FAQ

Who can register?

All persons or entities having the full capacity to sign legal documents. Minors (persons less than 18 years old), are not authorized to use easyswap services.

The Parent(s) of a minor older than 13 years may validate the minor's account by providing a written request and a copy of their ID. For details, see the page Contact.

The simplest way to fully enjoy the complete set of services provided by easyswap is to get your identity validated. Thus we can be certain that a single user has a single account on easyswap.

How to register?

• On the home page, click on the tab Create a new account.
• Fill in the required fields. Attention: All provided information must be accurate; your identity will be verified in order to give you access to all the benefits offered by easyswap. Failing this, your inscription will be considered incomplete.
• How did you find out about easyswap? Help us to better understand the links you share with other swappers, so we can give you the opportunity to create your own communities on easyswap. If you heard about easyswap in the media, let us know, in case we've missed an article. Thanks!
• Sponsorship: If easyswap has been recommended to you by a swapper, please indicate their user-name. A request will be sent to them by e-mail, the latter being free to accept or to decline. In the case of acceptance, you will get 20 swaps on your account by validating a gift ticket. Your sponsor will get 20 swaps as well.
• Carefully read the Terms of service (TOS) and approve them. If you have any questions, we are here to help, just go to the page Contact.
• Fill out the CAPTCHA and click on the tab Send.

Your e-mail address will now be verified by easyswap. Check your mailbox and click on the embedded link in the activation message. If you haven't received any e-mail from easyswap, please continue the registration anyway; you will be able later to modify your e-mail address, or correct it if necessary.

You may from now on post ads and carry out exchanges, but as long as your identity has not been validated, the on-line addition of offers for goods and services will not be remunerated in swaps. You will also not be allowed to sponsor other swappers.

How to validate your account?

Several options are available to you in order to have your registration validated:

• SMS: This option is only available for people living in the European Union, Switzerland, the US, and Canada. By choosing this option, you will receive a code, allowing you to validate your account.
• Fax of your ID: You have a fax or a file of your passport or ID card. In this case, fax us your proof of identity. Pay attention to the quality of your copy, easyswap reserves the right to refuse any proof of identity considered illegible.
• You appreciate easyswap and want to support us. Thanks! In order to validate your account you have the possibility to send us an amount of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 euro or more, it's up to you. We are grateful for all help provided. And no concerns as to the use of your funds, easyswap is run by a non-profit!

Once your identity validated (immediately, or with a slight delay, according to the selected option) your account will be fully active.

What is the swap?

The swap is a currency:

• usable only within the framework of easyswap;
• which cannot be the object of conversion into a national currency, whichever the latter might be;
• which use on easyswap is not subject to border restriction of any sort;
• of which the purposeless hoarding is useless, because it gets its value only through the exchange;
• which, therefore, can be subject to no speculation.

At the moment of the on-line launch of version 2.0 of easyswap, which is international, the swap will no longer be indexed on any existing currency. The swap will henceforth be its own reference.

Thus, regarding the services, the reference value is the average service at 32 swaps the hour, wherever the location might be. (A typical example would be the upper mentioned English course, intermediate level.)

Regarding the goods, the only rule is of course: Supply and demand. (Whereby, ads put on-line after the launch of version 2.0 of the web site, serve as model and reference.)

How to consult ads?

To start with, you can consult ads by clicking on the link Ads, and glance from here through the various categories.

You can also limit your search at the outset by defining your search criteria. The filters allow you to:

• choose a type of ad: Do you wish to look through all ads, or just through for-sale or wanted posts?
• choose a class of ad: What are you seeking? All ads, only a service, a good for rent/hire, or a good for sale.
• define a price-range for your search.
• limit the seller's distance from you in kilometers.
• limit your search to all of easyswap, or to a particular group - for instance My city, or My company.

How to post an ad?

Go directly to the Ads page, choose your category, if required a sub-category, and click on the upper-right New ad icon: , to upload the ad form.

Note: Offering goods or services on-line credits your account with swaps, as long as your identity, and in so far your account, has been validated:

• Your account will be credited 3 swaps for the advertising of a new service.
• Your account will be credited 3 swaps for the advertising of a new good to exchange for swaps (out of convenience called sale).
• Your account will be credited 5 swaps for the advertising of a new good to lend for swaps (out of convenience called hire or rent).

Once the form for adding an ad is up, fill out the fields according to your personal requirements and preferences:

• Is your ad a for-sale or a wanted?
  
• Select one or more groups: All of easyswap, one group in particular, two groups, or all of your groups - easyswap included.
• Indicate the title of your ad. Be explicit and concise.
• Add a description of your ad: As precise as possible, while trying to respect the models, we put at your disposal. In case of an offered service, do not forget to indicate your daily or weekly availabilities.
• Add an image - this can only reinforce your chances to find a taker.

Does your ad concern a service?

• Specify an amount (0 to 64 swaps), while keeping in mind that the average service on easyswap, in terms of physical painfulness and/or intellectual difficulty, is equivalent to 32 swaps an hour. A typical example would be: The intermediate level German course. To get more information about the swap, please consult the User's guide to the swap.
• Specify the duration. Attention: If you offer an expensive service for 4 hours for instance, it might be difficult for you to find a swapper having enough swaps on his/her account to respond to your offer!

Does your ad concern a good for hire/rent?

• Specify a daily amount (0 to 500 swaps).
• Specify the duration (1 to 365 days). Attention: If you offer an expensive good for long-term rental, it might be difficult for you to find a swapper having enough swaps on his/her account to respond to your offer!

Does your ad concern a good for sale?

• Specify the amount in swaps (0 to 10,000).

Do you agree to deliver your good or your service by your own means? Do you wish to send a good by post? In this case, add the postal fees in swaps.
You are unable to deliver a good by your own means: Notch the box concerned, and choose which address(es) is/are convenient. For a good, one address seems realistic - except you have this good continually at your disposal. For a service, one or several addresses seem appropriate.

• Specify the publication date, the given default parameters being the current date.
• Specify a completion for the publication date, the given default parameters being the indicated publication date + 45 days.
• Click on Send.

How to offer an exchange?

Does an ad interest you? An offer or a request?

• Starting the exchange procedure is simple and intuitive.
• Furthermore, at each stage of the exchange you will receive an e-mail, which will inform you about the exchange status.

Please ensure the following requirements before making an exchange proposal:

• Do you own enough swaps?
• Is the price in swaps acceptable to you?
• Is the geographical location of the ad appropriate?
• Will you be able to honor your proposal?

Exchange proposal

• The ad which interests you is an offer or a request for a good for rent/hire or sale, respectively a service? The procedure in each of these cases is the same: Do you have enough swaps available? Do you own the requested good or are you able to provide the demanded service? Fine!
• According to the preferences expressed in the comment space of the ad that interests you, set a place and a date to meet. You might also leave a message in order to simplify the communication (phone number, various information, etc.).
• Click on Send. You will be able any time to send further messages to the concerned swapper, or to cancel the exchange if necessary.

Your exchange can now be viewed in your personalized account, under Pending exchanges. Pending, simply because you are currently awaiting a confirmation or a modification of your proposal, by the user with whom you intend to swap. During this step, you will not be able to alter your ad but still be able to cancel the exchange.

Note: Concerning your balance, potentially outgoing swaps will be deducted from your balance under My account, whereas potentially incoming swaps are not added up, until an exchange is definitely achieved. The reason for this is to keep you from engaging in new exchanges with potentially committed swaps, while the last exchange can still be cancelled.

How to answer to an exchange request?

A swapper is interested in your ad and asks for an exchange.

An e-mail will be sent to you, to which you can answer in your account under Response required. Confirm or modify the modalities, cancel the exchange if necessary. In general though, responsibility is taken for ads issued on easyswap.

How do I get my swaps?

The appointment took place and the exchange is regarded as being accomplished.

Go to Response required, and click on Get my swaps.

Your account will now be credited!

The hiring of goods

Please note: On easyswap, not for-sale goods may only be lent. Out of convenience though, easyswap frequently calls a loan for use, a rental. From a juridical point of view however it is a loan of use, which implies in particular that the borrower is responsible to return the borrowed good in the same state as it was when it changed hands.

Moreover, easyswap strongly recommends that its users print out the contract of loan for use in PDF format which automatically gets generated during a rental. This contract must be read, approved and signed by both parties.
It is up to the swappers involved to verify their respective identities and to get their personal account validated. The latter is especially recommended, in the case of an exchange between a swapper whose account has already been validated, and a swapper, whose identity has not yet been validated.

easyswap can in no case be held responsible for any legal dispute relative to a contract of loan for use.

How does the evaluation function?

The mutual evaluation (rankings) between two swappers after each exchange, gives other swappers some idea of the persons they will deal with in the future. easyswap does not systematically control these evaluations, but offers the possibility to leave comments or to contest a disfavorable or untrue evaluation.

Comments must be factual and may in no case contain insults or inappropriate personal remarks.

Ads may not be integrated into an evaluation (for example, web site links, etc.)

Due to privacy concerns, personal information about a swapper may not be included in an evaluation.

Misleading evaluations are not permitted, nor is the manipulation of the system for one's own advantage.

In particular, it is strictly forbidden to manipulate one's own profile by using multiple user-names.

easyswap reserves the right to delete or correct false or misleading evaluation anytime and without warning.

For swappers of version 1.0!

The migration of the data includes a certain amount of interventions on your part, in order to make the advertisements and the navigation accessible to all. Please consider the following steps to take:

• Get your e-mail address validated.
• Reintroduce your address in order to become visible on Google Maps (at the moment, your address is only indicated by your zip code). To do so, please go to My account, My addresses and add your address. Once added, simply click on I am here, and remove your previous address.
• Relate your address, to your advertisements. Nothing could be simpler: Go to your advertisements, click on Modify, and relate your advertisement to your address (or several addresses - should you be living in one place and work in another, where you wish to swap as well).
• Review the duration for rentals: The price in swaps is now calculated per day - the duration in days. Moreover, the question regarding personal liability insurance is no longer related to the user’s profile, but directly to the ad itself. So please, be careful!