended that your project description mentions the future use of escrow. Certified Freelancers must always suggest use of the escrow system to the other party, and cannot refuse the request to use escrow. Payments before the full completion of a project are highly discouraged. Payments for work finished according to the project description must always be completed. Payments for work NOT completed exactly according to the project description must be refunded upon request by the other party or AgoraPros.com staff. Certified Members must never cancel a deposit made to AgoraPros.com for any reasons. This includes credit card reversals or cancellations of cashed checks. If such a cancellation of deposit happens accidently, the member must notify AgoraPros.com as soon as possible. In the case of a deposit cancellation, the member must make a new deposit to cover any lost funds and, if necessary, any penalty fees charged to AgoraPros.com during such a cancellation.

 

BIDS & BUDGETS

Certified Freelancers must never post unreasonable bids. You must do your best to be informed before deciding on an amount and placing the bid. Certified Webmasters must never post unreasonable budgets or request unreasonable maximum bid amounts from programmers. It is recommended that no maximum budget is posted.

 

CONDUCT

Certified Members must conduct themselves in the most professional way at all times, since they represent the best AgoraPros.com has to offer. Any Certified Member(s) who violates the (regular) AgoraPros.com Terms will immediately lose their Certified status, in addition to usual actions taken on a member for such violation.

AND FINALLY...

We thank you for applying to the AgoraPros.com Certified Member program and we look forward to a mutually successful business relationship.

Click here to report term violations.