How the marketplace will run.
Plain-language summaries of the policies behind HabitatExchange, operated by HabitatExchange Inc., a Delaware corporation. They describe how buying, selling, shipping, and protection work, in the order a sale actually happens.
Before launch. These summaries describe the policies the marketplace will open with. The full policy documents carry version numbers and take effect, with an effective date, when the marketplace opens. Full copies are available on request.
01Company
| Operator | HabitatExchange Inc., a Delaware corporation |
|---|---|
| Product | HabitatExchange (habitatexchange.com) |
| Business address | 11 Municipal Dr, Ste 200, PMB 1022, Fishers, IN 46038, United States |
| Registered agent | United States Corporation Agents, Inc., 131 Continental Drive, Suite 305, Newark, DE 19713 |
| Contact | support@habitatexchange.com · legal@habitatexchange.com |
Formal legal notices go in writing to the business address above, with a copy to legal@habitatexchange.com. Service of process may be made on the Delaware registered agent.
02Terms of Service
- The marketplace serves adults 18 and over in the continental United States. Live animals ship only within it.
- Five ways to buy and sell: fixed price, offers, timed auctions, live auctions, and flash sales. A winning bid, an accepted offer, and a flash claim are all binding purchases, on one set of rules.
- Identity verification comes before money. An unverified account can browse but cannot bid, claim, or buy. Transactions at or above $2,000 require additional buyer verification.
- Card payments are accepted on all orders. Card details are collected and stored by the payment provider; they never touch our servers.
- Decisions that move money, verify identity, resolve disputes, publish listings, or approve animal-care claims are made by people, not by automated systems.
03Refunds & Buyer Protection
The money waits for the animal. A licensed payment provider holds the buyer’s payment and releases it to the seller only when the buyer confirms live arrival or, if no claim is filed, automatically 72 hours after the carrier’s delivery scan. HabitatExchange Inc. never holds customer funds.
- Buyers pay a buyer protection fee of 3.0% of the animal price (minimum $3.00, capped at $75.00 per animal). It is the same for every payment method, and it is refunded in full whenever you do not receive a live animal.
- Dead-on-arrival claims run on two clocks: unboxing evidence captured within 2 hours of the delivery scan, and the claim filed within 72 hours, from the order page. Keep the animal and all packaging for 7 days while the case is open.
- The seller has 48 hours to respond. Claims are reviewed and decided by trained people, never by automation, with one appeal decided by a different reviewer.
- Refunds go back to the original payment method and include the buyer protection fee. Never by cash, wire, gift card, or any off-platform channel.
- Cancel free any time before the shipping label is created. If a weather hold runs past 10 calendar days, cancel for a full refund including shipping.
- There is no general right of return for a healthy animal that arrives as described: shipping an animal a second time to satisfy a change of mind is a welfare harm we will not facilitate. This is disclosed before bidding, at checkout, and in the order confirmation.
- Transactions taken off-platform carry no protection at all.
04Shipping & Live Arrival
- Overnight only. FedEx Priority Overnight is the primary service, under the seller’s live-animal shipping agreement. Ground service is never permitted for a live animal, at any temperature, for any species.
- Ship days are Monday through Wednesday, so no animal rides through a weekend. Thursday only on a route with a confirmed Saturday-delivery agreement the buyer has accepted. Friday and weekend shipping: never.
- The whole route is screened against the forecast, origin, every transit hub, and destination, for the actual transit window. Species-specific temperature envelopes narrow the general bands further, and the narrower envelope always wins.
| Forecast on route | What happens |
|---|---|
| Below 30°F | Hard embargo. No shipment, regardless of packaging. |
| 30 to 40°F | Weather hold, or hold-for-pickup at a heated carrier facility with buyer consent. |
| 40 to 50°F | Ships with insulated liner plus a rated heat pack. |
| 50 to 80°F | Normal shipping, standard insulated packaging. |
| 80 to 85°F | Ships with insulated liner plus cold pack; hold-for-pickup preferred. |
| 85 to 95°F | Weather hold, or hold-for-pickup at a climate-controlled facility with buyer consent. |
| Above 95°F | Hard embargo. No shipment, regardless of packaging. |
- A weather hold is a visible order state with the reason and a new estimate, never a silent delay. Funds stay held, the seller’s clock pauses, and a seller can never override a hold.
- Sellers ship within 10 business days of order confirmation or auction close, excluding weather-hold time, or the order cancels automatically with a full refund.
- Someone has to be there. For doorstep delivery the buyer must be present, or choose hold-for-pickup at a staffed carrier location. An animal left unattended on a doorstep is the primary avoidable cause of dead-on-arrival losses.
- Every order carries the seller’s Live Arrival Guarantee: the animal arrives alive, or the buyer is made whole under the refunds policy, a full refund of the animal price, shipping, and the buyer protection fee, or a replacement where the buyer prefers one and the seller can supply it. Carrier delay alone does not void it.
05Welfare & Species Rules
Fail closed. If a species, morph program, or species-destination combination is not covered by an approved rule set, it cannot be listed and cannot be checked out. Unknown means no.
- Captive-bred only. Sellers attest to captive-bred origin on every listing; a false attestation is grounds for delisting and account termination. Wild-caught animals are prohibited.
- Never listed, among others: venomous snakes and lizards, all crocodilians, federally listed injurious constrictors, endangered-species and CITES Appendix I animals, snakes whose expected adult length exceeds 8 feet, turtles with a carapace under 4 inches and viable turtle eggs, unweaned or non-feeding neonates, near-term gravid females, and sick or injured animals.
- The catalog is reptile-only at launch, and that includes feeder animals, live or frozen.
- Destination legality is checked at checkout and again immediately before the shipping label is created. Permit-required species publish only with the required permit attestation, and with documentation where our rules require it.
06Acceptable Use
- No fraud or misrepresentation, no steering payment off-platform, no shill bidding or collusion, no harassment, and no live animals sold as mystery boxes or unspecified lots. Every animal sold is an identified individual.
- Scam and animal-welfare reporting is open to the public, with no account required. Reports are rate-limited, never login-walled.
- Enforcement decisions are made by people, with an appeal reviewed by someone other than the original decision-maker.
07Privacy
- We do not sell personal information and do not use cross-context behavioral advertising.
- Card numbers and bank details never touch our servers, and we never receive identity documents: the verification provider reports results and status only.
- Cookies at launch: strictly necessary and preferences only. No advertising cookies, no third-party analytics.
- State privacy rights (including access, deletion, and correction) are honored with an appeal path; requests go to privacy@habitatexchange.com.
- The marketplace is for adults: under-18 accounts are closed and their data deleted.