Terms of Use · Hopebid

Effective date: [effective date]

Hopebid is a website for running online silent auctions, mostly for fundraisers and charity events. It's operated by Ashton Apps LLC, a US company ("Hopebid," "we," "us").

By using Hopebid or making an account, you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you run auctions, the Organizer Terms below apply to you too.

What Hopebid is, and isn't

The organizer of each auction is the seller. Hopebid isn't the seller, the auctioneer or a party to any sale. That means:

Hopebid never handles auction money. Winners pay the organizer directly, using the methods the organizer lists (like Venmo, cash or check).
Hopebid doesn't own, inspect or deliver items, and isn't responsible for an item's condition, description, value, delivery or pickup.
Payment and delivery are between the buyer and the organizer, including refunds and disagreements.
Hopebid doesn't issue tax receipts. Ask the organizer whether a purchase is tax-deductible.

Who can use Hopebid

Anyone can browse an auction without an account. You must be at least 13 to make an account. If you're under 18, you need a parent's or guardian's permission to bid or run an auction, and they're responsible for your bids.

Your account

Use your real name and an email address you check, since organizers rely on them (and on your phone number, if you add one) to reach winners. Keep your password private. You're responsible for activity on your account, so tell us at ashtonappsllc@gmail.com if you think someone else is using it.

Fees

Hopebid is currently free for everyone: no fee to make an account, bid or host an auction.

We may introduce fees later, such as a small one-time fee per auction for bidders, or an option for organizers to cover that fee for their bidders. If we do:

We'll tell you in the app and update these terms before any fee applies.
A new fee or price won't apply to an auction that was already published.
Any fee will be shown to you before you're charged.
Fees aren't refunded if an organizer blocks you from an auction.
Card details will be handled by our payment processor. Hopebid will store only the processor's references (tokens), never card numbers.

Bidding

A bid is a commitment to buy the item at that price if you win. If you're still the highest bidder when bidding ends, you've agreed to pay the organizer.

You can't take back a bid. Bid by mistake? Ask the organizer, who can remove (void) it.
Max bids. You can set the most you're willing to pay, and Hopebid bids for you in the smallest steps needed to keep you in the lead, up to that amount. Other bidders never see your max.
Overtime. If a bid changes an item's price or leader in its last 10 minutes, that item's end moves to 10 minutes after the bid. It ends only after 10 minutes with no new bids.
Buy It Now. Some items have a Buy It Now price. Using it ends bidding on that item and makes you the winner at the price you confirm.
No hidden reserve. The starting bid is the lowest price the organizer will accept.
Our server's clock decides. A bid counts when our server receives it, not by your device's clock.
Organizers control their auction. They can extend or shorten it or end it early (current leaders win), void bids, and block bidders. If a winner declines or doesn't pay, the organizer may offer the item to the runner-up.

Other bidders see you only as a bidder number. Notifications are in the app only and can be delayed, so don't rely on them alone.

Rules for everyone

Please don't:

bid on items you don't intend to pay for, or bid to push up prices for someone else;
make fake or extra accounts, or get around a block or limit;
harass or scam anyone, or use contact details from Hopebid for anything other than the auction they came from;
post anything illegal, misleading or hateful, or that you don't have the right to share;
interfere with Hopebid, probe it for weaknesses, overload it, scrape it, or try to get into accounts or data that aren't yours.

Content you post

You keep ownership of what you post, like auction pages, item descriptions and photos. You give us permission to store, copy, resize and display it as needed to run Hopebid and show it to people who open your auction. That permission ends when the content is deleted, except for stories you choose to share.

We may remove content that breaks these terms or the law, but we don't review everything people post and aren't responsible for it. Hopebid's name, logo, design and software belong to Ashton Apps LLC.

Deletion and suspension

Auction data is temporary. Each auction, with its items, photos, bids and bidder details, is deleted 7 days after it closes, or sooner if the organizer deletes it. Deleted data can't be recovered.

You can delete your account in Account settings, except:

bidders can't while bidding in a live auction or while they have won items to collect, so organizers can still reach them;
organizers can't while one of their auctions is live or scheduled.

We may suspend or close an account, or remove an auction, if it breaks these terms, puts others at risk, or the law requires it. We may change, pause or stop parts of Hopebid. If we plan to shut Hopebid down, we'll try to give organizers enough notice to finish their auctions and export their results.

Disclaimers

Hopebid is provided "as is" and "as available." We can't promise it will always be available or error-free, or that every bid and notification will go through. If something goes wrong during an auction, the organizer decides how to handle it, for example by extending the end time.

To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

Limits on our liability

To the fullest extent the law allows:

Ashton Apps LLC isn't liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, donations or data.
We aren't liable for disputes between organizers and bidders, or for the items, payments or deliveries between them.
Our total liability for any claim about Hopebid is limited to the greater of $50 or what you paid Hopebid in the 12 months before the claim.

Some states don't allow some of these limits, so they may not all apply to you.

Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of [state], without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Disputes with us will be handled in the state or federal courts in [state], and both of us agree to those courts' jurisdiction. Before going to court, please email ashtonappsllc@gmail.com so we can try to sort it out. Either of us can still use small-claims court.

Changes and contact

We may update these terms. If a change is significant, we'll tell you in the app or on this page before it takes effect. If you keep using Hopebid after that, you accept the new terms. Questions? Email ashtonappsllc@gmail.com.

Organizer Terms

These apply once you create an organizer account, in addition to the Terms of Use above.

You run the auction

You're the seller, or you're selling on behalf of your cause and donors. You're responsible for:

Your items: you have the right to auction them, they're legal to sell, and their descriptions, photos and estimated values are honest.
Honoring results: you sell each item to its winner at the winning price, or to the runner-up if you offer it to them.
Payment: you list how winners can pay, collect it yourself, and handle refunds and disagreements.
Delivery and pickup: you explain how winners get their items, and make it happen.
Taxes: tax receipts, tax-deductibility statements and any sales tax are up to you.
The law: you follow the laws that apply to your auction, including those on auctions, raffles, charitable fundraising and items with special rules, like alcohol. If you say the money goes to a cause or charity, that must be true, and you need its permission to use its name.

Hopebid is for auctions, not raffles, lotteries or other games of chance. Don't list anything illegal, stolen, counterfeit, recalled or dangerous, or anything you'd need a license to sell and don't have.

Run it fairly

You can't bid in your own auction, and you must not have others bid to push up your prices.
Use voiding, blocking and unblocking fairly, such as to remove a mistaken bid or stop someone bidding in bad faith.
Change a live auction's end time only in good faith.

Bidder information

You'll see the name, email and phone number (if given) of people who bid in your auction, so you can reach winners and runners-up. Use these details only to run that auction. Don't add bidders to mailing lists, share or sell their details, or contact them about anything else unless they agree. Keep exported results safe.

Your organizer contact details and payment and pickup instructions are shown to anyone who opens your auction link, so include only what you're comfortable sharing.

Limits and deletion

Hopebid has limits, such as one active auction per account (drafts count) and caps on items and photos, which may change.

Your auction is deleted 7 days after it closes. Until then you can export the results as CSV or PDF, or delete it sooner with Delete now. Contact your winners first, because they lose their payment and pickup page when it's deleted. A draft with no start or end date 7 days after you started it is also deleted, after in-app warnings. Saving what you need is up to you.

Summaries and stories

After your auction is deleted, we keep a short summary: title, dates, currency, items listed and sold, amount committed (the total of winning bids), and number of bidders. It never includes photos, item details, or anyone's name or contact details.

You can choose to write a story about how your auction went. We'll share it publicly only if you tick the box allowing Hopebid to share it on its website and social posts, which gives us permission to publish it with the credit you choose. You can edit or remove it at any time. If you remove it, we'll take it off our website and won't use it in new posts, but social posts already published may stay up.

If you delete your organizer account, your summaries lose their link to you, their titles and your stories, and any published story is taken down. The remaining numbers stay, anonymously, and may count toward Hopebid-wide totals.

Responsibility for your auction

If someone makes a claim against Ashton Apps LLC because of your auction, items or content, or because you broke these terms or the law, you agree to cover our reasonable costs from that claim, including legal fees.