Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of Spot, a product operated by Tristan Shin ("Spot," "we," "us," or "our"). You can contact us at support@usespot.me or by mail at 130 Stockton Avenue, Apt. 724, San Jose, CA 95126.

By using Spot, creating an account, sending a gift, claiming a gift, or tapping "terms of service" in the app, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use Spot.

1. What Spot does

Spot lets you send a friend a treat through iMessage or the Spot app. The treat is the friendly catalog item you pick, such as a drink or snack. The recipient receives access to a merchant gift card, gift certificate, stored-value pass, QR code, barcode, or similar redemption instrument delivered through Apple Wallet or another supported claim flow (a "Gift Card").

Spot is not the issuer of the Gift Card. The Gift Card is issued, sold, fulfilled, or redeemed by the participating merchant or its gift-card provider, such as Square or another provider we support. The merchant or provider's terms may apply to the Gift Card.

2. Eligibility and availability

You must be at least 13 years old to use Spot. You may send gifts only if you are legally allowed to use the payment method you provide. If we learn that a user is under 13, we may suspend access and delete personal information as required by law.

Spot is available only in the United States. You may not use Spot if you are outside the United States, if you are barred from using Spot under applicable law, or if you are listed on any sanctions or restricted-party list.

3. No Spot balance or stored value

Spot does not provide a bank account, wallet, stored balance, prepaid account, money transmission service, credit account, or peer-to-peer payment account. You cannot hold money in Spot, transfer Spot value to another user, roll value over, or cash out a Spot balance.

Each payment is for one specific gift. One charge maps to one gift. Spot does not let users send open-ended money transfers or use Spot as a payment rail for goods, services, debts, reimbursements, wages, gambling, regulated products, or commercial transactions.

4. Sending a gift

When you send a gift, you choose a treat, optionally add a note or stamp, pay through a supported payment method, and send or share the gift with the intended recipient. You are responsible for making sure the recipient information you provide is accurate and that you have a real relationship with, or permission to contact, the recipient.

Gift links, iMessage balloons, claim links, and similar claim instruments can be sensitive. Do not forward them to people who should not receive the gift. Spot may treat the first eligible claimant who completes the required claim steps as the recipient.

5. Claiming a gift

To claim a gift, the recipient may need to open the gift link or iMessage balloon, install Spot, verify a phone number with a one-time code, and add the Gift Card to Apple Wallet. Claim steps may vary by merchant, provider, device, and surface.

Spot may use phone verification to bind a gift to a recipient, reduce fraud, recover access, provide support, and protect the gift from unauthorized claims. Once a gift is claimed or delivered, the recipient is responsible for keeping access to the Wallet pass or other redemption method.

6. Payments, final sales, and no automatic refunds

Gift purchases are final once paid for and sent or created, except where required by law or expressly stated in these Terms. Spot does not provide automatic refunds for gifts that are not claimed. If a recipient does not claim a gift, the gift remains available to claim, subject to these Terms, provider availability, fraud controls, and applicable law.

If a payment is captured but the gift cannot be created, funded, or delivered because of a Spot, payment-processor, merchant, or provider issue, Spot may, in its discretion or where required by law, cancel the gift, replace the gift, reissue access, coordinate support with the merchant or provider, or refund the sender to the original payment method.

After a Gift Card is claimed or delivered, Spot generally cannot reverse it. Redemption issues are handled by the merchant or gift-card provider, although Spot will try to help route support if you contact support@usespot.me.

7. Gift card terms, expiration, and fees

Spot does not impose service fees, dormancy fees, inactivity fees, or expiration dates on the value of Gift Cards. The underlying Gift Card value is subject to the merchant's or provider's terms and applicable gift-card laws. If a Wallet pass, claim link, barcode, or similar access method needs to be refreshed for technical or security reasons, contact support@usespot.me and we will try to help recover access.

Where gift-card laws require cash redemption of a small remaining balance, including California cash redemption rights for eligible balances below the applicable legal threshold, you may contact support@usespot.me. Spot is not the issuer of the Gift Card, but we will help coordinate the request with the merchant or provider.

8. Taxes

Gift cards are generally not taxed at the time of purchase in California; sales tax, if any, is usually handled by the merchant when the card is redeemed. Tax treatment may vary by location, merchant, and item. You are responsible for any taxes that apply to your use of Spot.

9. Messages and phone numbers

Spot may send transactional messages, including verification codes, claim messages, gift status messages, security notices, and support messages. Message and data rates may apply. Marketing messages, if any, require any consent required by law. You can opt out of non-essential messages by following instructions in the message or contacting support@usespot.me. Some transactional messages are necessary to use Spot.

10. User content

You may be able to add notes, stamps, labels, names, or other content to gifts. You keep ownership of your content, but you give Spot a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, display, transmit, and use that content as needed to operate Spot, deliver the gift, provide support, enforce these Terms, and comply with law.

You may not use Spot to harass, threaten, defraud, impersonate, spam, abuse, or send unlawful, hateful, sexual, violent, invasive, or otherwise harmful content. We may remove content, block gifts, suspend accounts, or report conduct when we believe it is necessary to protect users, Spot, merchants, providers, or the public.

11. Acceptable use and limits

You may use Spot only for personal, lawful gifting. You may not use Spot for commercial resale, money transfers, cash advances, payment for goods or services outside Spot, regulated goods, illegal products, sanctions evasion, fraud, testing stolen payment credentials, scraping, reverse engineering, interfering with the service, or any use that creates legal, security, fraud, or platform risk.

Spot may impose limits on gift amounts, gift frequency, claim attempts, OTP attempts, payment attempts, recipient counts, merchant availability, locations, devices, or accounts. We may delay, block, cancel, review, or require additional verification for activity that appears risky or violates these Terms.

12. Accounts, deletion, and security

You are responsible for the accuracy of your phone number, recipient information, and account information. Keep your device and messages secure. If you believe your account, gift, claim link, Wallet pass, or phone number has been compromised, contact support@usespot.me.

You may delete your account in the app or by contacting support@usespot.me. Account deletion removes personal data as described in our Privacy Policy and as required by law. Deleting your account does not invalidate gifts already delivered to recipients.

13. Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share, retain, and delete personal information. By using Spot, you also agree to our Privacy Policy. If you submit someone else's contact information, you represent that you have permission or another lawful basis to provide it to Spot so we can send, deliver, secure, and support the gift.

14. Third-party services

Spot depends on third-party services, including Apple, Apple Wallet, Apple Pay, Messages, Stripe, Square, merchants, SMS providers, cloud providers, analytics providers, and other vendors. We are not responsible for third-party outages, rules, delays, fees, account restrictions, or terms. Apple is not a party to these Terms and is not responsible for Spot or any Gift Card.

15. Changes to Spot or these Terms

We may change Spot, add or remove merchants, change supported gifts, update claim flows, or stop providing parts of Spot at any time. We may update these Terms by posting the updated version or notifying you in the app. Material changes will apply prospectively unless a different effective date is stated. Your continued use of Spot after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.

16. Disclaimers

Spot is provided "as is" and "as available." To the fullest extent allowed by law, we disclaim all warranties, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, availability, accuracy, and uninterrupted operation.

We do not guarantee that every merchant, item, Gift Card, payment method, claim flow, Wallet pass, barcode, or device will be available at all times. We do not guarantee that a merchant will accept a Gift Card in every location or channel. Your rights under applicable consumer protection, gift-card, payment, and privacy laws are not limited by this section.

17. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent allowed by law, Spot and Tristan Shin will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost data, loss of goodwill, or business interruption.

To the fullest extent allowed by law, Spot's total liability for any claim related to these Terms or Spot will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid through Spot for the gift giving rise to the claim, or (b) $100. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limits, so some limits may not apply to you.

18. Indemnity

To the fullest extent allowed by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Spot and Tristan Shin from claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising from your use of Spot, your content, your violation of these Terms, your misuse of a payment method, your violation of law, or your submission of recipient information without permission or lawful basis.

19. Disputes, arbitration, and class waiver

Before starting a formal dispute, you agree to email support@usespot.me with your name, phone number, a description of the dispute, and the relief you want. We will try to resolve the dispute informally for 30 days.

If the dispute is not resolved informally, either you or Spot may elect binding individual arbitration, except that either party may bring an individual claim in small claims court if it qualifies. Arbitration will be administered by the American Arbitration Association under its applicable consumer rules, unless the parties agree otherwise. You and Spot waive the right to a jury trial and to participate in a class action, class arbitration, private attorney general action, or representative action, except where this waiver is not enforceable under applicable law.

You may opt out of this arbitration section within 30 days after first accepting these Terms by emailing support@usespot.me with the subject line "Arbitration Opt-Out" and the phone number associated with your Spot account. If you opt out, the rest of these Terms still apply.

20. Governing law

These Terms are governed by California law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except to the extent federal law controls. For disputes not subject to arbitration or small claims court, you agree to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in Santa Clara County, California.

21. Attributions

Some treat icons in Spot are adapted from OpenMoji — the open-source emoji and icon project — licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: recolored to Spot's palette. The adapted icon files remain available under the same license.

22. Contact

Questions, support requests, legal notices, abuse reports, cash-redemption coordination requests, and privacy-related requests may be sent to support@usespot.me.