Terms of service

What Mercado Carambola is

Mercado Carambola is a meeting point. We connect people who need something with people who offer it in Puerto Rico, and we provide the tools to request, quote, coordinate, pay and review.

We are not the service provider or the seller. The work is done by the person or business offering it, with their own prices, their own schedule and their own professional responsibility. When we say a profile is verified we mean exactly that and nothing more: that we checked some documents at a point in time. Verified does not mean guaranteed.

Your account

To have an account you need to be 18 or over and to have an email address you can access. The details you enter must be yours and must be true.

Your account is yours: do not share it or lend it. If you think someone else got in, change the password and write to us. You can close your account whenever you like.

We can suspend or close an account that breaks these rules, that uses the platform to deceive someone, or that puts the community at risk. When we do, we tell you why.

If you offer services

Listing a provider profile is free, and quoting a request is free. We do not charge for receiving a lead.

As a provider you commit to the following:

• Offer only what you know how to do and are entitled to do, with the current licence your trade requires.
• Describe the work, the price and what it includes before the other person accepts.
• Deliver what you quoted, or give notice in time if you cannot.
• Keep current the documentation that earned you a badge. An expired document withdraws the badge.
• Never ask for an advance payment outside the platform. It is the most common scam in Puerto Rico and we treat it as grounds for suspension.

Trust badges are earned, not bought. They are not for sale, not for rent, and cannot be obtained by paying for more visibility.

Fees and payments

Listing and quoting are free. We charge a commission only when a transaction paid through the platform completes, and it is always shown to you before you accept.

In Servicios the provider pays the commission: 10% the first time we bring them a new client, with a $3 minimum and a $20 cap, and 2% with a $0.50 minimum every time that same client returns. If the provider invites their own client, it is 2% from the first booking.

In Mercado, a store order pays 6% with a $0.50 minimum, and that 6% already includes processing. A neighbour-to-neighbour sale handed over in person pays no commission. In Comunidad, free events pay nothing; a paid ticket pays $0.50 plus 3.5%, capped at $3 per ticket. Tips go to the provider in full.

Processing cost is shown separately when it is not included: 2.25% with ATH Móvil and 2.9% plus $0.30 with a card. Those are the processor's rates, with no markup from us.

Money from a paid booking is held by the processor, not by us. There is no balance or wallet inside the platform: the payout to the provider leaves once the booking is confirmed as completed.

If we change a rate, we give 30 days' notice and the change never applies retroactively.

Confirmation, cancellations and problems

When the provider marks a job as finished, you have 24 hours to confirm it or report a problem. If the quoted job is $500 or more, you have 48 hours. We remind you 6 hours before the window closes. If you do nothing, it confirms on its own.

Even after that automatic confirmation you can report a problem for 72 hours. Reporting a problem freezes the payout to the provider.

A booking cancelled more than 24 hours ahead is refunded in full. If the booking totals $250 or more, that free window is 48 hours. Cancelled inside the window, $15 is retained for the provider and the rest is refunded; never more than was actually charged. If the provider cancels, or if we cancel, the refund is full. If no schedule was agreed, the refund is full.

A reported problem is reviewed by a person on the team, not an automated system, with evidence from both sides. Neither the client nor the provider can resolve their own case. The decision is explained to both parties.

A job paid outside the platform has no refund, no review and no backing from us. We do not chase it, but we also cannot help when something goes wrong.

Reviews

Only someone who completed a booking paid through the platform can review, and only that booking. It is the reason reviews here are worth something.

You have 30 days from completion to write the review, and 48 hours from writing it to edit it once. The provider can reply once.

A profile shows no average until it has 3 reviews. Before that it says «Nuevo», because the average of one review is not an average.

Bought reviews, reviews written by the person being reviewed, and reviews written in exchange for something are not allowed. We can remove a review that breaks these rules, and we say why.

What you may not do

Mercado Carambola may not be used to:

• List what is not yours, or describe it in a way that misleads.
• Ask for money up front outside the platform, or move payment to an external link.
• Impersonate another person, a business, or us.
• List weapons, drugs, prescription medicines, identity documents, live animals, or anything whose sale is prohibited by law.
• Discriminate on race, colour, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, family status or sexual orientation in a housing, employment or services listing.
• Harass, threaten, or publish another person's private data.
• Harvest other users' data automatically, or interfere with how the site runs.

A listing reported by several people is hidden while someone reviews it. Moderation decisions are made by a person and carry a reason.

Your content

What you post stays yours. By posting it you give us permission to show it inside the platform and in the site's presentation for as long as you keep it posted. If you delete it, it stops being shown.

Post only photos and text that are yours or that you have the right to use. If someone tells us about a misuse, we take it down.

How far our responsibility goes

We build the platform as well as we can, but we cannot promise that another person's work turns out well. We are not answerable for the quality, punctuality, safety or legality of what a provider or a seller does.

What we do is what this document says: verify what we say we verify, hold the money from a paid booking until the work is confirmed, review problems reported in time, and decide them with human judgement.

The service is offered as it is. There can be outages, errors and features that change. Our liability to you is limited to what you paid through the platform for the transaction in question.

None of this limits the rights Puerto Rico law gives you, including DACO consumer protection. A product that is defective or not as described is refunded in the same form of payment, whatever the seller's own policy says.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Puerto Rico. Any claim is brought before the courts of Puerto Rico.

Before it gets that far, write to us. Most problems are solved with a conversation and the evidence in plain view.

Changes and contact

We can change these terms. When we do, we change the date above, and if the change is significant we tell you by email before it takes effect. Continuing to use the platform after a change means you accept it.

If something here is unclear, write to us at hola@mercadocarambola.com.