By using our website, directory, referral services, forms, community resources, and related services, you agree to the following Terms & Conditions. If you do not agree, please do not use the site or our services.
1. Referral service only
The Southern Shmooze operates as a referral and community platform that connects consumers with independent third-party businesses and service providers.
We do not perform contracting, construction, repair, landscaping, plumbing, electrical, roofing, legal, financial, medical, or other professional services of any kind.
The Southern Shmooze is a referral resource and is not a party to any contract, agreement, estimate, invoice, warranty, or service arrangement between a customer and a business.
2. Independent businesses
All businesses listed, featured, promoted, recommended, or participating in The Southern Shmooze operate independently. They are not employees, agents, partners, subsidiaries, or representatives of The Southern Shmooze.
Contracts and service arrangements exist solely between customers and the businesses they hire. Customers are solely responsible for selecting the businesses they choose to work with and for reviewing all agreements before entering into a contractual relationship.
3. No guarantee
Although we make an effort to recommend reputable businesses, The Southern Shmooze does not guarantee workmanship, project outcomes, timelines, pricing, availability, customer satisfaction, licensing status, insurance coverage, business performance, or compliance with applicable laws.
Past performance, community recommendations, Shmooze Certified status, or prior customer experiences do not guarantee future results. Customers should conduct their own due diligence before hiring any business.
4. Shmooze Certified membership
Shmooze Certified is a paid membership that gives participating businesses visibility and promotional opportunities on our website, in our directory, and across our community channels.
Membership does not constitute an endorsement, warranty, certification of quality, guarantee of future performance, or representation that a business is the best provider for a particular project. Member businesses remain independent and are solely responsible for their own work and operations.
What certification actually means
A Shmooze Certified badge means that, at the time of listing, the business met our published standards: a public rating of at least 4 stars across its verifiable customer reviews, and confirmed service coverage in the metro Atlanta area. It means nothing more than that. It is not a license check, a background check, a bond, an inspection, or an insurance verification.
Licensing and insurance
Where a business tells us it holds a license or carries insurance, we may display that claim on its profile. We do not independently verify licensing or insurance status, and we make no representation that any displayed claim is current or accurate. Verifying licensing and insurance is the customer's responsibility.
5. Listing standards and removal
To be listed, a business must maintain a public customer rating of at least 4 stars and must serve the metro Atlanta area. We re-check listed businesses periodically, including a review roughly every three months.
We may edit, suspend, pause, or permanently remove any listing at our sole discretion, with or without notice, including where:
the business no longer meets the rating or service area standard;
we receive credible complaints about the business;
the information the business supplied to us is inaccurate, outdated, or misleading;
the business fails to pay membership fees when due;
the business engages in conduct we reasonably believe harms customers or the community; or
the business asks to be removed.
Removal of a listing does not by itself entitle a business to a refund of fees already paid, except as described in the billing section below.
Accuracy of what you give us
Businesses are responsible for the accuracy of everything they submit, including business name, contact details, service area, trade or category, website, licensing claims, offers, photos, and profile copy. You agree to keep this information current and to tell us promptly when it changes.
6. Membership billing and cancellation
Paid memberships are billed through our membership platform and payment processor. By starting a paid membership you authorize us to charge your payment method on a recurring basis until you cancel.
Recurring charges
Monthly plans renew automatically every month on the anniversary of your signup date, at the rate shown at checkout.
Annual plans renew automatically every twelve months on the anniversary of your signup date, at the rate shown at checkout.
Applicable taxes and processing fees may be added at checkout and are shown before you confirm.
Price changes
We may change membership pricing. If we do, we will give existing members at least thirty days' notice by email before the new price applies to their renewal. Continuing your membership past that date means you accept the new price.
Cancellation
You may cancel at any time from your member account, or by emailing [email protected]. Cancellation stops future renewals. Your listing and member benefits remain active through the end of the period you have already paid for, after which the listing comes down.
Refunds
Membership fees are non-refundable except where required by law or where we have made a billing error. We do not prorate partial months or partial years. If you believe you were charged in error, email us within thirty days and we will look into it.
Failed payments
If a payment fails, we may retry the charge, pause your listing and benefits, and, if the balance remains unpaid, cancel the membership.
Free and trial memberships
Where we offer a free tier or a promotional trial, the benefits, duration, and conditions are those stated at the time you sign up. We may change or discontinue any free or promotional offer at any time. A free membership does not include a directory listing or the Shmooze Certified badge unless we say so explicitly.
7. Leads, referrals, and results
Some membership tiers include referrals or introductions to homeowners who have contacted us looking for help. Where a tier includes these, they are provided on a best-effort basis.
We do not guarantee any specific number of leads, referrals, introductions, inquiries, phone calls, appointments, quotes, jobs, contracts, revenue, ranking position, click volume, or search visibility. Demand varies by trade, by season, and by how quickly a business responds.
Referrals are provided as information only. We do not screen homeowners, verify their budgets, confirm their intent, or guarantee that any referred customer will hire you, pay you, or be a good fit for your business. Deciding whether to take on a job is entirely your call.
Reports, audits, consultations, and recommendations we provide to members are business feedback offered in good faith. They are not professional marketing, legal, accounting, or financial advice, and acting on them is at your own discretion and risk.
8. Your content and our license to use it
When you give us business information, logos, photos, offers, profile copy, testimonials, or other material for use on the site or in our community channels, you grant The Southern Shmooze a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to display, reproduce, resize, excerpt, and distribute that material for the purpose of promoting you and operating the platform, including on our website, in our directory, in email newsletters, on social media, in the Facebook group, and on the podcast.
You confirm that you own or have permission to use everything you send us, and that our use of it will not infringe anyone else's rights. This license ends when your listing comes down, except for material already distributed in archived newsletters, published podcast episodes, and social posts, which may remain in place.
9. Shmooze Support
The Southern Shmooze may provide assistance facilitating communication between customers and businesses when concerns arise. Shmooze Support may include providing recommendations, facilitating discussions, sharing information, offering feedback, assisting with communication, or otherwise attempting to help parties reach a mutually agreeable resolution.
While we are happy to assist whenever possible, Shmooze Support is provided solely as a courtesy and does not create any contractual obligation, warranty, guarantee, agency relationship, partnership, joint venture, legal duty, or financial responsibility on the part of The Southern Shmooze.
We do not supervise, manage, inspect, direct, control, correct, or guarantee the work of any business. Any assistance we provide is voluntary and does not constitute acceptance of liability.
10. Reviews and ratings data
Star ratings, review counts, and review excerpts shown on this site are pulled from public third-party sources, including Google, and are displayed as they appear at the time of viewing. We do not write, edit, filter, reorder, or suppress third-party reviews, and we do not offer or accept payment to change them.
Third-party data can be delayed, incomplete, or out of date, and a business's current rating may differ from what is shown. Ratings are the property of the platform that hosts them and are subject to that platform's own terms.
Testimonials and community recommendations published by The Southern Shmooze reflect the experience of the individual who gave them and are not a promise of what your experience will be.
11. Acceptable use
You agree not to:
submit false, misleading, or fraudulent information through any form on this site;
apply on behalf of a business you are not authorized to represent;
scrape, harvest, copy, or republish the directory or member data, in whole or in part, by any automated means;
use contact details found on this site to send unsolicited commercial messages;
impersonate another business, person, or The Southern Shmooze itself;
interfere with, probe, overload, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the site or its systems; or
use the site or our referrals for any unlawful purpose.
We may suspend or terminate access, and remove any listing, for violations of this section.
12. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, The Southern Shmooze, its owners, employees, contractors, affiliates, volunteers, representatives, and partners shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special, punitive, or exemplary damages arising out of or relating to services performed by third parties, project delays, defective workmanship, property damage, personal injury, financial loss, cost overruns, warranty disputes, contract disputes, licensing issues, business closures, or misrepresentations.
The Southern Shmooze bears no responsibility for refunding payments made to a business, paying damages, correcting work, completing unfinished projects, or assuming financial responsibility of any kind for a third-party business.
Users acknowledge that all hiring decisions are made at their own discretion and that all agreements are entered into directly between the user and the business selected.
Cap on our liability. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, our total liability to you for any claim arising out of or relating to these terms or your use of the site will not exceed the total amount you paid to The Southern Shmooze in the twelve months before the claim arose, or one hundred dollars, whichever is greater.
The site and all services are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the site will be uninterrupted, error free, or secure.
Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or the limitation of certain damages. Where that is the case, the exclusions and limitations above apply only to the extent permitted.
13. Indemnification
If you are a business listed with us, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless The Southern Shmooze and its owners, employees, contractors, and affiliates from any claim, demand, loss, liability, or expense, including reasonable attorney fees, arising out of the work you perform for a customer, the information you gave us, your use of the site, or your breach of these terms.
14. User responsibility
Users are responsible for evaluating businesses, reviewing estimates, verifying licenses and insurance when applicable, obtaining references, reviewing contracts, and determining whether a business is appropriate for their specific needs.
Users must exercise reasonable judgment before hiring any business recommended, listed, or referred through this platform.
15. Intellectual property
The Southern Shmooze name, logo, Shmooze Certified badge, site design, written content, and original graphics are the property of The Southern Shmooze and may not be copied, reproduced, or used without written permission. Member businesses may use the Shmooze Certified badge in their own marketing while their membership is active, and agree to stop using it if the membership ends.
Business names, logos, and marks belonging to listed businesses remain the property of those businesses.
16. Governing law and disputes
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Georgia, without regard to its conflict of law rules. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these terms or your use of the site will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Fulton County, Georgia, and you consent to the jurisdiction of those courts.
Before filing anything, we ask that you email us at [email protected] and give us thirty days to try to sort it out with you directly. Most things can be handled with a conversation.
If any provision of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect.
17. Changes to these terms
The Southern Shmooze reserves the right to modify these Terms & Conditions at any time. When we do, we will update the "last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of the website or services constitutes acceptance of any updated terms.
For material changes affecting paid members, we will give notice by email before the change takes effect.
