Terms of Service

1. What Hanwok is

Hanwok is a marketplace that helps people:

• • Find skilled Artisans nearby or nationwide and discover jobs
• • Chat and agree work, price, scope, and payment terms
• • Create Agreements, invoices, and payment stages
• • Pay through Hanwok's payment flow, including protected payment batches where applicable
• • Use Hanwok's dispute process for payment conflicts

Hanwok is a marketplace intermediary. The binding work arrangement for a job is between the Customer and the Artisan. Hanwok provides marketplace, communication, payment infrastructure, and dispute-process services.

Hanwok is not:

• • The employer of Artisans
• • A party to the job agreement between Customer and Artisan
• • A guarantor of the quality, timeline, outcome, or fitness of work
• • An insurer of persons or property

2. Definitions

• • Customer: the person who hires work or services and makes payment under an Agreement
• • Artisan: the person who offers creative skills, work, or services through Hanwok and may receive payment into an Artisan Wallet after release
• • User: any Customer, Artisan, or other account holder using Hanwok
• • Agreement: the commercial agreement accepted by the Customer and Artisan that sets the job's total amount, payment stages, and other agreed commercial terms
• • PaymentBatch: a scheduled payment stage under an accepted Agreement, such as an upfront/deposit, progress, or final stage. A PaymentBatch records the amount and payment state for that stage
• • Protected Funds / Escrow: amounts already paid into Hanwok's payment flow that remain held or committed under a PaymentBatch pending an applicable release, refund, cancellation, or Dispute outcome. An unpaid Customer balance and an amount already transferred to an Artisan are not Protected Funds
• • Release: the action or product-controlled event that moves an eligible paid PaymentBatch, or the applicable portion of it, toward the Artisan's Wallet in accordance with the Agreement and applicable product rules
• • Dispute: a request for Hanwok to review a conflict between a Customer and Artisan involving the Services or protected funds
• • Artisan Wallet: the ledger-based record of amounts credited to an Artisan through a Release. Funds may be Pending before becoming Available for withdrawal. A Wallet balance does not by itself mean that a transfer to the Artisan's bank account has completed
• • Outstanding Customer Balance: an amount under an accepted Agreement that the Customer has agreed to pay but has not yet paid. It is not Protected Funds until actually paid into Hanwok's payment flow, and it is payable only when due under the Agreement and applicable payment-stage rules
• • Artisan Liability / Amount Owed to Hanwok: an amount that an Artisan is required to repay or otherwise satisfy to Hanwok under these Terms, an applicable refund or Dispute outcome, chargeback, payment reversal, fraud determination, or other permitted process. It is not an automatic reversal of ordinary Artisan earnings

3. Eligibility, accounts, and acceptance

• • You must be at least 18 years old (or otherwise legally capable of entering into a binding agreement under Nigerian law) to use Hanwok
• • You must provide accurate registration information and keep it updated
• • You are responsible for your login credentials and for activity on your account
• • One person should not create accounts to evade bans, fees, payment controls, or disputes
• • Hanwok may refuse, suspend, or terminate accounts as described in these Terms

When Hanwok presents a required Terms and Privacy acceptance step during account onboarding, you must accept the applicable Terms and Privacy Policy before continuing. Hanwok may record the accepted Terms version and acceptance time.

4. Acceptable use

Hanwok is a marketplace for creative, craft, and visual work, for example fashion and tailoring, shoemaking, makeup and hairstyling, baking and cake design, custom furniture, bead making, and similar services where the work is primarily about making, designing, styling, or producing something with a strong creative or visual component.

Hanwok is not intended for services that are primarily repair, installation, maintenance, servicing, or construction (for example electrical, plumbing, mechanics, phone repair, general cleaning, masonry, or building maintenance). Listings or hires that are outside this scope may be removed, refused, or restricted even if they are not illegal.

You must not use the Services to:

• • Post or hire for illegal, fraudulent, exploitative, or prohibited work
• • Perform regulated trades without required licenses where the law requires them
• • Harass, threaten, scam, deceive, or impersonate others
• • Circumvent Hanwok's payment controls, fees, freezes, or dispute processes in bad faith
• • Abuse card or bank chargebacks to avoid the in-app payment or dispute process
• • Scrape, attack, or reverse engineer the Services except as allowed by law
• • Use Hanwok to facilitate activity that violates applicable law or the rights of others

Hanwok may remove content, limit features, freeze funds, or suspend or terminate accounts for violations. Enforcement is discretionary; Hanwok does not promise to police every job, message, or interaction.

Users may report or block other Users using available Hanwok safety features. Hanwok may review reports and take appropriate action, including content removal, restrictions, suspension, or account termination.

5. User content and license

You keep ownership of content you post, including profiles, jobs, photos, messages, reviews, and other material. You grant Hanwok a worldwide, non-exclusive license to host, store, display, reproduce, and use that content as needed to operate, improve, promote where you made it public, secure, and enforce the Services and these Terms.

You represent that you have the rights required to post what you upload and that your content does not infringe the rights of others or violate applicable law.

6. Jobs, chat, and Agreements

7. Payments, upfront payments, protected funds, and release

8. Refundability, cancellation, silence, and stuck payments

The following refundability principles apply, subject to the Agreement, product rules, and applicable law:

Do not assume all money is protected until a job is finished. Protection applies only to funds still held under applicable rules (especially final-stage Protected Funds while dispute windows apply). Upfront amounts already released to an Artisan are not automatically recoverable.

Cancellation is generally simpler before money moves. Once funds are held, refunds require mutual agreement or a Dispute. Silence by a party does not by itself trigger an automatic refund. Hanwok may use reminders, dispute windows, and other product mechanisms; always subject to the refundability principles above.

A Customer refund request is a request for review, not an automatic refund. Approved refunds are returned to the original payment source or handled through the payment provider's process where applicable. Payment reversals or chargebacks are separate from ordinary Hanwok refunds. If funds have already been paid to an Artisan and applicable rules make the Artisan responsible, an Amount Owed to Hanwok may arise. Hanwok does not automatically claw back every payment; recovery must arise from a permitted process such as a refund, Dispute, chargeback, or fraud investigation.

9. Disputes

A Dispute is a request for Hanwok to review a conflict. It is a process, not insurance and not a guaranteed refund or timeline.

While funds remain recoverable under product rules, outcomes may include:

• • Full refund to the Customer
• • Full release or keep for the Artisan
• • Mutual cancellation

Partial automated splits are not promised. If funds have already been paid to an Artisan, Hanwok may be unable to reverse the transfer but may establish an Amount Owed to Hanwok where applicable.

Dispute and related windows are as published in the Services or payment policy and may be updated. Filing a Dispute does not mean an instant refund.

Hanwok may review Agreement terms, payment stages, invoices, chat and messages, and account records when handling a Dispute.

The Dispute process does not replace claims for personal injury, property damage, or criminal conduct.

10. Chargebacks and payment reversals

Customers may have rights under bank or payment-provider rules to initiate chargebacks or similar reversals. Those processes are separate from Hanwok's ordinary refund and Dispute processes. Using chargebacks in bad faith or to circumvent Hanwok's process may lead to suspension, termination, or payment freezes.

Processor chargebacks or reversals may cause a payment provider to withhold funds from Hanwok. Where an Artisan has already received payment and applicable rules make the Artisan responsible, an Amount Owed to Hanwok may arise. Hanwok may recover such amounts from future payments or other lawful recovery methods. You agree to cooperate with reasonable payment and identity verification.

Artisan payout transfers

Artisan payouts are processed through payment providers and may be pending, delayed, failed, rejected, or subsequently reversed. Hanwok may retry or reprocess a failed payout, request corrected payment information, or take other reasonable steps. An Artisan is not considered to have received a payout merely because Hanwok initiated the transfer. Where a transfer is later reversed, Hanwok may correct the corresponding payment records and take appropriate action under these Terms.

11. Off-app meetups, safety, and liability for real-world harm

Many jobs involve in-person work. You arrange and attend meetups and perform or receive work at your own risk.

• • Hanwok does not employ Artisans
• • Hanwok does not insure Users
• • Hanwok does not accept liability for personal injury, property damage, theft, or illegal acts arising from in-person meetups or work, except where liability cannot be lawfully excluded
• • Payment and Dispute features are for payment conflicts, not insurance against real-world harm
• • Users should verify identity, credentials, licenses, and references themselves

Hanwok marketing and support must not claim Artisans are "verified," "insured," or "guaranteed safe" unless Hanwok runs a defined program that supports that claim.

For serious harm or crime, contact law enforcement and your insurer as appropriate. Civil claims between Users are generally between those Users.

12. Account deletion, suspension, and platform rights

13. Disclaimers

Hanwok does not control Users and is not responsible for User statements, workmanship, or off-app conduct except as these Terms expressly require for marketplace, payment processing, safety, or Dispute handling.

14. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, HANWOK IS NOT LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, DATA, OR GOODWILL ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO THE SERVICES.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited under Nigerian law, including liability that applicable law does not permit Hanwok to disclaim.

15. Indemnity

You agree to defend and indemnify Hanwok against claims, losses, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your content, your jobs, your breach of these Terms, or your off-app conduct, except to the extent caused by Hanwok's willful misconduct or liability that cannot lawfully be shifted to you.

16. Privacy

Personal data is handled as described in our Privacy Policy. Payment processors and other service providers may have their own policies for processing payment, identity, and other information.

17. Changes to the Services and Terms

We may change features, payment-policy settings, payment windows, percentages, fees, and these Terms. We will publish updates with a new effective date and, where required, provide notice or obtain renewed acceptance.

Where Hanwok requires acceptance of a new Terms version, continued access to the affected Services may depend on accepting the updated Terms. In-flight Agreements, invoices, and PaymentBatches may remain subject to the rules that applied when they were created, except where changes are required by law or necessary for security, fraud prevention, payment processing, or platform integrity.

18. Governing law and disputes with Hanwok

These Terms are governed by the laws of Nigeria. Disputes with Hanwok shall be handled by courts in Kaduna State, Nigeria.

Before filing a claim against Hanwok, please contact hello@hanwok.com so we can try to resolve the issue.

This section concerns disputes between you and Hanwok. Payment Disputes between Customers and Artisans follow section 9.

19. General

• • If a provision is unenforceable, the rest remains in effect
• • Failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver
• • You may not assign these Terms without our consent; Hanwok may assign them to an affiliate or successor
• • These Terms and the Privacy Policy form the agreement governing your use of the Services, subject to any additional terms presented for specific features
• • Section titles are for convenience only

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(This summary is for convenience only and is not a substitute for the Terms.)