Usage Policy

1. What this is

1.1 Vouch & Refer is a private board where members — of a business referral network or of none — pass referral opportunities to one another, and where exactly one member at a time takes responsibility for contacting the client.

1.2 It is not affiliated with any organization named in it. A network or chapter name appears only because a member chose it to describe themselves.

1.3 By registering you agree to this policy. Breaching it can lead to your account being placed on hold (section 9).

2. The short version

These five points are the whole of it. Everything below explains them.

2.1 Only post a client who has agreed to you passing their details on for this purpose.

2.2 Keep the description general. Every member can read it. The client's name, email, phone number and anything else that identifies them go only in the protected client details.

2.3 Use a client's details only to contact them about that referral — never for marketing, mailing lists or anything else, and never pass them on.

2.4 If you claim it, contact the client within three days and say so here. If you cannot work it, release it. Releasing carries no penalty; letting the deadline pass does.

2.5 Referral fees are between you and the other member. Your profession may restrict them; checking that is your responsibility.

3. Before you post a client

3.1 You must have the client's permission, or a clear and reasonable basis, to pass their contact details to another member so that member can get in touch about the need you describe. The client never signed up to this board and has not agreed to its terms; you are the one who has.

3.2 Enter only what is needed to make contact: a name, an email address and/or a mobile number, and a short note if it helps. Do not enter dates of birth, account or policy numbers, health information, financial details or anything a member would not need to make a first call.

3.3 The description is visible to every member. Describe the need — "hail damage on a bungalow, insurance claim approved" — not the person. A description that would let a member work out who the client is defeats the protection the client details are given.

3.4 Post referrals in the category that best fits the work, and give the location of the work, not your own.

4. When you hold a claim

4.1 Client details are shown only to the member holding an active claim, and only inside the application. They never appear on the board, in any email, or in any routine export. Every time they are viewed, the view is recorded — who, which referral, and when — and that record is kept permanently so the owner can answer a client who asks how a member obtained their details.

4.2 Use them only to contact the client about that referral. Do not add the client to a mailing list, a marketing campaign or your own records for any other purpose, and do not share them with anyone — including other members.

4.3 Contact the client within three days of claiming, and confirm it in the application. You will be asked after one day whether you are working it, and reminded before the deadline.

4.4 If you cannot help, release the referral. Releasing carries no penalty at all, and it is always better than letting the deadline pass: the client was promised a call.

4.5 Once your claim ends — by confirmation, release or revocation — you can no longer see the client's details. If you noted them elsewhere to make the call, delete that note once you no longer need it for the work you were referred.

5. Missed deadlines and strikes

5.1 If contact is not confirmed by the deadline, the claim is revoked, the referral returns to the board, and you receive a strike.

5.2 Three strikes within twelve months places your account on hold. You cannot sign in while it is held, and an Administrator decides whether to reactivate it.

5.3 Strikes are recorded permanently. A strike is never given for releasing a referral.

5.4 The deadlines, the number of strikes and the period they count over are set by the Administrator and may change. The values in force are shown in the application.

6. Invitations, connections and chat

6.1 When you invite someone, your name is recorded permanently on their account and is shown to Administrators. You are vouching for them. Invite people you would be comfortable being associated with on this board.

6.2 Anyone may join, whether or not they belong to a referral network.

6.3 Connecting with another member lets each of you offer the other a referral privately before the whole board sees it. Do not use connections, or anything you learn through them, to approach another member's clients outside a referral they have offered you.

6.4 Chat is private to its two members. No Administrator, including the owner, can read it, and no email contains what you wrote. Because nobody else can see a chat, nobody else can step in: use it as you would a private conversation with a colleague.

6.5 Never put a client's details in a chat. The member who claims a referral sees them on the referral itself, where every view is recorded; a chat has no such record. Your own phone number or email address is yours to share, and taking a conversation elsewhere is fine.

6.6 The rule against unsolicited marketing (8.3) applies to chat as it does to email.

7. Referral fees

7.1 A poster may record an optional referral fee and the point at which it becomes payable. Vouch & Refer only records what was offered. It is not a party to any fee, no money passes through it, and it takes no share.

7.2 Your industry may restrict or prohibit referral fees. Licensed professions — including real estate, insurance, financial services, law and healthcare — often do. Checking whether you may offer or accept one is your responsibility, not the board's.

7.3 Any dispute over a fee is between the two members concerned.

8. Your own details

8.1 Keep your name, trade, network, chapter and business details accurate.

8.2 Every member can see your name, trade, network and chapter, business name and website, and location. Your email address and mobile number appear in the member directory, so members who have it can see them. That is how members reach one another; it is part of being on the board. Do not join if you are not willing to share them with other members.

8.3 Do not use other members' contact details to send them anything unrelated to the board — no unsolicited marketing.

9. Conduct and enforcement

9.1 Do not post a referral that is fake, misleading, or that you have already given to someone else; claim a referral you do not intend to work; or misrepresent who you are or what you do.

9.2 Problem reports. A member who posted a referral can report a problem with how it was handled. Reports go to the Administrator and are not shown to the member reported.

9.3 The Administrator may place an account on hold for a breach of this policy, as well as automatically under section 5.

10. What is kept, and what can be removed

10.1 Referrals, claims, connections, chats, strikes, problem reports and the record of who viewed client details are kept permanently. They are the board's record of what happened.

10.2 The one exception is a client's contact details. A client may ask for theirs to be removed. Write to admin@vouchrefer.com and they will be removed, while the rest of the referral record is kept.

10.3 If personal information held by the board is ever exposed, affected members will be told promptly, along with what happened and what was done about it.

10.4 Data is held in the United States.

11. Changes and contact

11.1 This policy may be updated. Members will be told of a material change, and continuing to use the board after that means accepting the updated version.

11.2 Questions, and requests under section 10.2: admin@vouchrefer.com.