Terms of Service

1. What Bear is (and isn't)

Bear is an online marketplace connecting customers with independent suppliers of temporary site services: skip bins, portaloos, temporary fencing, site offices, generators, scaffolding, containers, lighting towers, cool rooms, shower units, rubbish chutes and similar.

Bear is operated by Peers Group Limited, a New Zealand company ("Bear", "we"). By creating an account or using the Bear app or website you agree to these terms.

Bear acts as an agent facilitating bookings, not as the supplier. Each booking creates a contract for services directly between the customer and the vendor. Bear does not collect, hold or handle your payment. Card payments are processed by our payment provider directly to the vendor's own merchant account; the vendor is the merchant of record for every booking.

2. Accounts

Provide accurate details and keep them current; you're responsible for activity under your account. Vendor accounts must be held by a business entitled to supply the listed services in New Zealand, holding all required licences, certifications and insurance. We may suspend accounts that breach these terms.

3. Bookings

A booking request is an offer; the contract forms when the vendor confirms in the app. Prices are set by vendors and shown exclusive of GST. Zone-based delivery surcharges are shown before checkout. Quoted prices assume reasonable site access. Vendors may decline bookings they can't service, you're refunded in full.

4. Cancellations

Customers may cancel a booking in the app free of charge until 24 hours before the delivery date. Inside 24 hours the booking can no longer be cancelled in the app; contact the vendor directly, who may agree to cancel or reschedule at their discretion. Cancellations inside 24 hours may be charged in full, as the vendor will have committed equipment and transport.

Vendors may cancel a requested or confirmed booking in the app, giving a reason. The customer is notified immediately, is refunded in full for any card payment, and may rebook with another vendor. Vendors who repeatedly cancel confirmed bookings may be suspended. Vendors must cancel through the app so the customer's record and refund are handled correctly.

Cancelling a confirmed booking does not affect any post-hire charge already properly raised for work done before the cancellation.

5. Payment

For card bookings, your card is charged when the vendor confirms. The payment goes directly to the vendor through our payment provider (Stripe), Bear never holds your money and cannot release, withhold or freeze it. Bear's service fee is deducted from the vendor's side of that same payment. Approved trade-account customers may pay vendors on invoice terms instead. Refunds are issued by the vendor; Bear will help you get one resolved but does not hold funds to refund from.

6. Vendor obligations

Vendors must hold appropriate insurance, comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, supply safe and compliant equipment, and perform bookings with reasonable care and skill. Category-specific compliance sits with the vendor, including council permits for skips on roads or berms, and scaffold certification requirements.

7. Customer obligations

Provide safe, lawful site access and accurate placement information. No asbestos, hazardous or liquid waste in skips or bins, vendors may refuse or charge for non-compliant loads. Hired equipment remains the vendor's property; you're responsible for loss or damage beyond fair wear and tear.

8. Post-hire charges

Vendors may submit an extra charge after the job (overweight bins, excess days, damage, prohibited waste). Every charge requires an amount, a reason and photographic evidence. You get 48 hours to dispute before the vendor may process it. Your card details are held by our payment provider and are never disclosed to Bear or to vendors.

9. Fees and non-circumvention

Bear charges vendors a service fee on each booking. On card bookings it is deducted automatically from the vendor's payment at the time it is processed; on trade-account bookings it is invoiced to the vendor. For 12 months after a customer and vendor first connect through Bear, neither may knowingly arrange the same service types off-platform to avoid Bear's fees.

10. Problems, consumer law and liability

Report issues in the app. Bear will facilitate resolution between you and the vendor on the evidence provided, and may suspend a vendor that repeatedly fails to resolve them, but because Bear does not hold your payment, any refund is made by the vendor. Your card issuer's chargeback rights are unaffected. The Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 applies to consumer supplies; for in-trade customers it is contracted out of to the extent permitted. Bear provides the platform "as is" and is not liable for the acts of vendors or customers; to the extent permitted by law, Bear's total liability to you in connection with any booking is limited to the service fee Bear received on that booking. Nothing limits rights that cannot lawfully be excluded.

11. General

New Zealand law governs these terms. We may update them with reasonable notice in the app. Contact: hello@bearhire.co.nz.