Terms of Service

The short version (for convenience only; the full Terms below control)

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS. SECTION 22 REQUIRES MOST DISPUTES TO BE RESOLVED BY INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION AND WAIVES CLASS ACTIONS AND JURY TRIALS. YOU CAN OPT OUT OF ARBITRATION WITHIN 30 DAYS (SECTION 22.8).

• ServicedCar is a directory. Shops and service-contract administrators are independent businesses. We don’t repair cars, sell or administer service contracts, or guarantee anyone’s work.
• You must be 18 or older to create an account or send a repair request. Anyone can browse.
• Repair requests are paused. When they reopen, a shop gets your request only after you choose that shop.
• Businesses are responsible for their own listings. Listing is free. When paid plans start, they will renew until cancelled and can be cancelled online at any time. Paying never moves a business up in search results.
• Disputes go to individual arbitration, not court or class actions. You can opt out within 30 days.

Part A: Everyone

1. Agreement to these Terms

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a legal agreement between you and Optimized Star LLC, an Arizona limited liability company that owns and operates ServicedCar.com (“ServicedCar,” “we,” “us”). They cover the ServicedCar.com website, accounts, dashboards, tools, and emails (the “Service”).

You accept these Terms when you check the box or click the button saying you agree, for example when you create an account or list a business. If you don’t agree, don’t use the Service. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information and is part of these Terms.

If you use the Service for a business, “you” also means that business, and Part B also applies to you.

2. What ServicedCar is, and what it is not

ServicedCar is an online directory and referral service. It helps drivers find independent auto repair shops, see what shops and vehicle service contract administrators say about themselves, keep vehicle records, and, when available, send repair requests. We are not:

• a repair shop, mechanic, towing company, or roadside assistance provider;
• an insurer, insurance agency, or insurance producer;
• a seller, provider, obligor, or administrator of any vehicle service contract, warranty, or guarantee;
• a claims adjuster, or anyone who decides whether a repair or claim is covered;
• an agent, partner, or employee of any shop, administrator, or driver; or
• a source of professional mechanical, legal, financial, or insurance advice.

Businesses listed on the Service are independent. We do not employ, supervise, or control them. Appearing in a listing or search result, having a paid plan, or carrying any label on the Service does not mean we have inspected, licensed, endorsed, recommended, or guaranteed a business, its work, its prices, or its statements.

3. Who can use the Service

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract to create an account, send a repair request, or accept these Terms. Anyone may browse public pages. The Service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information. If we learn an account belongs to someone under 18, we may close it and delete its information.

The Service is meant for use in the 50 United States and the District of Columbia. If you accept these Terms for a business, you confirm you are authorized to bind that business.

4. Your account

Give accurate information and keep it current. Keep your password and sign-in methods private. You are responsible for activity under your account. Tell us right away at admin@servicedcar.com if you think someone used your account without permission. We may require two-step sign-in for some accounts.

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards to protect your information. No online service is completely secure, and we can’t promise that no one will ever get past those safeguards.

Don’t share your account, create an account for someone else without their permission, or sign up with false information.

5. Repair requests

Repair requests are paused: the request form is closed while we build the way requests reach shops. Requests sent before it closed are held by our team and used only to respond to or close them. When the form reopens, sending a request means asking us to connect you with a shop, and you agree that:

• Your request goes only to the shop you choose. We send it to that shop automatically, by email and in the shop’s ServicedCar account, with your vehicle details, problem description, ZIP code, and contact information, so the shop can respond to you. The request form shows who will receive your information before you send it.
• A request is not an appointment, quote, estimate, repair authorization, or contract. No shop has to respond, accept your vehicle, or honor any price, time estimate, or availability shown on the Service.
• Any estimate, authorization, repair, payment, warranty, or guarantee is only between you and the shop. Get written estimates and terms from the shop before you authorize work.
• We don’t guarantee that a shop will respond, how quickly, or the result of any repair.
• You must have the right to share what you send, including information about another person or their vehicle.

6. Vehicle information and records

You can look up vehicle details by Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) and keep maintenance records. VIN lookups use outside sources such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That information, and records entered by you or by shops, may be incomplete or wrong. We don’t guarantee the accuracy of any vehicle, recall, or maintenance information.

Knowing a VIN does not prove you own the vehicle or give you any right to change its records. We may ask for proof of ownership or authority before letting anyone create, change, share, or transfer records.

You may give a shop or administrator access to your records and withdraw that access at any time. Withdrawing access stops future access through the Service, but cannot recover copies a business already saved.

7. Public vehicle history

We do not offer public vehicle history. Your vehicle records stay private unless you share them with a business you choose. If we ever offer it, we will update these Terms and ask for your agreement first.

8. Service contracts, guarantees, towing, and safety

Information on the Service about service contract administrators, which contracts a shop accepts, shop guarantees, labor rates, repair times, towing, and roadside help comes from businesses or is general information. It may change without notice.

• Your service contract or warranty is governed only by its own written terms and the company that issued it. Only that company can tell you what is covered. Confirm coverage with them before authorizing work or a tow.
• A guarantee or warranty shown on a shop’s listing is that shop’s own promise. We do not issue, back, insure, administer, or pay any guarantee, warranty, or claim.
• Claims phone numbers and other administrator contact details are shown for convenience and may be out of date. Check them against your contract.
• Listings, prices, and images marked as a demo, sample, or representative example are illustrations only. They do not describe a real business or offer.

THE SERVICE IS NOT AN EMERGENCY SERVICE. IF ANYONE IS IN DANGER OR YOUR VEHICLE IS UNSAFE TO DRIVE, GET TO SAFETY AND CALL 911.

Articles, guides, and tools on the Service are general information, not a diagnosis or inspection of your vehicle. Decisions about whether to drive, repair, or tow a vehicle are yours.

9. Messages from us

By creating an account or sending a request, you agree that we, and the shops you choose, may contact you by email, through the Service, or by a non-automated phone call to respond to your request, about your account and requests. These are service messages; you can’t opt out of them while you have an account or an open request.

Every marketing email we send will include a way to unsubscribe. We will not send you marketing texts or automated or prerecorded calls unless you separately agree, and agreeing is never required to use the Service. You agree that we may give you notices and agreements electronically, and that these satisfy any requirement that they be in writing.

10. Your content

“Your Content” means anything you submit, such as vehicle records, repair requests, listing details, text, logos, and photos. You keep ownership of Your Content. You give us a nonexclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, copy, display, format, and transmit it as needed to run, secure, and improve the Service and, for businesses, to display and promote your listing. This license ends when Your Content is deleted, except for limited-time backups and copies the law requires us to keep.

You confirm you have the right to submit Your Content, including permission from anyone who appears in your photos, and that it is accurate and lawful. Content from users and businesses is their own statement, not ours. We may remove or refuse content we believe is inaccurate, unlawful, or in breach of these Terms, but we have no duty to review it.

We may create de-identified or combined information (for example, counts of requests by region) that does not identify you, your vehicle, or anyone else, and use it for any lawful purpose. We will not try to re-identify it. If you send us suggestions, we may use them without obligation to you.

Nothing in these Terms limits your right to post honest reviews of us or any business, to make lawful complaints, or to contact any government agency.

11. Rules for using the Service

You may not, and may not help anyone else to:

• submit false or misleading information, listings, records, or requests, or impersonate anyone;
• harass, threaten, or discriminate against anyone, or use the Service to find or contact a vehicle owner;
• post content that is unlawful, defamatory, infringing, or exposes someone’s private information;
• post fake reviews, or offer rewards for reviews that depend on what the review says;
• scrape, crawl, or copy data from the Service, or build a competing database, except as our robots.txt file allows for public search engines;
• get around any security feature or usage limit, or access accounts or data that are not yours;
• upload harmful code or overload the Service;
• reverse engineer or copy the Service, except where the law forbids this restriction; or
• resell or commercially use the Service except as a business under Part B.

12. Our property and copyright complaints

The Service, including its software, design, text, graphics, data compilations, and the ServicedCar name and logo, belongs to us or our licensors. We give you a limited, personal, revocable, non-transferable license to use the Service as intended. Don’t use our name or logo without our written permission.

If you believe something on the Service infringes your copyright, send a notice to our designated agent at admin@servicedcar.com or Optimized Star LLC, P.O. Box 144, Cortaro, AZ 85652, including the information required by 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3). We may remove material and close the accounts of repeat infringers.

Part B: Businesses (shops and administrators)

13. Your listing

This Part is the agreement between ServicedCar and each shop, service contract administrator, or other business that creates a listing (a “Business”). A Business accepts it by checking the box at business signup.

Each Business is solely responsible for its listing and agrees to:

• keep its information accurate and current, including address, hours, services, labor rates, repair times, accepted service contracts, and guarantees, and fix errors promptly;
• have a reasonable basis for every claim it makes, and hold every license, permit, registration, and insurance policy its business requires;
• make clear that any guarantee or warranty it offers is its own, and make the full terms, exclusions, and claim steps available to customers;
• never state or suggest that ServicedCar, or any administrator, backs or endorses its work unless that is true and documented in writing;
• list an administrator relationship only if it is accurate, and remove it promptly when it ends;
• follow all laws that apply to its business, including repair estimate and authorization, consumer protection, advertising, privacy, and communications laws; and
• use only logos, photos, and materials it has the right to use.

A new listing appears in the directory only after we review the signup. We may reformat listings and may remove or suspend any listing we believe is inaccurate, misleading, unlawful, disputed, or in breach of these Terms.

A shop can hide its listing from its dashboard at any time, and any Business can ask us to hide its listing or close its account. When it closes its account, the Business chooses whether we remove its listing completely or keep it as a free listing.

14. Driver information you receive

A Business that receives a driver’s information through the Service may use it only to respond to that driver’s request and provide the services the driver asks for. The Business must:

• not sell, rent, or share it, or use it for unrelated marketing, without the driver’s separate permission where the law requires;
• not use any vehicle record to identify, locate, or contact a vehicle’s owner or former owner;
• protect it with reasonable security, limit access to staff who need it, and remove former staff promptly;
• tell us without undue delay, and within 72 hours when practicable, after discovering unauthorized access to its ServicedCar account or to driver information it received through the Service, and cooperate with any investigation and any notice the law requires; and
• follow all laws on calls, texts, and emails, including consent rules for marketing texts and automated calls.

Each Business is an independent contractor. It alone is responsible for its staff, estimates, repair authorizations, workmanship, parts, prices, taxes, safety, customer contracts, guarantees, and every other part of its dealings with customers.

15. Free and paid plans

Listing on ServicedCar is free. Paid plans are not offered yet. When we offer them, they will be billed monthly, the features, price, and any trial for each plan will be shown before purchase, and that checkout description will be part of these Terms. These rules will then apply:

• Free trials. We may offer a free trial of at least one month, at Optimized Star LLC’s discretion. Before a trial starts we will tell you whether it becomes a paid plan, the price, and how to cancel. We will not charge you without your agreement.
• Automatic renewal. PAID PLANS RENEW AUTOMATICALLY AT THE END OF EACH BILLING PERIOD AT THE THEN-CURRENT PRICE, AND YOUR PAYMENT METHOD WILL BE CHARGED, UNTIL YOU CANCEL. We will show these renewal terms and get your agreement before your first charge, and email you a confirmation.
• Cancel any time. Cancel online in your account’s billing settings, or email admin@servicedcar.com. Cancelling stops future renewals. Paid features continue until the end of the period you already paid for; then your account moves to the free plan.
• Payments. Payments are processed by Stripe, Inc. We do not store full card numbers. You authorize us and Stripe to charge your payment method for all fees and applicable taxes.
• Failed payments. If a payment fails, we may retry it. If it is still unpaid 30 days later, paid features end and your account moves to the free plan. This does not mean anything negative about your business.
• Price changes. We will give at least 30 days’ notice before a price increase. It applies from your next billing period, and you may cancel before then.
• Refunds. Fees are nonrefundable except where the law requires, or if we end your paid plan for a reason other than your breach, in which case we refund the unused part of the current period.
• Taxes and amounts owed. Prices exclude taxes unless stated. Fees for periods already provided stay due even if your plan ends. If you dispute a charge with your bank instead of contacting us first, we may pause paid features while the dispute is resolved.

A paid plan buys features, not position. Paying never moves a Business higher in search results, and it does not buy any number of leads or customers, or any endorsement. We do not guarantee leads, requests, bookings, revenue, or search position. Offers or coupons a Business posts are its own, and their terms are between that Business and its customers.

16. Business responsibility for claims

Each Business will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless ServicedCar and its members, managers, employees, and agents from all claims, damages, losses, penalties, and costs (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising from: its repairs, services, parts, prices, estimates, guarantees, or warranties; its employees and contractors; its listing and content; its use of customer information; any security incident involving its account or systems; or its violation of law or these Terms.

Part C: Legal terms for everyone

17. No warranties

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, THE SERVICE AND ALL INFORMATION, LISTINGS, RECORDS, AND CONTENT ON IT ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT PROMISE THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT ANY BUSINESS, REPAIR, SERVICE CONTRACT, OR INFORMATION WILL MEET YOUR NEEDS.

18. Limits on our liability

18.1 Other people’s conduct. We are not responsible for the acts, work, products, prices, statements, guarantees, warranties, or coverage decisions of any shop, administrator, towing provider, driver, or other third party, or for any vehicle damage, personal injury, or loss from your dealings with them. To the fullest extent the law allows, we are also not liable for content errors, outages, or harmful code or unauthorized access by others, except to the extent caused by our failure to use reasonable security.

18.2 LIABILITY CAP. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS: (A) WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR LOST PROFITS, DATA, OR GOODWILL, OR THE COST OF A SUBSTITUTE VEHICLE, SERVICE, OR REPAIR; AND (B) OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATED TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF US $100 OR THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE. THESE LIMITS APPLY TO EVERY LEGAL THEORY.

18.3 Release. To the fullest extent the law allows, you release ServicedCar and its members, managers, employees, and agents from all claims, known and unknown, arising from any dispute between you and a shop, administrator, or other third party. This release does not cover claims based on our own conduct.

IF YOU ARE A CALIFORNIA RESIDENT, YOU WAIVE CALIFORNIA CIVIL CODE SECTION 1542, WHICH SAYS: “A GENERAL RELEASE DOES NOT EXTEND TO CLAIMS THAT THE CREDITOR OR RELEASING PARTY DOES NOT KNOW OR SUSPECT TO EXIST IN HIS OR HER FAVOR AT THE TIME OF EXECUTING THE RELEASE AND THAT, IF KNOWN BY HIM OR HER, WOULD HAVE MATERIALLY AFFECTED HIS OR HER SETTLEMENT WITH THE DEBTOR OR RELEASED PARTY.” YOU ALSO WAIVE ANY SIMILAR LAW OF ANY OTHER STATE.

18.4 Your responsibility for misuse. To the fullest extent the law allows, you will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless ServicedCar and its members, managers, employees, and agents from claims and costs (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising from Your Content, your misuse of the Service, or your violation of these Terms, any law, or anyone’s rights.

18.5 One-year deadline. Any claim related to the Service or these Terms must be started within one year after it arises, or it is permanently barred. This deadline does not apply to residents of the states named in Section 25, where the deadline set by state law applies instead.

18.6 What these limits don’t cover. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that the law does not allow to be limited, such as liability for fraud, for gross negligence or willful misconduct where the law forbids limiting it, or for consumer protection or privacy rights that cannot be waived. Section 25 lists the specific provisions that do not apply to residents of particular states.

19. Suspension and closing accounts

You can stop using the Service and close your account at any time by contacting us. We may suspend or end your access to all or part of the Service if we believe you have broken these Terms or the law, created risk or legal exposure for us or others, or if we stop offering the Service or a feature. Where practical, we will tell you why. Closing an account doesn’t delete records we must keep by law or limited-time backups.

Sections 2, 5 through 8, 10, 14, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, and 24, and any fees owed, continue after these Terms end.

20. Changes

We may change, add, or remove features at any time. We may update these Terms. For a material change, we will notify you by email or through the Service at least 30 days before it takes effect, except for changes required by law or needed to address security or misuse. Changes apply going forward only. For a material change, we will ask you to agree to the updated Terms (for example, by checking a box) before you continue using your account. For other changes, continuing to use the Service after the change takes effect means you accept it. If you don’t agree, stop using the Service and close your account. Changes to Section 22 won’t apply to a dispute you told us about before the change.

21. Privacy

Our Privacy Policy, at ServicedCar.com/privacy, explains what information we collect, how we use and share it, and your choices.

22. Disputes: individual arbitration and class action waiver

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION. IT REQUIRES YOU AND US TO RESOLVE MOST DISPUTES BY INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION INSTEAD OF IN COURT, AND IT WAIVES CLASS ACTIONS AND JURY TRIALS.

22.1 Try to resolve it first. Before starting arbitration or a small claims case, send the other side a written notice describing the dispute and what you want, and try in good faith to resolve it for 60 days. Send notices to us at admin@servicedcar.com and Optimized Star LLC, P.O. Box 144, Cortaro, AZ 85652. We will send notices to your account email. Deadlines are paused during the 60 days.

22.2 Agreement to arbitrate. Except as stated in 22.3 and 22.8, you and we agree that any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms, the Service, or our relationship, under any legal theory and whenever it arose (a “Dispute”), will be resolved only by final, binding, individual arbitration. The arbitrator decides whether a Dispute must be arbitrated, except that a court decides questions about 22.5 and 22.6.

22.3 Exceptions. Either side may bring an individual claim in small claims court if it qualifies and stays there. Either side may ask a court to stop infringement or misuse of intellectual property or unauthorized access to the Service.

22.4 How it works. The American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) will run the arbitration under its Consumer Arbitration Rules for individuals and its Commercial Arbitration Rules for Businesses (see www.adr.org). One arbitrator decides. Hearings will be by video, phone, or written submissions unless the arbitrator decides an in-person hearing is needed; any in-person hearing for an individual will be in the county where that person lives. The arbitrator may award any individual relief a court could award, but only to the individual party. The award may be entered in any court with jurisdiction.

22.5 CLASS ACTION AND JURY WAIVER. YOU AND WE MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST EACH OTHER ONLY INDIVIDUALLY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY CLASS, COLLECTIVE, CONSOLIDATED, OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. YOU AND WE EACH WAIVE THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL.

22.6 Costs and mass filings. For individuals, we pay all AAA filing, administration, and arbitrator fees beyond what you would pay to file in court, unless the arbitrator finds your claim frivolous. Each side pays its own attorneys’ fees unless the law or the award says otherwise. Businesses pay fees under the Commercial Rules. If 25 or more similar demands are filed by or with the help of the same or coordinated lawyers, they will be administered under the AAA’s Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules.

22.7 If part of this Section fails. If the class waiver is found unenforceable for a claim, that claim will be decided by a court under Section 23 after individual arbitration ends, never in class arbitration. Any request for public injunctive relief that the law does not allow to be waived or arbitrated will also go to court after arbitration. Otherwise, if any part of this Section is unenforceable, the rest still applies.

22.8 Your right to opt out. You may opt out of arbitration by emailing admin@servicedcar.com with the subject “Arbitration Opt-Out” within 30 days after you first accept these Terms. Include your name, account email, and a clear statement that you opt out. Opting out doesn’t affect the rest of these Terms.

23. Governing law and courts

The Federal Arbitration Act governs Section 22. Otherwise, Arizona law governs these Terms, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, but nothing here takes away protections you have under the mandatory laws of the state where you live. Any Dispute that is not arbitrated will be brought only in the state or federal courts in Pima County, Arizona, and both sides consent to those courts, except that an individual consumer may also sue where they live if the law gives that right.

24. General terms

• Entire agreement. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and any plan or checkout terms you accept are the whole agreement between you and us about the Service.
• Severability. If any provision is unenforceable, it is enforced as far as allowed and the rest stays in effect, except as Section 22.7 says.
• No waiver. Not enforcing a provision is not a waiver of it.
• Assignment. You may not transfer these Terms without our written consent. We may transfer them in a merger, sale of assets, or reorganization.
• Events beyond our control. We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control, such as internet or hosting outages, natural disasters, or government action.
• Relationship. Nothing here creates a partnership, joint venture, agency, franchise, or employment relationship. Other than our members, managers, employees, and agents, no one else gets rights under these Terms.
• Feature rules. Some features (for example, reviews) may have extra rules we show you when you use them. They are part of these Terms; if they conflict, these Terms control.

25. State notices

California. Under California Civil Code § 1789.3, California users may contact the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs in writing at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, CA 95834, or by phone at (916) 445-1254 or (800) 952-5210.

New Jersey. The release in Section 18.3 (including the waiver of laws similar to California Civil Code Section 1542) and the one-year deadline in Section 18.5 do not apply to New Jersey residents. All other provisions of these Terms apply.

Florida, Montana, and Texas. The one-year deadline in Section 18.5 does not apply to residents of these states. The deadline set by your state’s law applies instead.

26. Contact us

Optimized Star LLC, P.O. Box 144, Cortaro, AZ 85652. Email: admin@servicedcar.com. Use this contact for questions, account and privacy requests, copyright notices, arbitration opt-outs, and legal notices. Never send passwords or full card numbers by email.