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Terms of use

The rules for using Matchanic, whether you’re a driver asking for quotes or a garage sending them.

Last updated: To add: Date these terms were last updated

To add: This is a draft, written from what the site does today. Before launch, have a solicitor check it, and fill in every gap marked “To add”, including the short ones inside sentences.

About these terms

These terms apply to everyone who uses Matchanic. Matchanic is run by To add: Legal name of the business (company number To add: Company number), of To add: Registered office or business address.

By creating an account, posting a job or sending a quote, you agree to these terms. Our privacy notice explains how we handle your information.

What Matchanic is

  • Matchanic is a place for drivers to ask garages to quote for work on their car.
  • We’re not a garage. We don’t do the work, and we don’t check or guarantee it.
  • We don’t take payment for the work. If you accept a quote, you pay the garage directly. Drivers don’t pay Matchanic anything.
  • Garages pay Matchanic a commission when a driver accepts their quote. See Commission and credit.
  • When a driver accepts a quote, the agreement for the work is between the driver and the garage. Matchanic isn’t part of that agreement.
  • Garages add their own qualifications to their profiles. We don’t check them.
  • Before we approve a garage, someone at Matchanic looks at its proof of trade and the owner’s driving licence. That isn’t a check of the garage’s work, prices or qualifications.
  • We can’t promise that a job will get quotes, or that a garage will win work.

Your account

  • Give accurate details, and keep them up to date.
  • Keep your password safe, and don’t let anyone else use your account.
  • If you think someone else has used your account, email To add: Support email address straight away.
  • To add: The minimum age to use Matchanic, if you set one. If you don’t, remove this line.

If you’re a driver

  • Describe your car and the job honestly, so garages quote for the right work.
  • Posting a job and reading quotes is free. You don’t have to accept any quote.
  • You can’t edit or cancel a job yourself once it’s posted. While it’s still open, you can ask us to cancel it: email To add: Support email address, tell us the email address you log in with, and say which job it is. Once you’ve accepted a quote, the job can’t be cancelled on the site.
  • A garage can change its quote until you accept one. Check the price and what’s included before you accept.
  • When you accept a quote, you’re agreeing with that garage that it will do the work for that price. You can’t undo this on the site, and the job’s other quotes are declined.
  • If the garage finds more work is needed, agree it and its price with them before it’s done.
  • Any review you write must be about your own experience.

If you’re a garage

  • To join, you apply with your business details, proof of trade and the owner’s driving licence. We decide whether to approve each application.
  • Only quote for work you’re able and willing to do, at a price you mean.
  • You can change a quote until the driver accepts one. After that, the accepted price is what the driver expects to pay: agree any extra work with them before you do it.
  • If you switch on automatic quotes, each quote sent at your prices counts as one you sent yourself.
  • Someone at Matchanic may enter a quote in your name To add: on what basis, for example only at a price you’ve given us (it must match the For garages page). The quote is marked as entered by us. Any message we write with it is posted from your garage in your conversation with the driver, also marked as entered by us. The email telling the driver about the quote names only your garage. Like an automatic quote, it counts as one you sent yourself, and you can change it until the driver accepts one. We may also correct the details on your profile.
  • Use a driver’s phone number only to talk to them about the job you quoted for.
  • Keep your profile accurate, including your qualifications. We don’t check them, so drivers rely on what you say.

Commission and credit

  • Applying, having a profile, seeing jobs and sending quotes cost nothing. When a driver accepts your quote, you pay Matchanic a commission for that job.
  • Each type of job has a fixed commission, which we set and may change. Every job shows its commission before you quote on it yourself. An automatic quote is sent without you opening the job, so you won’t see its commission before it goes out. Your quote keeps the commission it was sent with, even if we change the rate afterwards.
  • VAT is added to the commission only if and when we charge it, and it’s shown with the commission.
  • The commission is taken from your credit balance when the driver accepts your quote. This includes automatic quotes and quotes we enter in your name.
  • Your credit balance belongs to your login. If you run more than one garage from one login, they all share it.
  • A commission is taken even if it takes your balance below £0. While your balance is below £0, none of your garages can send new quotes, and no automatic quotes are sent for them. Quotes you’ve already sent stay open, and their commission is taken if a driver accepts one.
  • You top up your balance in advance. You can’t top up by card on the site yet: for now, contact us to top up. To add: How top-ups are paid for until then (for example by bank transfer), any minimum amount, and what happens to credit left on an account when it closes.
  • You can ask us to refund a commission, for example if the driver didn’t turn up, the job was cancelled or you were charged twice. We look at each request and decide whether to refund all of it, part of it or none, and we email you our decision, with our reason if we turn it down. An approved refund goes back into your credit balance, not to your bank account. To add: Any time limit for asking for a refund.

Messages and what you post

This covers jobs, quotes, messages, profiles, reviews and replies. What you post must not:

  • be abusive, threatening or discriminatory
  • be false or misleading
  • include someone else’s personal details without their permission
  • be spam, or advertise something that isn’t about the job
  • break the law or anyone else’s rights

You keep ownership of what you post. You let us show it on Matchanic so the service works, for example showing your job to garages, or your profile to drivers. We may remove anything that breaks these rules.

Reviews

  • You may only review a garage whose quote you accepted, once for each job.
  • Reviews appear on the garage’s public profile, without the driver’s name. The garage can reply, and the reply appears there too.
  • We don’t check that the work was done, or what a review says.
  • Reviews can’t be changed on the site. If you think a review breaks these terms, email To add: Support email address.

Our responsibility to you

To add: What Matchanic is and isn’t responsible for, any limit on that, and a statement that these terms don’t affect a consumer’s legal rights. Your solicitor should write this section.

Disabling and closing accounts

  • We can disable an account, or cancel an open job, if we think these terms have been broken, or to protect drivers, garages or the service. While a garage’s account is disabled, it can’t send quotes.
  • You can ask us to close your account at any time: email To add: Support email address.

Changes to these terms

We may change these terms. When we do, we’ll update them here and change the date at the top.

Which law applies

To add: Which country’s law applies to these terms and where disputes are heard, for example the law of England and Wales and its courts.

Questions

Email To add: Support email address, or see other ways to reach us.