Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) are a binding agreement between you and Honest Phones (“Honest Phones”, “we”, “us”). They cover your access to and use of the Honest Phones website and services (the “Service”). Our Privacy Policy and Prohibited & Restricted Items Policy are part of these Terms by reference.

By creating an account, listing a device, placing an order, or otherwise using the Service, you accept these Terms. When you create an account you are asked to affirmatively agree to them; we record the version you accepted and when. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

• You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract. The Service is intended for repair shops, refurbishers, resellers and other businesses and individuals dealing in mobile devices.
• You are responsible for everything that happens under your account and for keeping your credentials secure. Notify us immediately of any unauthorized use. One person or business, one account, unless we agree otherwise in writing.
• The information you give us must be accurate and kept current. We may refuse, suspend, or terminate an account, and remove any listing, at our discretion — including where we reasonably suspect fraud, misrepresentation, or a violation of these Terms.

Honest Phones is a venue that lets third-party sellers list devices and buyers purchase them, with payment held in escrow until the buyer accepts. We are not a party to the sale between a buyer and a seller.

• We do not own, take title to, inspect in person, store, ship, or manufacture the devices listed. The seller is the seller of record.
• We do not hold your money. Payments and the escrow hold are processed and custodied by Stripe, our payment processor; funds move under Stripe’s terms, not into a Honest Phones balance. You may be required to accept Stripe’s Connected Account Agreement to transact.
• We provide tools — structured condition disclosure, an IMEI lost/stolen and blacklist screen (with a fuller carrier/GSMA check on higher-value devices), escrow, and a dispute process. The screen is a strong signal, not a guarantee: a “clean” result means the device was not found on the checked lists at the time of the check. A device’s actual condition, legality, and description remain the seller’s responsibility, and the decision to buy is the buyer’s.

These apply when you list or sell a device. They are in addition to the general terms above.

Approval and payouts. You must be an approved seller and complete Stripe Connect onboarding (which may include identity verification) before listing. Payouts are made to your connected Stripe account after the buyer accepts or the inspection window lapses, subject to any payout hold we apply to newer sellers.

Accurate, structured disclosure is binding. Condition is recorded as structured fields, not prose, and the displayed grade is derived from those fields. You warrant that every disclosed field is true and complete to the best of your knowledge at the time of listing. Deliberately understating damage, faults, locks, or water exposure — or entering a grade the fields do not support — is a material breach and grounds for removal, dispute resolution against you, suspension, reversal of payment, and liability for resulting losses.

Ownership and legality. For every device you list, you represent and warrant that:

• you own it or are authorized to sell it, and it is not stolen, lost, fraudulently obtained, or subject to any lien, investigation, or third-party claim;
• its IMEI/serial is genuine and unaltered, and you will not attempt to list, or circumvent our screening for, a blacklisted device;
• it is genuine (not counterfeit) and any non-original parts are disclosed; carrier lock and activation lock (iCloud/Google) status are disclosed truthfully;
• you have removed all personal data and disabled activation locks where you represent the device as ready to use, and the sale complies with all laws that apply to you and to the device.

Shipping. You — not Honest Phones — ship the device. Tracking is required on every order; signature confirmation is required above the threshold shown at checkout. You must mark the order shipped with tracking within 3 business days of payment; if you do not, the order is automatically cancelled, the buyer is refunded in full, and the listing is freed. Ship to the address provided, package appropriately, and do not ship a device that differs from what was disclosed. We make no delivery-time promise beyond that deadline, because sellers ship, not us.

Fees and taxes. The seller-side fee is 3% of the item price (subject to the combined minimum shown at checkout). You are responsible for determining, collecting where required, and remitting your own taxes on your sales. Depending on jurisdiction, we may be required to act as a marketplace facilitator for certain sales tax; where we do, we will say so.

No off-platform circumvention. You may not use the Service to divert a transaction off-platform to avoid fees, escrow, or disclosure, and you may not solicit buyers to do so.

These apply when you place an order.

• Payment and escrow. At checkout you pay the item price plus the buyer-side fee (3%, subject to the combined minimum shown) and payment processing. Your payment is held in escrow by Stripe and is not released to the seller while the device is in transit.
• Shipping protection. If the seller does not ship within 3 business days of your payment, your payment is automatically refunded in full. If a device never arrives, open a “not received” dispute before the window closes.
• Inspection window. After delivery is confirmed you have the stated inspection window (currently 72 hours) to check the device against its disclosure and either accept it or open a dispute. If you do neither, the order auto-accepts and the seller is paid. If a seller ships but you never confirm delivery, we mark the order delivered a set number of days after shipment so this window still runs — you keep the full window and the dispute option throughout.
• Condition expectations. Devices are used and are frequently damaged, locked, or parts-only. You are buying the device as described by its structured disclosure — that disclosure, not any manufacturer warranty, is the specification. No manufacturer or Honest Phones warranty applies unless expressly stated. You are responsible for confirming a device suits your purpose (for example, an activation-locked device is sold for parts) and for legal use in your jurisdiction.
• Good-faith disputes. Open a dispute only for a genuine, described discrepancy, with evidence. Abusing the dispute or inspection process — including to obtain a device for free — is a breach of these Terms.

• Payments, the escrow hold, transfers to sellers, and refunds are handled by Stripe. We do not store your full card number.
• Where an order is refunded — by seller agreement, by a resolved dispute, or as required by law — the refund is processed to the original payment method. Platform fees may be retained or returned as described at checkout or in the dispute outcome.
• Initiating a bank or card chargeback instead of using the dispute process, on a transaction you are not entitled to reverse, is a breach of these Terms and may result in suspension and recovery of amounts owed.

When a buyer and seller disagree about whether a device matched its disclosure, the dispute runs through our process: the buyer opens it with a reason and evidence, the seller has an opportunity to respond, and if it is not resolved between them we make a resolution decision.

The governing principle: a seller who accurately completed the structured disclosure is protected; a seller who omitted or misstated a disclosed field is not. Our resolution — refund the buyer, release to the seller, or split — is a good-faith administrative decision about the release of escrowed funds under these Terms. It is not a court judgment and does not limit any legal rights either party has against the other outside the platform.

You must comply with our Prohibited & Restricted Items Policy, which is part of these Terms. In addition, you may not use the Service to break the law, infringe others’ rights, transmit malware, scrape or overload the Service, evade our fraud and IMEI controls, create listings you cannot fulfil, manipulate ratings, or harass another user. We screen IMEIs against a blacklist before publishing; that screen is a risk control, not a guarantee of a device’s legal status or provenance.

• You keep ownership of the photos, text, and other content you submit (“User Content”). You grant Honest Phones a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, display, reproduce, and distribute it for operating, marketing, and improving the Service. You represent you have the rights to grant this and that your User Content is accurate and lawful.
• The Service itself — software, design, the grading system, logos and marks — is owned by Honest Phones or its licensors and may not be copied or used except as the Service allows. If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, contact us at support@honestphones.com.

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, to the fullest extent permitted by law. We disclaim all implied warranties, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

We do not warrant any device, any seller’s or buyer’s conduct, or that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free. Because devices are sold by third parties, Honest Phones does not warrant the condition, legality, provenance, or functionality of any device, and the structured disclosure is the seller’s representation, not ours.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Honest Phones and its officers, employees and agents will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data, or goodwill, arising out of or relating to the Service or a transaction, even if advised of the possibility.

Our total liability to you for all claims relating to the Service or a given transaction will not exceed the greater of (a) the total fees Honest Phones earned from you on the transaction giving rise to the claim, or (b) US $100. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations; where that is the case, this section applies to the maximum extent allowed.

You will indemnify and hold harmless Honest Phones and its officers, employees and agents from any claim, loss, liability, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your use of the Service, your User Content, a device you list or sell, your violation of these Terms or of any law, or your infringement of any third party’s rights.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules.

Any dispute between you and Honest Phones relating to the Service will be resolved by binding individual arbitration rather than in court, except that either party may bring an individual claim in small-claims court, and either party may seek injunctive relief for misuse of the Service or infringement of intellectual property. You and Honest Phones waive any right to a jury trial and to participate in a class or representative action.

Arbitration will be administered by a recognized arbitration provider under its consumer arbitration rules, before a single arbitrator, in the state named above or remotely by agreement. Nothing here waives a right that cannot lawfully be waived, and where mandatory consumer-protection law of your home jurisdiction gives you a non-waivable forum or remedy, that law controls to that extent.

By using the Service you consent to receive communications from us electronically — on the Service and by email — and you agree that electronic agreements, notices, disclosures, and other records satisfy any legal requirement that they be in writing. Your affirmative acceptance of these Terms at sign-up (which we record with its version and a timestamp) is your electronic signature to them. You may withdraw consent to electronic communications only by closing your account, since the Service cannot be operated on paper.

The Service depends on third parties — notably Stripe for payments, escrow, payouts, and identity verification, and our IMEI-screening and infrastructure providers. Your use of those features is also subject to the third party’s own terms (for example, Stripe’s Services Agreement and Connected Account Agreement), and we are not responsible for a third party’s acts, omissions, or availability. Links to third-party sites are provided for convenience and are not endorsements.

Ratings and reviews must reflect a genuine transaction and your honest experience. Do not post false, manipulated, retaliatory, or incentivized reviews, and do not review your own listings. We may remove content that violates these Terms. Any suggestions or feedback you give us about the Service may be used without obligation or compensation to you.

You represent that you are not located in, or a resident of, a country or region subject to comprehensive sanctions, and that you are not on any government restricted-party list, and you agree to comply with all applicable export-control and sanctions laws in your use of the Service.

You may stop using the Service at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access at any time, with or without notice, for a violation of these Terms or to protect the Service, buyers, sellers, or third parties. Obligations that by their nature should survive — including outstanding payments, disclosures, disputes, disclaimers, limitation of liability, and indemnification — survive termination.

We may update these Terms. When we make a material change we will update the version and effective date and, where appropriate, ask you to accept the new version before continuing. Your continued use after an update means you accept the updated Terms.

• These Terms, with the Privacy Policy and the Prohibited Items Policy, are the entire agreement between you and Honest Phones about the Service and supersede any prior agreement about it.
• If any provision is unenforceable, the rest remain in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
• We give you legal notices through the Service or by email to the address on your account; you send us notices at the contact address below. It is your responsibility to keep your email current.
• We are not liable for failures or delays caused by events beyond our reasonable control.

Questions about these Terms, or to send a legal notice: support@honestphones.com.