Terms & Conditions for Traders

After literally spending hours discussing traders at the moderators meeting, we have come up with the following terms and conditions that all traders must agree to before they can apply for or renew their trader membership. Our aim with this is to start cutting down the number of traders we have and also limiting who can get hold of a traders section.

Traders – Terms and Conditions

These terms and conditions apply to all club members applying for a trader membership or renewal. A trader membership is required if you want to advertise or conduct your business via The mkiv Supra Owners Club and its associated forum. By applying for a trader membership or renewal you are confirming that you have both fully read and agree to these terms and conditions.

The mkiv Supra Owners Club is run in the interest of its members and not in the interest of its traders, therefore;

1) You agree to conduct yourself in a polite and respectful manner at all times when dealing with the club members and moderators.

2) You accept that should a dispute occur between you and a club member and the moderators cannot determine a satisfactory outcome, they will consider the interests of the member over those of the trader.

3) You agree to being visited by a moderator for the purpose of assessing your company and premises at any time and without notice. The result of any visit could affect your trader membership application or renewal outcome or could result in the club revoking your existing trader membership if it is considered to be in the best interest of the club or its members.

4) You agree that a trader membership is only valid for the member who requested it (you) and it cannot be transferred to another member in the event of a change of owner of your business.

5) You agree to the club performing random and unannounced 'mystery shopper' tests to determine if you are conducting your business in a satisfactory manner. The result of these tests could affect your trader membership renewal outcome or could result in the club revoking your existing trader membership if it is considered in the best interest of the club or its members.

6) You agree to start a resolution dialogue within a reasonable time frame of a member creating a thread in the “Dispute Resolution” forum. The outcome of any disputes made against you could affect your trader membership renewal and may result in your existing trader membership being revoked if the moderators considered the outcome to be unsatisfactory and not in the best interest of the club or its members.

7) You agree to the moderators giving more credence to negative responses than positive during your trader membership application or renewals. This could result in your application or renewal being rejected due to just a single negative comment should that comment be deemed accurate and severe enough.

8) You agree to having sanctions imposed on your trader membership should you fall below reasonable expectations - poor customer service will not be tolerated. Sanctions include, but are not limited to, temporary account bans, temporary removal of your trader section, being forced to enter into the renewal process early, or having your banner removed from the site. No refunds will be given if your account or banner is removed as a result of a sanction being imposed.

9) You agree to use the iTrader system in an honest and fair way and not to leave negative feedback unless justified. Any negative feedback left for a member that the moderators consider to be unjustified could affect the outcome of your trader membership renewal and will be removed.

10) You agree to abide by any decisions made by a club moderator and not to enter into any disagreement with a moderator in public. Objections to a decision made by a moderator should be raised by PM to one of the club moderators.

11) You agree not to hold the club liable for any loss of business. This will include, but is not limited to, the club forum being unavailable.

12) You agree not to seek legal action against the club without first attempting to resolve any matters with one of the club moderators.

13) You agree that any legal threats you make against the club can be publicly disclosed on the forum by the club moderators. Any such threats could result in your trader membership renewal being refused or an immediate termination of your trader membership should it be considered to be in the clubs best interest.

14) You agree to conduct your business within the constraints of the law. Failure to comply with this may result in your trader membership being revoked or sanctions being imposed on your account.

15) You agree to participate in the other club activities and not to use the forum solely for the purpose of your business. Failure to do this may affect your trader membership renewal.

16) You agree not to advertise your business or products outside of the trader forums. This is particularly relevant to the technical forums where continued disrespect for this rule may result with sanctions being imposed on your account. However, this rule does not apply to your own signature.

17) You agree to pay any traders fee promptly and in full. The club may, at the discretion of the moderators, accept a donation of parts or services as part payment of the trader membership fee. The value of this donation will be decided by the club and the actual cost or value of the donation will be irrelevant. Any donation accepted will be given away to a club member as a competition prize or other such activity. You therefore agree to accept the redemption of this donation from the winning club member, and to supply the parts or services in a timely manner.

18) Any trader who doesn't not renew their trader membership, or who has their renewal rejected, will not be permitted to sell anything via the forum for a period of 3 months. This includes, but is not limited to, using the classified forums, using the PM system, or emailing members from within the forum. (Added 27/02/07)

Trader membership applications and renewals are subject to the following process;

1) New traders will be required to submit any information requested by the moderators. This will include, but is not limited to, details about yourself and your business.

2) New traders are required to have been registered and active on the club forum for at least 3 months prior to requesting a trader membership. During this period you are expected to conduct yourself in a manner befitting someone wishing to apply for a trader membership with us.

3) An initial decision whether to consider the application or renewal will be made by the moderators. This decision will be final and no discussion will be entered into regarding this decision. If your application or renewal is refused then you will not be able to reapply for a period of 3 months.

4) A discussion thread regarding the trader membership application or renewal will be made available to the club members. They will have approximately 1 week to discuss the application or renewal.

5) A survey will then be created to gather opinion from the club members as to whether the trader membership application or renewal should be accepted. A minimum of 75 actual yes votes must be obtained otherwise your application or renewal will be rejected. For renewals, if you achieve less than 95% yes votes then you will not be able to request (or keep if you already have) a traders section. (Amended 18/08/07)

6) A final decision to accept the trader membership application or renewal will be made by the moderators. This will take into consideration the results of the survey and the outcome of any trader disputes that have been raised. This decision will be final and no discussion will be entered into regarding this decision. If your application or renewal is refused then you will not be able to reapply for a period of 3 months.

7) If a trader application or renewal is accepted then it is only valid for the period of 12 months, where after a trader renewal process will need to be entered into. This renewal process will not be started automatically and it is your responsibly to request this process starts in sufficient time to prevent your access to the club forum being suspended. A period of 2 weeks should be allowed for the renewal process to be completed. No liability will be accepted by the club for loss of access to the club forum or loss of earnings during the renewal process, even if the renewal process takes longer than the anticipated 2 weeks.

8) New traders will be subject to a 3 month probationary period. At the end of this period you will be required to go through the renewal process. If your renewal is rejected then the remaining 9 months trader fee will be returned to you on request.