Terms and conditions

1.About these terms

These terms govern your use of CV Pod, the hiring marketplace at cvpod.com ("CV Pod", "we", "us"). By creating an account or using the service you agree to them, together with our Privacy Policy. CV Pod launches in the United Kingdom, in Birmingham, for trades, hospitality and care jobs. Prices are in pounds sterling (£).

CV Pod provides the marketplace: the Pod, the application workflow, activity records and the Public Reply Record. We do not employ candidates, make hiring decisions or guarantee any job, interview or hire.

2.Accounts and roles

One account may hold more than one role: Candidate, Hirer or Referee. Each role has its own permissions. You must give accurate information, keep your login secure and tell us promptly if you think your account has been misused. You must be old enough to work in the UK to apply for jobs.

3.Job seekers and Pods

• Free, always. Creating, owning, sharing and applying with a Pod costs £0. There are no candidate fees, paid ranking, promoted candidates or payouts.
• You own your Pod. You decide what it contains, which fields and media each employer sees, and whether it is switched on. Switching it off stops future access through its link and removes it from discovery. It does not change applications you have already sent.
• Snapshots. Each application keeps the exact version of your Pod you shared when you applied.
• Accuracy. What you write about yourself must be true to the best of your knowledge. You never need to state your age, date of birth, graduation date or a photo.
• Identity badge. "Identity verified" means we confirmed your identity. It does not confirm qualifications, work history, employability or right to work. Your right-to-work field is optional and self-declared.
• Discovery. Your Pod appears in employer browsing only if you opt in, and only the fields you enable.

4.Voice answers

Voice answers are optional, audio only and recorded inside CV Pod. You confirm that every recording you submit is your own natural voice. Voice cloning, synthetic or generated audio, impersonation and audio altered to misrepresent your voice are prohibited. Where you correct a transcript, you confirm the corrected text represents the recording.

5.Vouches and referees

A Vouch is a named referee's response to one specific claim. Candidates may invite referees but may not respond on their behalf. Referees confirm, partly confirm or say they are unable to confirm, and separately choose whether their response is displayed. Referees must respond honestly and only about what they know. Either the candidate or the referee may withdraw a Vouch from future sharing. A Vouch is not a CV Pod endorsement and is never required to apply.

6.Employers and verification

Employers must complete verification before publishing: a Companies House check for registered companies (or manual Trust Team review, labelled "Employer details reviewed"), a one-time code to confirm domain control, and review of the named Hirer's identity and authority. Each account and job names an accountable Hirer. Verification is not a guarantee of any job's quality or legitimacy.

7.Job posts

Every post must be a real, authorised vacancy with specific duties, clear essential requirements, a location, weekly hours and a gross pay range in GBP. You must not post or send anything that:

• states or implies a preference based on a protected characteristic, or asks for age, health or other irrelevant sensitive information;
• asks candidates to pay to apply, or to transfer or forward money;
• offers unpaid trial work, or is for an unlawful role;
• misleads candidates about who the employer is.

We may hold a post for human review before publication and pause a live post while we review a report. You may not silently change pay, hours, location, work arrangement or employment type after applications arrive; we keep an edit history and notify affected applicants.

Each job accepts up to 20 applications. When the limit is reached, new applications stop. Applications already received keep their full Human Answer commitment.

8.The Human Answer commitment

By publishing a post, you agree that every applicant receives a human answer within five calendar days of their application being received. This is a CV Pod marketplace rule, not a claim about UK law.

• An answer is an interview invitation (with a format and proposed times or a booking link) or a rejection with a meaningful, role-related written reason of up to 500 characters.
• A hold is not an answer and does not pause or reset the deadline.
• The named Hirer must confirm they personally made each decision after reviewing the application. Bulk decisions are not available.
• Candidate withdrawal and job closure do not cancel the commitment for applications already received.
• A missed deadline is recorded as a breach 48 hours after the deadline. A later answer is recorded as late and does not remove the breach.

9.Purchases, billing and refunds

• You pay for posts, never per application, Pod view, listen or answer. There is no reply-promise deposit.
• Payments are processed by Stripe in GBP. VAT treatment and amount are shown before you pay.
• Card payment is available at checkout. Monthly-plan employers may pay by invoice, due within 14 calendar days; invoice-paid posts publish only after payment clears.
• The monthly plan is billed in advance. Cancelling stops the next renewal; the current period is not refunded. Posts never auto-renew, and paid posts stay live for their term if you cancel the plan.

Refunds

• Cancel before publication: full refund of the post price and corresponding VAT.
• A published post you close, fill or leave unfilled: no refund. An unfilled job does not by itself qualify for a refund.
• Removed through CV Pod error or our inability to provide the posting service: we refund unused whole days pro rata against the price excluding VAT, plus corresponding VAT, rounded to the nearest penny. For example, a £99 Standard post with 10 of 30 days unused is refunded £33 plus VAT.
• Removed for your policy breach or fraud: no refund.

Refunds go back to the original payment method. Payment disputes are handled through Stripe's process and are separate from any application dispute.

10.Public Reply Records

We publish, for each employer, the share of applicants answered within the promised days, the share of decisions with a reason, and median reply time. These are calculated from application events over a rolling 90-day window, shown only once at least 5 eligible applications have passed their deadline and grace period.

Employers may contest a factual record update within 30 calendar days; the current value stays visible as "Under review", and corrections are kept in the public history. Individual rejection reasons are never published. The record describes response behaviour; it is not a measure of hiring quality, candidate suitability or fairness.

11.Recruitment agencies

An agency may publish a vacancy only after we record the hiring employer's authority for it. Agency adverts must identify both agency and employer, show the agency's contact details and explain how the agency uses personal information. An agency may access or submit a Pod only with the candidate's explicit, recorded permission, which the candidate can revoke. Agencies must never charge candidates.

12.Messaging and conduct

Messages happen only in the private thread attached to an application, up to 2,000 characters, with no attachments or clickable links. Unsolicited messages are not allowed. You must not harass, threaten, discriminate, retaliate, share someone's private information or attempt fraud. Blocking stops direct messages but never hides a formal decision. CV Pod is not an emergency service: if you are in immediate danger, contact the emergency services.

13.Trust Team, reports and disputes

Our Trust Team reviews reports, verification and disputes. We acknowledge reports within one business day and triage alleged immediate threats within four hours during staffed hours (09:00–17:00 UK time, Monday to Friday).

Possible outcomes include no breach, a warning, hiding or removing content, requiring a compliant replacement reason, messaging restrictions, suspension or closure. Either party may appeal an outcome within 10 business days, and a different reviewer will decide. The Trust Team does not make hiring decisions, rewrite a Hirer's reason or referee's statement, or score anyone.

14.No automated judgement

CV Pod never uses AI or automated systems to score, rank, filter or judge candidates. We do not analyse voice, accent, transcript content or faces to assess anyone. Employer listings and applicant lists use declared filters and fixed, explained orders only.

15.Your content and our intellectual property

You keep ownership of what you upload: your Pod, recordings, job posts and Vouches. You grant us a limited licence to host, process, display and transmit that content only to operate the service as you direct, for example to show your shared Pod to an employer you applied to. The CV Pod name, logo, design and software belong to us and may not be copied without permission.

16.Liability

We provide the marketplace with reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for hiring decisions, the content of job posts or Vouches, or the conduct of employers and candidates, although we act on reports. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or fraud. Otherwise, our total liability to an employer in any 12 months is limited to the fees that employer paid us in that period. Nothing here affects your statutory rights.

17.Suspension and closure

You may close your account at any time from settings. We may suspend or close accounts that breach these terms, after human review, and will tell you why unless doing so would compromise a safety or fraud investigation. Closing an employer account does not cancel Human Answers owed to applicants already received.

18.Changes

We will give at least 30 days' notice of material changes by email and in the product. Changes do not apply retrospectively to purchases already made.

19.Governing law and contact

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction, without affecting any mandatory rights you have where you live in the UK. Questions about these terms: use the contact form or write to legal@cvpod.com.