Terms of Service

1. Who we are, and what these terms cover

“We”, “us” and “the platform” mean Search Zimbabwe, of 13 Bascaw Court, 40 Selous Avenue, Harare, Zimbabwe. “You” means anyone who visits, registers, lists, buys, sells or books through our sites.

These terms cover all three of our domains — search.co.zw, siesta.co.zw and gallery.co.zw. They are one platform with one account system, so there is one agreement rather than three.

By using the sites you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, please do not use the sites.

2. Your account

• One account works across all three sites, and your handle is the same on each. A profile on a sister site is an additional publication of your existing listing, not a separate account.
• You must give accurate details and keep them current, and you are responsible for what happens under your sign-in. Tell us promptly if you think someone else has access to it.
• Placing an order requires a verified email address. We hold buyers' money in the meantime, and if something needs refunding we must be able to reach you.
• You must be old enough to enter a contract in your country of residence.
• We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, is used for fraud, or is the subject of repeated substantiated complaints.

3. Listings, reviews and other content you post

What you upload stays yours. By posting it you give us a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to store, display and distribute it on our sites, and in listings of our sites in search engines, for as long as you keep it published.

• Post only what you have the right to post. Do not upload someone else's photographs, copy, or trade marks without permission.
• Listings must describe what you actually offer, at prices you will actually honour. A comparison platform is worthless if the numbers on it are decoration.
• Reviews must be first-hand and honest. Do not review your own business, pay for reviews, or post a review to damage a competitor.
• We may edit, unpublish or remove content that breaks these terms, and we moderate submissions to the shared product and service catalogue — mainly to merge duplicates, which is what keeps comparison meaningful.
• Nothing you post may be unlawful, hateful, deceptive, or a listing for goods that cannot lawfully be sold in Zimbabwe.

4. Buying

We are the venue and the payment intermediary. The seller is your counterparty. The contract for the goods is between you and them; we run the checkout, hold the money, and step in when something goes wrong.

What you pay

• The item prices set by each seller, plus delivery quoted for your destination, plus a flat platform fee of $0.50 charged once per order however many sellers it spans.
• All prices are in USD.
• If a price changes between the moment you reach checkout and the moment you confirm, we refuse the order and show you the new total rather than charging you something you did not agree to.
• Cash on delivery is available only on categories that carry no commission, and only when the whole basket comes from a single seller.

Confirming delivery — please read this one

If something is wrong

• Raise a dispute from the order before the window closes. Doing so freezes payment to that seller — and only to that seller, so a basket from three shops does not punish the two that were fine.
• We review both sides and rule. If we rule for you, the sub-order is cancelled and a refund is arranged; refunds are paid out by hand and we record the reference.
• A refund may be partial where that is the honest outcome — for example goods that arrived but not as described.
• A parcel that is never marked delivered is never auto-confirmed. It stays visible as an open matter rather than quietly paying out.

Digital items

• Digital goods are released as soon as payment clears, and may be downloaded up to 5 times from your account.
• Your download link is personal to your account. Sharing it, or redistributing a purchased file, is a breach of these terms and of the seller's licence.
• Because a digital file cannot be returned, a downloaded item is refundable only where it was not what was described.

5. Selling

• You may only sell goods you have and can lawfully sell, and you must hold any licence a category requires. Some categories are restricted or closed.
• Commission varies by category and is shown to you before you list. It comes out of your take rather than being added to the buyer's total, and it is fixed against your order at the moment the order is placed — a later rate change never applies retrospectively. Some categories carry no commission at all.
• Dispatch promptly, and mark each stage honestly. You cannot confirm your own delivery — only the buyer's confirmation, or the 7-day window expiring, releases your money. That is deliberate, and it is what makes the escrow worth anything to a buyer.
• Your earnings are a separate balance from any credit you have bought from us. Earnings can be cashed out; purchased credit cannot.
• You may request a payout once your earnings reach $5.00. Payouts are settled by a person, by mobile money or bank transfer, and the reference is recorded. The amount leaves your balance when you request it; if we cannot settle a request, it goes back.
• An open dispute freezes the payment it relates to until it is resolved.
• Cash-on-delivery orders never pass through us, so nothing is released to you — you collect at the door. The platform fee on such an order is still owed and is taken from your wallet.

6. Bookings on Siesta

• A booking is a request. It becomes a reservation only when the property confirms it. There is no live availability calendar, which means we can never sell you a room that is already taken.
• A request the property does not answer within 3 days expires, so nobody is left assuming they have somewhere to sleep.
• Cancellation, deposits, refunds and the rate itself are between you and the property. We hold none of that money and cannot refund it.
• The property pays us a flat fee of $1.00 per confirmed booking. Guests owe us nothing.
• Properties: confirm only what you can honour, and answer requests promptly.

7. Artwork and photography on Gallery

• Every work starts editorial-use-only. Selling a licence for commercial use requires the rights holder to warrant that any necessary model or property release exists — recorded against their name and dated.
• A photographer may allow their work to appear alongside the subject it depicts elsewhere on the network. That is opt-in per work and per subject, and the licence must permit it.
• Logos may be uploaded only by the brand owner or by us, and can never be licensed or sold. They exist so a business can be recognised, not as stock.
• A business that objects to a photograph of it can report the work. Reporting is the route; there is no automatic veto.
• Buying a physical artwork is a marketplace purchase like any other. Buying a digital one grants the licence stated on the work, and nothing more.

8. Credit and payments

• You can top up a wallet balance to pay for listing extras and platform fees. Credit is not money on deposit: it can be spent on the platform but not withdrawn or transferred, and it does not expire.
• Payments are processed by Paynow. We do not see or store your card details.
• Where a purchase of a listing extra is cancelled early, any refund is calculated against the amount you actually paid at the time, not against the current price.
• Prices are shown as the seller has set them. Sellers are responsible for their own tax obligations on what they sell, and for issuing any invoice or receipt their customers require.

9. Things you must not do

• Scrape, copy or bulk-extract the catalogue, the directory or our prices.
• Interfere with the site, probe it for weaknesses, or try to reach data that is not yours.
• Impersonate another person or business, or claim a listing you have no connection to.
• Use the platform to launder money, to defraud, or to sell what may not lawfully be sold.
• Take a conversation off-platform in order to avoid fees, then ask us to protect the transaction.

10. What we are and are not responsible for

We provide the platform. We do not manufacture, own, inspect or deliver what is sold on it, and we do not operate the properties listed on Siesta. Listings, prices, descriptions and reviews are supplied by their authors.

We work to keep the site accurate and available, but we do not guarantee that it is free of errors or never interrupted. To the fullest extent the law allows, our liability to you in connection with any transaction is limited to the fees we charged on it and any funds of yours we still hold.

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including for fraud or for death or personal injury caused by negligence. If you are a consumer, your statutory rights are unaffected.

11. Changes, and ending the agreement

We may update these terms as the platform changes. The date at the top of this page tells you when they last changed, and material changes will be notified in-app or by email. Continuing to use the sites after a change means you accept it.

You may close your account at any time. Closing it does not cancel obligations already incurred — an order you have taken, a payout you are owed, or a dispute in progress all run their course. Records we are required to keep are covered in the Privacy Policy.

12. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Zimbabwe, and the courts of Zimbabwe have jurisdiction over any dispute arising from them.

13. Contact

Questions about these terms: hello@search.co.zw, 0788 590 309, or 13 Bascaw Court, 40 Selous Avenue, Harare, Zimbabwe. Other ways to reach us are on the contact page.