Terms of Service

What Trade Pool is

Trade Pool is a referral exchange for participating trade contractors. Participants submit referral opportunities, Trade Pool Dispatch verifies them, qualified submissions earn Credits under the Trade Pool credit program, and qualified opportunities are routed and delivered to an eligible participating contractor. Trade Pool’s role ends at that delivery.

Trade Pool is not a bank, and a Credit balance is not a bank account, a deposit, a savings product, or an interest-bearing or stored-value account.

Accounts and company authority

Accounts are created for participants by Trade Pool or by invitation. You are responsible for keeping your sign-in credentials confidential and for the activity that happens under your account. If you use Trade Pool on behalf of a company, you represent that you are authorized to act for that company, and your company is responsible for the actions of its authorized users.

A participating company acts through its administrators. A company’s administrators may invite users to the company, set what those users may see and do with Credits, add payment methods, purchase Credits, and make requests concerning the company’s Credits.

Referral submissions

When you submit a referral opportunity, you confirm that the information is accurate to the best of your knowledge and that you are entitled to share the customer’s contact information with Trade Pool for the purpose of verification and referral. Submitting false, misleading, or unauthorized referrals is a violation of these terms.

Verification and qualification

Trade Pool Dispatch reviews and verifies submitted opportunities, including contacting the customer. Whether a submission qualifies is Trade Pool’s determination, made through that verification process. Not every submission will qualify, and qualification of any particular submission is not guaranteed.

Trade Pool Credits

Credits are units of the Trade Pool program, recorded on a Trade Pool account and governed by these terms and Trade Pool’s program rules. Credits are not currency or legal tender, earn no interest, and have no cash value except through an approved cash-out or an approved refund as these terms describe, in the amount Trade Pool shows for that request.

Credits are recorded as earned (“Earned Credits”) or purchased (“Purchased Credits”). Credits that Trade Pool adds itself against a payment it received outside the application, and promotional, bonus or other discretionary Credits that Trade Pool adds, are not Earned Credits and are not eligible for cash-out. Trade Pool’s records of Credits, including their source and transaction history, determine a balance and how any request concerning it is handled. Trade Pool corrects errors in its own records.

Purchasing, cash-out, refund, and other Credit features are introduced in stages and may not all be available in the application at a given time. Where a feature is not offered in the application, nothing in these terms promises that it is, and a request may be handled by Trade Pool directly. The credit program — including what earns Credits, what Credits cost, and what they can be used for — may change.

Earned Credits

Earned Credits are earned under Trade Pool’s qualified-referral rules: when a submission is qualified by Trade Pool Dispatch, the Credits that submission earns are recorded under the program rules in effect at that time. A submission that does not qualify earns nothing. Depending on a company’s settings, Earned Credits are recorded to the company or to the user who submitted the referral. Earned Credits recorded to a company may be used toward that company’s eligible lead charges; Credits recorded to an individual user are not applied to lead charges. Trade Pool may also record Earned Credits by a documented manual award, supported by evidence of a qualified referral, of lead-qualification work actually performed, or of a correction of Earned Credits that were owed and not, or wrongly, recorded; such an award is recorded in the same way, with its basis and evidence. Eligible Earned Credits may be submitted for cash-out as described below.

Purchased Credits

When purchasing is enabled, a company’s authorized administrator may purchase Credits using a payment method Trade Pool accepts, at the price shown at the time of purchase. Purchased Credits are added only after the payment provider confirms the payment under Trade Pool’s settlement rules. A payment from a bank account can take several business days to confirm, and a bank account may need to be verified before it can be used.

Purchased Credits may be used toward eligible Trade Pool lead charges. Trade Pool retains records identifying Credits that originated from a purchase, and the payment they came from, even if the interface displays a combined Credit balance.

Purchased Credits are never paid to a connected bank account through the Earned Credit cash-out workflow, and they cannot be converted into Earned Credits or into a cash-out payment.

Where Trade Pool offers it in the application, a company’s authorized administrator may ask, as part of a request to cash out Credits, for eligible unused Purchased Credits to be refunded. Purchased Credits are returned only as a refund against the original purchase transaction, to the original payment method to the extent supported by the payment provider, at the price paid for them, and never as a payment to a bank account or to a different account or payment method. Every request is reviewed by Trade Pool; approval is not automatic or guaranteed, and a refund is not immediate. A card purchase may be refunded in part where only part of it remains unused. A purchase paid from a bank account is refunded only as a whole purchase, only when none of its Credits has been used, and only once five US banking business days (weekends and US federal bank holidays excluded) have passed after the payment settled, until 175 days after the purchase; a bank payment itself can take several business days to settle, and an approved bank refund can take several further business days to reach the account. A card purchase has no added waiting period: a request may be made once its payment is confirmed. The application shows what can be requested at the time. Credits that have been used toward a lead charge, Credits not bought through a payment made in the application (for example Credits recorded for a check or wire payment), Credits that Trade Pool added itself, and Credits whose payment was returned, reversed, refunded or disputed are not eligible, and no refund is sent while a purchase of the company is under review.

Separately from a refund requested in the application, Trade Pool may approve a refund of a Credit purchase, for example to correct an error or where the law requires it. A refund request is made by contacting Trade Pool, and not every request is eligible. If Trade Pool approves a refund, the corresponding value will be returned through the original payment transaction or original payment method to the extent supported by the payment provider. Approval of a refund request is not automatic or guaranteed, and an approved refund is not immediate: its timing depends on Trade Pool’s review and on the payment provider and the financial institutions involved. Purchased Credits are not convertible to cash on demand.

Combined balances and redemption

A company may hold both Earned Credits and Purchased Credits, and Trade Pool may show them as one Credit balance. Where Trade Pool offers it, when a company asks to cash out Credits, Trade Pool fulfills the request first from eligible Earned Credits, as a cash-out payment, and then from eligible unused Purchased Credits, as refunds against their original purchases, oldest eligible purchase first.

A single request may therefore result in more than one transaction; each is processed separately, and one may complete before another. The Credits a request covers are reserved while it is open and are returned to the balance if the request is declined, or if Trade Pool releases a part of it that cannot be carried out. Trade Pool’s records are authoritative for determining the source of Credits and how a request is fulfilled.

Spending Credits and lead charges

Credits are used to receive qualified leads. When a qualified lead is delivered to a company, that company’s Credit balance is reduced by the lead’s charge in Credits under the program rules in effect at delivery. Purchased Credits are applied to a lead charge before Earned Credits. A company without enough Credits for a lead may not receive it.

A qualified lead delivered to a company is final as a lead. What happens after delivery creates no automatic refund, return of Credits, or replacement lead. Trade Pool corrects its own platform and accounting errors, and may in its sole discretion grant a remedy; a remedy granted once creates no entitlement to another.

Payment provider

Trade Pool uses Stripe, including Stripe Connect, as its payment provider. Payments for Purchased Credits are made to Trade Pool and processed by Stripe. Approved cash-outs of Earned Credits that are paid through the platform are sent through Stripe Connect to a payment account the recipient sets up with Stripe. An approved refund of Purchased Credits is returned against the original Stripe payment where Stripe supports it, never through Stripe Connect.

Card, bank, identity, and tax details requested for these purposes are entered on Stripe-hosted pages. Trade Pool does not intentionally store raw card numbers or raw bank-account credentials entered there. Use of these payment features is also subject to Stripe’s applicable terms, including the Stripe Connected Account Agreement for a payment account opened to receive cash-outs, and to Stripe’s own requirements, reviews, and timelines, which Trade Pool does not control.

Limits, holds, and risk controls

Trade Pool may set and change limits on purchases, cash-outs, and other Credit activity, including the amount of a single transaction and the total within a period. Trade Pool may review, delay, hold, refuse, suspend, or cancel a purchase, cash-out, refund, or other Credit activity, and may restrict an account, where its program rules, its risk controls, the payment provider, or the law require it, or where it reasonably suspects error, fraud, misuse, or a violation of these terms.

Refunds, reversals, disputes, and failed payments

If a payment fails, no Credits are added for it. If a payment that was confirmed is later returned, reversed, refunded, or disputed, Trade Pool may withhold, freeze, remove, or offset the Credits associated with that payment, and may restrict further purchases, cash-outs, and other paid activity on the account until the matter is resolved.

Refunds are made only as described in these terms. Refunds, reversals, and disputes are also handled under the payment provider’s and the card networks’ or banks’ rules and timelines.

Cashing out Earned Credits

An authorized person may request a cash-out of eligible Earned Credits. Only Credits that Trade Pool’s program rules treat as eligible Earned Credits may be cashed out. A request reserves the Credits it covers, so they are no longer available toward lead charges while the request is open.

Trade Pool reviews every cash-out request. A cash-out is not guaranteed: a request may be approved, held, declined, cancelled, or delayed, and is subject to Trade Pool’s eligibility rules and the payment provider’s. Approval is not payment, and no payment date is guaranteed. When a request is declined or cancelled, the reserved Credits are returned to the balance they came from.

An approved cash-out is paid either by Trade Pool directly, outside the platform, or — where that is offered — through Stripe Connect to a payment account the recipient has set up with Stripe and that Stripe has enabled to receive payments. After a payment is sent, the recipient’s bank takes additional time, and a payment the bank does not accept stays open until it is resolved.

A company decides who cashes out the Credits its users have earned with that company: the company, to the company’s payment account, or the user, to the user’s own. When a person stops participating with a company, the company controls the cash-out of that person’s remaining eligible Earned Credits with that company.

Taxes and participant responsibilities

Each participant is responsible for determining, reporting, and paying its own taxes on amounts it receives or pays in connection with Trade Pool, and for giving accurate information to Trade Pool and to the payment provider. The payment provider may collect tax and identity information, and payments may be reported where the law requires it. Trade Pool does not provide tax, legal, or financial advice.

Routing and delivery

Qualified opportunities are routed to participating contractors under Trade Pool’s eligibility rules. Receiving any particular referral, or any particular volume of referrals, is not guaranteed.

Live transfers

Where it is offered, Trade Pool Dispatch may deliver a qualified lead by connecting the customer by phone to the receiving company at the time of delivery. A live transfer is a way of delivering a lead: when the receiving company answers and Trade Pool delivers the lead, the lead charge applies as it would for any delivery. If a company does not answer, Trade Pool may still deliver the lead to that company another way, in which case the lead charge applies, or may offer the lead to another company. Live transfers are not guaranteed to be available for any lead or any company.

After the handoff

Once a qualified referral is delivered to a receiving contractor, everything that follows — contacting the customer, scheduling, pricing, contracting, and performing the work — is solely between that contractor and the customer. Trade Pool is not a party to any resulting agreement, does not supervise or guarantee any contractor’s work, and does not track what happens after delivery. Receiving contractors are responsible for holding whatever licenses and insurance their work requires.

No guarantee of outcomes

Trade Pool does not guarantee that any submission will qualify, that any referral will result in a job or any other business outcome, or that participation will produce any particular result.

Acceptable use

• Do not submit information you are not entitled to share, or referrals you know to be false.
• Do not attempt to access accounts, companies, or information that are not yours.
• Do not interfere with the operation or security of the service, or use it to violate any law.
• Do not use Trade Pool to harass anyone, including customers who decline a referral.

Trade Pool may suspend or revoke access for violations of these terms.

Intellectual property

The Trade Pool platform, including its software, design, name, and logo, belongs to Trade Pool and its licensors. Participation does not grant you any rights in the platform beyond using it under these terms.

Pilot service

Trade Pool is provided as a Pilot: features may change, be added, or be removed, and availability is not guaranteed. The service is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, to the maximum extent permitted by law.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Trade Pool is not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from use of the service, or from any dealings between contractors and customers following the delivery of a referral. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as Trade Pool develops, and will update the date at the top of this page when we do. Material changes will be communicated to participants through the service; continued use after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance.

Contact

For Trade Pool participation or support, contact your Trade Pool representative.

See also the Privacy Policy.