Hunter · Terms of service
Draft. To be checked by a Hong Kong solicitor before launch.
About these terms
These terms are an agreement between you and [Operator name], a business registered in Hong Kong ("Hunter", "we" or "us"). They cover your use of the Hunter app and website.
Our Community rules form part of these terms. Our Privacy policy explains how we handle your personal data. Please read all three before you tick the box and tap "Agree and continue". If you don't agree, please don't use Hunter.
1. What Hunter is
Hunter is a marketplace. People who need something done ("givers") post quests, and people who want to do them ("hunters") apply. We provide the app, the messaging and the payment arrangements.
When a giver hires a hunter, the agreement to do the quest is between the two of them. We are not a party to it. We don't employ hunters, and we don't supervise or check the work. We act for the hunter only to collect the reward: once the giver has paid Hunter, the giver has paid the hunter.
We don't promise that any quest will be done, or done well, or that it is safe or lawful. We do promise to run Hunter itself with reasonable care and skill.
2. Who can use Hunter
- You must be 18 or over and able to make a binding agreement.
- One account per person. Give accurate details and keep them up to date.
- If we have closed an account of yours before, you may not open another without our agreement.
- Hunters must have the legal right to work in Hong Kong. Visitors, foreign domestic helpers, and anyone whose conditions of stay don't allow this kind of work must not take paid quests. Students should check their own conditions first.
- Givers must not hire anyone they know is not allowed to do the work.
3. Your account
- Keep your sign-in details to yourself. You are responsible for what happens on your account.
- Tell us straight away if you think someone else has used it.
- A "phone checked" badge only means the person confirmed a phone number. It is not an identity or background check.
4. The quest agreement
When a giver hires a hunter and pays, the two of them agree to the quest as it is described in the app: the task, the place, any time limit, the reward, and any change the giver proposes and the hunter accepts in the app.
Givers must:
- describe the quest honestly and fully, including any risks;
- take reasonable care that the place is safe, and give the hunter the access and information they need;
- check the evidence fairly and in time.
Hunters must:
- apply only for quests they can do lawfully, safely and on time;
- do the work with reasonable care and skill;
- send genuine photo evidence, taken where and when the work was done.
After hiring, only the giver can propose a change, using the change option in the app. It applies only if the hunter accepts it.
5. Independent work, not employment
Quests are one-off tasks. Hunters choose which quests to take and how to do them, use their own tools, and act as self-employed people. They are not employees of the giver or of Hunter.
Hunter is not an employment agency. Hunter's fee is for the use of the app and the payment service, not for finding anyone work. Don't use Hunter to recruit staff or to arrange regular or ongoing work.
If an arrangement between a giver and a hunter is in fact employment, the giver takes on an employer's legal duties, such as employees' compensation insurance, the minimum wage and MPF. Hunter has none of those duties.
Hunters are responsible for their own tax, business registration and MPF, where these apply.
6. Payments and fees
- All amounts are in Hong Kong dollars.
- The giver pays the full reward by card when hiring a hunter. Payments are processed by our payment provider, Stripe.
- The payment is held in Hunter's account with Stripe until it is released to the hunter or refunded to the giver. It is not a deposit with us and earns no interest. Hunter does not offer a wallet or stored-value account.
- Hunter's fee is 10% of the reward. The card processing cost is also deducted: currently about 3.4% + HK$2.35 for a card issued in Hong Kong, and about 0.5% more for an overseas card. Both come off the hunter's share; the giver pays exactly the reward they set. For example, on a HK$100 reward paid with a Hong Kong card, the hunter receives about HK$84.25.
- Hunters see an estimate of what they will receive before they apply. The final amount can differ slightly depending on the card the giver uses.
- If a quest needs several hunters, the giver pays the reward separately for each hunter hired.
- If a quest involves buying something for the giver, include its cost in the reward. The fee and card cost apply to the whole amount.
- Every payment for a quest must go through Hunter. Paying, or asking to be paid, outside the app breaks these terms.
7. Evidence, approval and release
- When the work is done, the hunter sends photo evidence (up to 5 photos) with their location.
- The giver then has 12 hours to approve it, or to send it back with a reason. Sending it back stops the clock. The hunter can put things right and send new evidence, which starts a fresh 12 hours.
- The reward is released to the hunter when the giver approves, or automatically when the 12 hours pass without the giver approving or sending it back.
- Givers must not send back good work to delay or avoid payment.
8. Payouts to hunters
- Before applying for quests, hunters set up a payout account with Stripe. Stripe checks the hunter's identity, and Stripe's own terms apply, including the Stripe Connected Account Agreement and Stripe's privacy policy.
- When a reward is released, the hunter's share is paid straight into their Stripe account. From then on the money is theirs; Hunter doesn't hold it.
- Card payments take a few days to clear. Once they have, the hunter can withdraw to their bank from the app. The smallest withdrawal is HK$20. If you want to close your account with less than HK$20 in your Stripe account, email us and we will arrange for it to be paid out.
- If a released payment is later reversed by the giver's bank because of fraud or a genuine problem with the quest, we may recover the hunter's share from their Stripe account where the law and Stripe allow. We will tell the hunter first.
- Givers must not dispute a card payment with their bank for a quest that was done as agreed.
9. Cancellations and refunds
- Before anyone is hired, a giver can edit or delete a quest at no cost.
- After hiring, a hunter who can't do the quest can give it up from the quest page, and the giver is refunded in full.
- If the time limit passes without evidence, the giver can call the job off from the quest page and is refunded in full.
- In any other case, to ask for a refund before the reward is released, email us at info@fakegeniushk.com. We will refund the giver in full if the hunter doesn't do the quest or if both agree to call it off. If you disagree with each other, we will decide under section 10.
- When a time limit passes, nothing is cancelled or refunded automatically.
- Refunds go back to the card that was used and usually appear within 5 to 10 working days.
- Once a reward has been released it can't be refunded through Hunter. Any claim about the work is then between the giver and the hunter, though we will help where we can.
10. Disputes between users
- Try to sort out problems in the quest chat first.
- If you can't agree, email us at info@fakegeniushk.com before the reward is released. Givers should send the evidence back first. If the hunter sends new evidence while we are looking into it, the 12-hour clock starts again, so send it back again if the matter isn't settled.
- We will look at the quest, the chat, the evidence and the timeline, and decide whether the held payment goes to the hunter or back to the giver. We will explain our decision.
- Our decision settles only what happens to the held payment. It doesn't stop either of you taking a claim to the Small Claims Tribunal or a court.
11. Community rules
Everyone must follow the Community rules. They set out which quests are allowed, including our ban on anything sexual or romantic and on work that is illegal or needs a licence. We have zero tolerance for objectionable content and abusive behaviour.
12. Your content
You own what you post: quests, messages, photos and evidence. You give us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to store, show and use it to run Hunter, to handle reports and disputes, and to keep the records the law requires.
The licence ends when the content is deleted. It carries on for messages you have sent to other users, for paid quests and their evidence, and for anything we keep for legal reasons or to deal with reports and disputes.
Only post what you have the right to share. Don't post photos in which other people can be identified unless they have agreed.
13. Reports, blocking and removing content
- You can report or block anyone from the ⋯ menu on a quest, an applicant or a chat. We aim to act on reports within 24 hours.
- We may remove content, limit features, or suspend or close accounts that break these terms or the law, or that put others at risk. Where we can, we will tell you why.
- We may share information with the police or other authorities when the law requires it, or when someone's safety is at risk.
14. Safety
We don't vet users or check their backgrounds. Take care when meeting people you don't know: meet somewhere public when you can, tell someone where you are going, and leave if something feels wrong. In an emergency, call 999.
Hunter doesn't provide insurance for quests. Think about whether you need your own.
15. Changes to Hunter
We may change, add or remove features, and may take Hunter offline for maintenance. We will try to give notice of anything that affects quests in progress.
16. Our responsibility to you
Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law doesn't allow us to limit. Nor does anything here affect your rights as a consumer under Hong Kong law.
Otherwise, we are not responsible for what other users do or fail to do, or for the quality, safety or legality of quests, unless our own failure to take reasonable care caused the loss. Nor are we responsible for loss we could not reasonably have foreseen.
Our total liability to you for everything arising from these terms is limited to the greater of HK$1,000 and the fees Hunter received from quests you took part in during the 12 months before the claim. This limit doesn't apply to rewards we hold for you, which we will release or refund as these terms say.
17. Your responsibility to us
If you break these terms or the law and that causes us loss, including a claim against us by someone else, you are responsible for that loss so far as that is fair and reasonable.
18. Closing your account
- You can delete your account under Me → Edit profile → Account once no money is in play: no reward you paid or are owed is still held, and nothing in your Stripe account is still clearing. Money that has cleared is sent to your bank as part of closing. To end a hired quest early, see section 9.
- We may suspend or close your account if you seriously or repeatedly break these terms, if the law requires it, or to protect other users. Any money being held is then released or refunded under these terms.
- Some records are kept after an account is closed, as our Privacy policy explains.
19. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. We will tell you about an important change, by email or in the app, before it takes effect, unless it has to happen sooner for legal or safety reasons. When it takes effect, the app will ask you to agree to the new version before you carry on.
If you don't agree, email us at info@fakegeniushk.com and we will close your account once any money in play has been paid out or refunded under the terms you last agreed to. Quests already hired carry on under the terms that applied when the hunter was hired.
20. General
- These terms and the Community rules are the whole agreement between you and us about Hunter.
- Only you and we have rights under these terms. No one else may enforce them under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Ordinance. This doesn't stop a giver and a hunter enforcing the quest agreement between them.
- You may not transfer your rights under these terms. We may transfer ours to anyone who takes over Hunter, and will tell you if we do.
- If a court finds any part of these terms invalid, the rest still applies.
- If we don't enforce a term straight away, we can still enforce it later.
- We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control, such as a typhoon or black rainstorm warning, a network failure or an outage at one of our providers.
- Hunter uses Google Maps. Your use of the maps is also subject to the Google Maps/Google Earth Additional Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy.
- These terms are in English and Chinese. If the two differ, the English version applies.
21. Law and disputes with us
These terms are governed by the laws of Hong Kong.
If you have a complaint about Hunter, contact us first and we will try to put it right. If we can't, you can bring a claim in the Hong Kong courts, including the Small Claims Tribunal for claims up to HK$75,000.
Contact
[Operator name], [Business address]. Email: info@fakegeniushk.com.