What Got a Seat? is
Got a Seat? (“Got a Seat,” “we,” “us”) is an online service that helps students at the same school find each other to travel home and back for breaks. It lists carpools offered by students, shuttles run by schools, and shared trips to stations and airports. Each school has its own instance of the service, such as yourschool.gotaseat.com.
Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle your information and is part of these terms.
Who can use it
To use Got a Seat? you must:
- be a current student at a school where Got a Seat? is offered, or staff that school has authorized, and sign in with your own school email address;
- be at least 13 years old; and
- not have been suspended or removed from Got a Seat? before.
If you’re under 18 (or under the age of majority where you live), you may browse rides and shuttles, but you may not offer, request or book rides until we offer a way for a parent or guardian to consent.
If you stop being a student at your school, your access may end. We may ask you to re-verify your school email at the start of each term before you can post or book, and your school’s staff can revoke your access at any time.
Your account
- Use only your own school email and real name. Don’t share your account or sign in as someone else.
- You’re responsible for what happens under your account. Keep access to your email secure, since sign-in links are sent there.
- Tell us right away at the address below if you think someone else has used your account.
If you drive
When you offer a ride, you promise that, for every trip:
- you hold a valid driver’s license for the vehicle you drive;
- the vehicle is registered, insured as required by law, and safe to drive;
- you follow traffic laws and never drive impaired, drowsy or distracted;
- you carry no more passengers than you have seatbelts, and the details you post (time, area, seats, luggage room) are accurate; and
- you aren’t driving as a business. You don’t charge more than a fair share of the trip’s actual costs, and you don’t use Got a Seat? to find customers for paid driving.
We may ask you to confirm these promises before your first offer and once a year after that. We record your confirmation but don’t check it.
Your own auto insurance is what covers your trips. Check with your insurer that it covers carrying passengers who share costs. Got a Seat? does not provide insurance.
If you ride
- Show up at the agreed time and place, or cancel in the app as early as you can.
- Pay the driver any cost share you agreed to.
- Wear a seatbelt, respect the driver’s car and rules, and bring only the luggage you agreed on.
- Use your own judgment. If something doesn’t feel right before or during a trip, you don’t have to go.
Money between students
A driver can show a suggested gas-and-toll share on a ride. Any money for a ride goes directly between the rider and the driver, outside Got a Seat?. We don’t collect, hold or guarantee these payments, and we can’t settle disputes about them. Your Got a Seat? subscription is not a payment for any ride.
School shuttles
Shuttles listed on Got a Seat? are run by your school or a company your school hires, not by us. Reserving a seat through Got a Seat? is a sign-up for your school’s shuttle, and your school’s rules, schedules and cancellation policies apply. Questions about a shuttle trip go to your school.
Community rules
When using Got a Seat?, don’t:
- harass, threaten, discriminate against, or demean anyone, or send unwanted sexual messages;
- post false trips, impersonate anyone, or misrepresent yourself or your vehicle;
- use the service to transport anything illegal, or for any illegal purpose;
- collect other students’ information, contact them for reasons unrelated to a trip, or use what you learn here to sell, advertise or recruit;
- try to get around a block, a suspension or our safety features;
- scrape, copy, reverse engineer, overload or interfere with the service, or access accounts or data that aren’t yours.
Your school’s code of conduct may also apply to how you behave on Got a Seat? and on trips arranged through it.
Safety and reports
You can block anyone and report trips, messages or people from the app. Reports go to staff at your school, who can review them and suspend accounts, and to us. We may share reports and the information around them with your school and, where needed to protect someone or required by law, with law enforcement.
In an emergency, call 911 or your local emergency number first. Got a Seat? is not an emergency service, and reports aren’t monitored around the clock.
Being verified by school email confirms only that someone has an address at your school. We don’t run background checks or check driving records, licenses, insurance or vehicles, and ratings reflect other students’ opinions, not our endorsement.
Subscriptions
Driving is free. Anyone signed in can browse rides and shuttles, and drivers never pay: posting offers, confirming riders and messaging about an offer are free. Riders need a paid subscription, at the price shown before you buy, to post a ride request, confirm a booking and message about a request.
- Renewal. Subscriptions renew automatically each billing period until you cancel. You’re charged at the start of each period.
- Cancelling. Cancel any time where you subscribed: the App Store, Google Play, or your account on the web. Cancelling stops the next renewal; you keep access until the end of the period you’ve paid for.
- Refunds. Except where the law requires otherwise, payments aren’t refundable and we don’t give credit for partial periods. Refunds for purchases made through Apple or Google are handled by them under their policies.
- Price changes. If we change the price, we’ll tell you in advance, and the new price applies from your next renewal after that notice. You can cancel before it takes effect.
- No ride guarantee. A subscription gives you access to the service. It doesn’t guarantee that a ride, match or shuttle seat will be available.
- Taxes. Prices may not include applicable taxes, which are added where required.
Your content
You own what you post, such as trips, messages and reports. You give us permission to store, display and process it as needed to run Got a Seat?, for example showing your trip to other students at your school and delivering your messages. That permission ends when your content is deleted, except where we keep it as our Privacy Policy describes. You’re responsible for what you post, and we may remove anything that breaks these terms.
Our service
The service, including its software, design, and the Got a Seat? name and logo, belongs to us. We give you a personal, non-transferable, revocable permission to use it for its intended purpose under these terms. We may change, add or remove features, and we work to keep the service running, but we don’t promise it will always be available, especially in the busiest hours before a break.
If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them without owing you anything.
App stores
If you download our app from the Apple App Store or Google Play, these terms are between you and Got a Seat?, not Apple or Google, and we, not they, are responsible for the app and its content. The store’s own terms also apply to your download and any in-app purchase. For the iPhone app: Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for it; if the app fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple for a refund of its purchase price, if any, and Apple has no other warranty obligation; Apple isn’t responsible for any claims about the app, including product liability, legal or regulatory compliance, consumer protection, or intellectual property claims; and Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you.
Suspension and ending
You can stop using Got a Seat? and ask us to delete your account at any time. We or your school’s staff may suspend or close your account, remove content, or limit what you can do if you break these terms, if your school email stops working or you’re no longer a student, if your school stops offering Got a Seat?, or to protect other students. Suspending an account may cancel its upcoming bookings, and we’ll let the other students affected know. Where reasonable, we’ll tell you why. Sections that by their nature should survive, such as money between students, disclaimers, limits on liability, indemnity and disputes, continue after your account ends.
Disclaimers
Got a Seat? is provided “as is” and “as available.” To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We don’t control, and aren’t responsible for, the conduct of any student, driver or rider, the condition of any vehicle, or any trip, whether arranged through Got a Seat? or not. You travel with others at your own risk.
Limits on liability
To the fullest extent the law allows, Got a Seat? and its owners, employees and suppliers won’t be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data or goodwill, or for any injury, loss or damage arising from trips or from other users’ conduct. Our total liability for any claim about the service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or $50.
Some places don’t allow these exclusions or limits, so some may not apply to you. Nothing in these terms limits liability that can’t be limited by law, such as for fraud or for death or personal injury caused by our negligence where that can’t be excluded.
Indemnity
If someone brings a claim against us because of your trips, your content, or your breach of these terms or the law, you agree to cover our reasonable costs and losses from it, to the extent the law allows.
Disputes
If you have a problem with Got a Seat?, contact us first; most issues can be sorted out quickly. These terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and applicable U.S. federal law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute that we can’t resolve informally will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Pennsylvania, unless the law where you live gives you the right to bring it elsewhere. Either of us may bring a qualifying claim in small claims court.
Disputes between students, such as about a trip or a cost share, are between those students. We’re not a party to them, though we may help where we reasonably can.
Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. We’ll change the date at the top, and if a change is material, we’ll tell you by email or in the app before it takes effect. If you keep using Got a Seat? after that, you accept the updated terms. If you don’t agree, stop using the service and cancel your subscription.
General
These terms and our Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about Got a Seat?. If a part of these terms can’t be enforced, the rest still applies. If we don’t enforce a term right away, we haven’t given up the right to later. You can’t transfer these terms to anyone else; we may transfer them as part of a merger, sale or reorganization. Neither of us is responsible for delays caused by events outside our reasonable control.
Contact us
Questions about these terms: email sasha@gotaseat.com.