Terms of Service

Colin connects engineering students with working engineers for 30-minute video conversations about their field. These terms are the agreement between you and Colin. You accept them when you tick the box at signup or when we ask you to on your dashboard. If you don't agree, please don't use Colin.

Colin is run by its founder as an individual. It is not a registered company. In these terms, "Colin", "we", and "us" mean the founder operating the service.

Your account

• You must be 18 or older to use Colin.
• Use your real name, and keep your field, school, and profile details accurate.
• One account per person. Don't share it or let anyone else use it.
• Keep your password to yourself. You're responsible for what happens under your account.

Booking isn't open yet

Colin is new. Right now you can log in, fill in your profile, and add the times you're free, but sessions can't be booked or paid for. Nothing is charged while booking is closed. We'll email you before it opens.

Sessions and payment, once booking opens

• Engineers post times they're free. A student picks one of those times and pays to book it. Posting a time is the engineer saying yes to it, so there's no separate approval step.
• When a student picks a time, we hold it for 30 minutes while they pay. If the founder matches a student and an engineer by hand, the student has 24 hours to pay. If payment doesn't arrive in time, the time is released.
• A session is booked only once payment is complete. We then email both of you the details.
• The price is shown before you pay. Payments are processed by Stripe; we never see your card details.
• Cancellations and refunds follow our Refund Policy.

Engineers

• Engineers take part as independent individuals. They aren't employees, contractors, partners, or agents of Colin, and Colin doesn't pay engineers for sessions.
• Engineers speak for themselves, not for their employers. Every engineer also agrees to our Engineer Acknowledgment, which covers employer conflicts and confidential information.
• Engineers write their own profiles. We don't check them before students see them, and we can't verify everything an engineer says about their background or experience.

How we expect everyone to behave

• Be respectful, and show up on time.
• Join and leave each session with the buttons on your session page. We record when you press them, and use those times if there's ever a question about who showed up.
• Don't record a session unless everyone on the call agrees first.
• Don't harass anyone, make romantic or sexual advances, misrepresent who you are, or use Colin to sell something.
• Use what you learn about someone through Colin only for your conversation with them.
• If something goes wrong in a session, or someone makes you uncomfortable, tell us. email support@colinchats.com.

We can suspend or close an account that breaks these rules.

What Colin is and isn't

Conversations on Colin are informal career conversations. They aren't professional engineering, legal, financial, immigration, or employment advice, and they don't come with a job, an internship, or a referral. We do our best to match you with someone helpful, but we can't promise any particular outcome.

Calls happen on a third-party video service, such as Zoom or Google Meet. Those services have their own terms, and we aren't responsible for them.

Our liability

Colin is provided as is and as available. To the extent the law allows, we aren't liable for indirect or consequential losses, or for what another person says or does in a session, and our total liability to you for any claim is limited to the amount you paid us for the session involved, or $25 if you didn't pay for one.

Ending your account

You can delete your account at any time from Settings. Deleting it cancels any upcoming sessions under the refund rules that apply.

Changes

We may update these terms. When we do, we'll change the date at the top, and if the change matters, we'll ask you to agree to the new version the next time you log in.

Contact

To reach us, email support@colinchats.com.