Terms of Service

The short version: Trevul is an online auction marketplace for live plants and gardening supplies. We connect sellers and buyers; we don't own or ship the plants ourselves. Bids you place are binding contracts to pay. Disputes are settled through binding arbitration. The longer version is below — please read it.

1. What Trevul is, and what these Terms cover

Trevul LLC ("Trevul", "we", "us") operates trevul.com, an online marketplace where independent sellers list live plants, seeds, cuttings, and gardening supplies for sale by auction. By creating an account, listing an item, placing a bid, completing a purchase, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms of Service (the "Terms").

These Terms form a binding contract between you and Trevul. If you don't agree, don't use the Service. If you're using the Service on behalf of a business or other organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that entity, and "you" then refers to the entity.

2. Eligibility

To use Trevul you must be at least 18 years old and physically located in the continental United States. You must have the legal capacity to enter into binding contracts. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13, and minors under 18 may not list, bid, or purchase. We currently do not support international users; that may change in the future, in which case these Terms will be updated.

Sanctions and export compliance. By using Trevul, you represent and warrant that (a) you are not located in, organized in, or a resident or national of any country or region that is subject to comprehensive U.S. economic sanctions or trade embargoes (including, as of this writing, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, the Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions of Ukraine), (b) you are not on the U.S. Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, the U.S. Department of Commerce Denied Persons List, or any other applicable U.S. or international sanctions list, and (c) you will not use Trevul to send or receive funds to or from any sanctioned party or jurisdiction. We may suspend or terminate accounts that fail to meet these requirements without notice and report violations to the relevant authorities as required by law.

3. Your account

You're responsible for everything that happens under your account, including bids placed and listings created. Keep your password secure, don't share it, and don't share your account with anyone else. We support two-factor verification at login — either an authenticator app (TOTP) or a one-time code emailed to you. If you've enrolled an authenticator, that's the primary challenge; the email path remains as a fallback. Don't disable two-factor or work around it. Notify us promptly if you suspect unauthorized access.

You agree to provide accurate registration information and to keep it current. If you misrepresent your identity, location, or eligibility, we may suspend or terminate your account and void any pending transactions.

Login security. To deter brute-force credential attacks, repeated failed login attempts from the same source temporarily lock the account out for approximately 30 minutes (currently five wrong attempts triggers the lockout; the threshold may be tuned). If you legitimately can't access your account, use the password-reset link or contact support — don't keep retrying.

Electronic records and signatures (E-SIGN consent). By creating an account, accepting these Terms (whether at signup or via the re-acceptance prompt described in Section 21), or otherwise using the Service, you affirmatively consent under the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (15 U.S.C. § 7001 et seq.) and any applicable state equivalents to the use of electronic records and electronic signatures in your relationship with Trevul. This consent applies to these Terms, the Privacy Policy, notices we send to you (including notices of changes to these Terms, transaction receipts, auction-close notifications, payout statements, and dispute communications), and any other documents we are required by law to provide to you in writing. You may withdraw this consent at any time by emailing legal@trevul.com; doing so will require you to close your account, because the Service cannot be operated without electronic records. To receive a paper copy of any record we have provided you electronically, send a written request to that address; we may charge a reasonable fee for paper copies. To use the Service you need an internet-connected device, a modern web browser, an email account that can receive HTML email, and the ability to read PDF files; if your hardware or software changes such that you can no longer access electronic records from us, notify us promptly.

New-account starter limits ("SafeStart"). For approximately the first 15 days after signup, or until the account completes 2 successful purchases, your bidding and Buy-It-Now spending is capped at $200 per listing and $500 in aggregate open exposure across active bids and unsettled orders. The cap automatically lifts when either threshold is met, whichever comes first. The current cap state is visible to you on your Dashboard. We may extend, shorten, or override these limits at our discretion (for example, for trusted accounts recovered through support).

Plant-tier levels. Your account is automatically assigned a level (Seedling, Sprout, Sapling, Cultivator, Specimen, Curator) based on the time you've been on Trevul, the number of completed transactions on your account, and your average seller rating. Levels are informational: they reflect activity history, not Trevul's endorsement of any particular seller's goods or business practices. A high-tier seller can still ship a damaged plant; a Seedling seller can still ship a perfect one.

Spotlight points. Plant-tier levels also unlock Spotlight points toward future Spotlight boosts (see Section 5 for the Spotlight program): Sapling earns 10 points, Cultivator 40, Specimen 80, and Curator 120. Spotlight points are a promotional reward, not money — they have no cash value, are not transferable to other accounts, and are redeemable only against Spotlight boost costs (each point applies $1 toward a boost). Points drop the first time you reach each tier (one-shot per level per account) and don't expire. They are applied automatically against your boost cost when you publish a promoted listing — if your point balance fully covers the boost, no card charge fires. Trevul may adjust the point amounts on a forward-looking basis with notice; points already earned remain valid at the amount that was current when they were granted.

4. Trevul's role: a venue, not a party

Trevul is a venue. We provide the platform that connects sellers and buyers, but we don't own the plants listed, don't take physical possession of them, don't inspect them, and don't ship them. Each transaction is a direct contract between the seller and the buyer.

We use Stripe Connect (for card payments) and direct PayPal payee routing to facilitate payments and route funds from buyers to sellers. We take a percentage fee on completed transactions (currently 10% of the final sale price, with a $1.00 minimum applied when 10% would be less); the payment processor (Stripe or PayPal, depending on the method used) takes its standard processing fee separately. Fees are subject to change with notice; the fee in effect when a listing is created governs that listing.

No agency, employment, or partnership. Sellers and buyers using Trevul are independent parties transacting with each other. Nothing in these Terms or in your use of the Service creates any agency, employment, partnership, joint venture, franchise, or fiduciary relationship between you and Trevul, or between any two users. Sellers are not employees or contractors of Trevul; they set their own listings, prices, descriptions, and fulfillment practices, and Trevul does not control the day-to-day conduct of their activity. You may not represent yourself as a representative, agent, employee, or partner of Trevul in any communication with third parties, and Trevul has no authority to bind you to obligations beyond those expressly stated in these Terms.

5. Listing items (sellers)

Scope of the marketplace. Trevul is a venue for plants and gardening-related goods. Permitted listings fall into one of the following categories:

Plant — living plants, seeds, bulbs, cuttings, divisions, tubers, and related propagation material;
Supplies — pots, soil, growing media, fertilizer, grow lights, hand tools, irrigation equipment, and similar gardening accessories;
Other — plant- and garden-adjacent items such as horticultural books, botanical art, planters, and garden decor.

Listings that fall outside the categories above — that is, items unrelated to plants or gardening — may be removed at Trevul's discretion following review. This is a judgment call we reserve to maintain the focus of the marketplace; removed listings do not entitle the seller to compensation, but do not constitute a violation of these Terms unless they also fall within the prohibited categories below.

To list, you must be located in the continental US. To receive payouts on a given method you must complete the corresponding onboarding flow — Stripe Connect verification for card payments, or a verified PayPal email for PayPal payments. You may onboard either or both; buyers see what you accept on every listing. By listing an item you represent and warrant that:

you own the item or have the legal right to sell it,
the item is described accurately, including its condition, age, size, and any defects,
the photos depict the actual item being sold (not a stock image, not a similar plant from a different transaction),
your listing complies with all applicable federal, state, tribal, and local laws — including the Plant Protection Act, the Lacey Act, USDA APHIS quarantine rules, and any state-level plant pest, noxious weed, or nursery licensing requirements,
you have the right to ship the item to every state your listing offers to ship to (some states restrict imports of certain genera; that's your responsibility to know),
you have the legal right to propagate and resell the specific cultivar listed — the variety is not protected by an active plant patent, Plant Variety Protection certificate, or contractual propagation restriction, or you hold authorization from the rights-holder.

The following items are prohibited on Trevul, in addition to whatever's illegal under applicable law:

Firearms, ammunition, explosives, and weapon components or accessories of any kind,
Controlled substances, prescription medications, and drug paraphernalia, including any item the sale, possession, or transfer of which is restricted or unlawful under federal law or the law of either party's jurisdiction,
Any plant on the USDA Federal Noxious Weed List,
Any plant listed under CITES Appendix I,
Endangered species protected by federal or state law,
Cannabis or cannabis derivatives, including hemp, regardless of state legality,
Live animals, insects, and reptiles,
Counterfeit or knowingly mislabeled cultivars,
Unauthorized propagations of patented or trademarked cultivars — plant patents (35 U.S.C. § 161), Plant Variety Protection Act certificates, and contractual propagation restrictions grant the rights-holder exclusive control over asexual reproduction and sale; you may not list, sell, or ship cuttings, grafts, scions, divisions, tissue cultures, or other propagules of a protected cultivar unless you are an authorized licensee,
Stolen goods or any item the seller does not have the legal right to sell.

We may remove listings at our discretion if we believe they violate these Terms or applicable law, fall outside the scope of the marketplace described above, are unsafe, are misleading, or harm Trevul's reputation. Removal does not entitle the seller to compensation.

Reserve auctions. Sellers may set a confidential reserve price on auction listings. The reserve is the lowest amount the seller will accept; bidders cannot see the amount, only whether it has been met. If the auction closes below the reserve, no sale is made and the listing ends as Unsold. A non-refundable reserve fee is charged to the seller's card on file at the time the listing is published — currently 3% of the reserve, with a $0.50 minimum and $80 maximum. The fee is charged whether or not the item ultimately sells, except as provided by the 15-minute publish grace below. Reserve prices may not be raised, lowered, or removed mid-auction.

Spotlight promotion

Sellers may optionally promote a listing to the Spotlight — a paid-placement strip on the front page and on zone-filtered browse views. Promotion is opt-in and entirely optional; non-promoted listings remain fully visible in regular search and browse results.

How it works: at publish time, the seller may set a one-time boost amount. Boosted listings appear above the regular grid, ordered by boost amount (highest first; older promoted listings win ties). Boosted listings also appear in normal search and browse results, with a "Spotlight" chip to indicate they are promoted.
Minimum boost: $1.00. Below the minimum, the listing is not promoted.
Maximum boost: $500.00. Larger amounts are accepted but treated as $500 for placement purposes — no listing pays more than $500 for a single promotion.
Visible slot count is adaptive. Trevul renders only a limited number of promoted slots above the regular grid (currently 12, scaling with marketplace size up to 24). Boosted listings outside the visible cap still carry the Spotlight chip in regular results but do not appear on the dedicated strip.
Live ranking. Placement updates as new sellers boost; your listing's position may shift up or down over the auction's duration as a result.
Non-refundable. The boost is charged at publish to the seller's card on file and is not refunded if the listing is cancelled, ends without a sale, is removed by Trevul, or fails to charge a winning buyer — except as provided by the 15-minute publish grace below. The boost is independent of the platform sales fee.
Re-listing. Spotlight status does not carry forward when a listing is re-listed; a fresh boost is required on each new listing.
Where Spotlight does NOT appear: search results pages and the "Ending soon" tab. Both surfaces are ordered by their own contracts (search relevance and close-time) and are not biased by Spotlight boosts.

15-minute publish grace

Within 15 minutes of publishing a listing, sellers may cancel the listing and receive a full refund of the reserve fee and Spotlight boost (whichever were charged at publish). This is a one-time "I noticed a typo" escape hatch — once the window passes, or once any bid or Buy-It-Now purchase has landed on the listing, the grace refund is no longer available and the standard non-refundable terms in the reserve and Spotlight sections above apply.

The grace cancel is initiated from the listing detail page (a "Cancel & refund fees" button is shown to the seller during the window). Refunds are issued through Stripe to the same card the publish fees were charged to, and typically settle on the seller's statement in 5–10 business days. Trevul retains no portion of the refund. Cancelling outside the grace window — through "Manage listings" or any other path — does not trigger a refund.

6. Bidding and buying (buyers)

Auctions on Trevul work like classic English auctions: the highest bid above the seller's starting price wins when the auction ends. All bids are binding. When you place a bid, you're making a contract: if your bid wins, you owe the seller that amount (plus any applicable shipping and tax). Don't bid an amount you can't pay.

Authorization to charge your saved method. By saving a payment method and placing a bid or using Buy It Now, you authorize Trevul to charge that saved method off-session — that is, automatically and without further action by you at the moment of charge — for the amount you owe (the winning bid or Buy It Now price, plus any applicable shipping and tax) when you win an auction or complete a Buy It Now purchase. The specific saved instance charged is the one snapshotted on your bid, as described below. We notify you in-app and by email whenever such a charge succeeds, fails, or is refunded, and any refund is returned to that same method.

A few specifics about how bidding works on Trevul:

Bid increments: each bid must clear the current high bid by at least the per-tier minimum increment (e.g., $0.50 from $5–$25, $1 from $25–$100). The minimum next bid is shown on every listing.
Anti-sniping: bids placed within the final hour of an auction extend the close time — keeps the auction from being decided by who has the fastest network in the last second.
Max Auto-Bid: instead of placing a single bid, you can set a Max Auto-Bid — the most you're willing to pay. We will bid on your behalf in minimum increments only as needed to keep you on top, up to (but never above) your cap. Your cap stays private; other bidders only see the resolved visible bid. Your Max Auto-Bid is binding to the same extent as a regular bid: if you win, you owe the resolved price (not your cap), but you committed up to your cap when you set it. You may raise your cap; you may not lower it on its own. Retracting your bid on a listing — where retraction is permitted (see Bid retraction below) — cancels your Max Auto-Bid on that listing along with it.
Reserve auctions: sellers may set a hidden reserve price. The amount is private; bidders see only whether the reserve has been met. If the auction closes below the reserve, no sale is made and your card is not charged. Sellers pay a non-refundable reserve fee at listing time, regardless of outcome.
Buy It Now listings (fixed price): a seller may list an item at a fixed Buy It Now price with no auction. Such a listing may offer more than one unit; you choose the quantity at checkout and are charged the per-unit price times the quantity you buy (plus any applicable shipping and tax). Completing a Buy It Now purchase is binding and is charged to your saved payment method immediately, the same as winning an auction.
Buy It Now on auctions: a seller may offer a fixed Buy It Now price alongside an auction. On an auction without a reserve, Buy It Now is available only until the first bid is placed; after that it disappears and the listing runs as a normal auction. On an auction with a reserve, Buy It Now remains available until the reserve is met. A Buy It Now purchase made while the reserve is still unmet completes the sale immediately and cancels any standing bids below the reserve — those bidders are notified, their bids and any Max Auto-Bid are removed, and they owe nothing. Once a bid meets the reserve, Buy It Now disappears and the auction proceeds to its scheduled close.
Bid retraction: you may retract a bid (and any associated Max Auto-Bid on the same listing) until the final twelve (12) hours before the scheduled auction close. The retract action is available on the listing detail page; you must select a reason (wrong amount entered, item description changed, can't reach seller, or other with an explanation). Inside the final twelve hours, retraction is not available because late-window retractions distort the close for other bidders. Trevul logs every retraction; patterns of abuse (e.g., retracting after losing a snipe, repeated wrong-amount retractions on different listings) may result in suspension or termination under Section 14. Once retracted, your bid is removed from the listing and your Max Auto-Bid is cancelled; the visible high bid falls to the next-highest standing commitment.
Payment method locked at first bid: the method you select on your first bid in a given auction (Stripe card or PayPal) is locked for every subsequent bid by you on the same auction. The specific saved payment instance — the particular card or PayPal account that was current on your account at that moment — is also snapshotted on the bid and is what we charge if you win, regardless of whether you later replaced your saved card or PayPal account. If your snapshotted method becomes unavailable (e.g., you removed it, the card expired and was not auto-updated by your issuer), the charge will fail at auction close and you remain liable to pay; the order page will offer a retry against your then-current saved method. Different auctions are independent: you can use one method on auction A and the other on auction B.
No shill bidding: sellers may not bid on their own listings, directly or through accomplices, family, or alternate accounts. Doing so will result in account termination and forfeiture of any platform fees credited.
No collusion: bidders may not coordinate to suppress prices.

If you win an auction, payment is due immediately at close — we charge your saved payment method (card via Stripe, or your linked PayPal account, depending on which you selected). If your payment fails, the seller may re-list the item, and we may suspend your account.

Service availability and auction integrity. Trevul takes reasonable measures to keep the platform available, but does not warrant uninterrupted service. The auction-close timer runs on Trevul's clock. If Trevul's platform experiences a material outage that demonstrably affected bidder access during the final hour of an auction — for example, the site was unreachable for more than fifteen consecutive minutes within that hour — we may, in our sole discretion:

extend the auction's close time by a reasonable interval to compensate,
re-open bidding for a defined window after service is restored, or
void the auction's result and re-list the item.

Sellers, bidders, and the high bidder (whether their bid stands, is displaced, or is voided as a result) waive any claim arising from such extensions, re-openings, or voidings, including claims for the difference between the affected close price and a hypothetical undisrupted close price. Routine maintenance, brief intermittent errors, and outages that did not occur in the final hour do not trigger extension or void rights — the ordinary anti-snipe extension already absorbs those.

If you believe an outage during the final hour cost you a bid, you may request a void or extension by emailing support@trevul.com within 24 hours of the affected close. Include the listing identifier, the times you attempted to access the site, and any evidence (screenshots, status-page references). Our determination on a request is final for purposes of platform mediation, but does not preclude arbitration under Section 19. Liability for losses arising from platform downtime, in any case, is governed by the limitations in Section 17 and the force majeure provision in Section 22.

7. Payments, fees, and payouts

Payments are processed by Stripe (card method) or PayPal (PayPal method) — whichever the buyer selected at checkout. The chosen processor is responsible for the actual transfer of funds, and that processor's terms apply to the payment portion of the transaction. By using Trevul you also agree, to the extent applicable to your activity, to Stripe's Connected Account Agreement and PayPal's user agreement.

Trevul's platform fee is 10% of the final sale price, with a $1.00 minimum applied when 10% would be less than $1.00. The fee is deducted at the time the payment is captured and is the same on both methods. The payment processor's fee (Stripe's currently 2.9% + 30¢, PayPal's as published by PayPal) is charged separately by that processor against the seller's account. Fees may change; we'll give at least 30 days notice for changes that affect listings already live. Sales tax, where applicable, is collected and remitted in accordance with each state's marketplace facilitator rules.

Sellers are paid through whichever method the buyer used: Stripe Connect deposits to a verified US bank account on Stripe's standard payout schedule (typically 2–7 business days after the buyer's payment clears); PayPal payments land in the seller's linked PayPal account per PayPal's posting schedule. We may hold funds longer if a transaction is under dispute, the seller's account is under review, or we have reasonable suspicion of fraud.

Two payment methods. Trevul supports two payment methods that operate the same way from the buyer's and seller's perspective: Trevul collects the buyer's payment, deducts the platform fee, and routes the seller's proceeds to the seller's payout account. Buyers choose which method to save (a card via Stripe, a PayPal account, or both); sellers choose which to accept (Stripe Connect, a verified PayPal email, or both). Each listing displays the methods its seller accepts, and a purchase requires at least one match between the buyer's saved methods and the seller's accepted set. The Trevul fee (10% with the same $1.00 minimum) applies identically to both methods; payment-processor fees (Stripe's or PayPal's, as published by those providers) are separate and borne by the seller. Spotlight points earned through plant-tier level-ups (see Section 3) are applied against Spotlight boost costs at publish time but do not apply against the platform sales fee.

Stripe card on file (required for sellers). To create a listing on Trevul, sellers must store a credit or debit card with Trevul through Stripe. By saving a card with Trevul, you authorize off-session charges (charges processed without your direct involvement at the moment of charge) against that card for the platform fees described in this Section 7 — specifically: the publish-time reserve fee, the optional Spotlight boost, and, for sales settled through the PayPal payment method, the Final Value Fee owed to Trevul after the buyer's PayPal payment is received. If you also use this card as your buyer payment method, it may additionally be charged for your own auction wins and Buy It Now purchases as authorized in Section 6. Apart from those buyer-side charges and the seller fees described here, we will not charge the card for any other purpose without separately obtaining your consent. We will email and notify you in-app whenever such a charge succeeds, fails, or is refunded; the same card-on-file is the source of any refunds we issue on those charges.

When the platform fee is collected. For Stripe-method sales, Trevul deducts the platform fee from the buyer's payment at capture, before transferring proceeds to your Stripe Connect balance — the deducted amount appears on your transactions page; no separate charge to your stored card occurs. For PayPal-method sales, because the buyer's PayPal payment lands directly in your PayPal account, the platform fee cannot be deducted at capture; Trevul charges the fee to your stored Stripe card within minutes of the PayPal capture clearing. If the charge declines we will notify you; persistent failure or repeated non-collection may result in suspension of your ability to create new listings until the underlying issue is resolved. Active listings and in-progress auctions remain available to buyers during such a suspension; the restriction is on creating new listings only.

Trevul does not provide a buyer- or seller-protection program for any sale on the platform. Buyers may dispute a charge directly with their card issuer (for Stripe-method sales) or through PayPal's Resolution Center (for PayPal-method sales); sellers may pursue normal civil remedies for chargebacks they believe were wrongful. Trevul provides reasonable assistance to whichever side has the documented case, but the underlying dispute mechanics are between the user and their payment provider.

8. Shipping

Shipping is the seller's responsibility. The seller must ship the item within the timeframe stated in the listing (default: 5 business days from auction close). Sellers should pack live plants appropriately for the season — heat packs in winter, ventilation and shade in summer, expedited carrier where the route warrants. Sellers carry the risk of loss or damage in transit unless the buyer explicitly waives it.

How shipping cost is set. Each listing sets its shipping cost in one of two ways, at the seller's choice: a flat rate every buyer pays regardless of destination, or a calculated rate quoted from the seller's origin to the buyer's ZIP code through a third-party carrier-rate provider. For calculated shipping, the amount shown before you bid or buy is an estimate based on your saved shipping address; the actual shipping charge is fixed when the sale is created and added to the amount charged to your payment method on top of the winning bid or Buy It Now price (plus any applicable tax). Shipping charges pass through to the seller. If a calculated quote cannot be produced for your destination, the listing's fallback flat rate applies; if the seller set no fallback, the bid or purchase is blocked rather than charged at an unknown rate.

We don't broker shipping insurance and don't validate carrier coverage. If insurance is important to you (buyer or seller), arrange it directly with the carrier.

9. Plants — special terms for living items

This section applies only to listings the seller has flagged as the Plant category. Listings flagged as Supplies (pots, soil, fertilizer, lights, tools) or Other (plant-adjacent decor, art, books, ceramics) are governed by the general goods terms in §§5–8 and §10 only.

Plants are alive, idiosyncratic, and harder to ship than most goods. A few things that flow from that:

Live arrival: sellers should guarantee live arrival when shipping during reasonable conditions. If a plant arrives unambiguously dead in transit (limp, crisp, broken stems beyond repair), the buyer must report it within 48 hours of delivery with date-stamped photos including the shipping label and the unboxing. Sellers and buyers should make a good-faith effort to settle directly; Trevul will mediate disputed cases at our discretion under the dispute process below.
USDA hardiness zones: the zone fields on listings are the seller's stated tolerance for the plant. Trevul matches buyers' zones to listings as a search filter; we don't guarantee that any plant will survive in any specific climate, microclimate, or under any particular care.
State quarantines and shipping restrictions: certain plants cannot be legally shipped to certain states (citrus to California; blueberries to Georgia; many genera to Hawaii; varies). It is the seller's responsibility to know which destination states are restricted for the species being sold and to abide by those restrictions. Trevul provides a per-listing exclusion tool — sellers can flag specific destination states they will not ship to, and Trevul will block bids and Buy-It-Now purchases from buyers in those states. Use of this tool is the seller's choice; failure to flag a restricted destination does not transfer the seller's underlying legal compliance responsibility to Trevul.
Phytosanitary inspections: if a state requires a phytosanitary certificate for a particular shipment, the seller is responsible for obtaining one. Cost is at the seller's expense unless the listing says otherwise.
Buyer obligations after delivery: Plants and plant materials purchased through Trevul are sold for use at the buyer's shipping address. Interstate transport, propagation, or resale by the buyer after delivery is governed by USDA APHIS and state phytosanitary, quarantine, and noxious-weed law — the buyer is solely responsible for compliance. Trevul facilitates transactions only and disclaims liability for any buyer-initiated movement of plant material after delivery.
Buyer climate is buyer's responsibility: if the seller accurately describes a plant's hardiness range and the buyer chooses to grow it outside that range, that's the buyer's choice and the buyer's loss.

10. Returns, refunds, and disputes

All sales are generally final. We do not require sellers to accept returns, except where the item materially differs from the listing (wrong species, condition substantially worse than described, missing components) or where the item arrived dead in transit and the seller's listing offered a live-arrival guarantee.

Inspection on receipt. Buyers must inspect items promptly on delivery and raise any issue with the seller (and, if not resolved between you, with Trevul) within seven (7) calendar days of delivery. Plant-specific live-arrival reports must additionally meet the 48-hour notice with date-stamped photos described in Section 9. Failure to raise a claim within these windows waives any right to refund or return based on the condition of the item at receipt; latent defects discovered later are addressed on a case-by-case basis through the dispute process below. The inspection windows do not limit your rights to dispute a charge through your card issuer or to pursue legal claims through arbitration; they govern only Trevul's internal refund and dispute mediation.

Disputes should be resolved between buyer and seller first. If you can't reach an agreement, open a Trevul support case within 14 days of the transaction. We'll review the facts in good faith and may issue a partial or full refund at our discretion, debiting the seller's payout. Our determination on platform-mediated disputes is final, but does not prevent either party from pursuing legal claims through the arbitration process below.

For chargebacks initiated through your card issuer, Stripe handles dispute mechanics and may freeze the seller's funds until resolved. For disputes initiated through PayPal's Resolution Center on PayPal-method sales, PayPal handles dispute mechanics and may hold the seller's funds until resolved. In either case Trevul provides reasonable assistance to the party with the documented case (shipping evidence, listing description, prior communication), but the underlying dispute process is between the user and the relevant payment provider.

11. Reviews and reports

Reviews. Once the buyer's payment captures (Sale state Paid or later — the seller does not need to have been paid out, and the package does not need to have been delivered, though most buyers wait), the buyer may submit a one-time star rating (1–5) and an optional written review of the seller. Reviews are tied to that specific Sale; you can revise yours within three weeks of submission. Reviews must be truthful, must reflect your experience with the transaction (not gossip about the seller, unrelated grievances, or off-platform context), and must not contain personal contact information, profanity, threats, or off-topic content. Trevul filters obvious profanity automatically and may hide a review at staff's discretion if it violates these rules. Hidden reviews stay readable to the author with a "moderated" banner; the public-facing rating excludes them.

Display name changes after reviews exist. Once you have received your first review as a seller, your display name is rate-limited to discourage rebranding around negative feedback. You may still change your display name, but every change after that first review:

hides every existing review on sales where you were the seller from your public profile and from your public star rating (the original buyer can still see their review on their order page; staff retain full visibility for moderation), and
locks further display-name changes for 30 days from the change.

Username, email, account history, prior sales, payouts, and ratings ledger are unaffected. The settings page surfaces this in advance with a confirmation step before any change takes effect, and shows a countdown while a 30-day lock is active. Changing your display name is not a way to escape your account history; reviews and sales remain attributable to your account regardless of the display name shown at any point in time.

Listing reports. If you encounter a listing you believe violates these Terms (misrepresentation, prohibited species, off-platform contact info, etc.), you may flag it via the report mechanism on the listing detail page. Reports are reviewed by Trevul staff — not auto-actioned — and we do not publicly disclose who reported a listing. Frivolous or abusive use of the report system may itself be a Terms violation.

Notifications and emails. Trevul sends two categories of communications:

Transactional and security messages (auction-won, payment-failed, account-deactivated, password-reset, verification codes, payout notifications, refund notices) — these are operationally required and will be sent to you regardless of any other preference settings, because they're necessary to operate your account responsibly.
Discretionary notifications — in-app sunflower-bell notifications (new listings from sellers you subscribe to, outbid alerts, review-received, etc.) plus the email digest of new listings from subscribed sellers, watchlist-ending-soon emails, and saved-search digests. These follow your preferences as set on the Dashboard notifications page; you can opt out of any of them at any time. The in-app notification feed is per-account; we don't share it.

12. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

use the Service for any illegal purpose or to facilitate illegal activity,
list items you don't own, can't legally sell, or that violate applicable law,
bid without intent or ability to pay,
shill bid, collude with other bidders, or otherwise manipulate auctions,
scrape, crawl, or programmatically access the Service except via documented APIs (we don't have public ones yet, so practically: no scraping),
circumvent rate limits, account locks, or security mechanisms,
impersonate another user or misrepresent your relationship to a person or entity,
upload content that infringes anyone's IP, contains malware, is defamatory, or harasses other users,
use the Service to harvest other users' data outside what's needed to complete a transaction,
create multiple accounts to bypass restrictions on a suspended account,
do anything that would damage the Service's availability or other users' experience.

Harassment and abusive conduct. You may not engage in conduct that harasses, intimidates, threatens, or stalks any other Trevul user, our staff, or any third party in connection with the Service. Prohibited conduct includes (without limitation): threats of violence; slurs or other abusive language targeted at a person's race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or national origin; doxing or publishing another person's private information; repeated unwanted contact after the recipient has indicated they do not wish to communicate (including reaching out from alternate accounts to circumvent a block, or after a deal-related conversation has clearly concluded); and any conduct intended to cause significant emotional distress.

Conduct directed at Trevul staff is held to the same standard as conduct directed at other users. Abusive contact aimed at our support, legal, or moderation personnel — whether via support@trevul.com, legal@trevul.com, dispute correspondence, or in messaging threads where staff are participating — may result in immediate suspension of your account while we review.

Remedy escalates with severity. First-time low-severity matters typically draw a written warning, and the affected user is reminded of the in-platform Block feature (Settings → Blocked users), which prevents further contact between the two parties on Trevul without ending either account. Repeated or moderate-severity harassment results in temporary suspension under Section 14. Severe matters — credible threats of violence, doxing, sexual harassment, content involving minors, or any conduct that would itself constitute a crime — result in immediate termination and may be reported to law enforcement. Notwithstanding any normal retention or deletion schedule, we may preserve message content, metadata, and account history for evidentiary purposes when a credible report of harassment has been raised.

13. Your content; our license

You retain ownership of the photos, descriptions, and other content you submit ("Your Content"). By submitting Your Content, you grant Trevul a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, display, reproduce, and distribute it for the purpose of operating and promoting the Service. The license ends when you delete the content, except where other users have already saved or shared it within the Service. You can't grant us this license for content you don't have rights to; if you upload someone else's photos without permission, that's your problem and the indemnification clause covers our liability for it.

Reporting infringement (DMCA notice). If you believe content on Trevul infringes your copyright, plant patent, trademark, or other intellectual property rights, send a notice to dmca@trevul.com or by mail to our DMCA Designated Agent:

Trevul DMCA Compliance
Trevul LLC
8 The Green, STE B
Dover, DE 19901
Phone: 770-765-2776
Email: dmca@trevul.com

For copyright claims the notice must meet the requirements of 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3) and include: (1) a physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act for the rights holder; (2) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed; (3) identification of the allegedly infringing material with enough detail (the listing URL is ideal) for us to locate it; (4) your contact information — address, phone, email; (5) a good-faith statement that the use is not authorized by the rights holder, its agent, or the law; and (6) a statement under penalty of perjury that the information is accurate and that you are authorized to act for the rights holder.

Trevul is registered with the U.S. Copyright Office as a service provider; our Designated Agent ID is DMCA-1073434 (entry searchable at https://www.copyright.gov/dmca-directory/).

Counter-notification. If your listing has been removed under a DMCA notice that you believe was sent in error or based on misidentification of the material, you may file a counter-notice. Send it to dmca@trevul.com with: (1) your physical or electronic signature; (2) identification of the material that was removed and the URL where it appeared before removal; (3) a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification; (4) your name, address, and phone number; and (5) a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or, if your address is outside the United States, of any judicial district in which Trevul may be found), and that you will accept service of process from the original notice sender.

When we receive a valid counter-notice we will forward it to the original notice sender. If the sender does not file a court action seeking to restrain the listing within 10 to 14 business days, we will restore the listing.

Repeat infringers. Trevul will terminate the account of any user that Trevul determines, in its reasonable discretion, to be a repeat infringer. “Repeat infringer” is presumed to mean a user who is the subject of three or more valid takedown notices within any rolling 12-month period; Trevul may terminate earlier in cases of egregious or willful infringement, and may decline to terminate where a notice has been withdrawn, successfully counter-noticed, or otherwise resolved without removal.

Misrepresentations. 17 U.S.C. § 512(f) makes it unlawful to knowingly and materially misrepresent in a notice or counter-notice that material is infringing or that removal was a mistake. Trevul may seek damages — including costs and attorneys' fees — from any party that does so, and may share notices and counter-notices with the other party as part of the procedure above.

Our trademarks. “TREVUL”, the Trevul hexagonal leaf logo, and related word marks and design marks are trademarks of Trevul LLC, used in connection with the Service. You may not use any Trevul mark without our prior written permission, except in nominative-fair-use contexts (e.g., factually identifying Trevul as the marketplace where a transaction occurred). You may not use Trevul marks in a domain name, product name, business name, or in any way that suggests Trevul sponsors, endorses, or is affiliated with you when it doesn't.

14. Termination

You may stop using the Service at any time. You can deactivate your account from the Account settings page (Danger zone → Delete my account) once any open commitments have settled — specifically: you must not be the highest bidder on a live auction, you must not have any sale awaiting payment or shipment, and you must not have any paid sale that hasn't been shipped. The settings page lists each open commitment and explains how to resolve it. For edge cases (a stuck dispute, a sale that won't close), contact support and an admin can deactivate the account on your behalf.

Closure is processed subject to retention obligations under applicable tax, financial, and fraud-prevention laws. When you delete your account, your saved Stripe payment methods are detached automatically (so Trevul can't charge them after deletion); your Stripe Customer record itself is retained for tax and audit purposes. Sellers' Stripe Connect (payouts) accounts are independent of Trevul and must be managed directly via Stripe.

How termination works on Trevul. Account closures and admin-initiated suspensions are implemented as soft-delete: the account is deactivated and login is blocked, all of the account's currently-live listings are cancelled (and any active bidders on those listings are notified that the auction was cancelled by the seller), and the account stops appearing on public surfaces such as listing browse pages, listing detail pages, the seller's public profile, and the Spotlight strip. The account row, prior transactions, prior reviews, and Stripe references are preserved for audit and dispute-resolution purposes. We do not immediately delete this data because doing so would erase records that buyers, sellers, tax authorities, or counsel may legitimately need to consult about completed transactions. Deactivated accounts may be restored by Trevul staff if a closure was issued in error or the underlying issue is resolved.

We may suspend or terminate your account, with or without notice, if we believe you've violated these Terms, are using the Service to facilitate fraud or illegal activity, or pose a risk to other users or to us.

Suspension is distinct from termination. A suspension is a temporary hold on account activity while we investigate a concern: login may be blocked or limited, listings may be paused, pending payouts may be frozen, and bid or Buy-It-Now activity may be disabled until the matter is resolved. Suspended users retain their account and history; suspensions can be lifted, narrowed, or escalated to termination depending on what the investigation finds. Common reasons for suspension include: a payment dispute or chargeback under review; a report alleging fraud, misrepresentation, prohibited content, or harassment that needs verification; multiple unresolved complaints; an indication of compromised credentials; or a request from law enforcement or a regulator pending response. Suspension typically lasts no longer than necessary to complete the investigation; we will use reasonable efforts to communicate the basis and expected duration via the email address on file. Suspension does not entitle you to a refund of any prepaid fees and does not extend any deadlines (e.g., the inspection window in Section 10).

Right to refuse or restrict service. Beyond suspension and termination, we reserve the right to refuse or restrict any user's access to specific features (for example, to disable Buy-It-Now while a payment-method issue is resolved, to revoke the Bidders capability for a staff account, to prevent the creation of new listings, or to cap account activity below the platform-wide limit) where doing so is reasonable in light of the user's history, applicable law, or the integrity of the marketplace. Feature-level restrictions follow the same notice and good-faith standards as suspension.

If you wish to have personal data removed from preserved records (e.g. email, address) in addition to the soft-delete above, contact legal@trevul.com; we'll honor lawful deletion requests subject to the retention obligations noted above and the Privacy Policy.

15. Privacy

How we collect, use, and share information about you is described in our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms.

16. Disclaimer of warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE". TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, TREVUL DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTY ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT LISTINGS ARE ACCURATE, THAT SELLERS WILL DELIVER AS PROMISED, THAT BUYERS WILL PAY, THAT PLANTS WILL THRIVE, THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED.

No oral or written information from Trevul or its employees creates a warranty not made in these Terms.

17. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, TREVUL'S TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100), OR (B) THE TOTAL FEES YOU PAID TO TREVUL IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM.

IN NO EVENT WILL TREVUL BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES — INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, LOST REVENUE, LOST DATA, OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION — EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Some jurisdictions don't allow limitation of certain damages; in those jurisdictions our liability is limited to the maximum extent permitted.

18. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold Trevul harmless from any claim, loss, liability, damage, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of (a) your use of the Service, (b) Your Content, (c) your violation of these Terms or any applicable law, (d) any transaction you enter into with another user through the Service, or (e) any misrepresentation of your identity, location, or eligibility.

19. Dispute resolution and binding arbitration

Read this section carefully. It limits how disputes between you and Trevul can be resolved.

Informal resolution first. Before filing arbitration, the parties agree to attempt to resolve the dispute informally for at least sixty (60) days. Send a written notice describing the dispute to legal@trevul.com; we'll respond within 30 days and try to work it out.

Binding individual arbitration. If the dispute isn't resolved informally, you and Trevul agree that any claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be resolved by binding arbitration administered by JAMS under its Streamlined Arbitration Rules. The arbitration will be conducted by a single arbitrator in Atlanta, Georgia, or remotely if both parties agree, in English. Each party bears its own costs unless the arbitrator decides otherwise. Judgment on the arbitrator's award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Class action waiver. You and Trevul agree to bring claims in our individual capacities only. You may not bring a claim as a plaintiff or class member in a class, consolidated, or representative action. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one party's claims and may not preside over any consolidated or representative proceeding.

Carve-outs. Either party may bring claims in small claims court for any matter that qualifies, and either party may seek injunctive relief in court for actual or threatened infringement of intellectual property rights. These carve-outs survive even if the rest of this section is found unenforceable.

30-day right to opt out. You can opt out of this arbitration agreement by sending written notice to legal@trevul.com within 30 days of first accepting these Terms. The notice must include your name, account email, and a clear statement that you opt out of arbitration. Opting out does not affect any other provision of these Terms.

Survival. This dispute resolution section survives termination of your account or the Service.

20. Governing law and venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Georgia, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. Any claim not subject to arbitration (small-claims actions or IP injunctive relief) must be brought in the state or federal courts located in Fulton County, Georgia, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

21. Changes to these Terms

These Terms will be updated from time to time. The current version, along with the version number and effective date, is always available at trevul.com/terms.

Re-acceptance is required to continue using the Service. When we publish a new version, the next time you sign in (or your next request, if you're already signed in) you will be shown a prompt with a link to the current Terms and asked to confirm your acceptance before you can continue. You are responsible for reviewing the Terms in full each time; we do not provide a summary or change log on the prompt, and clicking "I accept" represents your agreement to the Terms in their entirety as published at trevul.com/terms at the time of acceptance. You will not be able to bid, list, buy, message, or otherwise use the platform until you accept. You may instead log out, or delete your account from the settings page (subject to the open-commitment gate in Section 14); both options remain available from the re-acceptance page.

For material changes — anything affecting fees, dispute resolution, prohibited content, the licenses you grant us, or your data — we will additionally notify you by email at least 30 days before the change takes effect, so you have time to read and decide. Non-material updates (typo fixes, clarifying language, internal references) take effect immediately and still trigger the re-acceptance prompt described above so we have a clean record of which version each user is operating under.

22. Miscellaneous

Entire agreement. These Terms (together with the Privacy Policy and any additional terms you accept for specific features) are the entire agreement between you and Trevul.

Severability. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect.

No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision isn't a waiver of that provision.

Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of substantially all of our assets.

Headings. Headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.

Survival. The following Sections survive any termination, suspension, or expiration of these Terms or your account: Section 13 (Your content; our license, including the IP-takedown procedures), Section 14 (Termination, to the extent of suspension/restriction rights and data-retention obligations), Section 16 (Disclaimer of warranties), Section 17 (Limitation of liability), Section 18 (Indemnification), Section 19 (Dispute resolution and binding arbitration), Section 20 (Governing law and venue), Section 22 (Miscellaneous, including this Survival clause and Force majeure), and any accrued rights or remedies of either party as of the date of termination.

Notices. Notices to you may be delivered to the email address associated with your account; you are responsible for keeping that address current and for promptly reading communications sent to it. Notices delivered by email are deemed received on the date sent (subject to confirmation of successful delivery by our mail provider). Notices to Trevul concerning these Terms must be sent in writing to legal@trevul.com; for service of legal process, also deliver a paper copy to Trevul's registered agent at the address listed at the bottom of Section 23. Notices to Trevul are deemed received when actually received, not when sent. The parties may amend the notice mechanism by mutual written agreement.

Force majeure. Neither party will be liable for any failure or delay in performing its obligations under these Terms (other than the obligation to pay amounts already due) where the failure or delay is caused by events beyond the party's reasonable control, including acts of God, natural disasters, fire, flood, earthquake, pandemic or public health emergency, war, terrorism, civil unrest, labor disputes, government action, failure of public utilities or telecommunications networks, internet outages, denial-of-service attacks, or failures or unavailability of upstream service providers (including but not limited to payment processors, hosting providers, email delivery providers, and content delivery networks). The affected party will use reasonable efforts to resume performance as soon as practicable. If a force majeure event continues for more than 90 consecutive days, either party may terminate the affected obligations on written notice.

23. Contact

Trevul LLC
8 The Green, STE B
Dover, DE 19901
United States
Support: support@trevul.com
Legal: legal@trevul.com
Copyright/DMCA: dmca@trevul.com

Version 0.26-2026-06-09 — effective June 9, 2026.