Acceptable use policy

1. What this is for

ToolBox puts strangers into each other's homes. That only works if everyone can rely on a few basic things: that people are who they say they are, that they behave decently, and that the record is honest. This policy sets those out.

It applies to everything you do here: your profile, your job descriptions, your photographs, your messages, your quotes, your reviews and your replies. It applies to tradespeople, to homeowners, and to every employee or subcontractor who works on a ToolBox job.

2. What we expect from everyone

Be truthful. Give accurate information about yourself, your business, your registrations and your job. One account per person. Do not impersonate anyone, including a tradesperson, a business, or ToolBox itself.

Be respectful. Treat tradespeople, homeowners and our staff with courtesy. Disagreement is fine. Abuse is not.

Stay lawful. Follow South African law, including consumer protection, health and safety, advertising, data protection and intellectual property law.

Keep it on the platform. Message, quote and agree changes here, where there is a record. It protects both sides, and it is what makes a complaint or a Guarantee claim possible to assess.

Use features for what they are for. The complaints process is for complaints, reviews are for describing work you paid for, and job posts are for jobs you actually want done.

3. What is not allowed

Breaking the law

• Using ToolBox if you are under 18.
• Anything illegal, fraudulent or intended to deceive.
• Offering, requesting or arranging notifiable work without the registration the law requires.
• Asking someone to skip a Certificate of Compliance, or offering to do the work without one.
• Breaching intellectual property, data protection, advertising or consumer law.

Putting people at risk

• Harming, or attempting to harm, anyone, and especially a child or a vulnerable adult.
• Threats, intimidation, stalking or harassment, on or off the platform.
• Discrimination or hate speech on any ground, including race, gender, sex, sexual orientation, religion, disability, nationality or age.
• Sexual content, or unwanted sexual attention toward anyone.
• Content that is obscene, defamatory, or incites violence or criminal conduct.
• Working, or letting someone work, under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Being dishonest

• Fake accounts, fake businesses, fake credentials, fake certificates.
• Fake job posts, or posting a job with no intention of having it done.
• Fake reviews, reviews you were paid or rewarded for, or reviews about work you did not buy.
• Offering anything of value for a review, or to have one removed.
• Making a repair or a refund conditional on a review coming down.
• Threatening a bad review to force a discount.
• Advertising a business, product or service that is not the one you are on ToolBox for.

Misusing other people's information

• Sharing someone's personal information without their agreement, including a photograph of their home, their face, their address or their number.
• Using contact details you received for a job to market anything.
• Collecting other users' details from the platform for any purpose of your own.

Damaging the platform

• Uploading anything harmful: malware, spyware, or code intended to interfere.
• Accessing parts of ToolBox you are not entitled to, or another person's account.
• Scraping, crawling or using bots without our written permission.
• Reverse engineering, copying or reselling any part of the apps.
• Pretending your content is created or endorsed by ToolBox.
• Doing anything designed to distort search results, ratings or lead distribution.

4. Content we may remove

We may remove or edit content that breaks this policy, that identifies someone who has not agreed to it, or that we are legally required to take down. We may correct obvious spelling and punctuation without changing what you meant. We do not review everything before it appears, and we are not obliged to.

Where we remove your content we will tell you, unless doing so would put someone at risk or prejudice an investigation.

5. Reporting something

You can also report a profile, a review or a message from inside the app, which is faster because it brings the context with it. Reports are treated confidentially. We do not tell the other person who reported them unless we have to, and never where that would put you at risk.

You can also block anyone, from their profile or from a conversation, for any reason and without reporting them. They can no longer message you, quote on your jobs, or appear in your searches, and they are not told. Reporting, blocking and staying safe explains both in full, including what we filter automatically and what we do the same day.

If content infringes your rights rather than merely breaking our rules, the Takedown notices procedure is the formal route.

If you or someone else is in immediate danger, phone the SAPS on 10111 first, then tell us.

6. If you break these rules

A breach of this policy is a breach of the Platform terms of use, and we act on it under Warnings, suspension and removal. That document sets out the ladder, the process, the notice you get and your right to appeal.