Lead terms for trade firms

Version 0.6. No lawyer has reviewed this page. Prices are working prices, subject to change before launch.

1. Who we are

These terms are between you, the trade firm, and Peter Colburn trading as Quote Local Trades, a sole trader ("we" or "us"):

• Address: Bartle House, 9 Oxford Court, Manchester, M2 3WQ (postal address)
• Email: enquiries@quotelocaltrades.co.uk (general contact)
• Privacy requests: privacy@quotelocaltrades.co.uk

We run local quote websites under the Quote Local Trades name (quotelocaltrades.co.uk) where homeowners ask for quotes. Smart technology helps us run this service and write our messages, and some messages are sent automatically. You can always ask to speak to a person. You confirm that you are buying for your business (as a sole trader, partnership or company), not as a consumer. When you sign up, you confirm this by ticking this box on our sign-up form: "I confirm I am buying these enquiries for my business (as a sole trader, partnership or company), not as a consumer." We keep a record of your tick.

2. What a lead is

• A lead is one homeowner's quote request for your trade, made on one of our sites. Trades: all main trades. The trades are: fencing, plastering, plumbing, electrical, roofing, building, carpentry and joinery, painting and decorating, landscaping and groundwork, heating, tiling, flooring. Each trade has its own local quote site, and none are live yet. Tell us your trade or trades by email. Patches are per trade (section 3).
• It contains: the homeowner's name, phone number, email address and postcode, plus the job type, when they want it done, a short description and the time they'd like a call.
• Each lead has a reference (for example ENQ-123456) and is emailed to your account email address.
• Sending: when the service goes live, each lead is emailed to your account email address automatically, once the homeowner has sent it and our checks have passed. If automatic sending fails, we resend or send it by hand and tell you; your reply deadline (section 9) runs from when the lead reaches you.

3. One firm per lead

• Each lead goes to your firm only. We never sell it, send it or show it to another firm, except as set out in the missed-reply rule below (and then only to one named firm, if the homeowner says yes).
• Your patch: your patch is the small local area or areas you cover for your trade: UK postcode districts or sectors (for example EH6, CF24, BT9, OL10 or BT9 5), which we can label with a place name such as Leith. Up to 5 are included for each trade you do. More patches in that trade cost extra: £10 per extra patch, paid once (working price). An extra patch is a patch beyond the 5 included for that trade. We agree each extra patch with you by email and send a receipt; nothing is charged automatically. A whole city (such as Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff or Belfast) or a whole postcode area (such as M or BT) can't be part of a patch.
• Where: our plan is UK-wide, patch by patch, but we don't cover any area yet and no local site is live yet. Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man aren't part of the UK and aren't included for now. Firms in Scotland and Northern Ireland: see "Working day" (section 9) and "Law" (section 14).
• One firm per patch: while your account is active, no other firm can hold your patch for your trade, and we won't send leads for your trade in your patch to anyone else.
• Patches are per trade: a patch is held for one trade. Another firm can hold the same area for a different trade. If you do more than one trade, tell us by email which areas you want for each trade; up to 5 are included for each trade.
• If we break this, you get that lead's price back in cash and can leave at once.
• Missed reply: if you haven't contacted the homeowner by the latest deadline in section 9, we give you that lead's credit back. We then ask the homeowner whether they'd like the enquiry passed to one other firm, which we name. Only if they say yes do we send that one enquiry to that firm. This isn't a breach of this section, and it doesn't change who holds your patch.
• No firm holds a patch: if no firm holds the patch for a homeowner's postcode and trade, we tell the homeowner we don't have a firm covering their area yet. We don't keep their enquiry and we don't pass it to anyone.
• Paying before launch: if you pay before any of our sites are live, you hold your patch from the day we confirm it to you by email, even though no site is live there yet. Holding a patch doesn't promise that it will get leads.
• Inactive accounts: if your account is paused or has no credit for over 30 days in a row, we may offer your patch to another firm, after emailing you.

4. Prices and credits

• Price: £20 per lead (working price, subject to change before launch), the same for every trade.
• Credits:
  • You pay in advance for credits. 1 credit = 1 lead.
  • You can buy credits before any of our sites are live. They stay on your balance until we send you a lead. Buying doesn't promise any leads, jobs or timing, and you can have unused paid credit back at any time (section 5).
  • Credits come in packs of 5 for £100.
  • Pay by card through Stripe, or by bank transfer. We send a receipt showing our name and address.
• When a credit is used: when we send you a lead. Your balance can't go below zero, so you never owe us money. With no credit, leads stop until you add credit.
• Introductory leads: you get your first 3 enquiries free. Introductory credits have no cash value. If an introductory lead is bad, you get a replacement introductory credit.
• Extra patches: up to 5 patches are included at no charge for each trade you do. Each extra patch (a patch beyond the 5 included for that trade) is £10, paid once (working price). It isn't a credit, so the credit refunds in section 5 don't apply to it, but while no site is live in that patch, you can have the £10 back at any time. If you give up an included patch, a later patch in the same trade takes its place at no charge.
• Credits never expire.
• Price changes apply only to credits bought after the change.
• Statements: monthly, and on request.

5. Refunds of unused credit

• You can have unused paid credit back at any time. No reason is needed, and there's no fee.
• How to ask: email enquiries@quotelocaltrades.co.uk from your account address saying "Please refund my unused credit".
• When: we send the refund within 5 working days.
• How you're paid:
  • Card payments go back to the same card (the payment provider only refunds to the original method). If that isn't possible, see "If a card refund isn't possible" below. Your bank may take another 5–10 working days to show it.
  • Bank transfers go back to the account they came from.
• Amount: the full amount you paid for the unused credits. We pay any card or payment fees ourselves.
• Restored credits: a paid credit restored under the Bad-Lead Policy can also be refunded.
• Extra patch fee: while no site is live in an extra patch you paid £10 for, you can have the £10 back at any time. No reason is needed. How to ask: email enquiries@quotelocaltrades.co.uk from your account address saying "Please refund my extra patch fee" and naming the patch. It's paid back the same way as unused credit (card payments to the same card, bank transfers to the account they came from). When: we send the refund within 5 working days of your email, the same as unused credit.
• If a card refund isn't possible: if a card payment can no longer be refunded to the card (for example, the card has expired or the payment is too old for the payment provider to refund), we pay you by bank transfer to an account in your business's name, with no fee. This applies to refunds of unused credit and of extra patch fees.

6. Bad leads

Our Refund and Bad-Lead Policy is part of these terms. In short:

• Claim within 7 days of the date we sent it to you.
• Bad leads get the credit back. These include fake or unreachable details, outside your patch, the wrong trade, a duplicate, spam, or a homeowner who never enquired.
• No answer counts too: if nobody answers after 3 attempts over 2 working days, including a call and an email or text, that's a bad lead.
• Not bad leads: the homeowner chose someone else, or objected to the price.
• Missed reply: separately from claims, if you didn't contact the homeowner in time we give the credit back ourselves (section 9). One credit back per lead: a lead credited for a missed reply can't also be claimed as bad.

7. No contract term

• No minimum term, no subscription, no automatic renewal.
• You can pause or leave at any time by email. Unused paid credit is refunded as in section 5.
• We may pause or close your account immediately if you:
  • seriously or repeatedly break these terms
  • misuse homeowner data
  • use pressure selling or dishonest selling
  • let your public liability insurance lapse.
• We can also close an account on 14 days' email notice.
• If we close your account, we always refund your unused paid credit.

8. What we don't promise

• We don't promise any number of leads, any work, any job value, or that a homeowner will hire you.
• No local site is live yet and we run no ads. Once our sites are live, we send enquiries to one firm per patch, but we can't say when that will be or how many enquiries any patch will get.
• Lead quality is covered only by the Bad-Lead Policy.
• Any contract for work is between you and the homeowner.

9. Your duties

• Legitimacy: be a genuine trading business in that trade.
• Licences: hold any licences, registrations or qualifications the work legally needs.
• Regulated work: We don't check or verify anyone's registrations or qualifications. Each firm must hold any legal registration its work needs (for example, Gas Safe registration for gas work, or a competent person scheme or building control sign-off for notifiable electrical work).
• Public liability insurance: hold at least £1m of cover. Show us the certificate before your first lead and again at each renewal. Tell us straight away if anything changes.
• Contacting the homeowner:
  • Aim to contact them within 2 working hours of the lead reaching you, and at the latest within 1 working day.
  • Working hours: 8am–6pm, Monday to Friday, UK time, not counting bank holidays anywhere in the UK. A lead sent at 5pm on a Friday is due by 9am on Monday (aim), and by 5pm on Monday at the latest (if Monday is a working day).
  • Working day: Working day means Monday to Friday, 8am–6pm UK time, except any day that is a bank holiday in any part of the UK (England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland). This applies everywhere these terms or the Refund and Bad-Lead Policy say "working day" or "working hours", for your deadlines and for ours.
  • Tell us when you've made contact (a short reply to the lead email is enough), or the homeowner may tell us.
  • Missed reply: if no contact has been made by the latest deadline, we give you the credit back and may, only if the homeowner says yes, pass that one enquiry to another named firm (section 3). After that, please don't contact the homeowner about it unless they contact you.
  • Use only the contact details in the lead, and respect the time they'd like a call.
  • Stop if they ask you to.
• Honest quoting:
  • Clear written quotes. Don't ask for full payment up front.
  • No pressure selling, misleading claims or fake customer feedback.
  • Respect consumer rights, including cancellation rights where they apply.
  • Never say or suggest that you are us.
• Homeowner data (UK GDPR):
  • Once we send you a lead, you are an independent controller of that homeowner's details. We are a separate controller, not your processor.
  • Use the details only for that enquiry and any job that follows.
  • No marketing unless the homeowner separately agrees.
  • Tell the homeowner who you are, with the privacy information the law requires, when you first contact them.
  • Keep their details secure, and don't keep them longer than you need.
  • Meet your own data-protection duties, including any ICO fee that applies to you.
  • Help us with homeowner requests (for example deletion) that we pass on to you.
  • Tell us without undue delay about any breach involving lead data.
• Don't pass leads on:
  • Never sell, share or pass a lead to anyone else, including another firm or a subcontractor.
  • The homeowner agreed to hear from your firm only, so only your own staff may use the lead.
  • If you can't do the job, tell the homeowner and us.

10. How homeowners agree to share their details

• Your firm is named on the quote page before the homeowner sends anything.
• The homeowner must tick a box agreeing that:
  • your firm may contact them about this enquiry, and
  • we may send their enquiry and contact details to your firm only, for this enquiry only.
• No tick, no lead.
• What we store: the exact wording agreed, the time, and the privacy-notice version.
• We tell the homeowner which firm has their enquiry, and that if the firm doesn't get in touch in time, we'll ask them before passing the enquiry to another firm.
• A second firm needs fresh consent: after a missed reply, a second firm only gets the enquiry if the homeowner agrees again, to that named firm. We store that new agreement the same way.
• Waiting list: waiting-list requests are never passed to a firm. When no firm covers a homeowner's area, they can ask, with their own unticked tickbox, to be emailed once when a firm joins. We keep their email address only (and the first part of their postcode), use it only for that one email, and delete it after 90 days at the most. We never pass it to any firm, including a firm that later takes that patch: if the homeowner still wants a quote, they send a new enquiry naming your firm, with the usual tick.
• Retention: we delete homeowners' details after 90 days, keeping only an anonymous record.

11. Liability

• We take reasonable care to run the service properly.
• Cap: our total liability to you is limited to the greater of:
  • £100, or
  • what you've paid us in the 12 months before the claim.
• Not covered: we aren't liable for lost profits, lost jobs or opportunities, or for anything a homeowner does.
• What the cap never reduces: your refund of unused credit, and your cash refund if we break exclusivity.
• What we never limit: liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law doesn't allow us to limit.
• Your side: you're responsible for your own work, quotes and public liability insurance, and for losses we suffer because you misuse homeowner data.

12. Complaints

• Email enquiries@quotelocaltrades.co.uk with "Complaint" in the subject line.
• We acknowledge within 2 working days and give a full reply within 10 working days.
• If still unresolved, we're open to mediation.

13. Changes

• We'll email you 14 days before any change takes effect.
• If you don't agree, you can leave and get your unused paid credit back.

14. Law

These terms are governed by the law of the part of the UK where your business is based (England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland), and the courts there deal with any dispute.