Terms of Service

The Terms of Service is a legally binding contract between “YOU”, the “User”, the “Subscriber”, the “Patron”, “the Visitor”., the “Guest”, the “Member”, and this “Site” referred to as “We”, “Us” or “Our” to include but not limited to Service With A Smile®, Service With A Smile® Ratings, Go Shopping with a Smile®, SmileRatings, Followup Support Services, and any trademark or enterprise owned by us.

By entering the Site, you are bound by the Terms of Service.  It is your responsibility for checking the Terms of Service for changes that may occur at any time.  By entering the Site following any changes to the terms, you acknowledge acceptance of any changes.  However, we will provide notification of any changes before they take effect.  You must be of legal age to use the services of this Site.  This Site is rated for a general audience, so therefore if you see anything offensive please report it to us.  Profanity is unacceptable!

This Site is a service to which you may post opinions or comments and become a member. Your opinions or comments may be entered in the form of a post or comment for any business, entity, or organization.  Your opinion is your voice and we will rate and review them to establish a pass or needs improvement indicator as part of the Central Consumer Information platform.

We charge usage and access fees only.  Any ratings, reviews, or opinions provided by you are done so without request and are free of any fee.  You may be asked to join in a Community Campaign from time to time to support other members to honor those who deserve it.   You may choose to accept or decline and this is also free of any fee to us or payment to you.  

You must agree not to be paid by a third party to post an opinion, an experience, a rating, or a complaint.  You must act independently to post your own truthful experience and content.  Your comments or opinions must be considered to be at arm’s length without a conflict of interest.  

We provide a place to post opinions and comments and may administer our own ratings and reviews for each post.  You are welcome as a subscriber and member to review any post, it’s rating if applicable, and write your opinion in the form of a post within the same category to share your opinions or comments. 

Any fee charged by us is non-refundable. 

1. PERMISSIONS

To post an opinion, experience, recommendation, or complaint to your post or any post, we need you to give us some legal permissions to use that content.  When you post or upload content that will be shared, that is covered by intellectual property rights (especially photos and videos) on or in connection to our site and the third party or parties we forward it to.  Therefore, an important part of the Terms of Service is that you hereby grant us an irrevocable, perpetual, fully-paid, non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, and worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content to include but not limited to Social Networks and other third parties at our sole discretion for an indefinite period of time.  You agree to forfeit your rights to have any of the foregoing information and content deleted, transferred, or removed.

What that means, is once the content is posted it remains posted indefinitely and you are giving us, your irrevocable permission to use that content and giving up any personal data rights to that content.  Therefore, no external party can cause you to request that your opinion in any form in your post be modified or removed even upon request.

We, reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change, modify or remove any or all content in your post or your opinion(s).  In addition, we reserve the right to immediately suspend or terminate your access to the site and remove your posts or comments, without notice for any reason at any time.  But especially upon any breach of this Agreement by you is brought to our attention.

Simply put, once it is posted, it stays. However, additional opinions and comments may be added to any post or by creating a separate post at any time.

You agree that the usage of this Site is for your non-commercial personal use.  You are authorized to use your content in any way you decide. You are not authorized to use other opinions, content, posts, or allow others to use your user I.D., password, or assign or otherwise transfer your rights to use this Site to any other person or entity.

You may not impersonate someone else, create or use an account for anyone other than yourself, provide an email address other than your own, or create multiple accounts.

2. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR CONTENT

a) Never use the names of individuals

You agree that this Site is not to be used for complaints towards Individuals, unless they are an enterprise doing business as a sole proprietorship, general partnership, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, or more commonly an “LLC” or corporation and they use their personal name in the business.  Using a person’s individual name can open you up to consequences and legalities such as a “libel or defamation” lawsuit and be very damaging to yourself and the person that you name. Therefore, when referring to individuals, it is best to use their titles such as receptionist, representative, sales rep., sales consultant, associate, service rep., installer, manager, general manager, owner, and so forth.  You may use their initials, or first name with surname initial when honoring individuals.  Otherwise, even when it is a positive opinion of someone, you may feel it is acceptable to display their full name, but it is best to be safe than be sorry.  Remember that everyone has rights that must be respected!

b) Profanity is unnecessary

Although you may think about it, there are many ways to communicate or express such thoughts without actually saying them.  Many people are offended by profanity and we collectively must respect that. Profanity is not only unnecessary, but it is unacceptable here, however,  F$%& expressions are accepted.

c) Being truthful and honest

We all know that honesty is the best policy and anything less than the best is unacceptable.  By using our Site, you hereby warrant that the information you provide is truthful and honest to the best of your knowledge.  You agree to provide firsthand, your experience and not what you heard from someone else.  You agree to provide content that is factually accurate without misrepresentation but as an opinion by you.  Opinions can not be challenged. You own it and it is your right to freedom of speech.  Whereas facts may be challenged perhaps by naysayers and sometimes in court.  Usually by a competitor!  Therefore, we stress that you always communicate the facts in terms of your opinion or your experience, your belief, etc., especially if it is on the negative side or a complaint. For example:  Instead of saying the sky is blue, just say in my opinion the sky looks blue to me.  It’s that simple!

d) Supporting documentation or evidence

An important part of your opinions and experiences is being able to support them in some way.  It is not because you are a bad actor, but it is to help support the integrity of Service with a Smile® concept and site.  It is unfortunate that we all have to deal with fraudsters, bots, spam, and falsification by some for personal gain.  Whenever money is involved, trustworthiness goes down too.  Remember, integrity is priceless!

We ask whenever possible to upload with your post some proof that provides verification of your experience.  For instance, if you bought something, perhaps a receipt would be appropriate.  Or for travel, a picture that connects the timeline to the experience.  For example, it could be a picture of an itinerary, airline ticket, and so forth.  Just something, anything and you could be creative, even funny.  Remember the old adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words”.  This is also another way to present facts that will make it very difficult for anyone to oppose the truth.  

Acceptable supporting documentation may range in a variety of things.  Here are some ideas that may be considered:

Pictures, screenshots, emails, or snippets of emails or records such as letters, receipts, guarantees, warranties, canceled checks, contracts,  or anything else that make sense to you.  Be sure to blank out any personal information or names that you don’t want to make public.

e) Respect others

Everyone is different, although we are very much alike.  So always respect others using the Site.  Here we do not accept user behavior that may be constituted as being  “defamatory, abusive, bigotry, lewdness, obscene, profane, offensive, threatening, harassing, racially offensive, pornographic, spam, violation of any applicable laws or illegal material, or any material that infringes or violates another party’s rights including, but not limited to, intellectual property rights and rights of privacy”