Terms of service

Effective date: 01 January 2024

1. THE TERMS

1.1 Acceptance of the Terms

Welcome to AskUsat.co.uk. Service or Site, which is owned and operated by AskUs Anytime, a limited company with a registered office at Suite 3863 Unit 3a, 34-35 Hatton Garden, Holborn, London, Greater London, United Kingdom, EC1N 8DX "AskUs", "we", or "us". We can be contacted at info@askusat.co.uk. By clicking “I Agree” on the account registration or payment page or using the Site in any way, you (“you”, and “your”) are agreeing to comply with and be bound by these terms of service and all rules, policies and notices posted on the Site or about which you are notified (collectively “Terms”). Furthermore, you agree and accept that the privacy policy applies in full. Throughout these terms, “Customer” means a site user which posts a question on the Site and “Expert” means a site user which answers any question on the site. For the avoidance of doubt, both a Customer and an Expert is a site user and as such collectively they shall be referred to as “users”.

1.2 If you do not agree with the Terms then you have no permission to use the site. You should read all the Terms before using the site. When using the site you confirm you are 18 years of age or older and that you can form legally binding contracts.

1.2 Electronic communications and right to modify Terms

1.2.1 When you visit the site or send us e-mails, you are communicating with us electronically and you consent to receiving communications from us electronically. We will communicate with you by e-mail or by posting notices on the Site. You agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures and other communications that we provide to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing. You agree to provide us with, and maintain in your AskUs account profile, your current and active email address.

1.2.2 AskUs may modify any of the Terms at any time by posting them on the Site. Changes shall automatically be effective upon posting or via other means including but not limited to a pop-up or banner, message or other conspicuous notice on the site. Your continued use of the Service will signify your acceptance of the changes. If you do not accept the changes, your sole and exclusive remedy is to discontinue using the Site. The then current Terms will be posted on the Site, and you should always review them prior to using the Site.

2. THE SITE

2.1 AskUs is a venue

The Site is a venue for informational and educational purposes to allow Customers to ask questions and Experts to answer them. Users of the Site, not AskUs provide the content in Posts (defined below). The Experts determine which questions to answer. Experts are not employees or agents of AskUs but are independent service providers using the Site to sell their knowledge to Customers and, as such, along with Customers, are simply users of the Site. You further understand that site tools or any other tools (collectively, “Tools”) offered by AskUsare optional and such Tools are purely offered for convenience and usage of such Tools is not mandatory. You understand certain Tools, such as chatbots, may utilise or be powered by AI language models, and data input into such Tools shall be subject to these Terms, our Privacy Policy, and any other disclosures presented in connection with such Tools. You understand AskUs may also allow Experts to use certain Tools at their option, which may utilise AI language models or other automated technology to for example help Experts communicate with other Users on the Site.

2.1.2 AskUs is not involved in the conversations between Customers and Experts and does not refer Customers to, or endorse or recommend, particular Experts. You understand and acknowledge that AskUs cannot and does not edit, modify, filter, screen, monitor, endorse or guarantee the content of Posts. AskUs shall not be liable for any acts or omissions of Experts, content in Posts, the ability of Experts to answer questions or the ability of Customers to pay for answers. We cannot ensure that a Customer or Expert will complete a transaction. Notwithstanding the foregoing, AskUs reserves the right, but is not obligated, to refuse to post or to remove any content and/or remove any user's access to the Site.

2.1.3 When an Expert agrees to answer a question on the Site the Customer and Expert have entered into an agreement between themselves to which AskUs is not a party. AskUs takes no responsibility for any liabilities or obligations that any user takes on under such an agreement.

2.2 The Site is not designed for emergency questions

2.2.1 Emergency questions and crisis situations (particularly regarding medical or mental health issues) should be directed immediately by telephone or in-person to qualified professionals (e.g. in the United Kingdom, call 999). You acknowledge and agree that the Site is not the appropriate venue to pose such questions.

2.3 Posts are not private or confidential

2.3.1 The Site is an Internet-based forum. Information and materials submitted in the content of your questions, answers, requests for information, responses, profiles, signatures, qualifications, comments, and posts in the Expert forum and other places where users communicate on the Site (collectively “Posts”) are not private or confidential, nor are Posts protected by legal professional or any other privilege, and may be read, collected, and used by others. For example, search engines may index your questions, answers, and other Posts to allow them to appear in search engine results (e.g. if someone does a search on google.co.uk or another search engine, your questions, answers, and other Posts on the Site that relate to the search may appear in the search results list).

2.3.2 To help protect your privacy, use an anonymous user name and do not include information regarding your identity or contact information in your Posts.

2.4 Verification

2.4.1 Every Expert on the Site has had at least one credential relevant to the category in which they are answering questions verified by a third party service.

2.4.2 Regarding the verification process, AskUs contracts with third-party service providers to perform the verifications described above; AskUs does not itself verify the credentials of the Experts. The results of the verifications are only as accurate as the information provided to and by the third-party verification services, as of the time of the providing of information to and by the third-party verification services. AskUs makes efforts to verify, including using a third-party identity verification service, but cannot warrant or guarantee an Expert’s purported identity; user identification on the Internet is difficult. For these reasons, AskUs cannot and does not represent, warrant or guarantee the truthfulness or accuracy of the credentials or identities of and provided by users including Experts.

2.5 No reliance

2.5.1 While AskUs strives to admit only high-quality Experts onto the Site, use of the term “Expert” by AskUs and on the Site is only meant to describe users of the Site who answer questions on the Site, and not to guarantee any particular level of expertise.

2.5.2 You acknowledge and agree that AskUs, as a platform provider only, which enables Customers to ask questions and Experts to reply to those questions, is not responsible for, and will not be liable for, any loss or damage caused by your reliance on any information or content contained in Posts.

2.6 Information not advice

2.6.1 Answers from Experts on or off the Site – in writing or otherwise - are provided by Experts and are to be used by Customers for general information purposes only, not as a substitute for in-person evaluation or specific professional advice. By way of example Legal Experts provide only general information about the law, and are not to be taken as providing legal advice. The laws, regulations, other governing authorities, standards, practices and procedures that apply to your particular question may differ depending on your location and information typically discovered through in-person evaluations or visits. Experts in some categories may be licensed, certified, educated, employed by or have experience in only particular jurisdictions.

2.6.2 If you decide to get additional services from an Expert you understand and agree that the communications with such Expert may be conducted outside the Site (either by phone, chat, or any third-party tool). You agree that any legal professional you are communicating with is not acting as your lawyer and may not be authorised to practice law in the jurisdiction where you are located. As such, your communications with such professional is not subject to any lawyer-client relationship or lawyer-client privilege. Before applying the communications from this legal professional to your specific situation, you should consult with a lawyer licensed to practice in your jurisdiction who agrees to act as your lawyer and with whom lawyer-client privilege applies.

2.7 Professional-client relationships shall not be formed on the Site

2.7.1 Communications on the Site are not confidential and shall not be the subject of any associated privileges. By answering questions, Experts do not form legal professional relationships with users of the Site. In the event that your, and an Expert’s, use of the Site inadvertently forms a relationship that entitles you to rights other than those set out in the Terms, you waive those rights. Communications on the Site are limited, as described above, do not involve in-person evaluations or visits, and do not include safeguards and procedures typical of in-person evaluations and visits.

3. YOUR ACCOUNT

3.1 User accounts

3.1.1 When you register as a user on the Site, you can establish a user name and password for access to your online account. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your user name, password and account data, may not share this information or your account with anyone else, and will be solely responsible for all acts or omissions that occur under your account. You will immediately notify AskUs of any unauthorised use of your username or account. You may only create one account on the Site. If your AskUs account has been suspended or terminated, you may not open another account on the Site.

3.1.2 You agree to keep your contact and billing information (including but not limited to your email address) up-to-date, and to comply with all billing procedures, including providing and maintaining accurate and lawful billing information for active AskUs accounts.

3.1.3 We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18, and if we become aware that a child under the age of 18 has submitted personal information to us, we will promptly remove it from our systems.

3.2 Restricted activities

3.2.1 You agree that any content that you provide on the Site and your use of the Site shall not:

(a) be fraudulent, inaccurate or misleading;

(b) infringe any third party's proprietary rights or rights of publicity or privacy;

(c) be illegal or violate the spirit or letter of any applicable law;

(d) promote a competitor of AskUs or the Site;

(e) be defamatory, libelous, threatening or harassing;

(f) be obscene or contain child pornography;

(g) contain any viruses, Trojan horses, or other computer programming routines that may damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information;

(h) create liability for us or cause us to lose (in whole or in part) the services of our domain name suppliers or any other suppliers; or

(i) link directly or indirectly to or include descriptions of goods or services that:

(i) are prohibited under the Terms; or

(ii) you do not have a right to link to or include. You may not create a contract in relation to using our Service that, by paying to us a fee, could cause us to violate any applicable law, statute, ordinance or regulation. Furthermore, you may not resell or make any commercial use of our system or the content on the Site without the prior written consent of AskUs, together, the Restricted Activities.

3.2.2 You are prohibited from soliciting users of the Site, including Experts, for any purpose (including inviting other users to contact you other than on the Site or inviting other users to participate in any other website).

3.3 Suspension of termination of service

3.3.1 You may terminate your AskUs account at your sole discretion and at any time by written notice via e-mail to info@askusat.co.uk. Terminations typically will be effective within seven business days after our receipt of your termination notice, at which time your account will be closed at the end of your subscription period. Any fees accrued as of the effective date of termination will be payable according to the Terms.

3.3.2 At any time, without notice, for any or no reason, AskUs reserves the right to refuse service to anyone, to modify and discontinue any portion or all of the Service, and to restrict, suspend and terminate users’ accounts (including yours).

3.4 Charges

3.4.1 The Site allows Customers to post questions to Experts, facilitates communication with Experts via chat, emails and online message boards, and enables delivery of answers to your questions, among other services (“Site Access Benefits”). Customers on the Site may be presented with one of two payment models:

(a) a pay-per-question model; and

(b) a subscription model.

3.4.2 With the pay-per-question model, you select the price that you are willing to pay for a single question to any Expert who is willing to answer your question on the Site. Once you have selected the price and submitted your payment information, your question will be posted on the Site. You will be charged once you enter your payment information. In the pay-per-question model,AskUs collects the payment from you on behalf of the Expert(s).

3.4.3 The subscription model allows you to post multiple questions up to an amount equal to £200 per month (subscription fee). The monthly subscription fee is automatically charged to the Subscribers payment source provided on the Site. Auto-renewal will remain in effect until withdrawn by you or terminated by AskUs. You can stop auto-renewal of your subscription by (1) clicking the cancel subscription button on either the help centre page or your subscriber account page; (2) sending a written notice of cancellation via e-mail to customerservice@AskUsat.co.uk. Your withdrawal must be received by AskUs at least 30 days before your renewal date to be effective with respect to the next billing cycle.

3.5 Subscription specific terms

3.5.1 AskUs subscriptions are intended and authorised only for personal, non-transferrable, not-for-resale use only. Notwithstanding any other terms, AskUs reserves the right to cancel your AskUs subscription in its entirety at any time and for any reason. In the event that AskUs cancels a subscription, no refund is due from AskUs to you for any paid for period of access to the Site that cannot then be used.

3.5.2 If you agree to a subscription offer and then later agree to a different subscription offer, then the terms of the later selected offer will apply and your earlier subscription will be cancelled, no refund will be due for the earlier subscription then cancelled.

3.6 Response Time

3.6.1 AskUs does not guarantee that you will receive a response from an Expert, or that you will be satisfied with your communication with an Expert. For pay-per-question Customers, if no Expert responds at all to your question within 30 days, you agree that your right to receive a response from an Expert has expired and your payment may be retained by AskUs.

3.7 Payment

3.7.1 Registration as a user on the site means that you agree to pay for your use of the site charged to the payment method provided at registration. In the event of a payment, either for a one-off question or for a subscription, a contract shall come into existence with AskUs by means of the fact that you communicate your payment data to AskUs and AskUs triggers the relevant payment via your authorised payment method.

3.7.2 You can then only pose a question to experts if you have first (i) made a payment for a sum in the amount necessary to ask a question or (ii) purchased a subscription. You can then use this credit to pay experts until it has been consumed. In case of a subscription AskUs allows you to pose multiple questions to experts. You will be able to ask experts questions via the Site as soon as your payment has been verified. If the payment is not successfully processed you can no longer pose questions to experts; your access to this function shall be blocked. Access shall be enabled again when a new sufficient payment is made.

3.7.3 AskUs reserves the right to offer special incentive, price, subscription and other programmes. Such programmes can, at the sole discretion of AskUs, be limited to a specific group of users or non-users.

3.8 Refunds and cancellations

3.8.1 If, in the rare instance you are dissatisfied, you can request repayment with a message to customerservice@askusat.co.uk (with the subject heading of “Repayment”), identification of your user name or e-mail address, by which you registered with AskUs, and communication of your repayment request however, any such refund shall be at the sole discretion of AskUs as a gesture of good will and no refund is guaranteed.  If more than 5 days have passed since your last payment no refund shall be permitted.

3.8.2 You have the right to cancel your agreement with us within fourteen days of registration on the Site provided you do not use the Site in that time. You can cancel the agreement by emailing us at customerservice@askusat.co.uk. If you use the Site after registration on the Site you waive this right to cancel the agreement under this provision, but may still terminate the agreement or claim a refund under the other provisions of the Terms.

3.8.3 Subscribers may cancel their subscription by (1) clicking the cancel subscription button on either the help centre page or your subscriber account page; (2) sending a written notice of cancellation via e-mail to customerservice@AskUsat.co.uk. Your withdrawal must be received by AskUs at least 30 days before your renewal date to be effective with respect to the next billing cycle.

3.8.4 If AskUs believes, in its sole discretion, that any funds were earned under suspicious circumstances or that funds were derived from a suspect account, AskUs may withhold payments. AskUs will continue to investigate the situation until an adequate resolution has been reached, as determined by us, and which may require the involvement of certain third parties including financial institutions and payment providers.

4. LEGAL STATEMENTS

4.1 Limitation of liability

4.1.1 Nothing in these terms of use excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, or our fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited by English law.

4.1.2 To the extent permitted by law, we exclude all conditions, warranties, representations or other terms which may apply to the Site or any content on it, whether express or implied.

4.1.3 We will not be liable to you for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with:

(a) use of, or inability to use, the Site; or

(b) use of or reliance on any content displayed on the Site; including any dispute with one or more users of the Site.

4.1.4 If you are a business user, we will not be liable for:

(a) loss of profits, sales, business, or revenue;

(b) business interruption;

(c) loss of anticipated savings;

(d) loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation; or

(e) any indirect or consequential loss or damage.

4.1.5 If you are a consumer user, we only provide the Site to you for domestic and private use. You agree not to use the Site for any commercial or business purposes, and we have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.

4.1.6 We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a virus, distributed denial-of-service attack, or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of the Site or to your downloading of any content on it, or on any website linked to it.

4.1.7 We assume no responsibility for Tools powered by parties other than AskUs or the content of websites linked on the Site. The availability of such Tools or links should not be interpreted as endorsement by us of those Tools or linked websites. We will not be liable for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.

4.2 Proprietary rights of content

4.2.1 You acknowledge that AskUs and its licensors and suppliers own the rights to the AskUs website and the content displayed on the Site other than Posts. You shall not modify, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or attempt to derive the source code of the AskUs website, any software distributed by or assist any other person or entity in doing so. You acknowledge that all content, including but not limited to text, software, music, sound, photographs, video, graphics or other material contained in listings, sponsor advertisements or email-distributed, commercially produced information presented to you by the Service, by AskUs,AskUs users, or AskUs advertisers or other content providers, is protected by copyrights, trademarks, service marks, patents or other proprietary rights and laws. You may not modify, copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit, or distribute in any way content available through the Service, including code and software for commercial purposes. For permission to use third-party materials appearing on the Site, please contact the copyright owner. You do not acquire ownership rights to any content, document or other materials viewed through the Site. The posting of information or materials on the Site does not constitute a waiver of any right in such information and materials.

4.2.2 You agree that Posts on the Site, materials, ideas, comments and testimonials you submit on the Site or other venues, including but not limited to the AskUs pages and links on www.facebook.com , www.linkedin.com , www.youtube.com, google.co.uk or to any employee, officer or agent of AskUs (“User Content”), will not be considered confidential and may be used by AskUs, in its sole discretion, without any obligation to compensate you or anyone else for use of, or to return, any submitted materials.

4.2.3 You grant to AskUs a non-exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable(through multiple tiers) right to exercise the copyright, publicity, and database rights, including the right to use, reproduce, display, edit, copy, modify, transmit, publicly perform, extract and create derivative works thereof, that you have in your Posts and User Content, in any media now known or not currently known.

4.3 No endorsement of non-AskUs entity

4.3.1 AskUs may offer to its users products and services offered by non-AskUs entities. Placement of information, logos, links or names of such non-AskUsentities on the Site does not constitute an endorsement or warranty of these entities, their products or services. You take full responsibility for a decision to visit or use the services of any such entity and you agree that AskUs is not responsible in any way for anything connected with those non-AskUs entities or your use of their services, goods or access to their sites.

4.3.2 It is the responsibility of any User of the site to verify the accuracy and completeness of any opinion, answer or other content on the Site. Advice from appropriate professionals should be sought to inform such evaluation.

4.4 Information control and storage

4.4.1 We do not control the information provided by users. Please use caution and common sense when using the Site. There are also risks of dealing with underage persons or people acting under false pretenses. Additionally, there may be risks dealing with international trade and foreign nationals. By using the Site, you agree to accept such risks and that AskUs is not responsible for the acts or omissions of users on the Site.

4.4.2 The amount of storage space per user is currently limited. You agree that AskUs is not responsible or liable for the deletion or failure to store content and/or other information.

4.5 Exclusion of warranties

4.5.1 To the extent allowed by law, AskUs services, software and documentation is provided in an “as is” basis without any warranty express or implied including but not limited to the implied warranties for fitness for a particular purpose and being of sufficient quality. No information obtained through the Site or AskUs services shall create any warranty. AskUs does not warrant that their will be no interruption to the Service or that any use of the Site shall be without error. Further AskUs provides no warranties as to the accuracy of the content of the Site either by us or through the provision of the Service, nor does AskUs provide any warranty for the use of third party sites or services linked to on the Site.

4.5.2 You warrant that use of the Site is at your sole risk and AskUs has no liability to you for any loss or other harm caused to you by use of the Service.

4.6 Indemnification

4.6.1 To the extent permissible under applicable law, you agree to indemnify and hold AskUs, its parents, subsidiaries, officers, directors, shareholders, employees, agents, joint venturers, consultants, successors and assigns harmless from and against all losses, costs, liabilities, and expenses including reasonable legal fees, asserts by any third-party that are in any way due to or arising out of your use of or conduct on the Site or your failure to abide by these Terms.

4.7 Press releases and third-party press about AskUs

4.7.1 The Site may contain press releases and other information about AskUs. While this information was believed to be accurate as of the date prepared, we are not under any duty or obligation to update this information or any press releases. Information about companies other than ours contained in the press release or otherwise, should not be relied upon as being provided or endorsed by AskUs. Likewise, third-party press about AskUs or the Site should not be relied upon as being provided or endorsed by AskUs.

4.8 Miscellaneous

4.8.1 The Terms constitute the complete and exclusive statement of the Agreement between you and us. The Terms supersede any and all prior or contemporaneous agreement, oral or written, and any other communications, representations, warranties and understandings relating to the subject matter of the Terms. If there is a conflict between an oral or written representation of any AskUs employee or agent and the Terms (other than modifications to the Terms executed in writing by a senior representative of AskUs), the Terms will prevail. To the extent the Terms are in conflict or inconsistent with one another, the Terms of Service will prevail for Customers, and the Expert Agreement will prevail for Experts, over other Terms; also, this Agreement, Related Agreements and disclaimers will prevail over FAQs, and other rules and policies on the Site.

4.8.2 If any provision(s) of the Terms is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be contrary to law, then such provision(s) shall be construed, as nearly as possible, to reflect the intentions of the parties and the other provisions shall remain in full force and effect. The failure by AskUs to exercise or enforce any of the Terms shall not constitute a waiver of the right to exercise or enforce the Terms as to the same or another instance. Headings in this document and Related Agreements are for the purposes of reference only and shall not limit or otherwise affect the meaning of the Terms.

4.8.3 You agree that AskUs may assign the Terms to any other entity of its choosing, with or without notice to you. You may not assign the Terms to any other party for any reason, including but not limited to because your interaction with other users of the Site, the pricing offered, and anti-fraud mechanisms in place, are based upon individual usage.

4.8.4 The Terms are only available in English.