Terms of Service

PorterBee is an online venue that introduces two kinds of people: requesters, who want an item bought in the United States and delivered abroad, and travellers, who are already making that journey and have spare room in their luggage. We provide the listings, the matching, the messaging, and tools that help people decide who to deal with. That is the whole of our role.

PorterBee is not a courier, freight forwarder, air carrier, customs broker, importer, exporter, retailer, travel agency, payment processor, money transmitter, escrow agent, insurer, or employment service. We do not buy, sell, ship, carry, store, inspect, or take possession of any item. We do not employ travellers, and no traveller is our agent, employee, partner, or contractor. Travellers and requesters act entirely on their own behalf.

PORTERBEE IS NOT A PARTY TO ANY AGREEMENT BETWEEN A REQUESTER AND A TRAVELLER. Any deal to buy, carry, hand over, or pay for an item is made solely between the two users involved, and they alone are responsible for performing it.

We do not vouch for any user, item, request, or offer. Signals shown in the app, such as a verified phone badge, a rating, or shared flight details, are limited indicators to help you make your own judgment. They are not an endorsement, an identity check, or a promise that a deal will go well.

To open or keep an account, all of the following must be true:

• You are at least 18 years old and legally able to enter into a binding contract.
• You register under your real, legal name, provide accurate information, and keep it accurate.
• You verify a phone number that belongs to you. Some actions require a verified phone.
• You hold one account only. You do not create accounts for others, share your account, or impersonate anyone.
• You are not barred from using the Service under United States law or the law of the place you live, and you are not subject to the sanctions restrictions in Section 5.
• You have not previously had an account suspended or removed by us.

You are responsible for everything done through your account, so keep your login details safe and tell us promptly if you think your account has been compromised. Accounts are personal and non-transferable, and may not be bought, sold, or lent.

We may decline to open an account, limit features, cap activity, or make parts of the Service available by invitation or in stages, at our discretion, to keep the platform safe and orderly.

A requester posts a request describing the item they want, with details such as links, a photo, quantity, estimated value, the delivery city, the date it is needed by, and the reward they are offering. Travellers browse requests and make offers, either at the asking reward or with a different figure. If the requester accepts an offer, a private chat opens where the two of you settle the details. The reward you settle on is recorded in the app as the agreed fee. When the item is handed over, both of you confirm completion, and you can then rate each other.

The listing, the offer, the recorded agreed fee, and your chat form the record of your deal. Everything beyond that record, such as exact specifications, condition, handover time and place, and who pays any duties, is part of the private contract between the two of you. Keep the whole agreement in the in-app chat. If something goes wrong, the in-app record is the only thing we, or anyone else, can look at, and we cannot help with arrangements made elsewhere.

We may set and change operational limits, such as how many requests you may have active, how many offers you may make in a day, minimum and maximum values and fees, and expiry rules, including the automatic expiry of a request after its needed-by date passes. These limits keep the platform usable and safe. They are not a term of the deal between users.

Ratings and reviews must reflect your genuine experience of a real deal. You may not use a rating, or the threat of one, to extract money or anything else from another user.

PORTERBEE DOES NOT CURRENTLY PROCESS, HOLD, OR TRANSFER MONEY, AND IS NOT INVOLVED IN ANY PAYMENT BETWEEN USERS.

Reimbursement of the item cost and payment of the delivery reward happen directly between the requester and the traveller, outside the Service, in whatever way they choose. Because we are not part of the payment:

• We cannot refund, reverse, guarantee, or compel any payment, and we do not mediate payment disputes.
• Any payment you make or accept is at your own risk. We suggest using methods that leave a record.
• We will never ask you for card numbers, bank credentials, or payment through the platform. Treat any such request as fraud and report it to us.
• You may not use the Service, or deals arranged through it, to move money or value for its own sake, including informal remittance or currency exchange. The Service is for the delivery of goods only.

Payments we may add later. We may introduce in-app payment or escrow-style protection through a third-party payment provider. If we do, that feature will be governed by additional payment terms and by the provider’s own terms, shown to you before you first use it. The provider, not PorterBee, will hold and process funds.

Fees. The Service is currently free to use. We may introduce service fees later. If we do, we will tell you in advance, fees will be shown before you incur them, and no fee will ever be charged retroactively.

Taxes. You are solely responsible for any taxes on money you earn or spend through deals arranged on PorterBee, and for any reporting that comes with them.

This section matters more than any other. Read it even if you read nothing else.

Every deal arranged on PorterBee involves buying goods in one country and carrying them into another. That is regulated by real laws with real penalties, and complying with them is entirely your responsibility, not ours. By using the Service you agree to all of the following.

You will obey every law on the route. This includes United States export control law (including the Export Administration Regulations and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations), United States sanctions law, the customs and import laws of every country you transit, and the import, tax, and consumer laws of the destination country, including Pakistan.

Travellers: you are the person answerable at the border. If you carry an item, you, and not the requester and not PorterBee, are the person standing in front of airline security and customs officers. You may be treated as the importer of the goods. You are responsible for declaring what you carry truthfully, for paying any duties and taxes assessed at the border unless you and the requester have agreed otherwise between yourselves, and for the consequences if something you carry is not allowed. Those consequences can include fines, seizure of the goods, refusal of entry, and criminal prosecution, and they fall on you personally.

Travellers: never carry what you have not personally verified. Only carry an item you bought yourself, or one you have personally inspected, unpackaged, with nothing concealed. Never accept a sealed package, a wrapped gift, or anything whose full contents you cannot see and confirm. If you cannot verify exactly what is inside something, do not carry it, whatever the reward. Answer airline security questions truthfully, and follow airline and aviation rules on what may travel in luggage, including rules on batteries and dangerous goods.

Requesters: be truthful and lawful. Describe the item, its quantity, and its value accurately. Only request items that are lawful to buy in the United States, lawful to export from it, and lawful to import into the destination. Agree clearly with your traveller, before the trip, on who bears any duties or taxes.

Sanctions and export restrictions. You represent that you are not listed on any United States government restricted-party list (including the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals list and the Commerce Department’s Denied Persons and Entity lists), that you are not located in, and will not carry items to or for the benefit of any person in, a country or region subject to comprehensive United States sanctions, and that you will not request or carry any item that requires an export licence without first obtaining that licence.

No cash carrying. You may not use the Service to arrange the carriage of currency or other monetary instruments for another person, in any amount. Separately, travellers should know that carrying more than 10,000 US dollars of their own monetary instruments into or out of the United States must be reported to US authorities.

PorterBee does not check requests or items for legality, does not calculate or collect duties or taxes, and does not give legal, tax, or customs advice. Nothing in the Service, including the fact that a request was allowed to be posted, means an item is lawful to carry.

You may not request, offer to carry, or carry any of the following through a deal arranged on PorterBee. These are examples, not a complete list: the laws of the United States, the destination country, and every country on the route define what is actually allowed, and they control.

• Anything illegal to possess, export, transit, or import anywhere on the route.
• Illegal drugs, controlled substances, drug paraphernalia, and precursor chemicals. This includes cannabis in every form: even where a US state permits it, carrying it across the US border is a federal crime.
• Prescription medicines beyond what destination law allows for documented personal import.
• Weapons of any kind, firearms and their parts and accessories, ammunition, explosives, and fireworks.
• Hazardous or dangerous goods, including flammable liquids, compressed gases, aerosols beyond airline allowances, and loose lithium batteries beyond what airline rules permit.
• Counterfeit goods, pirated media, and anything that infringes someone’s intellectual property.
• Currency, negotiable instruments, and gold, jewels, or other high-value stores of wealth beyond legal personal allowances.
• Alcohol and pork products, whose import into Pakistan is prohibited or tightly restricted.
• Material that is obscene, or that destination law otherwise prohibits.
• Satellite phones and certain radio and surveillance equipment, which Pakistan restricts.
• Drones and drone parts, which Pakistan restricts.
• Dual-use or export-controlled goods and technology requiring a US export licence.
• Live animals, plants, seeds, soil, and perishable or restricted foodstuffs beyond permitted allowances.
• Antiquities and cultural artifacts, human remains, organs, and biological samples.
• Stolen goods, and goods you have reason to believe were obtained unlawfully.
• Anything sealed or concealed that the traveller has not personally inspected.

We may remove any request or offer that appears to involve a prohibited item and may act against the accounts involved, but we have no obligation to detect prohibited items, and our failure to remove a listing is not approval of it.

When you use PorterBee, you agree that you will not:

• Deceive, defraud, or mislead anyone, including by misdescribing an item, its value, or your intentions.
• Take deals off the platform. Do not solicit or share contact details before an offer is accepted, and do not move a deal outside the Service to avoid its rules, records, or protections. Deals arranged off-platform lose the in-app record and our ability to help, and off-platform contact may lead to enforcement under Section 9.
• Harass, threaten, or abuse anyone, or post content that is hateful, defamatory, or invades another person’s privacy.
• Send spam, chain messages, or advertising, or use the Service to promote another service.
• Use bots, scrapers, or other automated means to access the Service, or collect data about users.
• Probe, scan, or test the security of the Service, bypass access controls or rate limits, or interfere with its operation.
• Reverse engineer, copy, or create derivative works of the Service, except where law permits it despite this term.
• Create false accounts, evade a suspension or block, or misuse verification.
• Impersonate anyone, or use another user’s account.
• Use the Service for money laundering, terrorist financing, or any movement of value prohibited by Section 4 or Section 5.

You keep ownership of everything you post: requests, offers, photos, messages, reviews, and anything else (“your content”). So that the Service can work, you grant PorterBee a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence, with the right to sublicense to the providers who host and deliver the Service, to host, store, reproduce, adapt for technical purposes, display, and distribute your content in connection with operating, improving, securing, and promoting the Service. The licence ends when your content is deleted, except that we may retain content as described in our Privacy Policy or as required by law, and content already shared with other users, such as messages you sent them, may remain visible to them.

You promise that you have the rights to post your content, that it is accurate where it states facts, and that it does not infringe anyone’s rights or break any law. Reviews must reflect your genuine experience.

If you send us ideas, suggestions, or feedback about the Service, we may use them freely, without obligation or payment.

We want PorterBee to be safe. To that end, you agree that we may, but are not obliged to, review content on the Service, including messages exchanged in chat, using automated tools and human review, for safety, fraud prevention, enforcing these Terms, responding to support requests and reports, and complying with law. Chat between users is private from other users, but it is not private from PorterBee. Access by our staff is restricted, logged, and limited to these purposes, as described in our Privacy Policy.

If we believe an account or content breaks these Terms, puts users at risk, or exposes PorterBee to legal risk, we may, at our discretion and with or without notice: remove or edit content, decline or cancel listings, restrict features, issue warnings, suspend or terminate accounts, block associated phone numbers, email addresses, or devices from registering again, and report conduct to law enforcement or other authorities where we believe it is appropriate or required.

We are not obliged to monitor, and a decision not to act on something is not approval of it. If you think we have acted on your account in error, contact support and we will review it.

We respect intellectual property and expect users to do the same. If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, send a notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by email to legal@porterbee.com. Your notice must include what 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3) requires: identification of the work, where the infringing material is, your contact details, the required good-faith statements, and your signature.

If your content was removed after a notice and you believe that was a mistake, you may send a counter-notice meeting the requirements of 17 U.S.C. § 512(g). We terminate the accounts of repeat infringers.

The Service is built on and connects to services we do not control, including sign-in providers, hosting and database infrastructure, image storage, and email delivery. It may also show links chosen by users, such as a retailer’s product page in a request, or let you share a request through apps such as WhatsApp. Those services are governed by their own terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for them or for any site they lead to, including any retailer a requested item is bought from, and a link appearing on the Service is not an endorsement.

By creating an account you agree to receive communications that are part of the Service: one-time passcodes and security alerts by SMS to your verified phone, service and transaction notifications by email, push notifications if you enable them, and messages through any channel you later opt into, such as WhatsApp. Message and data rates from your carrier may apply to SMS.

You can opt out of non-essential messages, such as tips or announcements, at any time. You cannot opt out of essential service and security messages, such as sign-in codes or notices about your account or an active deal, while you hold an account.

THE SERVICE AND ALL CONTENT ON IT ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE”, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, PORTERBEE DISCLAIMS ALL SUCH WARRANTIES.

Without limiting that, we do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free, and we make no warranty about, and accept no responsibility for: the conduct, identity, honesty, or solvency of any user; the existence, quality, safety, legality, or authenticity of any item; whether any deal will be performed, any item delivered, or any payment made; or the accuracy of any listing, rating, badge, or other content.

Phone verification confirms control of a phone number at a point in time. It is not an identity check. We do not run criminal background checks or screen users beyond what these Terms describe. PorterBee offers no insurance, protection plan, or guarantee program covering items, deliveries, or payments.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain warranty disclaimers, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

Deals arranged on PorterBee happen in the real world, between strangers, across borders. They carry real risks, including the risk that an item is not delivered or not paid for, arrives late, damaged, or different from what was described, is seized at a border, or exposes the person carrying it to legal consequences, and the personal safety risks of meeting someone you do not know. Meet in public places, and use your judgment. To the fullest extent permitted by law, you voluntarily assume all risks arising from your deals and interactions with other users.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, YOU RELEASE PORTERBEE AND ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS FROM ALL CLAIMS, DEMANDS, AND DAMAGES OF EVERY KIND, KNOWN OR UNKNOWN, ARISING OUT OF OR CONNECTED WITH ANY DISPUTE, DEAL, OR INTERACTION BETWEEN YOU AND ANOTHER USER.

If you are a California resident, you waive California Civil Code Section 1542, which says: “A general release does not extend to claims that the creditor or releasing party does not know or suspect to exist in his or her favor at the time of executing the release and that, if known by him or her, would have materially affected his or her settlement with the debtor or released party.” If you live elsewhere, you waive any similar protection under the law of your jurisdiction.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, PORTERBEE AND ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, LOSS OF GOODWILL, OR THE COST OF SUBSTITUTE SERVICES, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE, HOWEVER CAUSED AND UNDER ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, PORTERBEE’S TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF ONE HUNDRED US DOLLARS (US$100) AND THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID PORTERBEE IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM.

These limits do not apply to liability that cannot be limited by law, including liability arising from our own fraud or wilful misconduct, and nothing in these Terms limits any consumer right you hold under mandatory law in the place you live that cannot be waived by contract. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless PorterBee and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, fines, penalties, and expenses, including reasonable legal fees, arising out of or connected with: (a) your use of the Service; (b) your content; (c) any deal or interaction between you and another user, including anything you request, carry, hand over, or fail to pay for; (d) your breach of these Terms; (e) your violation of any law, including customs, import, export, tax, or sanctions law; or (f) your violation of anyone’s rights. We may take over the defense of any matter subject to indemnification, at our expense, in which case you agree to cooperate with us.

This section affects your legal rights. Read it carefully. You may opt out within 30 days.

(a) Talk to us first. Before starting arbitration or any court case, you agree to send us a written description of the dispute and the outcome you want, to legal@porterbee.com or to the address in Section 22, and to work with us in good faith for 30 days to resolve it. We agree to do the same before starting anything against you. Most problems get solved this way. The statute of limitations is paused during this period.

(b) Binding arbitration. If we cannot resolve it informally, you and PorterBee agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service, including its existence, breach, termination, enforcement, interpretation, or validity, will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this section. The arbitrator, and not any court, has exclusive authority to resolve disputes about the interpretation or enforceability of this arbitration agreement, except that a court decides the enforceability of the class action waiver in subsection (e) and the coordinated-filing procedures in subsection (f).

(c) How arbitration works. Arbitration will be conducted in English. For claims of US$25,000 or less, it will be decided on documents only unless the arbitrator decides a hearing is needed. Any hearing will be held by videoconference, unless the arbitrator finds an in-person hearing necessary, in which case it will be held in the county where you live if you are in the United States, and otherwise in New Castle County, Delaware. Filing, administration, and arbitrator fees follow the AAA’s Consumer Arbitration Rules. The arbitrator may award the same individual relief a court could, and must issue a reasoned written decision.

(d) What stays out of arbitration. Either party may bring an individual claim in small claims court instead of arbitrating, and either party may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in court to protect intellectual property or to stop unauthorized use of the Service. Nothing here prevents you from raising an issue with a federal, state, or local agency, which may seek relief against us on your behalf.

(e) CLASS ACTION AND JURY TRIAL WAIVER. YOU AND PORTERBEE EACH WAIVE THE RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY AND THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION, CLASS-WIDE ARBITRATION, PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTION, OR ANY OTHER REPRESENTATIVE OR CONSOLIDATED PROCEEDING. CLAIMS MAY BE BROUGHT ONLY IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND THE ARBITRATOR MAY NOT CONSOLIDATE MORE THAN ONE PERSON’S CLAIMS WITHOUT ALL PARTIES’ CONSENT.

(f) Coordinated filings. If 25 or more arbitration demands raising similar claims are filed against PorterBee within 90 days by or with the help of the same or coordinated counsel, the demands will be resolved in staged batches: each side will select up to 10 demands to proceed first as bellwether arbitrations, and the remaining demands will be held, with limitation periods paused, while the parties use the bellwether results to try in good faith to resolve the rest with a mediator’s help. If they cannot, the remaining demands proceed in batches of up to 100. If a court finds this subsection unenforceable as to a demand, that demand proceeds individually under subsection (b).

(g) Your right to opt out. You may reject this arbitration agreement, with no penalty and no effect on the rest of these Terms, by emailing legal@porterbee.com within 30 days of first accepting these Terms, stating your name, the email and phone number on your account, and that you opt out of arbitration. If you opt out, or if this section is found unenforceable as to a claim, that claim will be decided by the courts named in Section 18, and both sides keep whatever jury rights they have.

(h) Severability and survival. If any part of this section other than the class action waiver is found unenforceable, the rest still applies. If the class action waiver itself is found unenforceable as to a claim, then that claim, and only that claim, must proceed in court rather than in arbitration. This section survives the closing of your account.

These Terms, and any dispute arising out of them or the Service, are governed by the laws of Delaware and the United States, without regard to conflict of law rules, except that the Federal Arbitration Act governs Section 17. Any claim not subject to arbitration, and any action to enforce an arbitration award, must be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in New Castle County, Delaware, and you and PorterBee consent to personal jurisdiction and venue there. This choice of law does not deprive you of mandatory consumer protections of the place you live that cannot be waived by contract.

We may update these Terms as the Service develops. If a change is material, we will tell you at least 30 days before it takes effect, in the app or by email, and we will update the date at the top of this page. If you do not agree to a change, close your account before the change takes effect; continuing to use the Service after that date means you accept the updated Terms. Changes to Section 17 may be rejected as described there, without affecting your earlier agreement to arbitrate.

You may stop using PorterBee at any time and may ask us to delete your account through support. We may suspend or terminate your account as described in Section 9. Closing your account does not release you from obligations you already owe another user under a deal in progress, and does not affect rights and obligations that by their nature survive, including Sections 5, 8, and 13 through 21.

• Entire agreement. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and any additional terms we present for specific features are the entire agreement between you and PorterBee about the Service, and replace all earlier agreements about it.
• Severability. If any provision is found unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted, and the rest stays in effect.
• No waiver. If we do not enforce a provision, that is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms or your account. We may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets, or by operation of law.
• Force majeure. We are not liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond our reasonable control.
• No relationship. Nothing in these Terms creates any employment, agency, partnership, joint venture, or franchise relationship between you and PorterBee, or between users.
• Time to bring claims. To the extent permitted by law, any claim arising out of the Service must be started within one year after it arose, or it is permanently barred.
• Notices. We may give you notice in the app or to the email on your account. Legal notices to us go to the address in Section 22.
• Interpretation.“Including” means “including but not limited to”. Headings are for convenience only. If these Terms are translated, the English version controls.

Questions about these Terms can be sent through Contact support in the app, or by email to support@porterbee.com. Legal notices should be sent to PorterBee, Inc. at legal@porterbee.com.