Terms of Service

These terms apply to foodslot.app ("FOODSlot"), a reservation service for local food vendors operated as a sole proprietorship by Christopher Nelson. By using the site you agree to them.

What FOODSlot does

Vendors post limited drops with pickup windows. You claim a slot, say yes, sign in, build your order, confirm, and pay by card. FOODSlot takes the payment, keeps a service fee shown before you pay, and passes the vendor's price to the vendor. The vendor prepares and hands off your food.

Home kitchens and badges

Many vendors on FOODSlot are home cooks who cook in their own private kitchens. The health department does not inspect home kitchens, and FOODSlot does not inspect any kitchen. Each vendor's page says whether they cook in a home kitchen or a licensed one, as the vendor told us. Every vendor tells us at sign up how they cook, confirms they hold every permit their kitchen needs, and confirms they know safe food handling and use it. FOODSlot does not check any of it. A badge on a vendor means FOODSlot looked at a food safety certificate the vendor sent and it had not run out. A badge is not an inspection, a licence or a promise about any food. If you have a food allergy, ask the vendor before you order.

Food allergies

Allergy info comes from the vendor. FOODSlot does not cook or check food. Food may touch other allergens. If your allergy is serious, talk to the vendor before you order. Each vendor marks which of these allergens their items contain: the nine major food allergens (milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soy and sesame), plus gluten, mustard, celery and sulfites. If you tick gluten, we also warn you about items marked wheat. An item the vendor has not marked says "Allergens not listed". The allergies you tell us are kept on your account, shown to the vendor on each order, and used to warn you when an order you are about to place has an item that contains one of them. A warning, or no warning, is not a promise about what is in any food. FOODSlot is not responsible for what a vendor marks or for what is in the food. You can change or clear your allergies on your profile at any time.

Holds and timers

• A claim is held for a short time so you can say yes, sign in, build the order, and pay. You have 30 seconds to say yes. Then 5 minutes to sign in and build your order. Then 5 more minutes to pay once you confirm. You can claim before you sign in; sign in inside the hold to keep it. The remaining time is always shown on the page. When it runs out, the slot goes to whoever is next in line. That person has 2 minutes to take it. Then it goes back on the board.
• First come, first served: the order our server gets them in. A slot is yours only once payment has succeeded.
• Each vendor sets how many slots one person may take in a drop.
• A bot check may run before you sign in.
• A window stops taking new orders when a new order could not be paid before its pickup time ends.

Payments and refunds

• When your money comes back. The vendor cancels your order; the vendor never makes it; the vendor does not hand it over (Report a problem, below); it is wrong or missing something; your payment reached us after your hold ended; or your bank warns us of fraud before pickup. Money back includes the service fee. When the vendor never made your order or did not hand it over, it comes back as a credit unless you choose your card (Credits, below).
• The total you pay is the vendor's price plus FOODSlot's service fee and any sales tax, all shown before you pay. The service fee is the same for every card.
• All sales are final. There are no refunds for missed pickups, changed plans, or orders not collected by their pick up by time. An order not picked up by then is lost, and the vendor keeps the payment. You may ask the vendor for a credit until 4 hours after the drop ends; the vendor decides. If the vendor never started making it, it comes back as a credit instead (Credits, below).
• Two exceptions: if the vendor cancels your order, you are refunded in full, fee included, and we text you; if a payment reaches us after your hold has already ended (its time ran out, or the drop closed), it is refunded automatically, and we tell you.
• Report a problem. On each paid order, each kind of report opens at its own time:
  • My order has not been started, or no update from the vendor: while the drop runs, up to your pick up by time.
  • I did not get my food: only if you tapped I'm here, from the end of your pickup window until 4 hours after it. After that this report can no longer be made, and an order that was not picked up stays forfeited.
  • My order was wrong or missing something: until 4 hours after you pick it up. This report needs a photo of the food.
  • Something else: until 24 hours after your pick up by time.
  After a report made while the drop runs, you can still report on the same order that you did not get your food or that it was wrong or missing something. When you report that you did not get your food, the vendor has 30 minutes to hand it over and scan it. If it is still not scanned after those 30 minutes, you may take your money back in full and go, as a credit or, if you say no to both credits, to your card; if it is still not scanned 4 hours after your window ends, it comes back in full as a FOODSlot credit automatically. If the vendor scans it after your report, the food was handed over and the report closes. On every other report the vendor has 48 hours to refund you or answer; you then have 48 hours to reply. With no answer, a report that it was wrong or missing something comes back in full as a FOODSlot credit automatically. After 2 automatic money backs in 60 days, the next report waits for a person at FOODSlot instead. Once a kind of report has closed, write to support@foodslot.app with the order code. If the order was already scanned at pickup when you report that you did not get it, a person at FOODSlot looks at it; it is never refunded automatically. Did three people in one window report no food, and nobody in that window got any? Then every unpicked order in it comes back in full as a FOODSlot credit.
• Credits. A credit is money off a later order on FOODSlot. It is not cash, it has no cash value, and it cannot be sold or given to another account.
  • A vendor credit works only with that vendor. A FOODSlot credit works with any vendor.
  • Food never made: after your pick up by time you choose a credit with that vendor or a FOODSlot credit. You may say no to both and choose all of it back to your card when the order qualifies; a person at FOODSlot looks at it when it does not. If you choose nothing, a FOODSlot credit comes by itself 4 hours after your pick up by time. FOODSlot may change these hours for later orders.
  • A credit given for an order gives back everything you paid for it. Once you take a credit, it stays a credit and cannot be turned back into money on your card.
  • Your credit comes off your next order by itself when you confirm it: a credit with that vendor first, then a FOODSlot credit. It may pay all of an order or part of it; when it pays part, the card pays the rest, at least $0.50.
  • A credit keeps its full value for 12 months after it last changed. After that it loses one twelfth of its value at the end of each month, and it is gone 24 months after it last changed. Using it, or getting more, starts that time again.
  • FOODSlot, never a vendor, may change a vendor credit into a FOODSlot credit. When a vendor leaves FOODSlot, its credits become FOODSlot credits.
  • When an order paid with credit is cancelled or its money comes back, the credit part comes back as the same credit.
  • We email you about your credit: when you get one, once a month while you have one, and about a month before it starts to lose value. We text you too if you ticked the box for texts about drops.
• What money back covers. Our vendors are home cooks and small kitchens, so a report is judged on what the menu promised. Money back covers food you did not get and food that was wrong or missing. It does not cover taste or how a dish is cooked, how hot or cold it is, food picked up after its window, a portion that matches the menu words, what you chose yourself, an allergy the menu listed, things outside the vendor's hands such as weather, parking or lines, or a change of mind. Tell the vendor about those under Something else. The vendor may add their own photo of your order to a report.
• Strikes. A report the proof goes against is a strike: a report FOODSlot closes as false after looking at the proof (such as "I did not get my food" on an order the vendor scanned), or a card dispute your bank decided for the vendor on a scanned order. With 3 strikes in 12 months, the account cannot place orders. A photo checker may send a report to a person at FOODSlot, but a machine never gives a strike. If a strike was not fair, write to support@foodslot.app and we look again.
• Chargebacks. Bring every billing problem to us first: Report a problem on your order, or write to support@foodslot.app. Our rules give your money back in the normal cases. A chargeback (asking your bank to reverse a payment) costs a small business like ours extra money, so it pauses your account at once. If the food was made or handed to you, your account owes the payment plus the bank's fee, and stays paused until that is settled. If the food was never made or never handed to you, write to support@foodslot.app to turn your account back on. A second chargeback closes the account for good. This does not take away your right to dispute a charge with your bank.
• I got sick (on Report a problem). After an order is picked up, you can tell us you got sick from it, for as long as the illness you pick can take to show up plus 7 days (up to 77 days for Listeria). It is a food safety report, never a refund or a claim: no money is paid from it and it gives no strike. You pick the illness from a list, say when you ate and when you got sick. The list is based on the CDC and FDA. We check that against your order and how long that illness takes; a report that does not fit is kept but not counted. A note that only asks for money, and says nothing about being sick, is not counted. One report is never taken as proof against a vendor, since people get sick from many things. When two or more people who ate from the same drop report being sick (how the CDC defines a food outbreak), we tell the vendor privately and look at it ourselves. Health reports are never shown on the site. If you are very sick, see a doctor or call 911, and tell your health department.
• If your card's bank tells us a payment may be fraud before the order is picked up, the order is cancelled and refunded in full, and the account cannot order again until we have looked at it.

For vendors: payouts and refunds

• You run your own food business. FOODSlot is a software and payment service. It does not cook, inspect or approve any vendor's food or kitchen.
• Your food. You are responsible for your food: how you make it, keep it, pack it and hand it over, and its safety.
• Your permits. You are responsible for following the food, health, licence, zoning and tax rules that apply to you where you cook and sell. Keeping up with those laws, and any change to them, is your job.
• Where you cook. When you sign up you pick how you cook: your own licensed kitchen, a rented commercial kitchen, or your home kitchen. You confirm you hold every permit your kitchen needs. You tell FOODSlot truly where you cook. We do not check it. If Stripe or the city asks, we may pass on what you told us, with any permit number.
• Safe food handling. To sell, you confirm you know safe food handling and use it every time you cook. Learning it, and getting any food handler certificate the law asks of you, is your job. You may give us the certificate's name or number. We keep it on file and do not check it.
• Claims about your food. If someone says your food hurt them or made them sick and makes a claim against FOODSlot, you cover it: the claim, what it costs, and any lawyer's fees. This stays true after you stop selling on FOODSlot.
• Your certificate. You keep any food safety certificate you add current. Its badge comes off when it runs out or when FOODSlot finds it is not valid.
• Each order's money is held in your own Stripe balance until the order is picked up or its pick up by time passes. It is then yours, a day later once no problem is open on it, and FOODSlot sends it to your bank: once a day at 10:00 AM Eastern, when at least $5 is due.
• Your very first payout comes 7 to 14 days after your first sale. Stripe sets this wait for every new account, from the kind of business and its risk. It is not FOODSlot's rule, and FOODSlot cannot make it shorter.
• A drop goes up at most 60 days before its pickup day, both counted in Eastern time.
• You have a weekly limit on what your drops add up to: each drop's price times how many you make. A week runs Monday to Sunday, by pickup day. Your first week has no limit. After that, a week may reach 40% more than your best week sold so far. A slow week never lowers it. A strike is one of these: a bank dispute you lose on food that was never handed over; a problem report you never answered before its 48 hour clock ran out; a no show by you, the vendor; or a health alert the operator confirms. A drop earns at most one strike. A problem you fix is never a strike, and a dispute lost on food you handed over is not one either. After 3 strikes in 12 months, your limit stays at your best week for 90 days. A drop that would go over the limit does not go up.
• You may turn on Unlimited on the desk and sell over your weekly limit. You do so at your own risk. Stripe may hold your money for days or weeks to review a much higher amount than you usually sell. A hold can stop all your payouts. FOODSlot cannot release a hold. You still owe every refund your customers are due. We keep a record of each time you turn Unlimited on or off.
• A vendor becomes Trusted by itself, from its record:
  • its last 3 finished drops clean;
  • at least 30 orders picked up;
  • its first finished drop at least 14 days ago;
  • no lost bank dispute in 90 days.
  When you are Trusted, each order's money is yours when it is picked up, and we send it the day the drop ends. Same day payouts pause while you have 5 open problems and start again when every problem is answered.
• When you cancel a paid order, or refund one for a problem, the customer gets back all they paid for it and you pay what the card company charged on that order. The rest of the service fee goes back to the customer.
• Credits. When money comes back on your order as a credit (food never made, food not handed over, a report you did not answer, or a credit you give), the customer gets back all they paid and you pay what the card company charged on that order. The charge is a line on your money list, with its reason, and comes off your next payout; with too little to cover it, your balance goes below zero until your next drop. A credit to use with you is your money, held in your Stripe balance until the customer uses it. You can never pay it out. When the customer uses it, it is yours for that order. A credit nobody uses for 12 months starts to come back to you, one twelfth a month.
• You may give a customer a credit in your chat with them, of up to $100.00 at a time. It comes out of your money at once and is held for them. When a customer who missed a pickup asks you for a credit, you decide: a credit, money back to their card, or no. You answer each ask made before you close the drop to close it.
• FOODSlot, never you, may change a credit with you into a FOODSlot credit, for example when a customer does not want to come back to you. Its money then moves from your Stripe balance to FOODSlot. When you leave FOODSlot, your customers' credits with you become FOODSlot credits the same way.
• A paid extra text (Texts, on the desk) costs the price the desk shows before you send it. You agree that FOODSlot takes that price from your Stripe balance when you send it. If your balance cannot cover it, nothing is sent and nothing is taken.
• A refund, or a bank dispute, that comes after your money was paid out is taken from your Stripe balance. If that goes below zero, Stripe takes it from your bank. Lose a bank dispute on an order you never scanned? You do not get that money back.
• When a customer's bank opens a dispute on your order, you pay Stripe's fee for it: $15. When we fight the dispute for you, Stripe charges $15 more, and you pay that too. It comes back to you if we win. When we carry the loss ourselves, both come back to you. We take the fees from your Stripe balance once it has the money.

Ratings

After you pick up an order, you have 48 hours to rate it from 0 to 5 stars. You can change your stars until then, and after that they stay. Until you rate, we ask you each time you open the site. You can add a note of up to 200 characters. Only the vendor and FOODSlot read it. The vendor never sees who gave which stars. A vendor's stars show on the site once they have 3 ratings. Vendors cannot rate their own food.

Pickup

Your order shows the pickup place, the window, the pick up by time and a QR code that works once. Show it once at pickup. Come inside your window. The pick up by time is the window's end plus the drop's pickup grace: 60 minutes unless the vendor sets another, from 0 to 240 minutes (4 hours, the longest food may sit out). If you tapped I'm here by then, your order is held until 30 minutes after your tap, when that is later. The vendor does not have to keep your food after that.

SMS Terms

• By entering your phone number and requesting a sign-in code, you agree to receive a one-time passcode and texts about your own order from FOODSlot. Those texts are:
  • your paid confirmation and pickup details;
  • a text if the vendor cancels your order;
  • a text if your payment came in after your hold ended;
  • a text when a slot opens for you when you are next in line;
  • a text before a window you asked about unlocks;
  • a notice when a sign in code is emailed for your account;
  • one reminder ten minutes before your pickup window.
• If you tick the consent box on the sign-in form, you also agree to receive occasional announcements about upcoming drops from vendors whose waiting list you joined: one drop text per vendor a day (a vendor may pay for one more a day), sent 8 AM to 6 PM Eastern. Ticking the box is optional and is not a condition of placing an order.
• Message frequency varies by your activity; typically a few messages per drop you take part in.
• Message and data rates may apply.
• Reply STOP to any text to stop all texts from FOODSlot, sign in codes and order texts included. Reply START to turn them back on; you need to do this before you can sign in with your phone again. Reply HELP for help, or email support@foodslot.app.
• Phone companies are not responsible for a text that is late or lost.
• How we handle your number is described in the Privacy Policy.

Emails about drops near you

If you tick the box for Drops near me, you agree to get emails from FOODSlot when a vendor near the place you picked opens a new drop. It is optional and is not a condition of placing an order. At most one email a day, sent 8 AM to 6 PM Eastern. Every email has a link to stop them, and you can untick the box on your profile at any time.

Your account

You must be at least 18 years old to use FOODSlot, to order or to sell. By signing in you confirm that you are 18 or older. An account found to belong to someone under 18 is closed. FOODSlot is not for children under 13.

Your phone number is your login. FOODSlot texts US numbers only for now. Once you confirm the email on your account, it can sign you in too. Keep both current. You are responsible for orders placed from your browser session and account. Sign out everywhere on your profile signs out every browser signed in to your account.

Chats, pictures and the FOODSlot helper

Chats on FOODSlot are for your orders. FOODSlot is not social media or a personal messenger. A chat with FOODSlot is answered first by the FOODSlot helper, an AI. It can get things wrong, so do not rely on what it says without checking; a person at FOODSlot checks and has the final word. When you ask, the helper can file a report on your order, change your name, email or address, remove your saved card, or cancel a hold you have not paid for. It does each one only after you tap Yes on what it shows you, and a change to your details needs a code we text to your phone first. It cannot give money back or change your phone number. A person at FOODSlot and the vendor decide what happens with a report. In an emergency, call 911.

Send only pictures you took of your own order and its bag. Do not send pictures of people, faces or anything private. The first time you send a picture you agree to how pictures are used. We keep chats and pictures and use and share them as the Privacy Policy says: to run orders, to settle reports, disputes and chargebacks, to stop fraud and false reports, to defend claims, and as the law requires. By sending words or a picture, you let FOODSlot keep, use and show them for those reasons.

Acceptable use

No bots, scripts, or automated claiming. No reselling slots. The site limits how many holds and sign in codes one visitor can take, and FOODSlot may refuse service to anyone who abuses the system.

Liability

If something goes wrong, the most we owe you is the service fee on that order.

FOODSlot runs the reservation and payment. The vendor is responsible for the food, its preparation, and its safety. To the extent the law allows, FOODSlot's liability for any order is limited to the service fee you paid on it.

Changes and contact

Changes to these terms are posted here with a new date, and apply from that date. Questions: support@foodslot.app. A person at FOODSlot answers from 9 AM to 3 PM ET; you can write at any time, and outside those hours a person answers from 9 AM ET. FOODSlot, 1657 The Fairway #1139, Jenkintown, PA 19046.