Terms of Service

1. The service

The Spool List ("we", "us") operates a marketplace connecting buyers with independent verified makers for custom fabrication projects. Makers are independent contractors, not employees or agents of The Spool List Ltd. We provide matching, messaging, payment protection and dispute tooling — the fabrication contract is between buyer and maker. By creating an account or using the platform you agree to these Terms.

2. Accounts

Accounts are created in the iOS or Android app; the web portal (web.app) is sign-in only. You must be 18 or older. You are responsible for all activity under your credentials. Maker verification (per-machine proof and identity/KYC via our payment partner) is required before receiving payouts. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms.

3. Payment protection & payments

Payments are processed by Stripe. Every order is funded before work begins, and the buyer's payment is held until the buyer confirms delivery. Funds are released to the maker on confirmed delivery or when the dispute window closes without a claim. Off-platform payment is prohibited and voids all buyer protections. Maker payouts are subject to Stripe's identity verification requirements. Buyers pay no platform fee: the price a buyer pays is the maker's quote. Makers pay a commission on completed jobs, set by their plan and shown before they bid.

4. Content & intellectual property

You retain all rights to files and designs you upload. Posting a job grants matched makers a limited, non-exclusive license to view, quote and fabricate the specified design. Inventor-mode posts are private by default; disclosure is controlled by you. Do not upload content you lack rights to. We may remove content that violates third-party IP rights.

5. Prohibited use

The platform may not be used to fabricate weapons, firearms components, or controlled items where prohibited by law; counterfeit goods; items that infringe third-party IP; or any illegal items. You may not circumvent the payment protection system, harass other users, or systematically scrape or abuse the platform. Violations result in immediate account termination and may be reported to law enforcement.

6. Disputes

If there is a problem with an order, the buyer and the maker first try to resolve it between themselves, in the order thread or the in-app dispute tool, for 7 days. If it is not resolved within 7 days, either of them can escalate it to The Spool List. We review the evidence from both sides and decide how the held payment is released or refunded, and our decision is final. Returns are agreed between the maker and the buyer within this process. The Spool List is not the seller or maker of fabricated goods and is not liable for their quality beyond running this process and releasing or refunding the held payment.

7. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, The Spool List's aggregate liability to you for any claim arising from use of the platform is limited to the greater of (a) the amount held in payment protection for the specific order giving rise to the claim, or (b) $100 USD. We are not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages.

8. Changes & governing law

We may update these Terms by posting a revised version with a new "Last updated" date. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. If you are a consumer, this does not take away any protection you have under the mandatory laws of the country where you live. The Spool List is operated by The Spool List Ltd, a company incorporated in Delaware, USA, 8 The Green, Dover, DE 19901, USA. Questions: legal@thespoollist.com.

9. Local service listings

These terms apply when you create a listing for your business on The Spool List ("a listing") through ads.thespoollist.com. They are in addition to the rest of these Terms and our Community Guidelines.

9.1 What a listing is

A listing is paid advertising. It shows your business name, category, area, description, logo, website and contact options to people using The Spool List apps and website near the area you choose. Every listing is labelled "Paid" or "Paid listing". Paying for a listing does not buy a higher ranking: we order listings by whether they cover the viewer's location and by distance, and we rotate ties daily.

9.2 Plans, price, automatic renewal and cancelling

• Each listing is billed on one of two plans, paid by card through Stripe on our website: monthly at US$5 per listing per month, or yearly at US$60 per listing per year. Listings cannot be bought inside the iOS or Android apps.
• Launch offer: if you start a yearly plan on or before 11 October 2027 and it is your first Services subscription, the first year costs US$50 per listing for the listings included when you start it; after the first year it renews at US$60 per listing per year. The offer applies once per advertiser: it is not available if you have had a Services subscription before (including one you cancelled), and not on the monthly plan. Listings you add later are charged at the US$60 yearly rate (see below).
• Coverage area and listing payments: the prices above are for one listing payment, which covers an area of up to 50 miles (80 km) around the point you set for the listing. If you want the listing shown further away you can choose a larger coverage area, and each additional 100 miles adds two listing payments: 150 miles (241 km) = 3 listing payments (US$15 per month or US$180 per year), 250 miles (402 km) = 5 (US$25 per month or US$300 per year), 350 miles (563 km) = 7 (US$35 per month or US$420 per year). Larger areas are not sold through the portal; contact us. A listing set to a city instead of a radius is always one listing payment. The checkout page and the Billing page show how many listing payments you are billed for.
• Where a listing is shown: to people whose location is inside the radius you set — never more than the coverage you have paid for — or inside one of the 50-mile hexagons of our map grid that your coverage includes (a hexagon is included when its centre lies inside your radius, so people in an outer hexagon can be up to about 29 miles beyond the radius line). The advertiser portal shows these hexagons on a map before you pay. We do not promise any number of views or contacts.
• Launch offer and coverage: the launch-offer first-year price applies to every listing payment included when you start your first yearly plan (for example US$150 instead of US$180 for the first year of a 150-mile listing). Coverage added later is charged at the standard rates.
• Changing the coverage of a paid listing: a larger area is charged straight away, pro rata for the rest of your current billing period (month or year) at the standard rate, and the larger area starts as soon as that payment succeeds — until then the listing keeps the area you have already paid for. A smaller area applies straight away and the unused part is credited pro rata against your next invoice (it is not refunded to your card). Stripe calculates these pro rata amounts and shows them on your invoice. A new listing with a coverage area larger than 50 miles that you add to an existing subscription is charged the same way: straight away, pro rata.
• Prices exclude tax. Any tax that applies where you are is calculated and shown at checkout before you pay, and added to each renewal.
• Your subscription renews automatically at the end of each period — every month on the monthly plan, every year on the yearly plan — for each billable listing, until you cancel. Before you pay, the checkout page shows the plan, the amount, the number of listings and that the subscription renews.
• A listing is billable from when you submit it: while it waits for payment, is being checked, is in review, is held for a fix, is live, is switched off by you, or is paused for a payment problem. Drafts, rejected listings and removed listings are not billed.
• Adding or removing listings — monthly plan: the change applies from the next renewal. We do not add or credit part-month amounts (except for coverage changes, described above).
• Adding a listing — yearly plan: a listing you add is charged straight away for the rest of your current paid year, pro rata at the US$60 yearly rate (the launch price does not apply to listings added later), and then renews with the rest of your plan. Removing a listing on the yearly plan lowers your charge from the next renewal; the unused part of the year is not credited or refunded.
• Switching a listing off hides it but does not stop billing. To stop paying, cancel the subscription or delete the listing.
• You can cancel online at any time under Billing → "Manage card, invoices or cancel" in the advertiser portal, which opens Stripe's billing portal. No phone call or email is needed.

9.3 What happens when you cancel

Cancelling stops the next renewal. Your listings stay live until the end of the period you have already paid for (the current month on the monthly plan, the current year on the yearly plan). After that they are taken down and you are not charged again. We do not refund the unused part of a period you have already paid for, except where the law requires it or as described in 9.5.

9.4 Payment problems

If a renewal payment fails, your listings are hidden straight away while Stripe retries the card. If the payment still has not gone through after 7 days, they are paused. They come back automatically once the payment succeeds.

9.5 Automatic checks, review, rejection, removal and refunds

• When you submit a listing, and again when your payment goes through and whenever you change a submitted listing, we run automatic checks on its content (category, licence details, text, website, contact verification, location and photos). If the checks pass and the listing is paid for, it goes live straight away.
• If the checks find something that must be fixed (for example a phone number or website in the description, or a word that is not allowed), the listing is held: it is not shown, and the advertiser portal and an email tell you what to change. When you save the fix, the checks run again and the listing goes live once it passes.
• Some listings are reviewed by a person before they go live — for example restricted categories, online-only services, a payment flagged for a manual check, or a listing that several people have reported. It is not shown while it is in review; this usually takes up to 24 hours. A live listing with a minor issue may also get a quick look from our team while it stays live. We may also review any listing at any time after a report or a change.
• We may reject a listing that breaks these terms or our guidelines, and we may remove a live listing that does. When we do, we tell you why by email.
• If we reject a listing before it has ever gone live, we will refund what you paid for that listing for the current billing period. Contact legal@thespoollist.com if it has not arrived within 10 business days.
• If we remove a live listing because it broke these terms, we do not refund the current billing period unless the law requires us to.

9.6 What you can't advertise

Listings must be for a real, lawful local service that you provide. We do not accept listings for, or that mention: firearms, gunsmithing, ammunition, weapons, or defence or ITAR-controlled work; medical, dental or clinical services; legal or immigration services; financial advice, debt services or crypto investment; gambling, cannabis, tobacco or vaping products; adult services or escort services; or anything illegal where you or your customers are. We check names, descriptions and websites for these terms automatically and may refuse or remove a listing on that basis. Listings also must not be misleading, include someone else's trademarks or photos without permission, use URL shorteners, or link to anything other than your own business website.

9.7 Your responsibilities

• You are responsible for everything in your listing and for making sure it is accurate, lawful and kept up to date.
• Licences: if your trade needs a licence, registration or insurance where you work, you must hold it. For regulated categories (plumbing, electrical, heating and air conditioning, general contracting, roofing, pest control, locksmith, architecture, engineering) you must give a licence number and the region that issued it. The licence number is shown on your listing. Giving a false number is a serious breach.
• Claims: any claim you make (prices, qualifications, guarantees, reviews, "certified", "insured" and so on) must be true and backed up.
• You must use a phone number and email address that you control. Before your first listing goes live you confirm the email address through a link we send to it, and you confirm the phone number while signed in with a code from your authenticator app.

9.8 No vetting, no guarantee

We check that you can receive email at your listing address, that you confirmed your phone number while signed in with your authenticator app, that the listing follows these rules, and that a licence number has been entered where one is required. We do not check your identity, licences, insurance, qualifications, prices or the quality of your work, and we do not endorse or guarantee any business. An "Email verified" badge means only that the email address was confirmed.

9.9 We are not part of your work or payment

For listings, The Spool List is an advertising service only. We are not a party to any agreement, quote, job or payment between you and a customer who finds you through a listing. Any work and payment are arranged directly between you and the customer, off The Spool List. We do not hold, process or protect those payments, and we are not responsible for disputes about them. Fabrication orders placed through The Spool List marketplace are covered by sections 1 to 6, not by this section.

9.10 Ending your account

You can delete a single listing (Listings → Delete listing) or your whole advertiser account (Account → Delete my advertiser account) at any time. Deleting your advertiser account removes all your listings and cancels the subscription at the end of the paid period (month or year). We may suspend or close an advertiser account that repeatedly breaks these terms.

10. Promotions

The offers below are promotional terms. We may change or end any promotion at any time for the future. Benefits already granted are honoured for their stated period.

10.1 Lifetime Founders

Lifetime Founders is a one-time purchase of the Pro or Premium plan for the life of your account or of the service, with no subscription. There are 500 places per plan. A Lifetime plan belongs to your account and cannot be transferred. Anyone can buy Lifetime on the web-only Founders page. If you buy it there with a valid referral or affiliate code, you also pay 0% platform commission for 6 months from the date of purchase. Otherwise, the standard commission for your plan applies.

10.2 Credits

Credits are sold at 140 credits per US$1. They are cosmetic only and can be spent on items such as badges and titles. Credits have no cash value, cannot be redeemed for money and cannot be transferred. Credit purchases are non-refundable except where the law or the app store requires a refund. Badges earned through activity or trust are never sold. You can buy credits on the web (through Stripe) or in the iOS or Android app (through Apple or Google); all purchases go into one shared balance.

10.3 Spooleconomy

Makers who complete the 5-step maker checklist between 1 August 2026 and 31 January 2027 get Pro plan features free for 90 days. The standard commission applies during those 90 days. After 90 days the account returns to the Free plan unless the maker subscribes. One per maker.

10.4 Promotional plan upgrades

A plan upgrade granted by The Spool List as a promotion lasts 12 months unless we state otherwise when we grant it.

1. What we collect

Account data (email, display name, role, profile photo), job and order content including uploaded design files, messages and attachments, device identifiers and approximate location for maker matching, payment tokens (card data is held by Stripe — we never store raw card numbers), and usage analytics from the app and marketing site.

Local service listings. If you advertise a business, we collect your business name, the contact phone number and email for your listing, your billing email, your username, the listing content and logo, and records showing that your email address was verified (by link) and that you confirmed your phone number while signed in with your authenticator app. If you set up an authenticator app, Supabase (our authentication provider) stores the secret it needs to check your codes. Payment details are handled by Stripe. We never see or store your full card number.

When you view listings. When you tap to see a business's phone number or email, we record which listing it was, the time, and the account that asked (if signed in), together with a salted one-way hash of your IP address (not the IP itself). We also count anonymous views and clicks for each listing using a salted hash, so advertisers see totals but never who you are.

2. How we use your data

We use your data to match jobs to nearby verified machines; facilitate payment protection, payouts and invoicing; prevent fraud and abuse; provide customer support; send transactional and product notifications (which you can manage in Settings); and improve the product via aggregated analytics. Your exact address is shared with a maker only after you hire them for a specific order.

3. Who we share data with

Stripe (payment processing and identity verification), Supabase (database and file storage, EU-region data residency available), Google (Analytics 4, Firebase App Check), Singular (mobile attribution), and RevenueCat (subscription management). We do not sell personal data to third parties for advertising. Law enforcement disclosure occurs only where legally required.

A business's phone number and email are shown only to someone who taps to reveal them. Advertisers see only total counts (impressions, views, calls, emails, website and directions clicks, shares). They never see who viewed their listing.

4. Analytics & advertising

We use Google Analytics 4 and the Meta Pixel on the marketing site (thespoollist.com), gated by your cookie preferences. We do not run behavioural ad targeting within the app. Analytics data is anonymized and not linked to your account without consent.

5. Retention & deletion

Order records and financial data are retained for up to 7 years as required by tax and financial regulation. Profile data and content are deleted within 30 days of account deletion (Settings → Privacy → Delete Account). Design files you upload to orders are deleted 90 days after order completion unless you save them to your portfolio. Analytics data is retained for 14 months.

Contact-reveal records and raw view and click events for local service listings are kept for 90 days and then deleted automatically. Only daily totals per listing are kept after that, for as long as the listing exists. When an advertiser deletes their advertiser account, their listings are removed straight away and the subscription is cancelled at the end of the paid period (month or year); billing records are kept by us and by Stripe for as long as tax law requires. The sign-in account itself stays until you delete your The Spool List account.

6. Your rights

Under GDPR (EEA/UK) and CCPA (California) you have the right to access, correct, export and delete your personal data. Exercise these rights via Settings → Privacy → Export / Delete, or by emailing privacy@thespoollist.com. We will respond within 30 days. You may also lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

7. Security

Data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest. Access to production systems is restricted to authorised personnel and requires multi-factor authentication. We conduct regular security reviews. In the event of a material breach we will notify affected users within 72 hours as required by law.

8. Contact

Data controller: The Spool List Ltd, a company incorporated in Delaware, USA, 8 The Green, Dover, DE 19901, USA. Privacy questions: privacy@thespoollist.com. We aim to respond to all enquiries within 5 business days.

This Cookie Policy is issued by The Spool List Ltd, a company incorporated in Delaware, USA, 8 The Green, Dover, DE 19901, USA, the data controller named in our Privacy Policy.

Essential cookies

Session, authentication and security cookies required for sign-in and CSRF protection. Always on — the site cannot function without them. These are first-party cookies set by thespoollist.com with a maximum lifetime of 7 days.

Analytics cookies (GA4)

Google Analytics 4 measurement of page views, CTA conversion and funnel performance. IP addresses are anonymized before storage; data is retained for 14 months. Off by default in EEA/UK regions until consent is given via the cookie banner.

Marketing cookies (Meta Pixel)

Meta Pixel for App Store download campaign attribution. Used to measure (not retarget) install conversion from paid ads. Off by default in all regions; opt-in only.

Managing your preferences

The cookie consent banner appears on your first visit. You can review or change your preferences at any time using the "Cookie preferences" link in the footer. Your choices are stored in a first-party cookie for 12 months. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of prior processing.

Be accurate

Makers: accurately represent your machines, materials and capabilities. Post only jobs you can genuinely fulfil. Buyers: describe your project clearly, including dimensions, tolerances and intended use. Misleading listings or requests that waste the other party's time may result in account suspension.

Be respectful

Treat every person on the platform with professionalism. Harassment, hate speech, threats, or discriminatory language of any kind will result in immediate account termination and may be reported to law enforcement. Disagreements about orders belong in the dispute tool, not in personal messages.

No off-platform dealings

All orders must flow through The Spool List payment protection system. Asking a buyer or maker to pay or accept payment outside the platform — whether in cash, bank transfer, or any other method — voids buyer protections and violates these guidelines. Repeat offenders are permanently banned.

Protect intellectual property

Only submit designs you have the right to fabricate. Do not knowingly reproduce patented mechanisms, trademarked logos, or copyrighted artwork without authorisation. If you receive a credible IP complaint about your listing, remove it immediately and respond to our trust-and-safety team.

No prohibited items

The platform must not be used to fabricate weapons, firearm components or accessories, controlled items where prohibited by local law, counterfeit goods, or anything designed to harm people or animals. Ambiguous requests are reviewed by our team; clear violations are escalated to relevant authorities.

Authentic reviews

Reviews must reflect your genuine experience. Do not offer incentives for positive reviews, threaten negative reviews as leverage, or submit reviews for transactions you were not a party to. Manipulated reviews are removed and may result in suspension.

Reporting

If you encounter content or behaviour that violates these guidelines, use the in-app report button or email trust@thespoollist.com. We review all reports within 48 hours. Good-faith reports are always confidential.