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Frequently Asked Questions

GETTING STARTED WITH KOUNSELLY AS BUYERS

Who should register as Buyers on the Kounselly platform?

Buyers on the Kounselly platform will not provide services or courses but receive support and advice from others, buy services and courses, and read articles for knowledge and information. Therefore, anyone can be Buyers on the Kounselly platform. Buyers on our platform mostly are:

Entrepreneurs who need support and consultation from Experts on entrepreneurship and business management such as business plans, product development, go-to-market strategy, fundraising, etc.

Small and Medium Businesses who need support from Experts in the field they do not have expertise in, such as strategy, transformation, change, and innovation management.

Businesses who are looking for cost-optimized solutions in human resource management (i.e. hiring full-time employees vs. hiring part-time and freelance workers for the project- and service-based jobs)

Businesses that lack experts or workers with rare, and high-demanding skills, and can not compete in the labor market to attract and retain talent..

Young people who are interested in entrepreneurship and business management

However, because Buyers on the Kounselly platform are Entrepreneurs and Businesses, in fact, you can also provide services within your expertise. The Kounselly platform also allows users to play two roles at a time. Depending on your expertise and business field, you can be a Buyer for some services but a Seller for others.

How can Buyers become Sellers on the Kounselly platform?

The Kounselly platform has been built with simplicity in mind to create convenience for you, therefore, we have integrated the functionality for you. Only by clicking the link “Apply to Become Seller” on the Site’s header menu after you log into the account, you will be directed to the page for registering to become our Sellers.

What makes Kounselly different from other consulting services?

Efficiency in Cost and Time: Since Kounselly is a marketplace, over time, there will be more and more services provided on the marketplace with a diversity of sellers, and a variety of fields, and prices, helping buyers easily choose what best suit them for cost and time efficiency.

Flexibility: With Kounselly Marketplace, buyers can choose from multiple types of services such as fixed-price services, time-based priced services, packaged services, milestone-based services, or one-on-one mentoring services. They can also enjoy services in a variety of fields which are provided by a diversity of sellers such as specialists, workers with rare skills, experts, or businesses.

100% satisfaction: Your orders will be worked on according to your requirements, or you will be refunded.

Convenience: You can buy and manage your orders with just a few clicks.

Transparency: All costs are disclosed. No hidden ones. The amount you see when placing an order is the total amount you will pay.

How can Kounselly support us, as Entrepreneurs and Businesses?

Kounselly is a platform to connect Entrepreneurs and Businesses with Experts, Consultants, and skilled workers so that you can seek advice and/or fill your skill gap in a short time and at your affordability. The benefits you will get from using the Kounselly Platform are:

Finding the Experts, Consultants and skilled workers to help solve your business problems or your skill shortage quickly and affordably

Meet all your needs for seeking help and hiring freelancers: doing the job for you or solving the problems, finding courses and mentors, and seeking information, knowledge, and advice with just a few clicks, conveniently and securely, all in one place, anytime and anywhere.

You have multiple options to choose from, from the service package to price options to meet your needs and affordability, and can flexibly engage with our platform in any way that you want, without limits.

Ensure your satisfaction with the purchases that you make

Which information do I need to provide at registration? Why? and How does Kounselly keep and use this information?

We will require basic information about you at registration only.

At registration, you need to provide us with the following information:

Full name:
- To serve our purpose to build a trustworthy expert community and network
- By registering and placing an order on our platform, you are entering a service contract between you and us, and between seller and buyer, your name will be necessary for Kounselly to manage this purpose.

Username: to show in your profile and for logging in.

Email address:
- For logging in
- For email verification purposes.
- For communication and notification receipt

Phone number:
- For phone verification purposes.
- To receive all notifications such as communication from other members, new requests, etc.

Your country: for us to display appropriate content to you, including currency and payment methods.

This information is kept in our secured database under our Privacy Policy, encrypted in transit, and used as mentioned above. Your sensitive information including your Full name and Phone number will not be revealed and sent to any third parties except the Governmental Authorities under our Applicable Law.

Do I have to pay any fees for making orders on the Kounselly platform?

Kounselly will charge you a processing fee equivalent to 5% of your order value. As the name states, this is not the money we charge you to become our revenue but to compensate for the cost we have to pay for payment processing providers and parties/employees who get involved in managing and processing the payments of your transactions. Since we get lower commission fees from Sellers (as a result, the total price you will be charged will be also lower), therefore, we believe this is a fair deal for all involved parties, including you, the Sellers, and us. And we hope for your understanding.

How does Kounselly ensure the quality of Sellers?

Kounselly is an E-Commerce marketplace open to all individuals and organizations who wish to provide services on our platform. However, you can use the following factors to determine and compare the quality and level of the sellers on our platform:

All sellers must be verified before becoming a seller on Kounselly:
- Through their Tax ID Number
- Through their ID if they are individuals, or their Business Registration Certificate and Business ID Number if they are organizations.
- In some cases, if users have a LinkedIn account and connect with us, we will verify them through their LinkedIn account before approving them as sellers.

There are 4 levels of sellers on Kounselly and you can discover their differences here.

GETTING STARTED WITH KOUNSELLY AS SELLERS

Who should register as Sellers on the Kounselly platform?

Sellers on the Kounselly platform will provide services, courses, and mentorship to Buyers and contribute to the site by advising members on Ask Kounselly Forum or writing articles to share their knowledge and experience on Kounselly Insight Magazine. If you have Expertise and skills in any field of business, business management, or entrepreneurship that would be useful to the Company, you can become Kounselly’s Sellers with that Expertise and skills. Sellers on our platform mostly are:

Management Consultants.

Experts in any field of business and business management (from Strategy to Operation, Finance, Marketing, HRM, and IT)

Skilled workers in any business fields

Workers and Experts with rare and high-demanding skills

Startup Advisors/ Serial Entrepreneurs

Investment and Business Valuation Advisors

Fund-raising advisors

Even Angel Investors who look for startups to invest and can give mentorship to startups to increase their chances of fund-raising and business success.

What should I do if I want to become a Seller on the Kounselly platform but cannot find suitable service categories for my Expertise?

Our service categories will evolve over time, depending on our Sellers’ expertise and the services that you can offer. Therefore, if you cannot find a suitable service category for you, just contact us and we will discuss it with you. For the full list of our current services, visit here.

How can Kounselly support Experts and Consultants?

Kounselly is a marketplace, therefore, we help you connect with and access buyers and followers to increase your income and reputation. The benefits you will get from using the Kounselly Platform are:

Competitive site fee which will be reduced with the increase of your level and order value, helping you gain higher income

Multiple ways to earn money to increase your income: selling services, selling courses, writing articles for Kounselly Insight Magazine, reward program, profit-sharing and stock ownership program for top contributors, etc.

Multiple ways to engage with our platform to increase your reputation and influence: reviewing and feedback from buyers for your service and courses, a magazine for you to share and show your knowledge and experience, and a forum for you to attract followers and extend your influence by giving others advice to solve their problems.

All your needs can be done with just a few clicks conveniently and securely, all in one place, any time, and anywhere.

For those who have work-family responsibility conflicts or health issues, our platform will give you an opportunity to have more control over your working time to have a better work-life balance.

Which information do I need to provide at registration? Why? and How does Kounselly keep and use this information?

We will require basic information about you at registration only. But for those who register as Sellers, we may require more information for verification purposes, deciding your starting Expert level, and meeting the requirements of the Applicable Law in the country where we locate.

At registration, you need to provide us with the following information:

Full name:
- As required by our Applicable Law for Sellers for Tax purposes
- To serve our purpose to build a trustworthy expert community and network
- By registering and placing an order on our platform, you are entering a service contract between you and us, and between seller and buyer, your name will be necessary for Kounselly to manage this purpose.

Username: to show in your profile and for logging in.

Email address:
- For logging in
- For email verification purposes.
- For communication and notification receipt

Phone number:
- For phone verification purposes.
- To receive all notifications such as communication from other members, new requests, etc.
- Required by our Applicable Law for Sellers for Tax purposes
- Your country: for us to display appropriate content to you, including currency and payment methods.

Your country: for us to display appropriate content to you, including currency and payment methods.

Information that is only required if you register as Sellers:
- Your address: As required by our Applicable Law for Tax purposes
- If you are a business: The VAT ID Number/ Business Tax Number/ Business Registration Number of your company. This is required by our Applicable Law for Tax purposes and for our verification purposes to ensure the business registered is legal.
- If you are an individual: Your Personal Income Tax ID Number (preferred by us for the safety of your personal information but recommended for Vietnamese citizens only), or your National ID Card Number or Passport ID Number. This is required by our Applicable Law for Tax purposes and for verification purposes to ensure the person registered is you.
- Your Linkedin account connection: to verify your expertise and Expert level

Please note that if we can not verify your information, we may ask for additional information from you to serve our verification process. This information is kept in our secured database under our Privacy Policy, encrypted in transit, and used as mentioned above. Your sensitive information including Full name, Phone number, Tax ID Number, or National Card/Passport ID Number will not be revealed and sent to any third parties except the Governmental Authorities under our Applicable Law.

How long will it take for my application to become a Seller to be confirmed?

The processing time for becoming a seller is up to 3 days from the date of receiving your information. If your application is incomplete or we are unable to verify the information, your application will be rejected. Therefore, please ensure that you provide the correct and sufficient information and documents that we require to speed up the process.

What are the Sellers’ levels? What are the fees, limitations, and benefits of the seller at each level? And how to be upgraded to a higher level?

There are 4 levels of Sellers to show the differences in their expertise and seniority on our platform, which will determine the fees and the benefits they will get

Associate (Level 0): You often start with this Level as New Seller once you join us

Professional (Level 1): There are 3 paths to this level
- Automatically upgraded after achieving our requirements in revenue and rating for the level
- By passing our fast-tracked system run periodically
- Manually assigned by us if you register as a business

Master (Level 2): There are 3 paths similar to Level 1.

Expert (Level 3): Only manually appointed by us for a limited number of sellers who meet our requirements in terms of expertise and reputation in the industry.

To learn more about fees, limitations, and benefits of the seller at each level, please visit this link.

SECURITY

How safe and secure Kounselly platform is?

Kounselly implements all reasonable activities and procedures within our capabilities to keep our system safe and secure. These are technical protocols and activities that we applied to ensure the safety and security of our platform:

HTTPS and SSL certificate to encrypt data in transit

Strong Passwords, 2-Factor Authentication, Limit Login attempts

Frequently update our software and plugins

Record User Access and Administrative Privileges

Backup website frequently

Using a secured hosting server with the following security measures:
- Method to prevent hacking before hackers can create damage to the site.
- Software to protect data
- Increased DDoS protection
- Web hosting firewall
- Brute Force Defense
- Virus scanning
- Server Hardening
- 24/7/365 Security monitoring

Regular vulnerability scans and pen testing

USER GUIDE

Want to know how to use our website and its functionalities? You can find our basic guide about registering an account, setting up a profile, posting services/requests and placing an order here.

What will I get from this guide?

This guide will explain how you can use most of our functionalities.

How to set up your language and currency

How to register an account with us

How to create a user profile (especially for Sellers), make account settings, or activate vacation mode (for Sellers).

How to find services to buy or post a request (as Buyers)

How to find requests to make custom offers, or post different types of services to sell (as Sellers)

How to make payments for the orders

User Guide for Buyers

You can find the user guide for Buyers here. For English: User Guide_Buyers_English 1 For Vietnamese: Huong dan su dung_Nguoi Mua_Tieng Viet 1

User Guide for Sellers

You can find the user guide for Sellers here. For English: User Guide_Sellers_English_1 For Vietnamese: Huong dan su dung_Nguoi Ban_Tieng Viet_1

How can I set up an outstanding profile?

After becoming a Seller on the Kounselly platform, be sure to have all the following information on your user profile page:

Avatar: A profile with an avatar will increase your trustworthiness and reliability

Tagline: Create a tagline for buyers to understand you

Describe your outstanding skills, expertise, and projects briefly so that buyers will know the capabilities and the services you can provide them with

Describe the languages you can use and your proficiency level so buyers will know if you can communicate with them and provide services for their needs.

Do not forget to highlight your skills, especially the relevant ones for your services. Buyers will scan your skills to see if you can meet their requirements. And if your skills have the votes of buyers, it will sell more than you can imagine. So be sure to include your relevant skills in your service tags. This will help you get votes from buyers with their reviews and ratings once your service is completed.

For some services and jobs, you may need certain certificates to show your level of expertise. So if you have them, list them in your profile.

Portfolio: the real work and projects that you have done will speak more than any description or list of skills or experience. So if you have any things to show, don’t forget to attach them to your profile.

Any profile will not be complete without your background, so list your education and experience.

Besides, reviews and feedback from your clients are valuable sources of reference for prospective ones. Thus, be sure to provide good services to your clients, not only the delivered work but also the communications with them, so that you will get good ratings and reviews from them.

A good and outstanding profile will bring you more value than you can imagine. Thus never treat it lightly.

Why is my account banned?

Your account will be banned in the following situations:

We found you have languages and actions, which are against our Terms of Service, illegal, or inappropriate with the community and societal standards.

We receive reports from other users for your message, request, service post, or your account.

Therefore, to prevent your account from being banned, read our terms of service carefully and avoid all inappropriate actions and language that are against the community and societal standards, including but not limited to the following:

Have languages or send/distribute photos/videos/links that are labeled 18+

Have languages or actions that are threatening, defaming, offensive, or discriminating.

Have harassment languages or actions

Have languages or actions that are violent, villainous, or impolite

Pretend to be someone/ fake accounts

Sharing inappropriate things, including but not limited to viruses, malware, and codes that will damage other users’ and our computer and data system, or enable data hacking, and identity theft

Spam

Provoke or urge suicide activities or self-hurting

Provoke or call for violent actions, hostility, commotions, war, anti-government propaganda, or the like.

Sell or request inappropriate, unacceptable, illegal, and unauthorized services

Other languages and actions that are illegal or inappropriate with community and societal standards or against our terms of service.

How can I report a user with inappropriate language or actions?

You can report a user for his/her inappropriate language or actions as follows:

Report the user’s message: you can find the button “report message” in all messages you receive.

Report services or requests: the button to report is right under the price – “report this service” or “report this request”

Report users: go to the user’s public profile, and you will find the word “report” in red color on the top left-hand side of the user’s avatar.

ORDER AND TRANSACTIONS

You will find some frequently asked questions about making orders and managing transactions here.

FOR BUYERS

How can I ensure my information and documents (including those that are disclosed for the order implementation) are not disclosed to third parties?

We protect your information and documents on 3 levels:

Privacy policy
- We are committed to using your information only for activities on our website in accordance with our privacy policy.
- We do not sell your data and information to any other third parties.

A Secured System: We always try our best in our capabilities to ensure the safety and security of our system and platform. However, we all understand that ensuring information, data, and system to be 100% secured is impossible these days, even the most secured systems of big firms. Therefore, we cannot guarantee 100% that our system is free of vulnerabilities, but we will try our best by applying security measures as mentioned in the Security section below.

Terms of Service and Code of Conduct: When registering to use our service, users must comply with our terms of service and ethical standards. We have terms that bind the sellers to keep confidential the information and documents provided by the buyers before, during, and after the service is deployed. However, if the information you provide is sensitive and important, we recommend that you ask the sellers to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) before making this information available to them.

FOR SELLERS

Is keeping information and documents provided by buyers during the transaction confidential my responsibility?

Yes, under our Terms of Service and Code of Conduct for Sellers, You are required to keep confidential all information and documents provided by the buyers before and during the transaction. The term applies even after the transaction is complete without expiry. Violation of this term will result in your account ban. In some cases, it may even result in lawsuits and/or compensations for the financial and non-financial damages (including opportunity losses) that Buyers have to suffer from your disclosing activity. However, even if the term does not regulate and bind your action, it is an ethical standard and code of conduct for professionals and consultants to treat information and documents provided by the Buyers with caution and confidentiality. Don’t let an impulsive action damage your long-lasting reputation.

PAYMENT

You will find information about payment methods here.

Which payment methods are available on the Kounselly platform?

At the moment, we enable the following payment methods on our site:

Through your Account Balance on our site. To have an account balance, you can top up your account through the “My payment” link.

Through Bank transfer/QR code

Through Momo E-wallet (Not available for the Beta version)

Through credit/visa/master card (For International users who are not in Vietnam – Not available for the Beta version)

Through Paypal gateway (For international users who are not in Vietnam – Not available for the Beta version)

We will keep updating and adding more payment methods over time to make the payment more convenient for you. Therefore, this list of payment methods will be reviewed and updated from time to time.

How can I make the payment or get paid on the Kounselly platform?

Whether you want to pay or get paid through a bank transfer, or other payment gateways, you need to set up your payment method on your account as follows:

Go to “Setting” In the “Profile” link

Go to the Payment tab

Fill in the information about the payment methods you prefer

Your information will be used to connect with your payment gateways or for us to process your payments only. Other third parties will not be able to access this information.

DELIVERY

You will find information relating to delivery here.

How will the delivery be made?

The order delivery will be made in the form of a file or photo attached and sent with a message from Sellers to Buyers on the transaction page. After delivering the work to Buyers, the Seller will click the “mark as delivered’ button to inform Buyers about the delivered status of the order. What Buyers have to do next is review the delivered work, and request a modification or mark it as completed. However, for booking orders for 1-1 consulting sessions, the delivery will be made in two forms, the link for the online meeting sent to the Buyer in a message, and the meeting session between the seller and the buyer. After the meeting ends, the Seller will also click the “mark as delivered” button for the Buyer to confirm the delivery and mark it as completed. Since the meeting session will not be stored and saved in our system, to have evidence of the delivery to solve any disputes that may arise, we recommend both of you record the meeting and keep a copy of it just in case.

CANCELLATION, REFUND, AND RESOLUTION CENTER

You will find some guidance about order cancellation, refunds, and how to use the resolution center here. However, for more details, refer to our Cancellation and Refund Policy.

How can I use Resolution Center?

Disputes and problems with the order will be solved via what we called Resolution Center. When there is a problem with your order, on that order transaction page, you will find the button for “Resolution Center”. You only need to click on that button and there will be the following options for you to choose from:

Request Mutual Cancellation: both Buyers and Sellers can request this. Once you choose this option, just wait for the other party to respond. The other party is given 3 days to respond. If this time passes, the requester can choose another resolution method – Request Arbitration.

Request to extend delivery time: Sellers can request this. You should also let the Buyers respond in 3 days.

Request Arbitration from Kounselly: Both parties can request this as a last resort. However, for us to get involved in solving your disputes, you are required to submit all relevant evidence to prove your winning position. The evidence we accept includes:
- photos of your chat/message
- photos of your transaction page
- your delivered files/photos
- photos of the service or request page
- the recording of your online meeting for 1-1 consulting sessions
- anything else that can be checked on our system to prove your position.
The evidence should be sent through the message on the arbitration requesting window or at the end of your transaction page so that the other party can also view them. This is because we want the process to be transparent to all relevant parties and the other parties can also have the saying to protect their position. After receiving all the evidence, we will solve your disputes in 5 working days.

As a Buyer, in which situations can I cancel the order and request a refund?

Buyers can cancel orders and ask for a refund in the following situations: 1. Automatic cancellation by system

Pending orders are not completed with the payment within 24 hours.

Orders have been paid but receive no response (either accept or deny) from the Sellers within 24 hours from the time the orders are paid successfully.

When either party’s account is banned, the order will also be cancelled automatically by our system.

2. Cancelled forcefully by the admin In some cases, if we found your orders have problems, including without limitations, spam orders, made by an agent, suspicious orders, making use of our promotion and special offers, payment error, our system error, orders that violate our policies and our applicable law and regulations, etc. (please refer to our Terms of Service), we will forcefully cancel your order and your money will be refunded. 3. Cancelled at the Seller’s own discretion Sellers are given 24 hours after the orders are paid successfully to decide whether they should accept or deny an order. Therefore, they can decline Buyers’ orders at their own discretion within 24 hours since the order is paid successfully. 4. Cancelled at the Buyer’s own discretion If Sellers miss the delivery deadline, unless the parties have another agreement, Buyers can cancel the order, at their own discretion, without seeking mutual agreement from Sellers. 5. Mutual cancellation

Sellers and Buyers mutually agree to cancel the order.

6. Cancellation via Arbitration Request:

The sellers’ delivered work is not as the service description or Buyers’ request description or what the two parties discussed with each other before placing the order and Buyers can provide evidence to prove this.

Buyers request modification but Sellers do not deliver the modified work within the committed and agreed timeframe or 3 days from the date Buyers send the request if both parties have no other agreement.

Buyers send the request for mutual cancellation but Sellers do not respond within 3 days from the date Buyers send the request.

Note: Kounselly is the arbitration party, therefore, we will ensure fairness for both parties. This means, we only solve disputes based on evidence provided by both parties and information collected from our system. Therefore, we recommend you implement the following to avoid being put in a disadvantageous position when disputes arise:

Always discuss and exchange information with Sellers through our integrated system to have evidence when needed. Kounselly will not solve disputes if the evidence is outside of our system (except the recording of your online meeting for 1-1 consulting sessions).

Always ask carefully about the service, ask for examples of the service output, and make the request in detail as much as possible. This is to ensure both parties understand thoroughly about the service or the request before placing the order. If the Sellers’ service is not what you require, you should ask for a custom offer. Be sure to read the information provided and explained in the custom offer carefully and ask for clarification if necessary.

As a Buyer, how long will I get the refund? And in which method?

The refund will be sent immediately into your Kounselly account balance. If you want to withdraw the money into your personal account, you should make a withdrawal request. An email will be sent to you to confirm the withdrawal. Kounselly will process your request in 3 – 5 working days from the date you confirmed your withdrawal request. And our payout date is every Friday.

As a Seller, in which situations can I cancel the order without harming my reputation?

Sellers can cancel orders in the following situations:

Ask Buyers to cancel pending orders that haven’t been completed with the payment.

After the order is paid by Buyers, you will have 24 hours to accept or decline the order. If you decline the order within this timeframe, your reputation will not be affected.

Once you accepted the paid order, you will be able to cancel the order only if you can get a mutual agreement from the Buyer. Otherwise, your reputation will be affected. Therefore, if you find that you can not complete the order, contact the Buyers immediately and discuss the problem with them, then submit the request for mutual cancellation via the “Resolution Center” button on the order page.

Always discuss and exchange information with Buyers through our integrated system to have evidence when needed. Kounselly will not solve disputes if the evidence is outside of our system (except the recording of your online meeting for 1-1 consulting sessions).

Always post your service in detail as much as possible to let Buyers understand your service well. Also, ask carefully about Buyers’ request or their requirements to make sure you understand their request and requirements well, and that they understand your service and its output result. This is to ensure both parties understand thoroughly about the service or the request before placing the order. If the Buyer’s need is different from your service, you should send him/her a custom offer. Be sure to explain your custom offer carefully and in detail to avoid misunderstanding from the Buyer.

You can find more guidance and answers about our website usage and policies after registering and loging in.