FAQ
All members shall respect each other and others' time and act, not inconveniencing the other party. They shall be truthful in their communications and unbiased in their feedbacks and ratings. They shall not try to manipulate the system through unethical practices, partial feedback / rating using decent or buisness like language. They shall maintain arms length relations with the opposite parties. Keep the account password safe and secure (unguessable).
For Provider : Providers shall try to deliver the requested service within the time frame, but preferably on the first visit, if that is normal or a minimum number of visits as necessitated by the service / project (they should plan well and keep appropriate and necessary spare parts and tools and replacements items in stock. For hourly quotes, they shall not prolong the service unnecessarily and try to finish the job within estimated or allotted time, without cutting corners and safety.
For Seeker / Requestor Seekers / Requestors shall give as accurate a job description as possible and shall accept extra charges - if convinced by the provider to the contrary provided done so before commencing the service.
Obligatory Quote (ObQ) means both parties are committed to follow through with their initial contacts i.e., RFQ from the requestor and Quotes and responses from providers. It binds the two parties to complete the transaction as per the terms agreed. Exceptions exist. Requestors get the bid evaluation assistance for faster and objective decisions, which will also benefit providers. More providers especially the good quality are likley to compete unlike the NoQ requests because there will be a sure Sale.
No-Obligation quote (NOQ) means the requestor is not obliged to accept any quote and may even seek the service from outside GalaxC community. Morally though, the provider selected by the Requestor has to deliver as per accepted terms. This may be reflected in the feedback (textual), but not in the Q-ratings (numerical score). Additionally, neither party gets the benefit of the GalaxC platform
Benefits :
(a) GalaxC will try its best to obtain the minimum number of quotes requested but it depends on the availablity of the providers and the notice period.
(b) Requestors get GalaxC's unique set of features
Constraints / Obligations :
There are commitments from both parties to follow up promptly with their own actions before the various deadlines agreed to. The requested service too has to commence by or within the window indicated by the requestor
Since both parties have the right to rate the other party, they can be justified in giving a negative rating without being untruthful. It will show to the public that the member is unreliable and as such will impact the future chances of business from GalaxC members
Exceptional and unavoidable cases (Life can sometimes present such situations to all of us). So, if one party is unable to honour the contract because of new developments or a pre-requisite condition not met, the contract may be postponed or mutually acceptable alternative arrangements made. Any feedback will affect the Q-rating to various degrees depending on the circumstances. The members have to ensure that a healthy internet and / or mobile conection is always available That is why even a landline number may prove useful for urgent contact.
(a) A bid can be withdrawn by the provider before* the bid evaluation deadline (including short-listing deadline)
(b) If the withdrawal, because of his latest status, is after being short-listed, or after winning the bid he should immediately respond to the Notification (within two minutes). Withdrawing a bid is justified if the provider has already accepted another job / project in the same same timeframe as that of the one under consideration - before the bidding results are announced. GalaxC is a very competitive marketplace. but the parties are obliged to stick with each other for this particular service and be considerate and accommodative, if possible If he is unable to to deliver in the timeframe as that of the one under consideration
GalaxC platform affords anonymity to both types of members (consumers to make an RFQ and providers to bid for that request)
Advantages :
(a) There is obviosuly privacy but also
(b) A certain degree of levelling of the playing field lessening discrimination and increasing opportunities for the underdogs to compete with big players by eliminating big marketing and advertising budgets as a key determinant of winning business - replacing it with community feedback
(c) Consumers or seekers can privately and discreetly make a service quote request to providers - such as a lawyer or doctor or any professional. Similarly, the providers can compete with peace of mind knowing that the even though all quote / bid amounts are made available to all other competitors, their identity is not. No party knows about the other parties during the bidding process. Even after the Quote selection is made, only the Requestor and th winning provider will know about each other but not about other (losing) bidders.
The provider, upon arriving on site and looking at the 'problem', refuses to honour the quote because the job description is inaccurate resulting in higher costs in labour or material than estimated for the service as originally described. He may demand more money and or to return later at a mutually convenient time to finish the job (with the original or new quote just given).
(a) The customer refuses to pay the extra charges because he does not believe that the service description is inaccurate
(b) The customer accepts his job description is slightly inaccurate, but not happy with the revised quote - even if it is below the budget indicated or that he does not have enough or spare cash for the moment but still thinks the quote is high - if it is above the budget
(c) In view of the fresh job dscription, the provider will not proceed without revised quote nor negotiate does not have enough time to complete the job because he has another commitment due soon or does not have the spare required.
(a) The two parties may go ahead anyway by agreeing on a price only as a temporary solution with the customer agreeing to the new price quoted by the provider if considered fair by an impartial committee formed by randomly selected group of members (consisting of two providers from the same category, one from other categories and three from consumers (totalling six) with a casting vote from GalaxC. If one of the parties is not happy they can take it up with the department of Fair Trading with the Consumer represnted by the Consumer protection Group and the Provider repreented by his association. Depending on how the decision by the GalaxC community affects either party, the negative remarks and ratings will affect the one party but fairly depending on whether it is a marginal or extreme violation of trust. if the dispute goes to the external body for resolution, the guilty party may be penalised and asked to compensate the otherparty and may also lose some rating points or be suspended or blacklisted.
(b) One of the parties found to be uncompromising could get a very bad feedback from the other or or both could get from each other. But before that, their case can be put up for comments from other members after marking both parties as having a dispute (with a red flag set up for both but neither banned from GalaxC or other jobs). It is hoped that either ot both parties compromise after noting the feedback as long as the red flags remain on the their accounts, they will not be able to rate others.
Only the GalaxC members who actually enter into a service contract on the GalaxC platform (whether online or through the Contact centre), can do this but only for the specific contract (having a unique job id). All RFQ seekers (of ObQ or NOQ) can offer textual feedback about a provider and vice versa, the ratings can be offered only by ObQ seekers (binding contract).