Marketplace Terms of Use — Appliance Parts North
These Marketplace Terms of Use (“Marketplace Terms”) govern the use of the Appliance Parts North marketplace (“APN”, “the Platform”, “we”), available at appliancepartsnorth.ca and operated by ELECTROFIABLE inc. (Québec, Canada). They apply to every visitor, buyer and seller and constitute the terms of use of the site. The Privacy Policy is a separate notice, not part of these terms. They refer to the Seller Terms, the Offer Policy, the Photos and User Content Policy and the Returns, Refunds, Warranty and Shipping Framework. Where a rule is stated in another document, that document governs; nothing here repeats it.
1. Acceptance
1.1 When you create an account, you are asked to expressly accept these Marketplace Terms. That acceptance is contractual: it is recorded with your user identifier, the version number you accepted, the context of acceptance and a timestamp. Browsing offers or contacting a seller without an account is also subject to these terms.
1.2 The Privacy Policy is not part of this contract. At registration you are separately given notice of the Privacy Policy and asked to acknowledge it; that acknowledgement is recorded separately from your acceptance of these terms. Where a specific consent is required for a particular collection or use (for example, publicly displaying your phone number), it is asked separately and is never implied by accepting these terms.
1.3 Sellers additionally accept the Seller Terms before their first binding action as a seller, and at the latest before their first offer submission. That acceptance is recorded with your user identifier, the version accepted, the context and a timestamp. Submitting, promoting, activating or resuming an offer requires that the current version of the Seller Terms has been accepted.
1.4 If you do not accept these terms, do not use the Platform.
2. Accounts
2.1 One account is used both to buy and to sell. There is no separate buyer or seller account. A seller profile can be attached to an account, but selling requires the additional conditions set out in the Seller Terms (authorization by APN, a unique public seller name, a verified phone number, a return policy on file and acceptance of the Seller Terms).
2.2 You are responsible for the security of your credentials and for all activity under your account. Notify us at the contact address in section 17 if you suspect unauthorized use.
2.3 You must provide accurate account information and keep it up to date. Your legal identity, seller type (individual or business), verified phone number, billing references and any private notes are private and are never published; see the Privacy Policy.
3. Role of APN
3.1 APN is a platform that lets independent sellers offer appliance parts under APN’s catalog records (“APN Parts”) and lets buyers find those parts, contact those sellers and purchase through the Platform’s checkout.
3.2 Each seller is independent and is solely responsible for its offers, descriptions, photos, prices, stock, condition statements, warranty declarations, return policy, packaging and shipment of sold items.
3.3 ELECTROFIABLE inc., the operator of APN, also sells parts on the Platform. When it does, it acts as an ordinary seller and is bound by exactly the same Marketplace Terms, Seller Terms and Offer Policy as any other seller. No subscription plan and no seller, including ELECTROFIABLE inc., receives ranking, moderation or visibility advantages.
3.4 APN owns and maintains the APN Parts (page structure, titles, references, search metadata). Sellers cannot edit APN Parts. A reference entered by a seller is never presumed to be an OEM reference; any verification of a reference is APN metadata, not a seller statement.
3.5 For every offer of a third-party seller, the contract of sale for the part is formed between that seller and the buyer: the seller is the contracting merchant of the sale. ELECTROFIABLE inc. operates the marketplace and provides services to sellers: platform access, onboarding, offer publication and workflow, payment facilitation and collection, order attribution and ledger, settlement, payouts, fees, messaging and seller tools. Payment for an order is collected through the Platform (Stripe Connect); collecting the buyer’s payment does not make APN the seller of the merchandise. Where ELECTROFIABLE inc. is itself the seller of an offer, it contracts as an ordinary seller under section 3.3.
4. Offers and disclosures
4.1 Every offer must comply with the Offer Policy, which defines the offer types allowed at launch — New OEM, New Compatible, Open box OEM and Used OEM (open box compatible and used compatible offers are refused at creation) — the mandatory declarations for each type and the moderation process.
4.2 Sellers must describe the actual part offered. A used OEM part must be declared tested and working, and the seller must describe the test method. Open-box and used parts require real photos of the actual item.
4.3 Buyers must read the Condition and Compatibility Disclosures included in the Offer Policy. In particular: a “tested working” statement is not a guarantee of compatibility with any specific appliance; a “compatible” part is not an OEM part; an APN Part reference does not by itself guarantee fitment with a given appliance model.
4.4 Availability status (available or away, chat or call flags, local time) is shown so buyers know when a seller can respond. Offers of a seller who is “away” are not presented as available.
4.5 Offers are moderated automatically by default and by a human only by exception (ambiguous reference, data conflict, requested correction, report or abuse). No offer is reviewed by a human solely because of its type, condition, origin or test status (for example “used” or “tested working”). The disclosures that apply to each type remain in force regardless.
4.6 After an offer is promoted, its APN Part, origin and condition are structural and cannot be edited; changing one of them means archiving the offer and creating a new one. Other changes follow the Offer Policy: some take effect immediately (price, quantity, SKU, non-substantial descriptions, approximate location, adding photos) and others (test status and method, warranty, known defects, donor appliance, replacing or removing photos, other substantial buyer-facing changes) are automatically re-evaluated on the same offer, with a human review only when an exception is detected. An offer always keeps at least one real photo.
5. Buyer responsibilities
5.1 Verify the reference, model compatibility and condition of a part with the seller before agreeing to buy. Ask questions through the Platform’s messaging features.
5.2 Read the seller’s own return policy and warranty declaration displayed on the offer or seller profile.
5.3 Provide accurate shipping information and behave respectfully in all communications.
6. Seller responsibilities
6.1 Sellers are bound by the Seller Terms, which set out authorization, profile, phone verification, public seller name, availability, return policy, accuracy attestation, photo, moderation, subscription and suspension rules.
6.2 Sellers must keep their offers accurate at all times, pause or archive what they can no longer supply, and honour the return policy and warranty they have declared.
6.3 Business sellers may be subject to Québec consumer protection legislation and to federal or provincial laws applicable to their sales. Compliance is the seller’s responsibility.
7. Transactions
7.1 Buyers purchase through the Platform’s checkout, and APN operates the order and transaction engine. An order that includes parts from more than one seller is split into independent per-seller vendor orders. Order validation, stock reservation, fulfillment tracking and the return-request workflow run on the Platform. Payment is collected through the Platform (Stripe Connect); for every third-party offer, the contract of sale for the part is between the buyer and the seller (section 3.5).
7.2 APN charges the seller a commission on each sale made through the Platform: 10% + $1 CAD per sale. The commission includes Stripe payment-processing fees; sellers are never charged Stripe processing fees separately.
7.3 Sellers may subscribe to a paid plan to increase the number of active offers they can hold. Plans and billing are summarized in the Seller Terms (Billing Summary). Plans never buy any advantage other than capacity.
8. Warranties and returns
8.1 APN does not itself sell the parts offered by independent sellers and does not provide a warranty on them. Each seller declares either a commercial warranty (with its details) or “no commercial warranty” on each offer.
8.2 Each seller has a return policy on file, shown to buyers. The Returns, Refunds, Warranty and Shipping Framework explains the distinction between platform-level rules, seller-specific return policies, seller-specific warranties and the on-platform return-request workflow, and lists the typical cases (wrong item, item damaged in transit, buyer remorse, used and compatible parts). A buyer requests a return on their own completed order through the Platform’s return workflow, and an APN consumer-rights notice is displayed alongside every seller return policy.
8.3 Nothing in these terms, in a seller’s return policy or in a “no commercial warranty” declaration reduces the rights a buyer holds under applicable law (including, where they apply, the legal warranty and distance-contract rules of Québec consumer protection law). The Framework separates those mandatory rights from APN’s operational defaults.
8.4 Subject to applicable law, APN’s operational defaults are the following and are stated in full in the Framework: a seller is expected to respond to a buyer’s claim within 2 business days; to ship within the handling time announced on the offer (“Ships within N business days”, where N is 1, 2 or 3 business days chosen by the seller — the delay before carrier hand-off, carrier transit time being additional); a claim without seller response may be escalated to APN after 5 business days; return costs are borne by the seller, on any accepted return and not only where the seller is at fault; a refund covers the product price and the refundable product taxes, the shipping paid on the original order and the tax on that shipping not being refunded; buyer remorse is governed by the seller’s own policy together with any mandatory rights; refunds are processed promptly under the APN workflow and always within any mandatory deadline. These are service targets that organize the marketplace; they never shorten a legal deadline or waive a legal right.
8.5 Where ELECTROFIABLE inc. is the seller, its own return policy and warranty declaration apply, exactly as for any other seller.
9. Shipping
9.1 At launch, orders are fulfilled by shipping only. An offer configured for pickup, or for shipping and pickup, is not purchasable and is shown as “Not available for shipping”. The Platform computes live Canada Post shipping rates from the seller’s private origin postal code and the offer’s packaged weight (required; packaged dimensions are optional), and the buyer pays the shipping cost at checkout; the seller neither sets the shipping price nor chooses the carrier. Each offer shows a handling time chosen by the seller — “Ships within N business days” (1, 2 or 3) — which is the delay before hand-off to the carrier; carrier transit time is additional, and no delivery date is promised. The seller is responsible for packaging and for shipping within the announced handling time; the seller marks each vendor order shipped with a tracking number (required). The buyer sees shipment status and tracking on the order page and receives one shipment e-mail per vendor-order shipment.
9.2 Only the seller’s city and region or province are shown publicly. The seller’s exact address is never published, and the seller’s origin postal code is private: the Platform uses it only to compute shipping rates. The buyer provides a shipping address at checkout for delivery of the order; see the Privacy Policy.
10. Communications and prohibited conduct
10.1 The Platform provides buyer-to-seller messaging; it is live. Guests may initiate contact, subject to anti-abuse measures. Messaging and phone contact are configured independently by each seller, and a seller’s phone number is displayed only if that seller has explicitly opted in.
10.2 The following conduct is prohibited on the Platform: harassment or threats; spam or unsolicited commercial messages; misleading claims about parts, condition, origin, test status or compatibility; sharing another person’s private information; attempting to access another user’s account; circumventing moderation or capacity limits; steering a counterparty to pay outside the Platform or otherwise circumventing platform payment; any unlawful use.
10.3 Reports of abuse may lead to human review of the offers or accounts concerned.
11. Intellectual property and user content
11.1 The Platform, its catalog of APN Parts, its texts, layouts and software are the property of ELECTROFIABLE inc. or its licensors. You may not copy or reuse them outside normal use of the Platform.
11.2 Content you submit (offer descriptions, test method, warranty details, highlights, defects, install tips, donor appliance information and photos) remains yours. By submitting it you grant APN a licence to display, store, resize and reproduce it on the Platform for the purpose of operating the marketplace, as detailed in the Photos and User Content Policy. APN may remove content that violates a policy.
11.3 You confirm you have the right to publish the content you submit and that it contains no private information of third parties.
12. Privacy
12.1 The Privacy Policy explains what data we collect, what is public and what stays private, why we use it, which service providers process it and your rights. In short: your public seller name, approximate location, availability and offer content are public; your legal identity, seller type, phone number (unless you opt in), billing references, plan and private notes are not.
13. Disputes
13.1 Buyers and sellers should first try to resolve any disagreement directly.
13.2 If a disagreement is not resolved directly, a buyer may escalate an unresolved claim to APN through the Platform after the seller-response period described in the Returns, Refunds, Warranty and Shipping Framework. APN facilitates communication between the parties and may apply the graduated measures in section 14, but the contract of sale for the part remains between the buyer and the seller (section 3.5); APN is not a party to that contract.
14. Suspension and termination
14.1 In case of breach of these terms, the Seller Terms or a policy, misleading claims, abuse or unlawful conduct, APN applies graduated measures, proportionate to the facts, with reasons given, notice to the person concerned and an opportunity to respond: (1) warning; (2) correction required; (3) forced pause of the offers concerned; (4) suspension of the seller; (5) termination of seller privileges or of the account.
14.2 Where the conduct involves fraud, a safety issue, serious abuse or a significant risk (for example counterfeit parts, dangerous or recalled parts, identity misuse, circumvention of platform payments, harassment, disclosure of another person’s personal information, or repeated abuse), APN may move directly to an immediate suspension or any other appropriate measure, without going through the earlier levels. Notice and an opportunity to respond are still given.
14.3 ELECTROFIABLE inc., as a seller, is subject to exactly the same measures.
14.4 Capacity suspensions (for example after a subscription downgrade) are automatic and reversible and are not a sanction; offers are suspended, never deleted, as described in the Seller Terms.
14.5 You may close your account or archive your offers at any time, subject to any obligations already incurred toward buyers.
15. Changes to these terms
15.1 We may update these Marketplace Terms. Each version carries a whole-number version and a date; the first production version is version 1. The version number changes only on a material change; a purely editorial change (wording, typos, formatting) does not change the version and only updates the “last updated” date.
15.2 On a material change, you will be asked to accept the new version at your next login or action on the Platform; sellers must accept the new version of the Seller Terms, where it changed, before their next offer submission, promotion, activation or resumption. Each acceptance is recorded with the exact version accepted, and the text of every published version is archived unchanged so that what you accepted can always be identified.
16. Governing law
16.1 These Marketplace Terms are governed by the laws applicable in the Province of Québec and the federal laws of Canada applicable there. Subject to the mandatory rights of any consumer protection legislation that applies to you, the courts of Québec have jurisdiction over any dispute relating to these terms. This mirrors the governing-law clause of the Seller Terms.
17. Contact
ELECTROFIABLE inc. — 123 Rue Jacob, Repentigny (Québec) J5Z 4S9, Canada — info@appliancepartsnorth.ca — 438-378-9367. See the Contact page.