Terms of Service

1. Agreement and Incorporated Policies

1.1 The agreement. These Terms, together with the policies listed in Section 1.2, form the entire agreement between you and HandCarry regarding the Platform. You accept these Terms by checking the acceptance box when you create an account — we record the time of your acceptance and the version of the Terms you accepted — and you reaffirm your acceptance each time you use the Platform.

1.2 Incorporated policies. The following policies are part of these Terms and are incorporated into them by reference. By accepting these Terms you also accept each of them:

• —the Privacy Policy (handcarry.app/privacy), which explains how we collect, use, and protect your personal data;
• —the Prohibited Items Policy (handcarry.app/prohibited-items), which defines what may and may not be listed, carried, or arranged through the Platform; and
• —the Cookie Policy (handcarry.app/cookies), which describes the cookies the Platform sets.

If these Terms conflict with an incorporated policy on a subject that policy specifically addresses, the specific policy controls for that subject.

1.3 Additional acknowledgments. At the points in the Platform where it matters most — posting a trip, posting a delivery request, proposing to carry a requested item, and paying for an order — you will be asked to specifically acknowledge the Prohibited Items Policy. Each acknowledgment is recorded with a timestamp and the version of the policy you acknowledged, and forms part of your agreement with us.

1.4 Electronic agreement and communications. You consent to transact with us electronically. Your electronic acceptance of these Terms has the same legal effect as a handwritten signature. You agree that we may deliver all agreements, disclosures, receipts, notices, and other communications relating to your account and the Platform electronically — by email to the address on your account, or by messages and notices within the Platform — and that electronic delivery satisfies any legal requirement that a communication be in writing. You should keep copies of electronic communications for your records; you may request a paper copy of any legally required disclosure by contacting us. To withdraw your consent to electronic delivery you must close your account, because we operate exclusively online. It is your responsibility to keep your email address deliverable (see Section 3.3 on email immutability) and to check the Platform for notices.

2. Definitions

In these Terms:

• —"Buyer" means a user who posts a Delivery Request or pays for an Order — the person who wants an item purchased and/or delivered.
• —"Traveler" means a user who posts a Trip or agrees to carry an item — the person who transports the item. The same account can act as a Buyer in one transaction and a Traveler in another.
• —"Listing" means a Trip or a Delivery Request published on the Platform.
• —"Trip" means a Traveler's published journey between two cities, with travel dates and carrying capacity.
• —"Delivery Request" (or "Request") means a Buyer's published request for an item to be purchased and delivered ("Buy & Deliver") or picked up and delivered ("Pick Up & Deliver").
• —"Proposal" means an offer exchanged between a Buyer and a Traveler that sets the item, route, price, commission, and terms of a potential Order. A Proposal may be accepted, declined, withdrawn, or answered with a counter-offer, and it expires if not answered (Section 5.5).
• —"Order" means the binding transaction created when a Proposal is accepted, which proceeds through payment, carriage, delivery confirmation, and payout.
• —"Commission" means the amount the Buyer pays the Traveler for carrying the item.
• —"Platform Fee" means the fee the Buyer pays HandCarry, calculated as described in Section 6.3.
• —"Payment Hold" means the arrangement described in Section 6.5 under which HandCarry holds the Buyer's payment until the Order is completed or otherwise resolved. It is a contractual holding arrangement operated through our payment processor — not an escrow service, not a trust account, and not a deposit account.
• —"Handover Code" means the six-digit delivery-confirmation code described in Section 7.2.
• —"Delivery Confirmation" means the moment an Order's delivery is confirmed by any of the methods in Section 7 — it starts the dispute and review clocks and the payout clearing hold.
• —"Clearing Hold" means the period after Delivery Confirmation during which the payout is held — normally 7 days (Section 9.3).
• —"Business Day" means Monday through Friday, excluding United States federal holidays.

3. Eligibility and Your Account

3.1 Minimum age. You must be at least 18 years old to create an account or use the Platform in any way. By creating an account you represent that you are 18 or older. We do not knowingly permit anyone under 18 to hold an account, and we will close any account we discover belongs to a person under 18. Identity verification (Section 3.4) requires a date of birth showing the account holder is at least 18.

3.2 One account per person. You may hold only one account. Each account must have a unique email address and a unique phone number: an email or phone number in use on another account cannot be added to yours. You may not create an account on someone else's behalf, transfer or sell your account, or use another person's account or verification identity. Accounts of people previously banned from the Platform may not be re-created under any identity — identifiers associated with banned accounts remain blocked even after those accounts are deleted, through the fraud-prevention record described in the Privacy Policy.

3.3 Accurate information. You must provide true, accurate, and current information when registering, verifying your identity, creating Listings, and communicating on the Platform, and keep it up to date. Two fields are deliberately fixed: your registered email address cannot be changed after registration, and after your identity is verified your legal name and country of residence are locked to what your identity documents show — corrections to either go through our support team, with verification.

3.4 Verification steps. Access to Platform features is staged behind verification, so that the people you transact with have passed the same checks you have:

• —Email verification — confirming a link we send to your address — is the first step after registration.
• —Phone verification is required, together with email verification, before you can create Listings, start conversations, send messages, or submit Proposals. Phone verification uses a one-time code sent by SMS. By providing your phone number you consent to receive verification text messages at that number; message and data rates may apply. Phone verification may not be available in every country or on every carrier, and the availability of verification methods can limit where the Platform can be used.
• —Identity verification (KYC) is additionally required before the money moments: accepting a Proposal and paying for an Order — for Buyers and Travelers alike. Identity verification requires a government-issued identity document (front and back, or the photo page of a passport), a self-portrait photograph, your legal name as the document shows it, the document number, your date of birth, and your country of residence. Submissions are reviewed by our own trained staff, not an automated service; we aim to review within 24–48 hours, which is a target rather than a guarantee. We may decline or revoke verification where documents appear invalid, manipulated, expired, or inconsistent, where the submission matches fraud-prevention records, or where verification would violate law or our risk policies. Approval locks your name and country as described in Section 3.3 and determines which payout options are available to you.

3.5 Geographic availability. The Platform is not available everywhere. Which countries are available for posting Trips and Requests, for domestic or cross-border routes, and for receiving payouts varies and is shown in the app when you create a Listing or Proposal. We may enable, restrict, or disable countries and routes at any time, including for legal and sanctions-compliance reasons. Where a country or route is disabled after you have committed to an Order, the existing Order may generally be completed, but new Listings, route changes, and new commitments will be blocked.

3.6 Account security. You are responsible for everything that happens under your account. Keep your password confidential, use a strong unique password, and notify us immediately at [email protected] if you suspect unauthorized access. Repeated failed sign-in attempts lock sign-in temporarily. We send security notifications — password changes, sign-ins from new devices — to your registered email, and these security messages cannot be turned off. We may suspend an account that we reasonably believe is compromised, and changing or resetting your password signs the account out of other sessions.

4. Our Role

4.1 HandCarry is a marketplace intermediary. The Platform connects Buyers who want items purchased or delivered with Travelers who are already making a journey. HandCarry provides the marketplace, identity verification, payment processing arrangements, messaging, and dispute resolution. HandCarry is not:

• —a carrier, courier, freight forwarder, or transportation company — we transport nothing;
• —a customs broker or import/export agent — we make no declarations and clear nothing through customs;
• —an insurer — we provide no insurance of any kind (Section 18.3);
• —a party to the delivery contract between Buyer and Traveler, except in the limited payment role described in Section 4.3; or
• —the seller of any item. In a Buy & Deliver Order, the Traveler purchases the item from a third-party retailer at the Buyer's request; HandCarry never owns, holds, or sells the item.

4.2 Travelers are independent. Travelers are independent individuals acting on their own behalf. They are not employees, agents, contractors, or representatives of HandCarry. HandCarry does not direct, control, or supervise how a Traveler performs a delivery, does not set Travelers' schedules or routes, and does not guarantee any Traveler's performance. Nothing in these Terms creates an employment, agency, partnership, or joint-venture relationship between HandCarry and any user.

4.3 Limited payment collection. When a Buyer pays for an Order, HandCarry receives and holds the payment as a limited payment collection agent for the Traveler, solely for the purpose of collecting the Buyer's payment and releasing the Traveler's portion when the Order's conditions are met. A Buyer's payment obligation to the Traveler for amounts held by HandCarry is satisfied when HandCarry receives the payment. All payments flow through licensed third-party payment processors (Section 6.4); HandCarry does not offer wallets, stored balances, money transmission, or currency exchange services to users, and held funds earn no interest for users.

4.4 Verification is not an endorsement. We verify users' identity documents; we do not verify their competence, honesty, travel plans, or legal ability to carry any particular item. A "verified" badge means identity checks were completed — nothing more. You are responsible for deciding whom to transact with, using the information the Platform provides: profiles, ratings, reviews, and delivery history.

5. Listings and Proposals

5.1 Trips. A Traveler may publish a Trip with an origin city, destination city, travel dates, and carrying capacity — a maximum declared weight (never above 50 kg) and a size category (small, medium, or large). A Traveler's Trips may not overlap in dates. A Trip is an invitation for Buyers to make contact; it is not a binding offer to carry anything, and posting a Trip creates no obligation until a Proposal is accepted.

5.2 Delivery Requests. A Buyer may publish a Delivery Request describing the item — title, description, and, where applicable, a link to the product page — together with the route, the date window, the item's estimated cost or declared value (if provided), and a proposed Commission (with an optional maximum). Two service types exist: Buy & Deliver, where the Traveler purchases the item and delivers it, and Pick Up & Deliver, where the Traveler collects an existing item from the Buyer's sender and delivers it. A Buyer may have any number of active Requests.

5.3 Listing limits. The maximum value of an item is governed by the Prohibited Items Policy, which caps it at USD $2,500 per item. For Buy & Deliver Orders, the Platform enforces this limit automatically — when Listings are posted, when Proposals are made, and when prices are adjusted. For Pick Up & Deliver Orders the limit applies as a policy rule: the declared value is optional, and listing or handing over an item worth more than the limit is a violation of the Prohibited Items Policy even though the Platform cannot verify the value of an item it does not purchase. Commissions and Order amounts are subject to limits displayed in the app, which HandCarry may set and adjust. HandCarry may also apply transaction, value, or volume limits to individual accounts, including new accounts, as a fraud-prevention measure; any limit that applies to you is shown when relevant. Items above the value cap may not be listed, proposed, or split across multiple Orders to evade the cap; splitting a shipment to stay under the cap is treated as a violation of the Prohibited Items Policy's commercial-quantity rules.

5.4 Listing accuracy. Listings must describe the item and journey truthfully and completely. The item description must be specific enough for a Traveler to know exactly what they are agreeing to carry — misdescribing an item is one of the most serious violations of these Terms (see the Prohibited Items Policy). We may remove, redact, or restrict Listings that violate these Terms, the Prohibited Items Policy, or applicable law (Section 15.3).

5.5 Proposals. Buyers and Travelers negotiate through Proposals inside the Platform's messaging. A Proposal sets the item, route, dates, item cost (for Buy & Deliver), Commission, and delivery location. The mechanics:

• —Only one Proposal can be pending in a conversation at a time.
• —The receiving party may accept, decline, or counter with changed terms; a counter-offer replaces the original and puts the decision back on the other side. The proposing party may withdraw a pending Proposal at any time before it is answered.
• —A pending Proposal expires automatically after 72 hours if not answered. Expired Proposals cannot be accepted; either side may propose again.
• —Declining or withdrawing is always available and never penalized — commitment happens at acceptance, not at negotiation.

5.6 Acceptance creates a binding Order. When a Proposal is accepted, an Order is created immediately and both parties are committed on the Proposal's terms, subject to payment (Section 6.2). Acceptance is the point of no return in the negotiation — do not accept a Proposal (and do not send one you are not prepared to see accepted) unless you intend to perform.

5.7 Eligibility checks at commitment. The Platform re-checks both parties' eligibility — verification status, country availability, payout eligibility — when a Proposal is submitted, countered, and accepted, and may block a commitment that no longer meets the requirements. You cannot propose on, or accept proposals for, your own Listings.

6. Payments, Fees, and the Payment Hold

6.1 What the Buyer pays. At checkout the Buyer pays, in a single charge:

• —the item cost (Buy & Deliver Orders only — the estimated cost of purchasing the item, subject to adjustment under Section 6.7);
• —the Commission agreed in the Proposal; and
• —the Platform Fee (Section 6.3).

All Platform amounts are denominated, charged, and settled in US dollars (USD). Where the app displays another currency it is an indicative display only; the charged amount is the USD amount shown at checkout, and the Buyer acknowledges the USD amount when paying.

6.2 Payment window. Payment is due within 24 hours of Order creation. Unpaid Orders are cancelled automatically when the window lapses; nobody is charged, and no failed-delivery mark results from a payment-window expiry.

6.3 Platform Fee. The Platform Fee is 9% of the Traveler payout basis, with a minimum of USD $20 per Order. The Traveler payout basis is:

• —for Buy & Deliver Orders: the item cost plus the Commission;
• —for Pick Up & Deliver Orders: the Commission alone.

Worked examples: a Buy & Deliver Order with a $500 item and a $100 Commission has a payout basis of $600, so the Platform Fee is $54 and the Buyer pays $654 in total. A Pick Up & Deliver Order with a $50 Commission would have a calculated fee of $4.50, which falls below the minimum, so the Platform Fee is $20 and the Buyer pays $70 in total.

The Platform Fee is charged to the Buyer at checkout, on top of the payout basis. It is non-refundable except as these Terms provide: in full-refund situations under Section 8 the Platform Fee is refunded together with everything else; in overpayment settlements under Section 6.7 the portion of the fee attributable to the overpayment is refunded; and dispute resolutions under Section 10 may return part or all of the captured total, which includes the fee.

6.4 Payment processing. Payments are processed by Stripe. Your card details are collected by Stripe directly in your browser and never touch HandCarry's servers. The charge appears on your card statement with a HandCarry descriptor that includes the order number, and Stripe issues a card receipt to your email. By paying on the Platform you also agree to Stripe's applicable terms.

6.5 The Payment Hold. The Buyer's payment is captured when the Order is created and paid, and held by HandCarry (on our account with our payment processor) until the Order completes, is cancelled, or is resolved through a dispute. The Traveler is not paid until Delivery Confirmation and the Clearing Hold have both occurred (Section 9). Holding funds this way protects both sides: the Traveler knows the money exists before spending their own; the Buyer knows the Traveler is not paid until delivery. HandCarry holds these funds as described in Section 4.3; no interest is paid on held funds, and held funds are not a deposit or investment product.

6.6 Handover Code issued. When the payment is captured, the Platform issues the Buyer a six-digit Handover Code used to confirm delivery (Section 7.2).

6.7 Price adjustments (Buy & Deliver). The item cost at checkout is an estimate until the Traveler actually purchases the item:

• —Actual cost higher than the estimate. The Traveler must request a price increase through the Platform before purchasing. The Buyer has 48 hours to approve and pay the difference (the additional charge includes the corresponding Platform Fee adjustment). If the Buyer declines, or does not respond within 48 hours, the Order is cancelled and the Buyer receives a full refund of everything paid. A Traveler who purchases at a higher price without an approved increase bears the difference personally — proof of purchase showing a price above the approved amount is rejected.
• —Actual cost lower than the estimate. The Buyer is automatically refunded the difference — plus the corresponding portion of the Platform Fee — when delivery is confirmed. Neither party needs to request this; the Platform settles it.

6.8 Proof of purchase. In Buy & Deliver Orders the Traveler must upload proof of purchase — a receipt (an item photo may also be provided) — before the Order proceeds to carriage. Falsifying proof of purchase is fraud: it leads to immediate account action, and amounts obtained through it are recoverable under Section 9.6.

6.9 Purchase deadline (Buy & Deliver). The Traveler must complete the purchase by the Order's purchase deadline, shown on the Order: in general, the later of the start of the Trip's departure day and 24 hours after payment (with a longer default period where no Trip is attached). The Platform reminds the Traveler as the deadline approaches, and a pending price-increase request pauses it. If the deadline passes without a purchase, the Order is cancelled automatically, the Buyer is refunded in full, and the Traveler receives a failed-delivery mark (Section 8.3) — commit only to purchases you will actually make in time.

6.10 No off-platform payment. All amounts connected to an Order — item cost, Commission, tips, adjustments — must be paid through the Platform. Soliciting, offering, or making payment outside the Platform for a transaction that originated on the Platform is a violation of Section 13.2.

7. Delivery and Confirmation

7.1 Arranging delivery. Buyer and Traveler arrange the delivery location and time through the Platform's messaging. The delivery location recorded on the Order comes from the accepted Proposal; changes should be agreed in messages so the record is complete.

7.2 The Handover Code. The normal way to confirm delivery is the Handover Code:

• —The Code is shown only to the Buyer. HandCarry staff can see whether a Code was verified, but never the Code itself. The Buyer can regenerate the Code from the Order screen if it is compromised (regeneration is rate-limited); regenerating invalidates the old Code.
• —At handover, the Buyer — or the person the Buyer sends to receive the item — gives the Code to the Traveler, who enters it in the app. A correct entry confirms delivery instantly.
• —Ten incorrect attempts lock Code entry for the Order's protection; a locked Order falls back to the confirmation flow in Sections 7.3–7.4.
• —If the Traveler has already marked delivery without the Code (Section 7.3), a later correct Code entry upgrades the Order to a Code-verified confirmation.
• —The Code is a bearer secret — treat it like cash. Anyone who has the Code can authorize delivery confirmation. Giving the Code to anyone (including the Traveler) before you physically have the item is at your sole risk: sharing the Code authorizes confirmation, and an Order confirmed with your Code cannot later be disputed as "not delivered." You may deliberately give the Code to a third party you trust to receive the item on your behalf — that is a legitimate use — but the same rule applies to them.

7.3 Delivery without the Code. If the Code cannot be used, the Traveler may mark the Order delivered with one of the stated reasons: the Buyer was unavailable, the Buyer refused or could not provide the Code, the item was delivered to a third party, or another explained reason. A delivery photo is required whenever the Buyer is not there to receive the item in person — including handovers to a third party. Marking delivery this way does not confirm the Order immediately; it starts the confirmation window in Section 7.4.

7.4 Buyer confirmation and auto-confirmation. After a Traveler marks delivery without the Code, the Buyer is notified and can confirm receipt or open a dispute. If the Buyer does nothing for 5 days, the Order confirms automatically and proceeds toward payout. Silence is treated as acceptance — if there is a problem with a delivery, act within the windows in this Section and Section 10.2; do not assume you can raise it later.

7.5 Confirmation classes. Every confirmed Order records how it was confirmed — Code-verified, Buyer-confirmed, platform-confirmed, or auto-confirmed — and dispute reviewers see this. A Code-verified handover is strong evidence that the item was handed over; it is not a waiver of claims about the item's condition or contents, which can still be disputed within the dispute window (Section 10.2).

7.6 Buyer no-show. If the Buyer fails to appear or respond for delivery, the Traveler follows Section 7.3, and the Order proceeds to auto-confirmation. A Buyer no-show does not entitle the Buyer to a refund; the Traveler receives the full payout.

8. Cancellations and Refunds

8.1 When you can cancel. An Order can be cancelled by its participants only before the Traveler has purchased the item (Buy & Deliver) or collected it (Pick Up & Deliver) — that is, while the Order is awaiting payment, under the Payment Hold, or awaiting a price approval. After purchase or collection, in-app cancellation is closed and the dispute process (Section 10) is the remedy.

8.2 Refund rules. Refunds follow these tiers:

8.3 Failed-delivery marks. When a paid Order fails through the Traveler's fault — the Traveler cancels after payment, or misses the purchase deadline (Section 6.9) — the Traveler's profile records a failed-delivery mark. The count of marks is shown on the Traveler's profile to users who have a paid order relationship with them, and repeated failures trigger internal review and may lead to account restrictions (Section 15). Marks are applied automatically by the Platform's rules. Failures that are not the Traveler's fault — a Buyer's payment window lapsing, a Buyer declining or ignoring a price increase, cancellations made by HandCarry, or a dispute resolved on other grounds — do not mark the Traveler.

8.4 How refunds are paid. Refunds are issued to the original payment method through our payment processor. How long a refund takes to appear depends on the card network and the issuing bank — HandCarry initiates refunds promptly, but cannot control bank posting times. Refunds cannot be issued while a card chargeback is open on the payment (Section 11).

9. Traveler Payouts

9.1 Payout amount. After Delivery Confirmation and the Clearing Hold, the Traveler is paid the actual item cost (as evidenced by proof of purchase, for Buy & Deliver) plus the Commission. Payout-provider fees are absorbed by HandCarry — the Traveler receives the full payout amount.

9.2 Payout rail and onboarding. Payouts are made through Stripe Connect. Before their first payout, a Traveler must complete Stripe's onboarding, in which Stripe — not HandCarry — collects the Traveler's identity and bank details. By onboarding, the Traveler agrees to the Stripe Connected Account Agreement, a direct agreement between the Traveler and Stripe. Payout onboarding is prompted after the Traveler's first confirmed delivery; an Order whose payout cannot be dispatched because onboarding is incomplete waits for the Traveler to finish it. Payout availability depends on the Traveler's country, and the app enforces payout eligibility when commitments are made (Section 5.7).

9.3 Clearing Hold. Every Delivery Confirmation is followed by a 7-day Clearing Hold before the payout is released. The hold exists so that the Buyer's dispute window fully passes before money leaves the Platform. Payouts are normally not dispatched before the hold ends, on any confirmation path; HandCarry may release a payout earlier in an individual support case where the circumstances clearly warrant it, and may extend the hold on individual Orders or for newer accounts as a fraud-prevention measure.

9.4 Payout timing. After the Clearing Hold, the payout is dispatched to the Traveler's Stripe account and arrives on the deposit schedule Stripe applies to the Traveler's account and country. A Traveler's first payout may be subject to an additional initial hold under Stripe's own rules. If a payout attempt fails — for example, because the payout account was closed — the Platform surfaces the failure and the payout is retried or re-dispatched once the Traveler fixes the account. HandCarry is not responsible for delays caused by the payout provider or the Traveler's bank.

9.5 Name matching. The account-holder name reported by the payout provider is checked against the Traveler's verified legal name; a mismatch freezes payouts pending human review. This is a fraud control on top of the payout provider's own checks — payout accounts must belong to the Traveler, and attempting to route payouts to someone else's account is a violation of these Terms.

9.6 Right of offset and clawback. If you owe HandCarry money — including where a dispute is resolved against you, a chargeback is lost on a payment made to you, a payout was made in error, or you obtained funds through fraud or breach of these Terms — we may deduct the amount owed from any pending or future payout to you, reverse or withhold payouts not yet dispatched, and invoice you for any remaining balance, which is due within 30 days. We may also recover amounts through the payout provider where its rules allow. This Section survives account closure.

9.7 Payouts and account status. Earned payouts are not forfeited because an account is deactivated or suspended: a Traveler who has delivered is paid what they earned. If an account is banned, payouts may be frozen case by case pending review of the conduct that led to the ban, and in-flight Orders may be completed or cancelled (with refunds under Section 8.2) at HandCarry's reasonable discretion.

10. Disputes Between Users

10.1 Scope. The dispute process resolves problems with a specific Order between its Buyer and Traveler: non-delivery, item not as described, suspected fraudulent proof, prohibited items discovered after payment, and similar issues. It does not cover disagreements unrelated to an Order.

10.2 When a dispute can be opened, and by whom. Dispute rights follow the Order's stage:

• —While the Order is paid but the item has not yet been purchased or collected (under the Payment Hold): either party may open a dispute.
• —After the Traveler has purchased or collected the item: only the Buyer may open a dispute — the Traveler's route for problems discovered at this stage (for example, an item that does not match its listing) is to report through the Platform or contact support, as the Prohibited Items Policy describes.
• —After Delivery Confirmation: the Buyer may open a dispute for at least 3 days from the confirmation — in practice until the Order's payout is released at the end of the Clearing Hold. Confirming receipt — including by Handover Code — starts this clock, so raise problems promptly.

Once the window closes and the payout releases, the Order is final.

10.3 Effect of opening. Opening a dispute freezes the Order: any pending payout is held, and the Order will not complete until the dispute is resolved.

10.4 Process. Both parties submit statements and evidence through the Platform — up to 5 files when opening and up to 20 files per participant in total; images are accepted and processed (metadata is stripped from images platform-wide), and evidence is visible to both participants. Platform messages are retained and form part of the record — one of the reasons all negotiation should stay in-app. Our support team reviews the evidence, may request additional information from either party (with response reminders — an unanswered information request weighs against the silent party), and decides the outcome, recording a resolution note both participants can see. Support staff act under the name "HandCarry Support"; decisions are made by our team, not by either participant. We aim to resolve disputes within 5 Business Days of opening; complex cases can take longer. This is a target, not a guarantee.

10.5 Possible outcomes. A dispute resolves in one of four ways: a full refund to the Buyer; a partial refund to the Buyer; a release of the full payout to the Traveler; or a split of the amounts between the parties, determined by the evidence. Money moves once, at resolution.

10.6 Finality. Dispute decisions are final within the Platform — there is no internal appeal, and a resolved dispute will not be reopened except where we determine there was fraud on the process itself. The dispute process is HandCarry's remedy structure for Order problems; it does not take away rights either user may have against the other user under applicable law. Claims against HandCarry are governed by Sections 19 and 21.

10.7 Dispute conduct. Submitting fabricated evidence, opening disputes in bad faith, or abusing the process is a serious violation leading to account action and responsibility for amounts wrongly obtained (Section 9.6).

11. Card Chargebacks

11.1 Use the dispute process first. If something goes wrong with an Order, the in-app dispute process is designed to make you whole quickly and fairly. Filing a card chargeback instead of — or in parallel with — the dispute process slows everything down and imposes costs on everyone.

11.2 Consequences of chargebacks. When a chargeback is opened on a payment: refunds through the Platform are blocked on that payment while the chargeback is pending, and any related payout is frozen. If a chargeback is filed on an Order that was delivered and confirmed — particularly one confirmed with your own Handover Code — we may treat it as friendly fraud (a chargeback filed on a legitimate, fulfilled purchase): we will contest it with the Platform's evidence (confirmation records, messages, proofs), and we may suspend or ban the account. Amounts we lose to an illegitimate chargeback are recoverable under Section 9.6.

12. Prohibited Items, Customs, and Legal Compliance

12.1 Prohibited Items Policy. The Prohibited Items Policy governs what may be listed, proposed, carried, or arranged through the Platform — including arrangements made in messages. You must read it before listing or carrying anything. In summary, it prohibits (among other categories) weapons, drugs and all prescription medication, counterfeit and stolen goods, hazardous materials and loose lithium batteries, cash and bearer instruments, sanctioned goods, and anything that cannot lawfully be hand-carried and personally declared; it restricts categories such as alcohol, food, and battery-containing electronics; and it caps item value at USD $2,500 per item.

12.2 Who is responsible for what. On every Order:

• —the Buyer is responsible for the accuracy and legality of what they ask to be purchased or carried, for import duties, taxes, and destination-country restrictions, and for presenting items for carriage unsealed and available for inspection. A Buyer whose misdescription or unlawful request causes loss or legal exposure to the Traveler is responsible to the Traveler for the consequences, in addition to the enforcement and indemnity consequences under these Terms;
• —the Traveler is responsible for what they carry — including inspecting deliver-only items before accepting them, complying with airline and aviation-security rules, and making lawful customs declarations. Travelers are personally answerable to airlines, customs, and border authorities for everything in their possession; "a Buyer asked me to carry it" is not a defense before any authority, and it is not one under these Terms.

12.3 Customs outcomes. Allocation of losses when an item is seized, confiscated, or taxed is set out in the Prohibited Items Policy (in short: the party whose misdescription or unlawful conduct caused the loss bears it; no-fault seizures of lawful items are resolved through the dispute process on the evidence).

12.4 Sanctions and export control. You may not use the Platform in violation of economic sanctions or export-control laws of the United States or any applicable jurisdiction, including transactions involving sanctioned persons, sanctioned territories, or export-controlled goods. You represent that you are not a sanctioned person and are not acting for one.

12.5 Legal compliance generally. You are responsible for complying with all laws that apply to you in your use of the Platform — including consumer, customs, tax, aviation, and criminal law. Nothing on the Platform is legal advice.

13. User Conduct

13.1 Keep transactions on the Platform. Before an Order is paid, all communication with the other party must stay in the Platform's messaging. Sharing phone numbers, email addresses, or social media handles, or moving the conversation off-platform before payment, is against these Terms — it defeats the protections (recorded negotiation, dispute evidence, fraud screening) the Platform provides. After an Order is paid, you may exchange contact details to coordinate the physical handover.

13.2 No fee circumvention. Arranging, settling, or completing off the Platform a transaction that originated on the Platform — to avoid the Platform Fee or otherwise — is prohibited. This includes soliciting off-platform payment in messages, cancelling an Order to complete the same delivery privately, and directing users to pay you outside the Platform. Fee circumvention forfeits Platform protections entirely — no payment protection, no dispute process, no fraud support — and leads to account action.

13.3 General conduct rules. You must not:

• —harass, threaten, defame, or discriminate against other users or our staff;
• —post false, misleading, or deceptive Listings, Proposals, profiles, or reviews;
• —use the Platform to commit or facilitate any crime, including smuggling, money laundering, or fraud;
• —interfere with the Platform's operation, probe or test its security, scrape it, access it with bots or automated agents, or attempt to bypass its verification, anti-bot, or safety systems;
• —collect or harvest other users' personal data;
• —impersonate any person or misrepresent your affiliation with anyone.

13.4 Reviews. After a delivery is confirmed, both parties may review each other for 14 days. Reviews are double-blind: what you write stays hidden until both sides have submitted or the 14-day window closes, so neither review can be written in reaction to the other. Once revealed, reviews are public; the reviewed party may publish one response within 30 days. Reviews must be truthful, based on the reviewed transaction, and free of abusive content and personal data (addresses, phone numbers, financial details). We may hide or redact reviews that violate these rules; we do not edit reviews to change their meaning, and originals are preserved in our records. You may not offer or accept anything of value in exchange for reviews, review your own transactions through another account, or use reviews to pressure or extort the other party. Only genuinely delivered Orders can be reviewed — refunded and cancelled Orders cannot.

13.5 Reporting. The Platform provides in-app tools to report Listings, conversations, and reviews, and concerns about a specific Order can be raised through the dispute process or with support. Reports are reviewed by our team; the reported user is not told who reported them. Malicious or repeated false reporting is itself a violation.

14. User Content and Intellectual Property

14.1 Your content. You retain ownership of the content you post on the Platform — Listing text and photos, profile information, messages, reviews, and uploaded files ("User Content"). You grant HandCarry a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, adapt (for technical purposes such as resizing images), display, and distribute your User Content as needed to operate, improve, and promote the Platform. This license ends when your content is deleted from the Platform, except that (a) content already shared with other users — such as messages and reviews — remains visible to them, and (b) we retain records as described in the Privacy Policy.

14.2 Your responsibility for content. You represent that you have the rights to the content you post and that it does not infringe anyone's intellectual property, privacy, or other rights, and is not unlawful.

14.3 HandCarry's property. The Platform — its software, design, text, graphics, logos, and trademarks (including "HandCarry") — belongs to HandCarry Technologies LLC or its licensors. You may not copy, modify, reverse engineer, or create derivative works from it, and you may not use our marks without written permission. We grant you a limited, revocable, non-transferable license to use the Platform as intended by these Terms.

14.4 Copyright complaints (DMCA). If you believe content on the Platform infringes your copyright, send a notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to our designated agent at [email protected] (subject line "DMCA Notice") including: identification of the copyrighted work; identification and location of the allegedly infringing material; your contact information; a statement of good-faith belief that the use is unauthorized; a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the notice is accurate and you are authorized to act; and your physical or electronic signature. We respond to valid notices by removing or disabling access to the material and notifying the poster, who may submit a counter-notice. We terminate the accounts of repeat infringers.

14.5 Feedback. If you send us ideas, suggestions, or feedback about the Platform, you grant us the right to use them without restriction or compensation — and no obligation to implement them.

15. Enforcement and Account Actions

15.1 The enforcement ladder. We enforce these Terms proportionately. Depending on severity and history, we may: issue a warning; apply failed-delivery marks (Section 8.3); restrict specific features; suspend the account for a stated period or indefinitely; or ban the account permanently. Severe violations — prohibited-item violations involving safety, fraud, child sexual abuse material, sanctions violations — skip the ladder and lead directly to a ban and, where appropriate, referral to law enforcement.

15.2 Effect on Orders and money. Section 9.7 governs payouts and in-flight Orders when an account is suspended or banned. Buyer funds under the Payment Hold on Orders that cannot complete are refunded under Section 8.2.

15.3 Moderation. We may remove or redact Listings, profile content, and reviews that violate these Terms, and we record moderation actions. Banned accounts' public profiles are removed from view.

15.4 Our discretion. We act on reports, Platform signals, and our own review. We do not pre-screen Listings or messages, and we have no obligation to monitor, but we reserve the right to review content and act on what we find (see the Privacy Policy for the access controls and audit rules our staff work under).

16. Account Closure and Termination

16.1 Deactivation (self-service). You may deactivate your account at any time in account settings, unless you have an Order in progress — finish or resolve it first. Deactivation hides your profile, closes your active Listings, expires your pending Proposals, signs you out everywhere, and pauses the account. It destroys nothing. You can reactivate at any time by signing back in and confirming reactivation on the screen that follows — reactivation is a deliberate confirmation, not an automatic side effect of logging in. Listings closed at deactivation stay closed until you republish them. Earned payouts are still paid (Section 9.7).

16.2 Deletion (erasure). You may request permanent deletion of your account and personal data by emailing [email protected] from your registered email address. The process, its timing, the financial-integrity conditions that can delay it (for example, recent charges within the card networks' chargeback window), and exactly what is deleted versus retained are described in the Privacy Policy, which governs erasure.

16.3 Termination and changes by HandCarry. We may suspend or terminate your account as described in Section 15, or where required by law. We may also modify, add, or retire individual Platform features as the Platform evolves; material changes to these Terms follow Section 22.1. If we discontinue the Platform entirely, we will give reasonable notice, funds under the Payment Hold on incomplete Orders will be refunded, and earned payouts will be dispatched.

16.4 Survival. Sections that by their nature should survive account closure do survive — including Sections 4, 6.10, 9.6, 10.6, 11, 12, 14.1 (for content retained as described in the Privacy Policy), and 17 through 22.

17. Taxes

17.1 Travelers. Amounts you earn as a Traveler (Commission, and any margin relating to item purchase) may be taxable income in your country of residence or elsewhere. You are solely responsible for determining, reporting, and paying your taxes. Where required by United States law, the payout provider (Stripe) issues tax information forms (such as Form 1099-K) for payouts it processes; HandCarry may also be required to collect tax forms or report information to tax authorities and will request what it needs from you if so.

17.2 Buyers. Import duties, VAT, and similar charges on delivered items are the Buyer's responsibility (Section 12.2).

17.3 No tax advice. HandCarry does not provide tax advice. Consult your own adviser.

18. Disclaimers; No Insurance; Force Majeure

18.1 The Platform is provided "as is." To the maximum extent permitted by law, HandCarry disclaims all warranties, express or implied — including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Platform will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure, or that any Listing, user, or item is as described.

18.2 No guarantee of outcomes. We do not guarantee that any Trip will happen, any Request will be fulfilled, any delivery will occur or occur on time, or any item will arrive in any particular condition. Delivery performance is the Traveler's; item accuracy is the Buyer's and the retailer's.

18.3 No insurance. HandCarry provides no insurance of any kind — no cargo insurance, no travel insurance, no liability insurance — for items, users, or journeys. The Payment Hold and the dispute process described in these Terms are the Platform's only remedy structure for Order problems. If you want insurance coverage for an item or a journey, obtain it yourself from an insurer.

18.4 Force majeure. HandCarry is not liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond our reasonable control — including flight cancellations and travel disruptions, border closures and entry restrictions, natural disasters, epidemics, war, civil unrest, labor disputes, government action, internet or utility failures, and failures of payment processors or other third-party providers. Funds under the Payment Hold remain governed by Sections 8 and 10 regardless: force majeure excuses timing, not the eventual return or release of money held.

19. Limitation of Liability

19.1 Cap. To the maximum extent permitted by law, HandCarry's total aggregate liability to you for all claims arising out of or relating to the Platform or these Terms is limited to the greater of (a) USD $100 and (b) the total Platform Fees you paid to HandCarry in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim.

19.2 Item claims. For any claim relating to an item — its loss, damage, non-delivery, condition, or seizure — your remedy is the dispute process (Section 10), and the maximum amount recoverable is the amount held under the Payment Hold for that Order. HandCarry is not liable for the acts or omissions of Buyers, Travelers, retailers, airlines, customs authorities, or payment providers.

19.3 Excluded damages. To the maximum extent permitted by law, HandCarry is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost data, or loss of goodwill, even if advised of the possibility.

19.4 Release for disputes between users. Your transactions and interactions are with other users, not with HandCarry (Section 4). To the maximum extent permitted by law, you release HandCarry and its officers, members, employees, and agents from claims, demands, and damages arising out of disputes between you and other users — the dispute process and your rights against the other user are your remedies. This release does not cover claims arising from HandCarry's own breach of these Terms.

19.5 Exceptions. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law — including liability for fraud, willful misconduct, gross negligence where non-excludable, or death or personal injury caused by negligence where non-excludable — and nothing deprives you of non-waivable rights under the consumer-protection law of your place of residence.

19.6 Basis of the bargain. The limitations in this Section 19 are a fundamental part of the agreement between you and HandCarry; the Platform's fees would be different without them.

20. Indemnification

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless HandCarry Technologies LLC and its officers, members, employees, and agents from and against any claims, damages, fines, penalties, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or relating to: (a) your breach of these Terms or the incorporated policies; (b) your User Content; (c) your violation of law in connection with the Platform — including customs, import/export, aviation-security, and sanctions violations relating to items you listed, sent, or carried; (d) items you asked to be carried or agreed to carry; and (e) your dealings with other users. We may assume the exclusive defense of any matter subject to indemnification, in which case you will cooperate with us.

21. Governing Law; Disputes with HandCarry; Arbitration

21.1 Governing law. These Terms and any dispute between you and HandCarry are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, USA, and applicable US federal law, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules — except that Sections 21.3–21.6 (arbitration) are governed by the Federal Arbitration Act. If you reside in a jurisdiction whose law gives you mandatory consumer protections that cannot be waived by contract, those protections remain yours.

21.2 Talk to us first. Before filing any claim against HandCarry, you must give us a chance to resolve it: email [email protected] (subject "Notice of Dispute") with your name, account email, a description of the issue, and what you want. We will do the same before filing against you, using your account email. If the dispute is not resolved within 30 days of the notice, either side may proceed under this Section 21. This paragraph does not delay any deadline set by law.

21.3 Binding individual arbitration. Except as provided in Sections 21.4 and 21.6, any dispute between you and HandCarry arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Platform will be resolved by final and binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules. The arbitration will be conducted in English, by a single arbitrator, and may proceed by videoconference or on documents alone where the rules allow, so you are not required to travel. Arbitration fees are allocated under the AAA Consumer Rules; if your claim is for less than USD $10,000 and is not frivolous, HandCarry will pay the filing, administration, and arbitrator fees beyond any filing fee the rules require of you. The arbitrator has exclusive authority to resolve disputes about the interpretation and enforceability of this arbitration agreement, and may award the same individual relief a court could. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court with jurisdiction.

21.4 What is not covered. Either party may (a) bring an individual claim in small claims court in a court of competent jurisdiction if it qualifies, and (b) seek injunctive or other equitable relief in court for actual or threatened infringement or misuse of intellectual property or for unauthorized access to the Platform.

21.5 Class action and jury waiver. You and HandCarry each waive the right to a trial by jury and the right to participate in a class action, collective action, or representative proceeding. Disputes will be arbitrated or litigated only on an individual basis; the arbitrator may not consolidate claims of different users. If the class waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim (and only that claim) must proceed in court, and the remainder stays in arbitration.

21.6 Coordinated filings. If 25 or more demands for arbitration raising similar claims are filed against HandCarry by or with the assistance of the same law firm or organization, then — after the Section 21.2 notice process — the demands will be resolved in staged proceedings: batches of up to 25 will be selected (half by the claimants' side, half by HandCarry) and arbitrated first, and the parties will use the results to attempt in good faith to resolve the remainder before further batches proceed. Statutes of limitation are tolled for demands awaiting their stage. This Section exists so that large volumes of similar claims are resolved on their merits rather than through filing-fee leverage; if a court or arbitrator finds it unenforceable as to a demand, that demand proceeds under Section 21.3.

21.7 Your right to opt out. You may opt out of the arbitration agreement in Section 21.3 and the waivers in Sections 21.5–21.6 by emailing [email protected] (subject "Arbitration Opt-Out") from your registered email address within 30 days of first accepting these Terms, stating that you opt out of arbitration. Opting out does not affect any other part of these Terms and will not disadvantage your use of the Platform.

21.8 Venue for court proceedings. Any claim that proceeds in court (other than small claims) must be brought in the state or federal courts located in Delaware, USA, and you and HandCarry consent to their jurisdiction — except where the law of your place of residence mandatorily provides otherwise for consumers.

22. Changes, Notices, and General Provisions

22.1 Changes to these Terms. We may update these Terms as the Platform evolves. For material changes, we will give at least 14 days' notice before the new version takes effect, by email and by notice in the Platform, identifying the new version and its effective date. Non-material changes (clarifications, typo fixes, contact-detail updates) may take effect on posting. Your continued use of the Platform after a change's effective date is acceptance of the new version; if you do not agree, stop using the Platform and close your account before the effective date. Each version of these Terms is identified by version number and effective date, and prior versions are preserved in our records.

22.2 Notices. Notices from us to you are given as described in Section 1.4. Legal notices from you to us must be sent by email to [email protected] or by mail to: HandCarry Technologies LLC, 500 Westover Dr #34619, Sanford, NC 27330, USA.

22.3 Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your account. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets, or by operation of law; the Privacy Policy describes what happens to personal data in such an event.

22.4 No third-party beneficiaries. These Terms are for the benefit of you and HandCarry only. They create no rights in any other person — including between users, whose rights against each other arise from their own dealings and applicable law, not from these Terms (except where Section 12.2 expressly allocates responsibility between users).

22.5 Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible and the remainder will remain in full effect, except as Section 21.5 provides for the class waiver.

22.6 No waiver. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. A waiver is effective only in writing.

22.7 Language. These Terms are drafted in English. If we provide translations for convenience, the English version controls in case of conflict.

22.8 Entire agreement. These Terms (including the incorporated policies) are the entire agreement between you and HandCarry about the Platform and supersede all prior discussions and understandings.

22.9 Contact. Questions about these Terms: [email protected].