Dispute Resolution System
At AbegEppMe, we are committed to maintaining a safe and professional platform that fosters fairness, trust, and transparency. While we anticipate the majority of transactions will go smoothly, we recognize that disputes may occasionally arise between clients and service providers.
This Dispute Resolution System outlines the steps we take to resolve such issues swiftly, fairly, and professionally—with a strong preference for amicable settlements and clearly defined escalation pathways, including third-party arbitration only where necessary.
1. Guiding Principles
- Neutrality: AbegEppMe does not take sides. We assess disputes objectively, based on platform records.
- Transparency: All evidence, including communication, documents, images, and agreements made on the platform, is used in evaluating disputes.
- Resolution Before Escalation: We prioritize dialogue and platform-level resolution before involving legal or third-party systems.
2. Internal Dispute Resolution Process
- Create, verify, and maintain service providers’ and users’ accounts. We use your personal information to create and maintain your user profile on the Service and enable the Service’s account security features (e.g., sending security codes via email or SMS).
- Facilitating secure payments and escrow transactions. We use your personal information to receive and process bookings, deliver services, process payments, and communicate with you regarding bookings, services, and promotional offers.
- Providing customer support and dispute resolution. We use your personal information to communicate with you (e.g., announcements, updates, security alerts, support, and administrative messages) and provide customer support for your requests, disputes, questions, and feedback.
- Enhancing security and fraud prevention. We use your personal information to prevent, detect, investigate, and respond to fraud, unauthorized access to or use of the Service, violations of the Terms of Use and Policies, or other misconduct.
- Sending promotional and marketing materials. We and our service providers may collect and use your personal information for marketing purposes under applicable laws. We may send you direct marketing communications based on your consent when required by applicable law. You may opt out of our marketing communications. We use your personal information to recommend features, products, and services that may be of interest to you. Personal information will also be used to determine your preferences and personalize your experience with the Service.
- Improve and optimize services and troubleshooting. We use your personal information to optimize features, analyze performance metrics, fix errors, and improve the Service and our business. As part of these activities, we may create aggregated or otherwise anonymized data based on the personal information we collect.
- Anonymized information. We may anonymize your information such that it cannot reasonably be used to infer information about you or otherwise be linked to you, and we may use such anonymized information for any purpose. To the extent we possess or process any anonymized information, we will maintain and use such information in anonymized form and not attempt to re-identify the information, except solely to determine whether our anonymization process satisfies legal requirements.
- Promotions, contests, and other events. We may use your user profile picture and account information to identify you in related promotions and events and facilitate your invitations to friends whom you want to invite to join the Service.
- Compliance, legal obligations, and protection. We may use your personal information for compliance purposes and to comply with applicable laws, lawful requests, and legal processes (e.g., responding to subpoenas or requests from government authorities); to protect our, your, and other users’ rights, privacy, safety, or property (including introducing and defending legal claims); to audit internal processes to ensure compliance with applicable law and contractual requirements and our internal policies; to enforce the terms and conditions that govern the Service; to prevent, identify, investigate, and deter fraudulent, harmful, unauthorized, unethical, or illegal activities, including cyberattacks and identity theft.
- Interest-based advertising. We, our service providers, and our third-party advertising partners may collect and use your personal information for interest-based advertising purposes.
- Legal claims based on your consent. In some cases, we may specifically ask for your consent to collect, use, or share your personal information, where required by applicable law.
- Cookies and similar technologies for technical operations, performance enhancement, advertising, analytics, etc.
| Stage | Action | Timeframe |
|---|---|---|
| Complaint Initiation | Either party raises a complaint via the dashboard or email with clear supporting evidence | Within 48 hours of issue |
| Preliminary Mediation | AbegEppMe’s Dispute Desk initiates guided mediation through chat or call | Within 3-5 working days |
| Evidence Review | Platform moderators review job logs, messages, uploaded files, and system interactions | Concurrently |
| Resolution Recommendation | A fair resolution is proposed, including possible refunds, amendments, or task reallocation | Within 7 working days |
| Mutual Agreement or Escalation | If both parties agree, the matter is closed. If not, the issue proceeds to external arbitration | Upon failure to resolve |
3. Resolution Outcomes May Include:
- Partial refund
- Full refund (when justified)
- Redo of the service at no extra cost
- Withholding of escrow balance
- Suspension or banning of non-compliant service providers
- Removal of unfounded complaints from a client’s account
- Formal warning or penalties
4. Escalation to Arbitration (Final Resolution Path)
If an amicable settlement cannot be reached internally after all mediation efforts, either party may refer the matter to arbitration.
Authorized Arbitration Centers:
- Ogun State Multidoor Courthouse (OGMDC) - Judiciary Complex, Isabo, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
- Lagos State Multidoor Courthouse (LMDC) - High Court of Lagos, Igbosere, Lagos Island, Lagos State.
- Arbitration at these centers shall be binding and enforceable.
- The choice of venue shall depend on the service location or preferred jurisdiction of the complainant within Nigeria.
- The cost of arbitration shall be shared equally between both parties, unless otherwise determined by the panel.
5. Disqualification from Dispute Resolution
AbegEppMe will not intervene or be held liable where:
- Communication or payment took place outside the platform.
- Both parties refused to follow the outlined dispute steps.
- Fraudulent or false claims are suspected (penalties apply).
6. Contact
To initiate a dispute or escalate a complaint:
Send an email to AbegEppMe’s Data Protection Officesupport@vendors.abegeppme.com
We take each case seriously and strive to resolve all complaints in a timely, just, and professional manner.