Customer Terms of Service

GenieGalleries is an online marketplace. It helps you find or be matched with an independent photographer, compare bookable packages, place and manage a booking, message about your shoot, pay at checkout, get support, and receive your photos in a private online gallery.

Under our marketplace model, the photographer is the independent provider of the photography service for your booking. Your separate relationship for the marketplace services (matching, booking, payment coordination, galleries and support) is with the legal operator named before you pay:

• Legal operator: GenieGalleries
• Business address: 291 St Anne Rd, Winnipeg, MB
• Email: support@geniegalleries.ca · Phone: 2049971940

This does not remove GenieGalleries' responsibility for what it says, for running bookings and payments, for protecting your information, for its support commitments, or for any other duty the law does not allow it to exclude.

Before you pay, the booking page shows the package you chose, what it includes, any add-ons, the location, date and time, when to expect delivery, and either the photographer you selected or that we are still arranging a match.

Your booking is confirmed only when your payment is authorized and we send a confirmation that says so. If a match is still pending, we will not suggest that a named photographer is already confirmed.

If we cannot confirm a suitable photographer for the date and place you paid for, you choose: accept a replacement we propose (any price difference is shown to you first), or take a full refund to your original payment method. Platform credit is only used if you actively choose it.

Please give accurate booking details and be at the agreed place and time. Any change to the scope, date, place, hours, price or deliverables needs your approval before it is charged or treated as agreed.

Before you pay, checkout shows the currency (Canadian dollars unless the offer says otherwise), the package amount, any discounts, any mandatory fee, applicable sales tax, and the total. No mandatory fee is added only at the final payment step.

Sales tax is calculated on the taxable supply using the applicable place-of-supply and registration rules. Where a required tax rule is not configured, we do not take the booking rather than charge a guessed rate. Your receipt identifies the legal seller or marketplace operator, the tax lines, and the amount paid.

Payments are processed by the payment provider shown at checkout (currently Stripe). GenieGalleries does not store full card numbers. Bank settlement, chargebacks and card-network rules can affect timing; they do not remove your consumer rights or our responsibilities.

The full rules, with worked examples, are in our Cancellation and Refund Policy. In short:

• Cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled start: full refund, including tax.
• Cancel less than 24 hours before the start, once a photographer has accepted your shoot: 80% of the service amount is refunded. The other 20% is a late-cancellation charge paid to your photographer for the time they held. Tax is adjusted accordingly, and you see the exact amounts before you confirm. If no photographer had yet accepted, nobody held the time and the refund is full.
• No-show without notice: no refund by default, if the photographer can show they were there and ready. We review emergencies, platform or photographer mistakes, and legally protected rights individually.
• Your photographer cancels or doesn't come: you choose a replacement or a full refund to your original payment method. Credit is never forced on you.

These are our standard rules, not a waiver of consumer-protection law. Where your province or territory gives you a stronger right, that right applies.

Report missing deliverables, a material mismatch with your package, non-delivery or another service problem within 5 days after your gallery is delivered to get our fast-track review. That window is for our process only: it is not a deadline on your legal rights, card-issuer rights, or problems you could not reasonably have noticed in that time.

Opening a report flags the shoot to your photographer and pauses their unpaid earnings for that shoot while we look into it. We share your complaint with the photographer and give them a fair chance to respond. We first try to fix it, for example with a revision. If you and the photographer cannot agree, a trained reviewer decides on the evidence: a revision or extra delivery, a replacement shoot, a partial or full refund, or no adjustment. Every decision is recorded with its reasons.

Your photographer generally keeps copyright unless a signed written agreement says otherwise. You receive a non-exclusive licence to download, print, display and share your delivered photos for personal, non-commercial purposes. A booking clearly labelled as a business package also lets you use them in your own business's marketing. Reselling, stock licensing, or licensing to unrelated third parties needs the photographer's written permission. Details are in our Photo Rights and Gallery notice.

Delivered galleries currently stay available while we finish our retention system. When it starts, galleries will be available for 90 days after delivery plus a 30-day Last Chance Recovery period, and we will give you notice before any existing gallery expires. Please download your photos.

You must be 18 or older to hold an account or make a booking. A shoot may include a minor only if you are their parent or legal guardian, or another adult legally authorized to consent for them. You remain responsible for their supervision, and an appropriate adult must be present.

Everyone must follow the law, venue rules, safety instructions and other people's privacy. Harassment, threats, discrimination, stalking, impersonation, exploitation and unlawful or non-consensual recording are prohibited. Sexualized or exploitative imagery of a minor is prohibited and will be reported and escalated immediately.

Full conduct rules are in our Reviews and Community Standards.

Until your confirmation names a photographer, we cannot promise a particular one will be available. We cannot promise that a photographer's style will match every personal preference, or that the site will never be interrupted. Package descriptions and confirmed deliverables are binding, and we correct our own material errors.

To the extent the law allows, GenieGalleries is not responsible for losses caused solely by an independent photographer's acts or omissions outside GenieGalleries' own marketplace, payment, matching, data and support duties. Nothing in these terms excludes liability the law does not allow us to exclude, including consumer guarantees, fraud, intentional misconduct, or our own conduct. Nothing limits your statutory remedies, your right to complain to a regulator, small-claims options, or other rights you cannot waive.

Contact us first through Support@GenieGalleries.ca or our contact form, or open a request from your booking. We aim to acknowledge within 24 hours with a case reference. A reviewer gathers both sides' evidence and explains the decision. See Support and Complaint Resolution.

If it is still unresolved, you and GenieGalleries may choose non-binding mediation. Arbitration is only used if both sides freely agree to it after the dispute has arisen. Nothing in these terms requires you to arbitrate, waives your right to go to court or a tribunal, stops you complaining to a regulator, or prevents a class or group proceeding where the law protects it.

Each booking is governed by the version of these terms you accepted when you made it. Material changes are published with a new version and date and apply to future bookings only.

We may suspend access for fraud, unlawful conduct, a credible safety risk, repeated material breach, or a legal requirement. Where lawful and practical, we tell you why and offer a way to ask for review.

The mandatory law of your province or territory applies. No choice-of-law clause removes consumer protections that apply where you live or where the service is provided.

Online bookings are not yet available for shoots in Quebec while we prepare French-language terms.