Terms of Service

1. What PinchHitterPool is (and is not)

PinchHitterPool is a platform that connects people offering work, volunteer time, or an internship candidacy (“members” or “providers”) with organizations, businesses, and households that need help (together, “organizations” — a household is treated as an organization in these Terms unless a rule says otherwise). We provide the tools — discovery, applications, offers, shifts, hour claims, attendance, certificates, and messaging.

PinchHitterPool is a technology platform that provides identity verification, coordination and record-keeping tools. We are not an employer, joint employer, staffing agency, employment agency, labor contractor, recruiter, payroll provider or party to any work arrangement formed through the platform. We do not direct, supervise or control any work, and we do not set, negotiate, guarantee or pay compensation. Organizations and providers act independently, contract with each other directly, and are each responsible for their own legal, tax, employment-classification, wage-and-hour, insurance and safety obligations. We do not guarantee, supervise or endorse any service, opportunity or person, and we do not guarantee that providers will find work or that organizations will find help.

Paid postings. On any paid posting the organization or household is the hirer of record: it decides how the worker is classified (employee or independent contractor), it pays the worker directly, and it is responsible for wages, any tax forms (for example 1099-NEC or W-2 in the US), insurance, and youth-employment rules where they apply. PinchHitterPool never pays workers, never holds or moves wages, and never records the amount paid except the figure the organization itself enters at closeout, which is used only to calculate the organization’s job fee.

Driving and rides. Helpers who drive are responsible for a valid license, insurance and following local laws. A ride to an appointment or an errand is help arranged directly between the people involved, as a favor or for a pay they agree on; PinchHitterPool is not a transportation service and does not provide, arrange, insure or pay for rides.

Households hiring domestic help. A household that hires a babysitter, nanny, caregiver, housekeeper, tutor, yard or other in-home help through the platform acknowledges that it is acting as an independent household employer (or as the client of an independent contractor, as the law of its jurisdiction determines). The household is solely responsible for complying with the federal, state and local laws that apply to household and domestic work — including minimum-wage and overtime rules, hours limits, rest and safety requirements, domestic-worker protection acts, work-eligibility checks, and household payroll and employment taxes (in the United States, the “nanny tax” rules). The household confirms this on every paid posting before it is published; PinchHitterPool records that confirmation, does not verify compliance, and does not give legal or tax advice.

2. Eligibility and accounts

• You must be 18 or older, or 13–17 with a parent or legal guardian who validates your account. 13–17 year-olds may take volunteer, side-hustle and internship postings from organizations only (never from a household); paid work is open from age 14, and never salaried roles. Every request from a 13–17 year-old is approved by the organization — there is no open sign-up for youth — and organizations that pay youth are responsible for applicable youth-employment rules (work permits, hours and job restrictions). We do not knowingly allow anyone under 13 to hold an account. Organizations that admit 13–17 year-olds are responsible for the supervision, consent, and youth-protection rules that apply to them.
• Sign-in uses secure SSO; you are responsible for the security of your sign-in method and for activity under your account. Platform-admin accounts use separate credentials with mandatory email verification codes.
• Provide accurate information and keep it current. One person per account; an organization or household account must be operated by someone authorized to act for it.
• We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms, create risk for others, or break the law.

3. Plans, fees, and payments

• Volunteering is free for both sides, and workers and interns never pay to take a job — no job fee, no per-job charge. Current prices for paid features — worker discoverability plans, employer plans, posting extensions, volunteer engagement certificates, and internship reference letters — are always shown on the pricing page and at the point of purchase.
• All payments are processed by Stripe. Subscriptions renew monthly until canceled; cancel any time and the plan runs through the paid period. One-time credits are consumed when used and are non-refundable once consumed, except where the law says otherwise.
• What our fees are — and are not. Every payment made on PinchHitterPool is a software service fee paid to SoftTelRG LLC for identity or business verification, digital certificates and reference letters, plans, or listing tools. PinchHitterPool does not process, hold, escrow or transmit wages, compensation or any payment between organizations and providers, is not a payment processor or money transmitter for them, and never takes a commission or percentage of anyone’s earnings. Anything owed for work is agreed and settled directly between the parties, outside the platform.
• Referral rewards. Referral points (currently $0.50 per verified referral) are promotional rewards for introducing a person who then completes identity verification — never a commission on work, never a lottery, and never earned for sign-ups alone. Every member who earns points may redeem them as PinchHitterPool credit against their own subscription, which is a discount on our service. Gift cards are available only to members 18 and older, and only on the website (pinchhitterpool.com in a web browser) — not in the PinchHitterPool mobile apps, where points are redeemed as credit only; members aged 13–17 receive credit only. Points redeemed as gift cards are a thing of value: you are responsible for any tax on them in your jurisdiction. Under U.S. Internal Revenue Service rules, once the gift cards you receive in a calendar year would reach $600, SoftTelRG LLC must hold a completed IRS Form W-9 (or the applicable W-8 form) from you before it arranges another card, and may report the rewards as the law requires. The form is collected by SoftTelRG LLC through support and is never stored on the PinchHitterPool platform; PinchHitterPool does not give tax advice. Referral rewards are not offered where prohibited by law and are separate from any SoftTelRG partner referral program.
• EU/UK consumers: by purchasing a digital service that starts immediately, you request immediate performance and acknowledge that the 14-day withdrawal right ends once the service is fully performed (for example, a consumed credit); statutory rights for unperformed services remain.
• Free-tier data retention: while a retention window is in force, finished free-tier posts may be archived after it; the window is shown on the pricing page whenever it applies. Paid plans keep history for the life of the subscription.
• Promo codes are one per person per code, may expire, and may be withdrawn in cases of abuse.
• How prices, plans and the free tier can change is in section 3A; refunds and billing questions are in section 3B. Changes never apply retroactively to a period or a fee you already paid.

3A. Changes to prices, plans and the free tier

PinchHitterPool keeps growing, so features and prices are subject to change. This section says what can change, how we tell you, and how what you have already paid for is protected.

• What can change. We may change prices and fees (including subscription prices, the job fee, verification fees, certificate and reference-letter prices, volunteer hire plans and posting extensions), what each plan includes, the free tier, referral reward rates, and which plans and features we offer, at any time. A change applies to purchases made after it, except as described below. Current prices are on the pricing page and at the point of purchase.
• What you already paid for keeps its terms. A fee already charged, a certificate or reference letter already bought, a verification already paid for, and a volunteer hire cycle already started keep the price and contents they were bought with. Fees already paid are never re-priced.
• Job fees. A change to the job fee applies to paid jobs closed out after the change takes effect. We give at least 30 days’ notice by email and/or in the app before raising the job fee. Workers and interns never pay a job fee.
• Credits and points keep their value. Credits you bought or we granted, and referral points you already earned, stay in your account and don’t expire while your account is open, unless the law or these Terms say otherwise (for example on an account closed for a breach of these Terms). A price or plan change never reduces the credits or points already in your account.
• Subscriptions: 30 days’ notice, at renewal. A change to a subscription’s price or what it includes takes effect at your first renewal that is at least 30 days after we tell you about it by email and/or in the app. If you don’t want the change, cancel before that renewal; your plan then runs to the end of the period you already paid for. Keeping your subscription after the change takes effect means you accept it.
• Free tier. We may change the free tier (for example the number of free volunteer hires per cycle, the free first paid hire, free posting days or free postal-code listing) at any time. A change applies to new activity from when it is posted, not to hires or postings already made.
• Pricing mistakes. If a price is shown or charged in error, we may correct it. If an order was placed at a wrong price, we may cancel it and refund what you paid for it, or offer it to you at the correct price.
• Taxes. Prices are shown before any applicable sales tax. Where tax applies, our payment processor, Stripe, calculates it from your billing address and adds it at checkout.
• Promotions, comps and granted credits. Promo codes, discounts, standing promotions (such as free internship hiring), waived fees and credits added by our team are at our discretion, may be limited in time or to certain accounts, may end, and don’t create a right to the same offer later.

3B. Refunds, billing questions and chargebacks

• One-time fees (job fees, verification fees, certificates, reference letters, posting extensions and credits) are non-refundable once charged or used, except where the law requires a refund, under section 3A (pricing mistakes), or as the pricing page says for volunteer hire cycles (an unused, un-started cycle can be refunded through support).
• Subscriptions can be cancelled any time and run to the end of the period already paid. We don’t refund part of a period unless the law where you live requires it.
• Questions about a charge. Contact us first at support@softtelrg.com, within 30 days of the charge, with the date and amount. We will look into it and reply; most billing questions are solved quickly.
• Chargebacks. If you dispute a charge with your bank or card issuer, we may pause the paid features that charge paid for, or the verification it paid for, while the dispute is open. We may suspend accounts that file chargebacks for services they received, or that repeatedly file chargebacks without contacting us first. This does not limit any right you have under the law or your card issuer’s rules.
• Mandatory consumer law where you live (including the EU/UK rules in section 3) still applies and wins over this section where it gives you more.

4. Verification, certificates, and references — what they mean and what they do not

4.1 What a verification is. A verification badge records that, at a specific moment, a specific check produced a specific result: Stripe confirmed a one-time payment-card charge (the “card check”); Stripe Identity reported that a government-issued document appeared genuine and, where required, matched a selfie (the “government-ID check”); our SMS provider delivered a code to a phone number; Google confirmed control of a Google Business Profile listing; or LinkedIn confirmed control of a LinkedIn account. Each badge names the check it stands for. In limited cases a PinchHitterPool reviewer records a card-level or ID-level result by hand — for example where Stripe is not available, or where the reviewer personally examined a document — and the record identifies it as a reviewer approval. A member without a payment card may instead be validated by a member’s vouch (a legal guardian who is a verified adult member, or a paid subscriber reviewed by us); such a profile is labelled as validated by a member, never as payment-verified, and the voucher may lose the right to vouch if a member they vouched for is suspended.

4.2 Who performs it and what we keep. The checks are performed by the providers named above, under their own terms and privacy policies and by their own methods. We receive and keep only the outcome and a provider reference. We never receive, view, or store your document, its images or number, your selfie, or your card number, and we cannot re-run, audit, or second-guess a provider’s process. A verification badge is therefore our report of a third party’s result at that time — not an independent finding of our own, and not a statement that the result remains true afterwards.

4.3 What a verification is not. A verification badge is not a background check, criminal-record check, credit check, employment or tenant screen, licence or qualification check, or a “consumer report” within the meaning of the U.S. Fair Credit Reporting Act or any similar law, and it must not be used as one. It is not an endorsement, recommendation, or guarantee of any person’s or organization’s identity, character, honesty, intentions, skills, safety, legal status, right to work, or future conduct. On this platform the words “verified” and “validated” have only the meaning given in this section.

4.4 Your own judgment. You decide whom to work with, hire, host, or trust, and you are responsible for that decision and for any further checks your situation, your industry, or your local law requires. An organization that wants a background check arranges and pays for it from a provider licensed to run it; PinchHitterPool does not run, repeat, or vouch for such checks (where a member sends us the outcome of a check they arranged themselves, a reviewer records it as “on file” and nothing more). A PinchHitterPool badge must never be treated as a substitute for such a check or as a basis for an employment, credit, insurance, or housing decision.

4.5 Misuse, fraud, and liability. Anyone who obtains a verification by presenting a false, altered, stolen, or borrowed document, card, account, or phone number, by impersonating another person, or by any other deception is solely responsible for that act and its consequences, including to the people who relied on it, and is in breach of these Terms; we may suspend the account and record the finding. To the fullest extent the law allows, SoftTelRG LLC is not liable for any loss, injury, or damage arising from reliance on a verification badge, from a provider’s error, omission, or process, from a check that later ceases to be true, or from any unlawful, fraudulent, negligent, or harmful act or omission of any user, whether or not that user’s profile was marked verified. Sections 8 to 10 apply to every verification.

4.6 Our rights over verifications. We may withdraw, revoke, or refuse a verification at any time if we believe it was obtained improperly or has become inaccurate, or if a provider changes or reverses its result, and we may change which checks are offered, in which countries, by which provider, and at what price, prospectively and with reasonable notice.

4.7 Verification fees. A verification fee pays for the attempt and the provider’s work and is not refunded whether or not the check passes, except where the law says otherwise. The provider’s page and your card statement show SoftTelRG LLC, the operator of PinchHitterPool. Nothing is charged for a reviewer approval or a member’s vouch.

• Certificates. Service certificates are generated from platform records (verified attendance and completed volunteer engagements — certificates apply to volunteer work) and carry a public verification link by design. Internship reference letters are issued by the organization from confirmed internship hours, paid for by the organization (never the intern; included with the job fee on a paid internship), and carry the same public verification link. A certificate confirms the platform record it was generated from and nothing else.
• References. References reflect their authors’ statements, not ours; we do not verify their content.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• misrepresent your identity, skills, credentials, or an organization’s legitimacy;
• post unlawful, discriminatory, or unsafe work, or work that violates wage, labor, or youth-protection laws;
• select, decline, or treat people differently on the basis of a characteristic protected by the law that applies to you — such as race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, or any other class protected where you are — where that law forbids it. Organizations decide who they work with; those decisions must comply with the anti-discrimination law that applies to them;
• publish an unpaid or stipend internship without truthfully declaring that it complies with the internship and labor laws where it takes place — the platform displays that declaration and does not verify it or provide legal advice; internships may be offered by organizations only;
• harass, defraud, or endanger other users, or collect their data outside the platform’s intended use;
• circumvent fees, gates, or security controls, probe or overload the Service, or use it to build a competing dataset;
• post content you have no right to post, or malware, spam, or deceptive links.

We may remove content, pause posts, or restrict accounts to enforce this section.

We have no tolerance for objectionable content or abusive users: we remove such content and the accounts that post it, and you can report it with the Report link on the profile, posting or conversation, or through Contact > Trust & Safety, which we handle within 1 business day. You can also block a member with the Block link in the same places: neither of you can then find the other in PinchHitterPool search or contact the other, the other member is not told, and you can unblock them at any time from Account > Blocked members.

Using PinchHitterPool to exploit, traffic or sexually solicit anyone, especially a member aged 13 to 17, is forbidden; we remove the accounts involved and report to the authorities where the law requires.

6. Safety and interactions between users

You are responsible for your own decisions about who to work with, host, or hire. Use the trust tools — verification status, certificates, references — and your own judgment. To report a safety concern, use the contact page (Trust & Safety is triaged first). In an emergency, contact local emergency services before anything else.

7. Your content and our platform

• You keep ownership of the content you post and grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide license to host, display, and process it solely to operate and improve the Service.
• The platform, its software, design, and branding belong to SoftTelRG LLC and its licensors; these Terms grant use, not ownership.
• Feedback you send us may be used without obligation.

8. Disclaimers

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available.” To the fullest extent permitted by law we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, and we do not warrant uninterrupted or error-free operation, or the conduct, quality, safety, or legality of any user, work arrangement, or posting, or the accuracy, completeness, or continued validity of any verification result reported to us by a provider or recorded by a reviewer (section 4). Some jurisdictions (including parts of Canada and the EU) do not allow certain warranty exclusions — where that is the case, mandatory statutory warranties apply.

9. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law: SoftTelRG LLC is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or lost profits, data, or goodwill; and our total liability for all claims arising out of the Service in any 12-month period is limited to the greater of USD $100 or the amounts you paid us in that period. Nothing in these Terms limits liability for gross negligence, willful misconduct, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or any liability that cannot be limited under the laws of your place of residence (including consumer laws of Canada, the EU, and the UK).

To the same extent, SoftTelRG LLC is not liable for: (a) adding, changing, suspending or removing features, plans, limits or prices as these Terms allow; (b) outages, delays or errors of third-party services the Service relies on, including email and text-message providers, mobile carriers, our payment processor (Stripe), identity and verification providers (such as Stripe Identity, Google and LinkedIn), sign-in providers, maps and location services, and hosting; or (c) messages or verification codes that are delayed, filtered as spam, blocked or not delivered. We don’t guarantee that any email or text message reaches its recipient, or arrives by a particular time.

10. Indemnity

To the extent permitted by your local law, you will defend and hold SoftTelRG LLC harmless from third-party claims arising out of your content, your work arrangements with other users, any verification you obtained or relied on in breach of section 4, or your breach of these Terms. This section does not apply to consumers where local law prohibits such obligations.

11. Governing law and disputes

• Talk to us first: most issues are resolved quickly through the contact page.
• Informal resolution first. Before starting any formal claim, email support@softtelrg.com (or write to SoftTelRG LLC, 7300 State Highway 121, Suite 300, McKinney, Texas 75070, USA) with your name, your account email, what happened and what you are asking for. We both agree to try in good faith to resolve it within 30 days of that notice. Questions about a charge should reach us within 30 days of the charge (section 3B).
• Governing law and venue. These Terms are governed by Texas law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Subject to the arbitration and small-claims terms below, any court proceeding must be brought in the state or federal courts located in Collin County, Texas, and both parties consent to those courts.
• United States: unresolved disputes are settled by binding individual arbitration (AAA Consumer Rules) in Collin County, Texas, or your county of residence; either party may instead use small-claims court. Class actions and jury trials are waived to the extent permitted. You may opt out of arbitration by emailing us within 30 days of first accepting these Terms.
• Canada: nothing here deprives you of the protection of mandatory consumer-protection laws of your province (including Québec) or of the right to bring proceedings in your local courts where those laws provide it.
• EU/UK: mandatory consumer law of your country of residence continues to apply, and you may bring proceedings in your home courts. The EU online dispute resolution platform is available at ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr.

12. Service capacity, availability, changes to the Service, and fair use

PinchHitterPool runs on shared cloud infrastructure that scales with demand. We work to keep the service fast and available worldwide, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation. During periods of exceptional demand, maintenance, or events beyond our control, we may apply fair-use measures — such as request limits, queueing, or temporarily reduced functionality — applied even-handedly to keep the platform healthy for everyone. Planned maintenance is announced where practicable. High-volume or automated access requires our prior written consent.

• Changes to the Service. We may add, change, suspend or remove features, integrations, checks and limits at any time, including features you use today, for example to improve the Service, follow the law, respond to changes by a provider we rely on, or protect members. Where a change materially reduces what a paid subscription includes, we give notice as described in section 3A; we give notice of other material changes where practicable.
• Beta and preview features. Features marked beta, preview, early access or new may be incomplete, may change or may end at any time, and are provided as is.
• Demos, screenshots and guides. Demo videos, screenshots, guides, help articles, social posts and other marketing show the Service, its prices and its availability as they were when they were made, and may not match the current product. The current Service, the pricing page and these Terms are what apply. Names and organizations in our demos are fictional.
• No reliance on future features. You buy the Service as it is when you buy it. Your purchase is not based on any promise of a future feature, improvement or roadmap, even if we have talked publicly about future plans.

13. Data retention and housekeeping

To keep the platform fast, relevant, and affordable for everyone, we perform periodic housekeeping. Free-tier records that are inactive or stale — for example, expired postings, abandoned drafts, or accounts with no activity for an extended period — may be archived or removed; where an account is affected we give notice to the account's email or inbox beforehand whenever practicable. Paid subscriptions include the retention described in their plan. Issued certificates, completed-engagement records, audit logs, and records we are required to keep by law are preserved regardless of plan. Details and current retention windows are described in the Privacy Policy and on Pricing.

14. International use and U.S. compliance

PinchHitterPool is operated by SoftTelRG LLC, a company based in the United States. The service is offered only in countries where we are permitted to do business, and we comply with applicable U.S. laws, including export-control and sanctions regulations. Payment verifications — including manual verifications coordinated through support — are reviewed for compliance before approval. You are responsible for complying with the laws of your own jurisdiction when using the platform.

15. Termination

You can close your account at any time; data handling on closure is described in the Privacy Policy (delete on request, minimal legal-obligation records excepted). We may suspend or terminate for breach, risk, or legal requirement, with notice where practicable. Sections that by their nature survive (content license for existing certificates, disclaimers, liability limits, disputes) survive termination.

16. Changes to these Terms, and contact

We may update these Terms from time to time, for example when features or prices change. When we do, we post the new version here with a new “Last updated” date. For material changes we also tell active accounts by email and/or in the app before they take effect (for a subscription’s price or contents, or a job-fee increase, at least 30 days before, see section 3A). Changes don’t reach back to fees already paid. If you keep using the Service after a change takes effect, you accept the updated Terms; if you don’t agree, stop using the Service and cancel any subscription before then. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, any additional terms you accept for a specific feature (such as the EventHubQ listing terms) and what is shown to you at checkout are the whole agreement between you and SoftTelRG LLC about the Service. If any provision is unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. Contact: support@softtelrg.com · SoftTelRG LLC, 7300 State Highway 121, Suite 300, McKinney, Texas 75070, USA.

17. Text messages (SMS)

• Program: PinchHitterPool phone verification, operated by SoftTelRG LLC.
• What you receive: a one-time verification code, only when you request one by entering your number and tapping Send code. No marketing messages.
• Frequency: one message per code you request.
• Cost: message and data rates may apply, from your mobile carrier. PinchHitterPool does not charge for the text.
• Opt out: reply STOP to any message. Reply HELP, or email support@softtelrg.com, for help.
• Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. Your number is handled as described in the Privacy Policy; details and a picture of the sign-up step are on the text message page.