ECF SUPPLIERS TERMS OF SERVICE (ToS)
Anyone selling e-cigarettes or e-liquid is classified as a supplier. For example: distributors, manufacturers, retailers, resellers, accessory retailers and anyone commercially affiliated with an ecigarette business. All suppliers must register with ECF prior to posting on the forum and once registered , only within their assigned restricted supplier areas.
The Terms of Service (TOS) are a set of rules that apply to all Suppliers registered with ECF.
These Terms of Service including the Supplier General Rules below are subject to change without notice. All changes come into effect at the time they are included here. It is your responsibility to check that you are complying with ECF Supplier ToS.
SUPPLIER CATEGORIES
• Forum Suppliers upgraded Registered Suppliers with dedicated forums. Upgrade is dependent on meeting set criteria. They are allowed Supplier Associates to help run their dedicated forum.
• Registered Suppliers: selling e-cigarette hardware or e-liquid with an active online trading websites
• Supplier - Offline: selling hardware and/or e-liquid but with no website, web promotion, or online presence of any kind.
• Supplier Accessories: those selling any ecigarette related items but do not sell the two main components of ecigs: hardware or e-liquid. They can be either registered with website OR offline with no active online trading website.
• Supplier Services Provider: those who offer business services to ECF Suppliers
• Manufacturers and Wholesalers: suppliers who trade only with distributors B2C suppliers. THey advertise strictly in a private Wholesaler forum non viewable to the regular membership and only viewable to B2C suppliers registered at ECF.
• Brand Manufacturers: Manufacturers of a Brand who are primarily trading only with distributors B2C vendors. They have their own dedicated forum and participate in the Brands Connect System to showcase their products and have their own Brand Page .
Please also note the last item, ECF's position on affiliates and drop-shippers.
ECF Supplier General Rules
1. ECF Suppliers are bound by the provisions of this TOS.
2. Suppliers must also abide by the General Forum rules and ECF Supplier Forum Rules at:
General Forum Rules:
Forum Rules
ECF Supplier Forum Rules (in private supplier forum)
https://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/threads/ecf-suppliers-forum-rules.261771/
3. Abide by the specific rules for your specific Supplier Category (usergroup).
4. Suppliers cannot be anonymous. We can only register legitimate businesses who lodge their full contact details with us, and who do not hide behind anonymous websites with no contact details.
5. We require your full contact details to be filled out in the Supplier Registration form . Suppliers for whom we do not have full details, will be reverted to Supplier - Unregistered, and will have no rights on the site.
6. All Supplier websites must be 100% e-cigarette related and must have Contact information with a valid mailing address, telephone landline number and email. If your website does not comply, and you ignore our request to update it, you will be reverted to Supplier - unregistered and will have no rights on the site.
7. Vendors who make claims that e-cigarettes are a health product, or that they can be used to quit smoking, or that they are a pharmaceutical product, will not be accepted (or will be removed).
8. ECF's policy is to support e-cigarette vendors not herbal vaporizing equipment vendors. Therefore, we will accept ecig suppliers with some alternative product lines of that nature, but we will not accept vendors of butane vaporizers etc. who may also stock a couple of ecig / e-liquid lines. If there is any question then we would judge by the site name, the domain name, the appearance of the site: is it an ecig site or a herbal products site? We permit ecig sites but not herbal/etc vaporizer sites. Once registered with us, promotion on ECF of the possible uses of all leaf, oil and wax vaporizer equipment (or similar) is restricted to tobacco / nicotine products :
https://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/threads/new-ecf-policy-on-leaf-wax-oil-vaporizers.579756/
9. All forum contact with members must follow forum rules. We expect both our members and our suppliers to act courteously. Contact a Moderator if you have an issue with a member rather than contribute to the problem.
10. Do not post any negative material about other suppliers or their products or service or prices, whether they are ECF registered suppliers or not . ECF Suppliers can only promote their own business or products. They may not compare other suppliers' products (by exact name) unfavorably.
11. Suppliers may not post in another Supplier's dedicated forum or in any Supplier's advertising thread without the express permission of the advertising thread/forum owner. This means an invite by PM or email by the owner of the thread, for that specific instance. If you have permission , only regular chat allowed - no business related posts allowed as it counts as advertising.
12. Suppliers do not have access to post in the New Members Forum, the Reviews forums, Classifieds, APV Discussion , Rebuildable Atomizer Systems, Vaping Hardware, Model Specific Forums and their corresponding subforums.
13. Suppliers may ONLY advertise/promote their own products within their advertising thread(s) in the main Ecigarette Suppliers Forum ( (Forum Suppliers can also promote/advertise within their dedicated forums) ). They may post in the Negative Reviews of Suppliers and the Commercial Reviews forums. No business related posts allowed anywhere else on the forum .
14. Your supplier privileges apply to you alone. That is to say, you cannot transfer those privileges to another, or have multiple members of staff with the same privileges. Only ONE ID permitted to represent the business. Only the Supplier that is registered can promote or advertise the business and address any customer service related issues on ECF. Associates or family members are not permitted to be registered as members at ECF.
(exception: Forum Suppliers, those with dedicated forums are permitted Associates)
15. You cannot have your staff members or family members register on ECF. exception: Forum Suppliers can register an Associate to help them run their dedicated forums
16. Do not have a third party make promotional posts on your behalf. If this is found to be the case both you and that person will be banned.
17. Do not under any circumstances send PMs to members unless they have contacted you first. PM solicitation ('PM spam') will result in an instant ban. No Cold Calling permitted.
18. Do not create multiple identities.
19. You may not use the tag system at all. Do not tag your posts and especially do not tag them with your business name or website.
20. You may not use the Classifieds forum, it is solely for member-to-member sales. You are not permitted to purchase from ECF members on the public forum.
21. If you create a website where none existed before, and therefore operate in a different way from that existing when you were accepted/registered as Supplier Offline, then you must contact us first so that the site can be reviewed and successfully registered at ECF.
22. If your website becomes non-compliant you risk being demoted or classed as Unregistered. If you make changes that may affect your compliance you must tell us.
23. If we have multiple reports that your service or products are faulty, and you do not resolve these issues, we may revoke your registration.
24. If we have a report of a serious infringement of our Rules, or of the law, or of an action that will bring ECF or the industry or the community into disrepute, or place ECF at risk of legal action, we may revoke your registration.
25. If a customer does not receive goods or a refund within 21 days of payment and complains to us, we may need to investigate. Multiple occurrences of a similar nature will force us to reconsider your status. In the event of an unsatisfactory solution to one or more issues, or recurring complaints, we may need to take action. If you are a Registered Supplier your supplier status may be revoked .
26. Pay your fees on time – All Suppliers excluding Forum Suppliers must pay the annual Registration Fee of $50 by setting up on the site a recurring annual subscription using PayPal.
27. Do not carry out any action that might harm our community. Remember that you are not alone, there are hundreds of suppliers registered at ECF. Try to imagine what would happen if many or all of those Suppliers contravened the rules here - the forum would be unusable. All rules apply to all Suppliers and there is a good reason for this.
28. Please recognise the fact that we contribute to each other's success. Please do not post negative material about us - we don't post negative material about you and we try to prevent others doing so. If you have issues you must discuss them with admin first. We will always try to provide you with the best facilities we can, and intend to improve our facilities for you over time.
29. ECF registered suppliers may take advantage of any commercial opportunities available to them anywhere without risk of censure here (for example we have no issue with your support of other web resources of any kind). We do not intend to restrict Suppliers in any way. Naturally this does not apply if such activities may bring us, the community or the trade into disrepute.
MANUFACTURERS/WHOLESALERS
1. Manufacturers and others who deal primarily with Suppliers and not Members may register and get access to the private Manufacturers forum, viewable only to ECF Suppliers.
2. Manufacturers do not have to comply with our website rules but can only communicate with Suppliers, and not Members.
3. You may only post in the private Manufacturers Forum. You may advertise there. Suppliers also have access to this forum and may contact you there. You are advertising to Suppliers, not Members.
4. You must not use the Private Message (PM) system or Email Contact Form to contact Members/Suppliers to advertise or solicit business or you will risk closure of your account. You may only contact Suppliers who have contacted you FIRST.
AFFILIATES & DROP-SHIPPERS
1. No suppliers who trade exclusively or extensively[1] as affiliates[2] or drop-shippers[3] are allowed as Registered Suppliers at ECF. Such suppliers if identified will be banned without warning. ECF intends to support and protect the trade, and does not regard web marketers with multiple interests (or possible multiple interests) as members of the trade proper.
2. The main distributor of a brand, in any given country, may be given an exception to the above clause, at our discretion.
3. Affiliators[4] however are allowed since they are a form of distributor / main dealer / wholesaler, and ECF does not disapprove of these activities in any way.
Notes
[1] 'extensively' here means a supplier who trades more than 33% of their business as an affiliate or drop-shipper, ie a trader who has no personal interest in the industry but can withdraw at any time, and who is essentially a web marketer not an ecigarette supplier.
[2] Affiliates: suppliers who do not import, buy stock in, hold stock, market their own lines, or in other ways do not trade independently, but instead market others' product lines on commission.
[3] drop-shippers: vendors who hold no stock but feed orders to an affiliate or wholesaler who ships the order.
[4] Affiliator: a wholesaler or distributor or main dealer who holds stock, and supplies and sells ecigarettes wholely or partly through others and pays them commission on sales. An affiliator is one who has affiliates.
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