Terms of Service
Last Updated: September 13, 2026
Ordered by owner and customer bids — bought, not earned. BergenHub promotes Bergen County businesses; it doesn't rate service quality.
1. Acceptance of Terms
By using BergenHub and participating in the leaderboard bidding system, you agree to these Terms of Service. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not use our platform.
2. Bidding and Leaderboard Placement
BergenHub offers a "pay-to-rank" leaderboard system. Every leaderboard is a Sponsored Ranking: placement is determined entirely by the cumulative weighted dollars bid on a business's behalf during the active season. Placement is paid promotion and does not constitute an editorial endorsement or an indicator of quality. BergenHub exists to help Bergen County businesses get discovered, not to evaluate their service.
- Free-form Bidding: You may bid any dollar amount (minimum $1.00 USD).
- Multipliers: Verified store owners receive a 1.0x multiplier on their bids. Customers receive a 1.5x multiplier. You cannot bid on your own store as a "customer" to receive the higher multiplier.
- Ratings from customer bids: A bid from a customer (a bidder who is not the listing's active owner) also records a rating-only 5-star review on that business, if the bidder's email is verified and they have not already reviewed it. The rating is withdrawn if the bid is refunded or a chargeback is lost. Owner bids never create a rating.
- Seasons: Leaderboards reset at the beginning of each new season (default: 1 month). Previous season totals do not carry over to the new season's ranking, but final standings are archived.
3. Anti-Abuse and Enforcement
We maintain strict rules to ensure the integrity of the platform:
- Identity Verification: We may require email and phone (SMS OTP) verification prior to placing bids.
- Self-Dealing: Owners found attempting to bypass the 1.0x multiplier by creating fake customer accounts will have their bids flagged, reversed, and their accounts may be suspended.
- Bid Caps: To prevent extreme inflation, we enforce daily ($500) and seasonal ($2,000) bid caps per user per store. These caps are subject to change.
- Manual Review: Bids flagged by our automated systems (velocity trips, high risk scores) will be placed in a "pending review" state and will not count toward the public total until cleared by our administration team. Rejected bids will be refunded.
4. Payments and Refunds
All bids are processed in USD via Stripe. Bids are generally non-refundable unless rejected during our manual review process. For full details, please read our Refund Policy.
5. Limitation of Liability
BergenHub is not liable for any loss of revenue, reputation, or other damages arising from your placement on our leaderboards or the use of our services.
6. Changes to Terms
We reserve the right to modify these terms at any time. Continued use of the platform after changes constitutes acceptance.