Terms of service

What Townhand does

Townhand helps you describe a home repair job, compare prices from local businesses for the same work, and book one of them at a time they've kept open.

The pros are independent businesses. They aren't Townhand's employees or agents, they decide how to do the work, and the pro you book is responsible for it. Townhand defines what each job includes, checks each pro's insurance, and their license or certificate where the work needs one, before customers can book them, takes payment for the work, and helps when something goes wrong. We don't do the work ourselves.

Using Townhand

• You must be 18 or older.
• Give accurate answers, photos and contact details. Prices depend on what you tell us about the job.
• Only book work at a home you own, or where you have permission for it. If you rent, it's up to you to get your landlord's OK where it's needed.
• Each request and booking has its own private link, and anyone with it can see and change the booking. Keep your links, and the email account you log in with, to yourself.
• Don't misuse Townhand: no bookings you don't mean, no false reviews, no collecting data from the site, and nothing that interferes with it or breaks the law.

Quotes and prices

Townhand writes down what each job includes, what it doesn't, and what could change on the day. Each pro sets their own price for that work. A quote is one pro's price for your whole request, and its price and terms are fixed when it's made: the price you book is the price you saw.

• Some quotes come straight from a pro's price list. Others come after a pro has looked at your answers and photos. A quote can expire or be withdrawn before you book it; the booking page always shows the current price.
• Some jobs start with an assessment visit for a set fee. The pro finds the problem and prices the repair on the visit. If you approve the repair on that visit, part of the fee may come off, as the quote says.
• Each quote says what you pay for a job the pro comes out for but can't do as described.
• If the pro finds more work, they must price it and you approve or decline it on your booking page. You never pay for extra work you didn't approve. Extra work on one visit can come to as much as the quote, or $500 if that's more, and never more than $10,000.
• Any Townhand fee is shown with the price before you book. Prices are in US dollars.

Booking and paying

When you book, you agree to the booking terms shown with the quote, and your card is saved with our payment processor, Stripe. Nothing is charged then.

When the pro finishes, we charge your card the final amount, worked out from what you agreed: each job's price if it was done, or its not-done charge if it wasn't, plus any extra work you approved that was done, less any assessment credit. The receipt is on your booking page. We take payment for the pro's work on the pro's behalf, together with any Townhand fee.

If the bill includes extra work, we charge it 48 hours after the visit instead. If you tell us on your booking page before then that some of that extra work wasn't done, we hold the charge until we've checked with the pro, and take off what wasn't done. We hold the whole bill the same way, whatever is on it, if you told us the visit didn't finish before the pro marked it finished, or if you tell us while it's still held that the work wasn't done, or was only partly done, or report a problem. We may also hold it ourselves when we need to check a visit with the pro. Once we've checked, we charge only for what was done: a job that wasn't done costs only its not-done charge, and extra work that wasn't done costs nothing. If nothing should be charged, we waive the bill and you pay nothing. Either way, we email you what we charged, if anything.

Refunds: if we've already charged you and you tell us on your booking page that some of the work wasn't done, we check with the pro and refund what wasn't done. A job that wasn't done comes down to its not-done charge, and extra work that wasn't done is refunded in full. We email you what we decide, and refund what wasn't done. Refunds go back to the card that was charged, through Stripe, and usually take 5 to 10 business days to show on your statement.

If a charge doesn't go through, the amount is still owed, and your booking page asks you to pay it, with the same card or another. Your card details go straight to Stripe: we keep only the card's brand and last four digits.

Changing or cancelling a visit

• You can cancel a visit, or move it to another of the pro's open times, free until 24 hours before its arrival window, from your booking page.
• After that, cancelling costs a $49 late fee, charged to your saved card, and only the pro can move the visit: call them. The fee applies only if you had the free period. If the time was booked, confirmed or moved less than 24 hours before the window, cancelling stays free.
• Cancelling after the arrival window has started is free, and we look into what happened. So is cancelling once the pro has told us they're running late, until the visit is moved to a new time.
• A pro can decline a time you asked for, move a visit to a new time, or cancel it. We tell you by email and on your booking page, and you can book another pro's quote or cancel. A time you asked for that the pro doesn't answer within a day lapses, and you can choose again.
• The booking terms in the quote you booked apply to that booking, even if these terms change later.

The visit

The pro arrives during the arrival window you booked. Please make sure they can get in and reach the work safely, as you described in your request. When they finish, they record what they did, and you can see it on your booking page.

If you ask for texts when you book, Townhand texts the number you gave about that visit: reminders before it, and when the pro is on the way, running late, misses the window, moves or cancels the visit, or asks you to approve extra work, and if a payment doesn't go through. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to stop them, or HELP for help. You don't have to agree to texts to book, and we email you the same things either way.

The guarantee, and problems after a visit

Each pro stands behind their work for the period shown on their quote, at least 90 days from the visit. The guarantee covers the pro's workmanship on the jobs they did. Fixtures and parts carry their makers' warranties.

If something's wrong, report it from your booking page. The pro is told, and so are we, and the report stays open until the pro has dealt with it.

Emergencies

Townhand books scheduled visits. It isn't an emergency service. For a burst pipe, flooding you can't stop, sewage coming up, a gas smell, a carbon monoxide alarm, sparks, smoke or a burning smell from your wiring, a furnace or an appliance, an electric shock, a chimney fire, a tree on the house, or a ceiling or roof giving way, get help right away: turn off the water if you can, leave the house if you smell gas, a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, you see smoke or the chimney is on fire, switch off the power at the breaker if you can reach it safely, keep clear of anything that may fall, and call your gas company, your power company or 911.

Reviews, photos and what you write

What you send us (answers, photos, descriptions, reviews) stays yours. You let Townhand use it to run the service: to price and book your job, to show it to the pros involved, and to count your rating in the pro's rating that other customers see. Reviews must be honest and about your own visit. We may remove anything that breaks these terms.

If you run a business on Townhand

These terms apply to you too, and you also agree:

• to hold the licenses, certificates and insurance your work needs, keep them current, and tell us if any of them changes;
• to honor the quotes you make and the booking terms that come with them;
• to do only the work the customer booked or approved, and to record truthfully what you did, since the customer is charged from your record;
• to use customers' details only for their job.

We collect payment from customers for your work. How and when we pay you, and any commission, is agreed with you in writing. We may pause your business on Townhand, for example if its license, certificate or insurance lapses; visits already booked still go ahead unless we tell you otherwise.

Townhand's responsibility

We work to keep Townhand running and accurate, but we provide it as it is, without promises beyond the ones in these terms. The pro you book is responsible for their work.

As far as the law allows, Townhand isn't liable for a pro's work, or for indirect or consequential losses, and our total liability to you is limited to the fees you paid Townhand in the 12 months before your claim, or $100 if that's more. Nothing in these terms limits rights you have by law that can't be limited.

If we disagree

Please write to us first: most problems can be sorted out quickly. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Maine, and either of us can bring a claim in small-claims court.

Changes to these terms

We may change these terms. We'll post the new version here with a new date, and email account holders about big changes. You can stop using Townhand at any time, and we may close an account that breaks these terms.

Credits

The towns we fill in from a ZIP code come from GeoNames, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.

Contact us

Questions about these terms? Write to team@townhand.io.