Terms of Use

1.About these Terms

These Terms of Use are an agreement between you and Zinola, based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu (“Zinola”, “we”, “us”). They apply whenever you use the Service, whether or not you have an account.

1. 1.1By creating an account, or by using the Service, you agree to these Terms, to our Privacy Policy and to our Community Guidelines. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.
2. 1.2The Community Guidelines are the short, plain version of the rules in Sections 12 and 13. Where the two ever differ, these Terms apply.
3. 1.3How posts, listings, businesses and reviews are ordered is explained on How ranking works, which forms part of these Terms.

2.Definitions

1. 2.1Service means the zinola.in website, the business.zinola.in console and the Zinola apps for iOS and Android, and everything offered through them.
2. 2.2Street means the feed for your area, where people post questions, requests, recommendations, posts, polls and events.
3. 2.3Circle means a community on Zinola, with its own groups or rooms, chats, polls, events and other tools, run by its owner and moderators.
4. 2.4Directory means the listings of local businesses on Zinola, claimed or unclaimed. A claimed listing is one whose owner or authorized representative has passed our claim check.
5. 2.5Marketplace means the listings of things and services offered by people and businesses. An Enquiry is a private chat started from a listing or a business page.
6. 2.6Content means anything posted on the Service: posts, replies, messages, reviews, listings, photos, profiles, business pages and circles.
7. 2.7You means the person using the Service, and, where you act for a business, that business as well.

3.Eligibility and accounts

1. 3.1You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. If you are under 18, you may use it only with the consent of a parent or guardian, who accepts these Terms on your behalf and is responsible for your use of the Service.
2. 3.2You can sign in with a code sent to your email, with Google, or with Apple on iOS. One account per person, in your own name and with accurate details. Do not create an account for anyone else or pretend to be someone you are not.
3. 3.3You can change your username once every 30 days. Names, bios and usernames containing slurs or explicit sexual language are refused.
4. 3.4You are responsible for what happens under your account. Keep access to your email and sign-in methods safe, and tell us at hello@zinola.in if you think someone else has used it.
5. 3.5If you act for a business, you confirm that you are authorized to bind it to these Terms.

4.Our role as an intermediary

1. 4.1Zinola is an intermediary under the Information Technology Act, 2000. We host Content that people and businesses post. We do not author it, verify it or endorse it, and it is the responsibility of the person who posted it.
2. 4.2We are not a party to any arrangement between users, or between a user and a business: a sale, a job, a price, a date, a delivery or a payment. We do not set prices and we do not guarantee anyone's goods, work or behavior.
3. 4.3Anyone can add a business that is missing from the Directory. It is published as unclaimed and unverified until its owner claims it (see Section 7). An unclaimed listing is information other people supplied, not a statement by the business or by us.
4. 4.4Booking services through Zinola is not offered at present. If we offer it again, these Terms will be updated first.

5.Payments and money between users

1. 5.1Zinola never asks for money. Zinola does not collect, demand or accept money from anyone for any process: creating or verifying an account, posting, listing or boosting, claiming or verifying a business, reviews, ranking, joining a circle, support or anything else. No one at Zinola will ask you for a fee, a deposit, a “processing”, “verification” or “KYC” charge, or for your OTP, UPI PIN or card details. A message, call or page that does is not from Zinola: do not pay it, and report it (Section 13). If we ever introduce a fee, we will publish it here with notice before it applies.
2. 5.2Money between others is not with Zinola. Any payment or transaction between users, between businesses, between a business and a user, or between a user and a business is solely between those parties. Zinola is not a party to it, does not handle or hold the money, and does not act as an escrow, agent or guarantor for it.
3. 5.3Check and re-verify before you pay anyone. Before you send money, confirm who you are paying, check the payee's name and UPI ID or account in your own payment app, and check the amount and the goods or service you are paying for. Be wary of advance payments, urgency and requests to move off Zinola. If anything does not match, do not pay.
4. 5.4Inside a Marketplace chat, a seller can send you a UPI payment request for between ₹1 and ₹1,00,000. Paying it opens your own UPI app with the seller's UPI ID and the amount filled in. The money goes straight from you to the seller, never through Zinola.
5. 5.5“I've paid” and “Received” in a chat are what each side says. Zinola cannot see, confirm, reverse or refund a UPI payment. Check the payee and the amount in your UPI app before you pay.
6. 5.6Zinola is not responsible. Zinola is not responsible or liable for any payment, loss, fraud, non-delivery, refund or dispute arising from money sent between users or businesses, whether or not the two met on Zinola. Refunds, returns and disputes are between you and the other party: Zinola charged nothing and holds nothing to return. If you think someone is running a scam, report them (Section 13).

6.Marketplace, enquiries and bookings

1. 6.1Sellers are responsible for their listings: that they are accurate, that the price and availability are right, and that the item or service can lawfully be offered. Illegal items or services, and anything that breaks Section 12, cannot be listed.
2. 6.2A listing stays up for 30 days, or until the “valid till” date the seller set, and can be renewed by 3, 7 or 30 days.
3. 6.3Do not put phone numbers in a listing's title or description. Contact goes through the Enquiry chat, and you share your own details there only if you choose to.
4. 6.4In an Enquiry, buyer and seller can exchange booking requests, price offers, schedules, completion notes and payment requests. Any deal you reach is between the two of you.
5. 6.5Unclaimed businesses do not take Enquiries; visitors can register their interest instead. Zinola may forward an Enquiry to other suitable businesses so that you get an answer.

7.Business listings and claims

1. 7.1The owner of a business, or a representative authorized by them, may claim its listing. By claiming, you confirm that you have that authority and that what you tell us is true.
2. 7.2A person checks every claim; it is never automatic. The check typically includes a call to the number on the listing, and may include proof documents such as a GST certificate, shop license or utility bill, a GSTIN check, and photos of the premises.
3. 7.3A rejected claim can be reopened by phone. We may remove a claim, or the access that came with it, if it turns out to be false.
4. 7.4The verified tick appears only on a claimed listing that has passed business or project verification.
5. 7.5Ranking is not for sale. No one can pay for a better position, a verified tick or a review mark. See How ranking works.

8.Reviews

1. 8.1A review must describe your own first-hand experience. Do not offer, ask for or accept payment, a discount or any other benefit for a review. Do not review a business you own, work for or compete with.
2. 8.2One review per person per business; writing again updates it. You may share a new experience once every 90 days, and earlier versions stay visible.
3. 8.3You may post a review anonymously. It is shown as written by someone nearby; the business cannot see who wrote it, but Zinola can.
4. 8.4A review hidden or removed by moderation cannot be submitted again.
5. 8.5A business can post one public reply to each review (to each version of it), and can edit or remove its reply. A business can never edit or remove the review itself.
6. 8.6Zinola may mark a review “Checked by Zinola” after looking into it. That mark is at our discretion and is never for sale. A “Verified” label on a review means it arrived through a single-use link the business sent.
7. 8.7We do not edit reviews to favor anyone, and no one can pay to remove a review or change its order.

9.Your content and license

1. 9.1You own the Content you post.
2. 9.2You give Zinola a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to host, store, reproduce, display and distribute your Content in order to operate, improve and promote the Service.
3. 9.3The license ends when you delete the Content, except where others have already shared it on the Service or where we must keep it by law.
4. 9.4You confirm that you have the rights to everything you post, including photos, and that posting it does not break anyone else's rights or the law.

10.Circles and direct messages

1. 10.1A circle can be open, closed (joining needs approval) or invite-only, and may ask a short join form. Each circle has an owner and may have moderators.
2. 10.2A circle's owner and moderators can approve or reject join requests, remove or block members, mute a member for 1, 7 or 30 days, delete and pin messages, set roles, and archive or delete the circle. The owner cannot be removed.
3. 10.3Members can edit their own messages for 15 minutes after sending and delete them for 48 hours.
4. 10.4These Terms and our Community Guidelines apply inside every circle. Zinola staff can see circle chats and reported messages when that is needed to keep the Service safe.
5. 10.5Direct messages are possible only between people who follow each other, and never between people where one has blocked the other.
6. 10.6Group buys in a circle are arranged by its members. Zinola handles no money for them and is not a party to them.

11.Interests and personalization

1. 11.1Zinola may occasionally ask whether you like a post or a product, or whether a topic interests you. Answering is optional.
2. 11.2Your answers, and things you do such as likes, saves, enquiries and posts, are recorded against topics. If you are signed in and have stated interests, matching posts and listings are ranked a little higher, and topics you said no to a little lower.
3. 11.3You can see and change your interests in Settings, under Your interests.
4. 11.4Festival pages may show Marketplace listings that match a festival around the time it falls.
5. 11.5The details are in our Privacy Policy and on How ranking works.

12.Prohibited content and conduct

We have no tolerance for objectionable content or abusive users. That is the rule we enforce, and breaking it can cost you the Content and your account.

1. 12.1Sexual content or nudity, and anything that sexualizes a minor, in any form.
2. 12.2Attacks on anyone for their caste, religion, race, region, language, disability, gender or sexuality.
3. 12.3Threats, harassment, stalking, and targeting one person again and again.
4. 12.4Posting someone's address, phone number, workplace or photograph without their consent.
5. 12.5Promoting violence or self-harm.
6. 12.6Fraud, scams, impersonation of a person or business, fake reviews or reviews that are not first-hand, and spam.
7. 12.7Content that is illegal under Indian law.
8. 12.8Infringing anyone's copyright, trademark or other intellectual property.
9. 12.9Content containing slurs or explicit sexual language is saved hidden automatically, not published, and the writer is told. Names, bios and usernames containing them are refused.
10. 12.10Do not interfere with the Service: no scraping, automated accounts, attempts to get around a block or suspension, or attempts to break or overload it.

13.Reporting, moderation and suspension

1. 13.1Every post, reply, review, listing, message, circle, business page and profile can be reported, once per person per item. Reasons are spam, harassment, hate, misinformation, scam, sexual content, impersonation, off-topic and other.
2. 13.2Content is hidden automatically while it is reviewed when 3 different people report it within 24 hours, or 2 for hate, sexual content or harassment. Businesses and profiles are never hidden automatically; they go to a moderator.
3. 13.3We aim to review reports within 24 hours. Moderators can hide content, warn the author, remove content, or suspend an account for 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days or indefinitely. Where Content is serious enough, we act without a warning.
4. 13.4A suspension hides everything the account posted, and it is restored when the suspension is lifted. A suspended account cannot post.
5. 13.5The author is notified and can see the status in their account. Content hidden automatically can be appealed from there, and a moderator decides. Any other moderation decision can be raised with the Grievance Officer (Section 14).
6. 13.6Blocking is mutual: neither person sees the other's Content or can contact the other, and any follow between them is removed.
7. 13.7An account created to get around a suspension or termination will be terminated, along with the original.

14.Grievance redressal

Under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, Zinola has appointed a Grievance Officer. You can complain to them about any Content on the Service, about a moderation decision, or about how we have handled your data.

1. 14.1Grievance Officer, Zinola, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Email privacy@zinola.in.
2. 14.2Tell us who you are, how to reach you, what the complaint is about and, where you can, a link to the Content.
3. 14.3We acknowledge every complaint within 24 hours and resolve it within 15 days.
4. 14.4If the complaint is about Content that shows you in an intimate image, exposes you sexually, or impersonates you, we act to remove or disable access to it within 24 hours, as Rule 3(2)(b) of those Rules requires.
5. 14.5If you are not satisfied with the outcome, you may escalate the matter as the law allows.

15.Zinola's intellectual property

1. 15.1The Zinola name and logo, the helper characters, the design of the Service and its software belong to Zinola or its licensors.
2. 15.2You may use the Service as these Terms allow, but you may not copy, modify or reuse any of these without our written permission.

16.Disclaimers

1. 16.1The Service is provided “as is” and “as available”. We work to keep it running and accurate, but we do not promise it will always be available, error-free or secure.
2. 16.2Content, listings, reviews and recommendations are other people's words. Check anything important for yourself before you rely on it, meet someone, hire a business or pay.
3. 16.3To the extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties not stated in these Terms.

17.Limitation of liability

1. 17.1Zinola is not liable for anything that happens between you and another user or a business, including goods, services, payments, meetings and disputes, and including any money you send to another user or business (Section 5).
2. 17.2To the extent the law allows, Zinola is not liable for indirect, incidental or consequential loss, or for lost profits, data or goodwill.
3. 17.3To the extent the law allows, Zinola's total liability to you is limited to the amount you paid Zinola for the Service in the 12 months before the claim, which for a free service is nil.
4. 17.4Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

18.Indemnity

1. 18.1You agree to compensate Zinola for claims, losses and reasonable costs that arise because you broke these Terms or the law, or because of Content you posted, to the extent the law allows.

19.Ending your account

1. 19.1You can deactivate your account at any time. Deactivation hides your Content, and signing in again undoes it.
2. 19.2You can delete your account at any time. Deletion is immediate and permanent. Some records are kept where the law requires or allows; the Privacy Policy explains which.
3. 19.3We may suspend or terminate an account that breaks these Terms, as described in Section 13.
4. 19.4Sections 9 (for Content others have shared), 15, 16, 17, 18 and 20 continue after your account ends.

20.Governing law and jurisdiction

1. 20.1These Terms are governed by the laws of India.
2. 20.2The courts at Chennai, Tamil Nadu have jurisdiction over any dispute about them.

21.Changes to these Terms

1. 21.1We may update these Terms. The version and date at the top of this page always show the current one.
2. 21.2When we make a material change, we will tell you on the Service and ask you to accept the new Terms again before you continue.

22.Contact

1. 22.1For anything about the Service, email hello@zinola.in.
2. 22.2For complaints, use the Grievance Officer in Section 14: privacy@zinola.in.