Updated General Terms and Conditions

On November 1st, 2016, we will be updating our General Terms and Conditions. Here at Testbirds, transparency is one of our core values. In this blog post we want to compare the changes taking place, explain the reasons behind these adaptions and give you some further background information. Don’t be scared! We won’t change anything to your disadvantage.
Testbirds is in many ways a growing company. We have recently reached the mark of 150,000 testers in our crowd and we now have testers in more than 193 countries. We have offices in more and more countries and we our team is constantly growing. Testbirds is rapidly growing and we want to make sure that this growth does not affect our ability to review ourselves and our services. In cooperation with other crowdsourcing companies and the German Crowdsourcing Association (Deutscher Crowdsourcing Verband e.V.), we have been working on a Crowdsourcing Code of Conduct to improve the working environment for our testers, clients and for Testbirds itself. One of the outcomes of this cooperation is changes to our General Terms and Conditions (GTC). These changes don’t mean that Testbirds will actively change the way we work with our testers. It will merely make sure that the GTC represent what we are already doing. You can find the newest version here: https://nest.testbirds.com/termsWhat will be changed?We want to be as transparent about these changes as possible. As we understand that Terms and Conditions are usually full of big words and confusing phrases, we are going to highlight all the changes taking place in yellow. Additionally, we want to tell you what this means for Testbirds and in how we have already begun implementing it.Changes to: § 1 Scope of Application Updated Version:

5. TESTBIRDS may modify the General Terms and Conditions at any time. The GTC may not be changed while TEST PROJECTS are running. In such cases, the new GTC will take effect for those TESTERS participating in a TEST PROJECT after said TEST PROJECT has been completed. The modified GTC will be announced by e-mail no later than two weeks before the effective date. The modified GTC will be deemed as accepted unless contradicted by e-mail within two weeks of receipt of the e-mail containing the modified GTC. Upon announcement of the modified GTC, TESTERS will be notified of the two-week deadline and of the consequences of a failure to contradict.

Previous Version:

5. TESTBIRDS may modify the General Terms and Conditions at any time. The modified GTC will be announced by e-mail no later than two weeks before the effective date. The modified GTC will be deemed as accepted unless contradicted by e-mail within two weeks of receipt of the e-mail containing the modified GTC. Upon announcement of the modified GTC, TESTERS will be notified of the two-week deadline and of the consequences of a failure to contradict.

Background:

We don’t to plan to change the GTC more frequently in the future. However, this particular part of the GTC had been highlighted as an area of improvement by our partners as it seemed unfair to our testers before. It was of course never our intention to put the testers at a disadvantage. Therefore, we want to make sure that changes to the GTC will never apply to running test projects.

Changes to: § 3 Handling of a TEST PROJECT Updated Version:

5. TESTBIRDS is obliged to assist the TESTERS in the best possible way for the completion of TEST PROJECTS, to give prompt feedback, and to give improvement suggestions on how to perform the TEST PROJECT.

Previous Version:

This paragraph did not exist before.

Background:

In every testing project we want to make sure that you have the necessary means to complete the project in the best possible way. We try to give as much information and explanations as possible in the test description before the project begins to make sure that you can provide excellent results. After handing in a report, we give our testers suggestions how to improve their report and give them the chance to review them. In general, we try to give our testers as much assistance as possible.

Changes to: § 4 Secrecy/ Rights in the Results of the TESTER Updated Versions

3. Upon completion of the tester’s activity, the sole right of use shall be transferred to TESTBIRDS. The stipulated remuneration paid shall cover any and all potential copyrights.

Previous Version:

3. Upon completion of the tester’s activity, the sole right of use shall be transferred to TESTBIRDS. The remuneration paid shall cover any and all potential copyrights.

Background:

In every test invitation, you will receive all information regarding payment before accepting the invitation. You can review the payout and decide if you want to participate before starting to work. With this change of the GTC we want to strengthen your position to make sure that the payout is always predefined.

Changes to: § 7 Choice of Law & Jurisdiction Updated Versions

1. The contractual relationship between TESTBIRDS and the TESTER shall be governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany. Exempt from this choice of law, are the mandatory consumer protection regulations of the country in which the Customer of TESTBIRDS has his usual place of residence.2. The place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from the contractual relationship between the TESTER and TESTBIRDS shall be the registered place of business of TESTBIRDS in Munich.

Previous Version:

1. The contractual relationship between TESTBIRDS and the TESTER shall be governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany. Exempt from this choice of law, are the mandatory consumer protection regulations of the country in which the Customer has his usual place of residence.2. The place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from the contractual relationship between the TESTER and TESTBIRDS shall be the registered place of business of TESTBIRDS.

Background:

These amendments don’t actually affect you as a tester. Still, we want to be completely transparent about this change. The reason for this change is that since the initial version of the GTC was created, Testbirds has been expanding to different countries. Our offices in Amsterdam and London are prospering and more offices in other countries are on their way. We want to make sure that the GTC is as precise as possible to prevent any ambiguities.

What does it mean?The GTC will automatically affect all new people that sign up to our Nest. For existing testers, these changes will take effect two weeks after this announcement. All testers have been notified via email to make sure everyone is aware of these changes. If you do not agree with and of the changes, you can choose to discontinue your account at Testbirds within 2 weeks of being notified via email. This would of course make us sad to hear because we believe that these changes are to your benefit. However, we have created an article on how to delete your account in our FAQ: FAQ: How can I delete my tester account?Please note that you would need to delete your account yourselves if you disagree with these changes. We cannot do this on your behalf.You can find the previous versions of the GTC in various languages here:Previous GTC in English Previous GTC in German Previous GTC in HungarianHopefully this article helped you to better understand the changes and we didn’t leave any questions about the adaptations taking place to our GTC.

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