These Terms & Conditions govern your use of UstadWork as a client, freelancer, visitor, or staff user. UstadWork is a digital marketplace that helps clients and freelancers connect, agree on work, fund orders, communicate, and resolve issues on-platform. By accessing or using the service, you agree to follow these terms.

1. Accounts

• You must provide accurate and current information when creating or updating an account.
• You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your login credentials.
• You may not create misleading accounts, impersonate others, or evade restrictions.
• We may suspend, limit, or terminate accounts that violate platform rules, legal requirements, or safety standards.

2. Marketplace Rules

• UstadWork is for remote, digital, professional services with real deliverables. Physical on-site labor and low-value sign-up or referral tasks are outside platform scope.
• Clients are responsible for reviewing gig packages, proposal terms, prices, and delivery timelines before funding work.
• Freelancers must deliver work that matches the agreed scope, timeline, and professional standards of the order or contract.
• Both parties must communicate honestly, respectfully, and in good faith.
• Users must not misuse reviews, referrals, disputes, or platform features to manipulate outcomes unfairly.

3. Payments & Fees

Clients may be required to fund work through approved on-platform payment methods before work begins. Platform fees, commissions, processing costs, currency conversion costs, or payout deductions may apply. Payment collection may be handled by approved third-party providers. We are not responsible for banking delays, provider outages, card declines, compliance holds, or processor-side failures.

4. On-Platform Payments Only

To protect users and reduce fraud, payments, refunds, credits, and adjustments related to platform orders should remain on UstadWork unless we expressly authorize another method. Attempts to bypass platform payment or trust systems may lead to account restrictions.

5. Escrow, Delivery, and Completion

Where the platform uses a funded-order or escrow-style workflow, client funds may be held while work is in progress. Release timing depends on the order state, completion status, milestone approvals, dispute outcomes, and any applicable platform clearing rules.

6. Disputes, Cancellations, and Refunds

Users should first try to resolve issues through the order workflow and platform messaging. If a dispute, cancellation request, or refund request is raised, we may review the order record, files, messages, milestones, and other relevant evidence. We may approve, reject, partially resolve, or otherwise manage a case according to platform rules, safety concerns, and available funds. Additional details are described in our Refund Policy.

7. Prohibited Conduct

• Fraud, impersonation, misleading information, fake reviews, fake engagement, or deceptive marketing.
• Harassment, abuse, or discrimination.
• Academic cheating, exam-taking, workplace cheating, plagiarism, or job-test impersonation.
• Hacking, phishing, malware, unauthorized access, fake documents, unlawful data collection, or privacy abuse.
• Adult exploitation, sexually explicit services, or any unlawful or dangerous service request.
• Attempts to bypass platform payment, moderation, referral, or safety systems.
• Uploading or delivering infringing, stolen, unlawful, malicious, or non-licensed content.
• Using the service to violate sanctions, export restrictions, or other applicable law.

More detail and examples are available in our Allowed Services Policy.

8. Content Ownership and Intellectual Property

Users retain ownership of the materials they upload or already own. By posting content on UstadWork, you grant us a limited license to host, display, process, moderate, and distribute that content as needed to operate the marketplace. Unless otherwise agreed between the parties, completed work product created for a client is intended for the client's use upon full payment, while any freelancer background tools, pre-existing materials, know-how, and platform-independent assets remain with the freelancer unless explicitly transferred in writing.

9. Confidentiality

Users should treat private project materials, client data, credentials, and non-public business information as confidential. Do not share another party's private information except as necessary to complete the contracted work or where disclosure is legally required.

10. Termination

We may suspend, limit, or terminate access if policies are violated, fraud risk is detected, verification fails, legal requirements apply, or the platform is misused. You may stop using the service at any time, but open orders, payment obligations, pending disputes, and compliance obligations may still need to be completed.

11. Liability Disclaimer

UstadWork provides a marketplace and related workflow tools, but we do not guarantee the quality, legality, timing, or outcome of every transaction between users. To the fullest extent allowed by law, the platform is provided on an "as available" basis without guarantees of uninterrupted service, error-free operation, or fitness for a particular purpose.

12. Updates to These Terms

We may revise these Terms from time to time. If we do, we will post the updated version on this page with a revised date. Continued use of the platform after an update means you accept the revised Terms.

13. Contact

For questions about these Terms, disputes, compliance, or platform use, contact us at ustadworkofficial@gmail.com.