Terms and Conditions for Businesses

Last updated: March 11, 2021


OVERVIEW


This website www.supportlocalbc.com is a program, platform, and service operated by Think Local First, a non profit organization that champions local, independent businesses in Greater Victoria. Throughout the website, the terms “we”, “us”, and “our” refer to Support Local BC. Support Local BC offers this website, including all information, tools, and services available from this site to you, the user, conditional upon your acceptance of all terms, conditions, policies and notices stated here. 


By visiting our site, purchasing something from us, or choosing to be featured on our website as a registered local, independent business, you engage in our “Service” and agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions (“Terms of Service”, “Terms”, “Terms and Conditions”), including those additional terms and conditions and policies references herein and/or available by hyperlink. These Terms of Service apply to all users of the site, including without limitation users who are browsers, vendors, customers, and/or contributors of content.


Please read the Terms of Service carefully before accessing or using our website. By accessing or using any part of the site, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, THEN YOU MAY NOT ACCESS THE WEBSITE OR USE ANY SERVICES, PARTICIPATE IN ANY PROGRAM, OR SELL ANY GIFT CERTIFICATES OR OTHER PRODUCTS/SERVICES OFFERED THROUGH THE PLATFORM. 

Section 1 - USE OF THE PLATFORM

As a condition of your use of the platform, you agree that: 

  • You have reached the age of majority in the state or province in which you reside;
  • You are able to create a binding legal obligation;
  • You are not barred from selling products or services under applicable law;
  • You will not attempt to use the Platform with crawlers, robots, data mining, or extraction tools or any other functionality;
  • Your use of the Platform will at all times comply with these Terms of Use;
  • You will only make legitimate sales that comply with the letter and spirit of the terms of the respective purchases;
  • You have the right to provide any and all information you submit to the Platform, and all such information is accurate, true, current, and complete;
  • You will update and correct information you have submitted to the Platform; and
  • Your business is privately held
  • Greater than 50% of business ownership belongs to residents of your community
  • Business is registered in your local community
  • Business has the ability to make independent decisions regarding products, policies, procedures, and practices
  • Business pays down all its own expenses without direct assistance from a corporate or franchise headquarters. Franchisees do not qualify for participation
  • Business agrees to operate with ethical business practices and to make every effort to provide a high level of customer service

Section 2 - ACCESS TO THE PLATFORM

Support Local BC retains the right, at our sole discretion, to deny service or use of the Platform to anyone at any time and for any reason. While we use reasonable efforts to keep the Platform accessible, the Platform may be unavailable from time to time. You understand and agree that there may be interruptions in service or Platform access due to circumstances both within our control (e.g., routine maintenance) and outside of our control.


Section 3 -  MODIFICATIONS TO TERMS AND CONDITIONS


We reserve the right at all times to discontinue or modify any part of these Terms of Use in our sole discretion. If we make changes that affect your use of the Platform or our services, we will post notice of the change on the Terms and Conditions website page. We suggest that you revisit our Terms of Service regularly to ensure that you stay informed of any changes. Any changes to these Terms and Conditions  will be effective upon our posting of the notice. Any new features or tools which are added to the current website shall also be subject to the Terms and Conditions.. You agree that your continued use of or access to the website following the posting of any changes constitutes acceptance of those changes and the Terms and Conditions as modified.

Section 4 - NOTIFICATION OF PURCHASES 

Purchases made via the Support Local BC website will trigger an email confirmation and e-gift certificate, sent immediately to the customer. The customer confirmation email will outline the order number, gift certificate amount, and name of the business(es) that the customer purchased gift certificates to. 


A separate daily summary email will be sent at 6:00pm PST to any businesses that have received transactions for the previous 24 hours. This business transaction summary email will outline the order number, gift certificate amount, and buyer’s name for any purchases relating to your business from the previous 24 hour period. A summary of outstanding orders in your Support Local BC will also be available within a maximum of 30 minutes on the Duoplane business portal. It is the responsibility of the business to ensure these gift certificates are accounted for and that outstanding amounts are managed as they are redeemed.

Section 5 - DUOPLANE BUSINESS PORTAL

You will be responsible for logging into your business portal to view detailed statuses including but not limited to the number of gift certificates that have been ordered for your business, the number outstanding gift certificates waiting to be claimed, the number of gift certificates that have been claimed, the total dollar amounts for historical data, data for a specific time frame, and total unclaimed value in gift certificates, order numbers and buyer names. You will also be responsible for manually tracking any partial redemptions of gift certificates by ensuring the notes section of those partially redeemed gift cards are properly annotated.


Section 6 - DISBURSEMENT OF FUNDS

Funds will be collected from customers through Authorize.net and Shopify and then redirected in full to the business via e-transfer. Support Local BC will contact businesses directly to provide any payment owed at minimum once per month. 


For businesses undergoing a permanent closure, it is the responsibility of the business owner to notify Support Local BC so that future gift certificate purchases can be prevented and pending, non disbursed gift certificate funds can be returned to the customer. Once funds have been disbursed, it is the sole responsibility of the business owner to find a way to honour the outstanding gift certificates purchased for their store. 

Section 7 - GIFT CERTIFICATE REDEMPTIONS  

Purchases of any gift certificates to your business made available through the Service ("Purchase") will result in the collection of the customers first name, last name, email address, address, and payment information. Only essential and pertinent information for gift card redemption purposes will be made available to you such as First name, Last name, and order number. All other purchaser information will be protected as per our privacy policy.


To redeem a gift certificate, a customer must visit your physical location and present their e-gift certificate or a printed copy of their gift certificate confirmation to the cashier. To redeem a gift certificate as an online business, with a reasonable effort, you are responsible for contacting customers to provide them with a valid code redeemable in your online store. 

To verify the gift certificate’s authenticity, please log into the business portal through Duoplane and search the order number or the purchaser name in the search function. You may then mark any complete gift certificate redemptions as shipped or you may add a note to designate the total amount remaining on any gift certificates that have been partially redeemed. 

Support Local BC will not bear the responsibility for gift certificates that were accepted at the store level and not properly verified on the Duoplane platform and later found to be fraudulent, duplicated, or already claimed . It is the sole discretion of the business owner to accept Support Local BC gift certificates at their physical and online locations and the responsibility of the business owner to ensure presented gift certificates are acceptable for redemption. 

For businesses undergoing a permanent closure, it is the responsibility of the business owner to notify Support Local BC so that the business can be removed from the gift certificate marketplace. It is also the responsibility of the business owner to find a solution to honour the outstanding gift certificates purchased for their store. 


Section 8 - PERSONAL INFORMATION

Your submission of personal information through the store is governed by our Privacy Policy.

Section 9 - PROHIBITED USES

In addition to other prohibitions as set forth in the Terms and Conditions, you are prohibited from using the site or its content: (a) for any unlawful purpose; (b) to solicit others to perform or participate in any unlawful acts; (c) to violate any international, federal, provincial or state regulations, rules, laws, or local ordinances; (d) to infringe upon or violate our intellectual property rights or the intellectual property rights of others; (e) to harass, abuse, insult, harm, defame, slander, disparage, intimidate, or discriminate based on gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, race, age, national origin, or disability; (f) to submit false or misleading information; (g) to upload or transmit viruses or any other type of malicious code that will or may be used in any way that will affect the functionality or operation of the Service or of any related website, other websites, or the Internet; (h) to collect or track the personal information of others; (i) to spam, phish, pharm, pretext, spider, crawl, or scrape; (j) for any obscene or immoral purpose; or (k) to interfere with or circumvent the security features of the Service or any related website, other websites, or the Internet. We reserve the right to terminate your use of the Service or any related website for violating any of the prohibited uses.

Section 10 – DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES; LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

We do not guarantee, represent or warrant that your use of our service will be uninterrupted or error-free.


You expressly agree that your use of, or inability to use, the service is at your sole risk. The service and all products and services delivered to you through the service are (except as expressly stated by us) provided ‘as is’ and ‘as available’ for your use, without any representation, warranties or conditions of any kind, either express or implied, including all implied warranties or conditions of merchantability, merchantable quality, fitness for a particular purpose, durability, title, and non-infringement.


In no case shall Support Local BC, our directors, officers, employees, affiliates, agents, contractors, interns, suppliers, service providers or licensors be liable for any injury, loss, claim, or any direct, indirect, incidental, punitive, special, or consequential damages of any kind, including, without limitation lost profits, lost revenue, lost savings, loss of data, replacement costs, or any similar damages, whether based in contract, tort (including negligence), strict liability or otherwise, arising from your use of any of the service or any products procured using the service, or for any other claim related in any way to your use of the service or any product, including, but not limited to, any errors or omissions in any content, or any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of the service or any content (or product) posted, transmitted, or otherwise made available via the service, even if advised of their possibility. Because some states or jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or the limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, in such states or jurisdictions, our liability shall be limited to the maximum extent permitted by law.

Section 11 – INDEMNIFICATION

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Support Local BC. and our parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, partners, officers, directors, agents, contractors, licensors, service providers, subcontractors, suppliers, interns and employees, harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, made by any third-party due to or arising out of your breach of these Terms and Conditions or the documents they incorporate by reference, or your violation of any law or the rights of a third-party.

Section 12 – TERMINATION

The obligations and liabilities of the parties incurred prior to the termination date shall survive the termination of this agreement for all purposes.


These Terms and Conditions are effective unless and until terminated by either you or us. You may terminate these Terms and Conditions at any time by notifying us at hello@supportlocalbc.com  that you no longer wish to use our Services, or when you cease using our site.


If in our sole judgment you fail, or we suspect that you have failed, to comply with any term or provision of these Terms and Conditions, we also may terminate this agreement at any time without notice and you will remain liable for all amounts due up to and including the date of termination; and/or accordingly may deny you access to our Services (or any part thereof).

Section 13 – ENTIRE AGREEMENT

The failure of us to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms and Conditions shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

These Terms and Conditions and any policies or operating rules posted by us on this site or in respect to The Service constitutes the entire agreement and understanding between you and us and govern your use of the Service, superseding any prior or contemporaneous agreements, communications and proposals, whether oral or written, between you an if required allow users to unsubscribe by using the link at the bottom of each email if required.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can email us at hello@supportlocalbc.com

Any ambiguities in the interpretation of these Terms and Conditions shall not be construed against the drafting party.

Section 14 – GOVERNING LAW

These Terms and Conditions and any separate agreements whereby we provide you Services shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of British Columbia. 

Section 15 – CONTACT INFORMATION

Questions about the Terms and Conditions should be sent to us at hello@supportlocalbc.com

Section 16 - CUSTOMER REGISTRATION

All customers are required to make a Support Local BC account which will allow users to view and reference their purchased gift certificates which will be marked as activated or redeemed.