Terms of Service

Last Updated: June 4, 2026
Effective Date: July 3, 2026 (material changes published June 3, 2026 — 30-day notice per Section 13)

1. Agreement to Terms

By accessing and using the GrailGuard website and services, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree to abide by the above, please do not use this service. GrailGuard may update these Terms from time to time as set out in Section 13 (Changes to Terms). Material changes will take effect only after the thirty (30) day advance notice period described in §13 and will not apply to bookings already paid for at the time the new Terms take effect. Your continued use of the service after the notice period constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

1A. Title, Custody, and Our Role

You retain title to your item at all times. Title, ownership, and all incidents of ownership in your item remain with you, the Shipper, from the moment of pickup through the moment of lawful delivery to your designated recipient. No ownership interest, equitable interest, security interest, or right of resale in the item transfers to GrailGuard at any point in the shipment lifecycle. GrailGuard is not a buyer, seller, consignee, pawnbroker, dealer, or merchant in your item, and acquires no title even temporarily by reason of taking physical possession.

GrailGuard acts solely as a bailee for hire. By accepting your item at pickup, GrailGuard enters into a bailment under California law for the limited and exclusive purpose of safely transporting the item from the origin address to the destination address you specified at booking, and delivering it to your designated recipient in accordance with these Terms. As bailee, GrailGuard owes you the duty of reasonable care applicable to a commercial bailee for hire under California common law and California Commercial Code Division 7 (Documents of Title; warehouse receipts, bills of lading, and other documents), subject to the limitations of liability set out in Section 11. The bailment terminates upon the earlier of (a) delivery to and acceptance by the designated recipient under Section 8, (b) return of the item to the Shipper, or (c) lawful surrender of the item to a third party pursuant to court order, subpoena, or other legal process.

Scope of custody. GrailGuard's custody of your item is strictly limited to what is necessary to perform the transportation service you booked. GrailGuard has no right to use, display, inspect (except as expressly permitted in Section 4 for prohibited-item verification or Section 8 for evidentiary photography), appraise, pledge, sublet, lend, or otherwise exercise dominion over the item. Unless GrailGuard expressly authorizes a particular sub-bailee leg in writing as part of the booking, the assigned courier shall maintain the item under direct physical control as carry-on or hand-carry at all times; checked-baggage stowage is unauthorized and outside the scope of the bailment. Possession passes from you to GrailGuard at the moment the assigned courier marks pickup complete in the GrailGuard app, and from GrailGuard to your designated recipient at the moment all four delivery-confirmation artifacts in Section 8 (ID capture, delivery code, section initials, and signature) are captured and the booking is marked Delivered.

Sub-bailees. Some shipment legs may require GrailGuard to entrust your item to a third party we do not directly employ — for example, a commercial airline accepting the courier's carry-on during a flight, a security officer during a screening inspection, or a partner agent on a multi-leg route. You authorize GrailGuard to engage such sub-bailees solely to the extent necessary to perform the transportation service you booked, on the same limited-purpose, no-dominion terms set out above. Engaging a sub-bailee does not discharge or reduce GrailGuard's direct duty of care to you; GrailGuard remains responsible to you, the Shipper, for the item during sub-bailee custody, and our Coverage Policy in Section 5 applies while the item is in any sub-bailee's hands subject to the exclusions and limits stated in Section 5. GrailGuard's engagement of sub-bailees is governed by the bailee's common-law duty of reasonable care in the engagement of necessary sub-bailees; this Section does not constitute a separate undertaking under Restatement (Second) of Torts §411. Constructive-trust waiver (trust-doctrine carve-out). GrailGuard's responsibility during sub-bailee custody is governed by the Coverage Policy in Section 5 and is the Shipper's exclusive remedy as to sub-bailee acts. To the maximum extent permitted by law and to the extent not preempted by California Civil Code §1668 or other non-waivable law, the Shipper waives any claim against GrailGuard as a constructive trustee of the item under analogous trust-doctrine theories of liability arising solely from a sub-bailee's conduct. This waiver does not limit the Shipper's rights under the Coverage Policy, the carve-outs in Section 11 (gross negligence, willful misconduct, fraud, personal injury), or any non-waivable right under applicable law.

Sub-bailee disclosure. Following a coverage claim, GrailGuard will, on written request from the Shipper, identify any sub-bailee that held the item during the relevant shipment leg and the approximate time window of that custody, to the extent that information is reasonably available to GrailGuard and is not subject to a third-party confidentiality obligation.

Notice, preservation, and subrogation cooperation. The Shipper agrees to provide GrailGuard prompt written notice of any claim arising or potentially arising during sub-bailee custody, to preserve any evidence reasonably within the Shipper's control, and to cooperate in GrailGuard's recovery actions against any sub-bailee, including (to the extent permitted by law) by assigning to GrailGuard any direct claim the Shipper may have against the sub-bailee up to the amount GrailGuard has paid to the Shipper under Section 5 in respect of the same loss.

International air carriage. For shipment legs involving international air carriage, the Montreal Convention (Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air, 1999) and the air carrier's published tariff govern the liability of the air carrier as sub-bailee. GrailGuard is not obligated to file a special declaration of interest under Article 22(3) of the Montreal Convention unless the Shipper expressly requests it in writing at booking, agrees to pay any supplementary sum the carrier charges, and acknowledges that such a declaration discloses the item's value to the carrier. GrailGuard's own Coverage Policy in §5 continues to apply during the air leg up to the limits and subject to the exclusions stated in §5, irrespective of the carrier's Montreal cap.

Misdeclared-item sub-bailee surcharges. If a sub-bailee assesses a fine, customs penalty, special-handling charge, or denied-boarding fee against GrailGuard solely because the Shipper has misdeclared the item's nature or value under Section 4, the Shipper shall be responsible for such charge, except to the extent caused by GrailGuard's own negligence, gross negligence, or willful misconduct (consistent with California Civil Code §1668).

We do not hold ourselves out as a common carrier. We do not indiscriminately accept shipments from the general public on terms set by us alone. Each booking is an individual, negotiated contract for personal hand-carry delivery services, accepted at GrailGuard's discretion under these Terms. GrailGuard does not perform passenger air carriage subject to California Civil Code §1859, and is not a "common carrier of goods" within the meaning of California Civil Code §1738. The parties intend that these Terms — not federal carrier-liability statutes such as the Carmack Amendment (49 U.S.C. §14706) — govern GrailGuard's liability. To the extent any federal carrier-liability statute is held to apply to a given shipment notwithstanding the parties' intent, that statute controls only to the extent of any direct conflict with these Terms, and these Terms otherwise remain in full force.

Recipient is not a contracting party for these commercial terms. These Terms — including the Coverage Policy in Section 5, the arbitration agreement in Section 10, the limitation of liability in Section 11, and any other commercial right or remedy — are entered into solely between the Shipper and GrailGuard. The designated recipient is not a party to these Terms and is not an intended third-party beneficiary of those commercial provisions within the meaning of California Civil Code §1559. The Recipient's access to a tracking dashboard, delivery notifications, or other status communications is provided as a courtesy and does not create any contractual relationship between GrailGuard and the Recipient. All commercial rights and remedies arising from loss, damage, theft, non-delivery, or delayed delivery of the item belong exclusively to the Shipper, who retains title and insurable interest under §1A. The Shipper may, in writing, assign a specific Coverage Policy claim to the Recipient, in which case the Recipient takes that claim subject to all defenses, limitations, the arbitration agreement in §10, and the cap in §11 that would apply to the Shipper. Recipient non-waivable rights preserved. Nothing in this paragraph waives or limits any non-waivable consumer-protection right, biometric-privacy right, or independent tort claim the Recipient may have under applicable state law, including (without limitation) NY GBL §349, the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, IL BIPA (740 ILCS 14), the Washington Consumer Protection Act and RCW 19.375, the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, the California Unfair Competition Law (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §17200), and CCPA / CPRA.

Insurable interest remains with you. Because you retain title, you retain insurable interest in the item. You are responsible for maintaining any first-party property or fine-art insurance you wish to carry on the item itself. Our Coverage Policy describes a separate contractual obligation we owe to you for losses sustained during our custody; it is not insurance.

2. Description of Services

GrailGuard provides white-glove hand-carry courier services for high-value items including but not limited to sports trading cards, luxury watches, fine jewelry, fine art, and other collectibles. Our couriers personally transport your items from origin to destination using secure, professional methods.

Services include:

SMS Notifications and Messaging

Program name: GrailGuard Shipment Notifications.

Program description: If you opt in at checkout, GrailGuard sends transactional SMS messages to the phone number you provide about the shipment lifecycle of your booking — booking confirmation, courier assignment, pickup, in-transit milestones, and delivery confirmation. If you provide a recipient phone number and authorize messaging to it, the recipient may also receive transactional SMS messages relating to the delivery, including a verification code at hand-off. Couriers who join the GrailGuard platform receive SMS job-assignment alerts. This program is transactional only — separate from any future marketing SMS, which would require a different opt-in.

Message frequency: typically 5–10 messages per shipment per opted-in number. Frequency is event-driven (one message per state change in the shipment lifecycle — booking confirmation, KYC reminders if applicable, courier assignment, pickup ETA, picked up, in transit, out for delivery, delivery code, delivered, post-delivery rating prompt) and is not bursty.

Message and data rates: Message and data rates may apply. GrailGuard does not charge you for the messages, but your wireless carrier's standard message and data rates apply.

How to opt in: Tick the "Text me shipment updates" checkbox on the booking form at grailguard.io/book.html at checkout. Every consent decision is recorded with the exact disclosure version you saw, the IP and user-agent of the click, and the booking ID — held in an append-only audit log.

How to opt out: Reply STOP at any time to any GrailGuard SMS message. You will receive a one-time confirmation that you have been unsubscribed and will not receive further messages from this program. You can also opt out from your account preferences page at grailguard.io/account.html.

How to get help: Reply HELP to any GrailGuard SMS message for an automated response identifying GrailGuard and providing support contact information. You can also open a support ticket at grailguard.io/support or visit grailguard.io/contact.html.

Privacy: Phone numbers and SMS consent records are governed by the GrailGuard Privacy Policy. We do not share or sell your phone number with third parties or affiliates for marketing purposes.

Carriers: Carriers (including but not limited to AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and their affiliates) are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. Carrier filtering may occasionally cause messages to be delayed or not delivered.

3. Booking and Payment

Booking Process

To book a delivery, you must complete our online booking form with accurate information about your item(s), pickup location, and destination. You must be at least 18 years old to use GrailGuard services.

Payment

Payment is processed securely through Stripe. We accept all major credit cards and digital payment methods. Pricing is based on the declared value of items, distance of delivery, and service tier selected. A quote will be provided before payment is required.

Cancellation and Refunds

The full cancellation policy is in Section 9 below and our Refund & Cancellation Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. In summary: 24+ hours before pickup gets a full refund; later cancellations are tiered based on how close to dispatch you cancel, with after-pickup non-refundable. See Section 9 for the exact tiers, dispatch timestamping, and how third-party non-refundable charges (e.g., prepaid flights) are handled.

Refund timing

Approved refunds are issued to the original payment method within 1 business day of approval. Your bank or card issuer typically posts the refund within 5–10 business days. If you do not see the refund 10 business days after approval, contact support@grailguard.io with your tracking number and we will open a Stripe refund trace. While a refund is in progress, the delivery tracking page will display an estimated posting date so you can follow the status without contacting support.

Reschedule fee

A reschedule requested more than 24 hours before the scheduled pickup is free. A reschedule requested within 24 hours of pickup incurs a 25% reschedule fee (minimum $25) to cover the courier slot that has already been allocated. The fee is displayed for your confirmation before the reschedule is committed, and is charged to the original payment method. No fee applies for reschedules caused by weather, flight delays, or other circumstances beyond your control.

4. Item Eligibility and Restrictions

Eligible Items

GrailGuard may transport the following items (subject to declaration and coverage limits):

Prohibited Items

GrailGuard does not transport any of the following, and reserves the right to refuse, abort, or return shipments that contain any of them:

Enforcement. If a shipment is found to contain a prohibited item after pickup, GrailGuard may, in its sole discretion, abort the shipment, return it to the sender at the sender's cost, surrender it to law enforcement where required by law, and/or terminate the sender's account. The Coverage Policy is void for any shipment containing a prohibited item, and the sender shall be responsible for any third-party fines, penalties, or law-enforcement costs imposed on GrailGuard solely as a result of the sender's prohibited-item violation, except to the extent caused by GrailGuard's own negligence, gross negligence, or willful misconduct (consistent with California Civil Code §1668).

Declaration and Value Limits

You must accurately declare the nature and value of all items. Our standard Coverage Policy extends to items up to $500,000 in declared value. Items exceeding this amount require special handling and additional coverage arrangements. Misrepresenting item value or nature may result in claim denial and service termination.

5. Coverage and Liability

This Coverage Policy is a contractual indemnity obligation owed by GrailGuard to the Shipper; it is not a policy of insurance. Coverage is funded directly from GrailGuard's operating reserves, not transferred to a third-party carrier. You retain title to and insurable interest in your item under §1A and may obtain separate first-party property, fine-art, or commercial transit insurance for it. Regulator re-characterization. If a state insurance regulator characterizes this Coverage Policy as insurance subject to that state's regulatory regime, GrailGuard will, on sixty (60) days' written notice to affected Shippers, (a) register as required, (b) withdraw the Coverage Policy in that state and substitute an arm's-length insurance product, or (c) restructure the program to comply. The declared-value limits in §11 remain payable in full for shipments in transit at the time of any such change.

Coverage

📘 Standalone documents: The full Coverage Policy is at grailguard.io/coverage-policy (declared-value cap, claim-window summary, Hughes formation, no-subcap declared-value coverage; Coverage Rider above $250,000). The Service Level Agreement is at grailguard.io/sla (per-tier delivery commitments, service-credit schedule, exclusive-remedy). Both are incorporated into this §5 by reference; where a conflict exists, the terms most favorable to the Shipper control.

Coverage is anchored to the value the customer declares accurately at the time of booking. Included coverage varies by service tier: Metro $25,000, Nationwide $50,000, International $75,000, Animal-Nationwide $100,000. Declared values above the included amount add a coverage surcharge at checkout, scaling up to the tier's per-shipment ceiling (Metro $99,000; Nationwide $249,000; International $249,000; Animal-Nationwide $249,000). Shipments above your tier's ceiling, or above $500,000 in any tier, require manual review and a custom quote; we will contact you to confirm coverage and price before the booking is accepted. The included amount and any surcharge are itemized on your booking receipt.

GrailGuard's liability shall not exceed the declared value provided at the time of booking, and is further subject to the Limitation of Liability in §11. If a customer declares a value below the actual market value of the shipped item, the maximum potential reimbursement is capped at the value declared, not the item's market value. Accurate declared value at booking is what determines coverage — under-declaring caps the customer's potential payout.

Within the limits above, and subject to the exclusions below and the Limitation of Liability in §11, coverage applies to:

Exclusions

Coverage does not extend to:

Pre-Shipment Photo Baseline

The photographs the Shipper uploads at the time of booking, together with any additional photographs captured by the courier at pickup, constitute the contractual baseline of record for the item's condition. Photo precedence: where the Shipper's booking-time photographs and the courier's pickup-time photographs materially differ, the courier pickup set controls because it is captured under GrailGuard's chain-of-custody at the moment custody passes; the booking-time photos remain admissible context for any condition difference observed between booking and pickup. Any post-delivery claim of damage or non-conformity will be evaluated against this baseline. Defects visible in the baseline photographs but not raised in writing before pickup are deemed waived as to GrailGuard's liability, except to the extent the Shipper's failure to raise the defect was caused by GrailGuard's gross negligence, willful misconduct, or fraud (California Civil Code §1668). The Shipper represents that the baseline photographs fairly and accurately depict the item in the condition tendered for shipment and that no material defect existed at the time of pickup other than as visible in those photographs.

Evidentiary Presumption of Intact Delivery

Where the booking's chain-of-custody record is complete — meaning (i) the pickup AR scan bundle was sealed with a valid HMAC signature, (ii) GPS pings were submitted at the contractual cadence throughout the active-delivery window without unexplained gaps exceeding thirty (30) minutes, (iii) the delivery AR scan bundle was sealed with a valid HMAC signature that matches the pickup seal's referenced angles, and (iv) all four delivery-confirmation artifacts in §8 (ID capture, delivery code, section initials, and signature) were captured, together with the recipient's §5 visible-condition attestation and the §4A acknowledged right to refuse a visibly damaged or tampered shipment, in the recipient's Delivery Acceptance and Release of Claims — that record shall constitute presumptive evidence that the item was delivered intact and in the condition shown in the delivery AR scans, and that no loss, damage, theft, or substitution occurred during GrailGuard's custody. A Shipper or assignee bringing a Coverage Policy claim against such a record bears the burden of producing specific, particularized evidence rebutting the presumption (for example, EXIF-timestamped photographs taken at delivery showing damage not visible in the delivery AR scans, or third-party forensic evidence that the item was altered or substituted in transit). The presumption does not apply to claims of fraud, gross negligence, or willful misconduct, or to any liability that cannot be limited under California Civil Code §1668.

Claims Process

In case of visible damage, you must file a claim within seven (7) calendar days of delivery. Claims for non-delivery or loss must be filed within thirty (30) days of the scheduled delivery date. Claims for concealed damage not reasonably discoverable at delivery must be filed within thirty (30) days of delivery. How the deadline is measured: the filing date is the date the claim email is sent (per the email-gateway timestamp visible in the message header) or the postmark date if mailed — not the date GrailGuard receives or processes the claim. A submission sent within the window but received by GrailGuard after the window expires is timely. Provide photographic evidence, receipts, and valuation documentation. GrailGuard targets investigation within 10 business days of a complete claim submission and, where a claim is approved, reimbursement within 15 business days of approval. Timelines may vary where additional information or third-party assessment is required.

Reading these documents together. If you signed a Delivery Acceptance and Release of Claims at delivery, the claim windows in that document govern claims falling within its scope (visible item-identity issues under its §6 — within 24 hours; concealed damage under its §9 — within 7 calendar days of signing). The windows in this §5 govern Coverage Policy claims and all other claims. Where the same claim is potentially covered by both, the longer of the two applicable windows controls in favor of the Shipper.

For any claim where the alleged loss, damage, or substitution occurred or may have occurred during sub-bailee custody (§1A), the Shipper must provide written notice to GrailGuard no later than the earlier of (a) the time limits above, or (b) any notice deadline imposed by the applicable sub-bailee's tariff or by the Montreal Convention (typically fourteen (14) days for damage and twenty-one (21) days for delay from receipt). Failure to give timely notice under this paragraph forfeits the claim only to the extent GrailGuard is actually prejudiced in its recovery against the sub-bailee.

6. Courier Responsibilities

Our couriers are trained professionals with background checks and onboarding verification. They are responsible for:

Couriers operate under GrailGuard's service standards (see Courier Relationship below for the framework that governs the courier-GrailGuard relationship). GrailGuard maintains a rating and review system for courier accountability.

Courier Relationship

GrailGuard couriers are GrailGuard personnel acting on behalf of GrailGuard LLC. Your booking contract is between you and GrailGuard, not between you and any individual courier. The terms governing GrailGuard's employment relationship with its couriers (including taxes, insurance, equipment, and conduct standards) are set out in the separate Courier Employment Agreement signed by each courier at onboarding and are not part of these Customer Terms.

How Customer Claims Are Handled

Your contract is with GrailGuard. If your shipment is lost, damaged, or stolen while in our courier's custody, you bring your claim against GrailGuard through the claims process described in Section 5, not against the individual courier. GrailGuard is responsible for the conduct of its couriers while they are performing services for you. Customer recovery is governed by Section 11 (Limitation of Liability) and the declared value recorded at booking; the courier's internal conduct standards, employment terms, indemnification, confidentiality, and non-solicitation obligations to GrailGuard are set out in the separate Courier Employment Agreement signed at onboarding and are not part of these Customer Terms.

7. Customer Responsibilities

As a customer, you are responsible for:

8. Tracking and Delivery

Real-Time Tracking

All GrailGuard deliveries include real-time GPS tracking accessible through your account dashboard. You will receive notifications at key milestones: courier assignment, pickup confirmation, in-transit updates, and delivery confirmation.

Delivery Confirmation

Delivery requires the following at the moment of handoff: (a) the recipient presents government-issued photo ID, which the courier photographs and stores alongside the booking record; (b) the recipient reads back the 6-digit delivery code that was sent to them via SMS/email at booking; (c) the recipient initials the five sections of the Delivery Acceptance and Release of Claims (the Shipper having separately initialed the eight booking acknowledgments of the Customer Release of Liability + Waivers at booking); and (d) the recipient signs for the delivery. These four artifacts together serve as proof of delivery and transfer of responsibility, and are retained per our Privacy Policy retention schedule. If the recipient declines any of (a)–(d), the courier may refuse to complete the handoff and return the item to the origin address at no additional charge. You should advise your recipient of these requirements in advance.

Final delivery ping as our evidentiary record. Once all four delivery-confirmation artifacts (a)–(d) above have been captured in good faith and the booking is marked Delivered in the GrailGuard app — the "final delivery ping" — that timestamp, together with the four artifacts, is the record GrailGuard will rely on as conclusive evidence of delivery in defending any chargeback, dispute, or refund request based on alleged non-receipt of the item. You and the recipient may still pursue a claim under the Coverage Policy for documented damage or loss, you may still pursue a service-failure refund under Refund & Cancellation Policy §3 where applicable (for example, total non-delivery or courier no-show), and where the item was delivered late you may pursue the SLA service credit. For a total loss or non-delivery, the service-fee refund and the declared-value coverage payment both apply — the refund returns payment for the undelivered service and the coverage compensates the lost item (see §11 anti-stacking carve-out (vi)); where the item is delivered but damaged, only the declared-value coverage applies and the service fee is retained because the delivery was performed. You may pursue the SLA service credit (a credit of up to 50% of the service fee under the SLA's tiered lateness schedule, which is the sole remedy for lateness; this limitation applies to late delivery only and does not affect your declared-value coverage remedy for loss of or damage to the item). Nothing in this paragraph waives or limits any right you may have under the Fair Credit Billing Act (15 U.S.C. §1666 et seq.), Regulation Z (12 C.F.R. §1026.13), the consumer-protection rules of your card network, the Australian Consumer Law (ACL §§54 and 64), the UK Consumer Rights Act 2015 (s.49), Quebec's Consumer Protection Act (§10), or any other non-excludable statutory consumer right applicable to you. The evidentiary effect of the artifacts and final delivery ping does not apply where the artifacts are shown to have been falsified, fraudulent, captured from a person other than the intended recipient, or captured in any manner that did not satisfy the good-faith requirement above.

Evidentiary Record

A multi-angle photographic record of each item is captured by the courier at pickup and again at delivery (multiple angles per checkpoint — the exact count depends on the item type and capture mode, typically 8 angles per item for single items and up to 28 angles for multi-item lots — plus a HMAC-signed seal of each bundle for tamper-evidence). The record is retained alongside the booking for seven (7) years and is used to substantiate coverage claims and resolve disputes. You will be able to view the pickup and delivery photographs in your tracking dashboard (access is verified against the booking email); your recipient may obtain the record as part of a claim review. By booking with GrailGuard you consent to this record being taken; if you object you must cancel the booking before pickup.

GPS Tracking

From the moment the assigned courier marks pickup complete until the shipment is marked Delivered, Cancelled, Returned, or 72 hours have elapsed (whichever comes first), the courier app submits GPS coordinates to our server approximately every ten (10) minutes; pings submitted outside this active-delivery window are rejected server-side. The trail is visible to you in real time on the tracking page at neighborhood-level precision (approximately 110 meters) during transit and at street-level precision (approximately 3 to 10 meters depending on GPS signal quality) only when the courier is within approximately 200 meters of the delivery address, and is retained for ninety (90) days as part of the chain-of-custody record per the Privacy Policy. The courier app does not record GPS during the pre-pickup window, on off-duty time, or outside the active delivery window.

Failed Deliveries

If the recipient is unavailable or delivery cannot be completed, the courier will attempt to contact you to reschedule. If repeated delivery attempts are unsuccessful, the item will be returned to the origin address at no additional charge; our dispatch team determines the return decision based on the attempt history captured in the chain-of-custody log. You will be notified of any failed delivery attempts.

9. Cancellation and Refund Policy

Full Refund (24 or more hours before scheduled pickup): Cancel 24+ hours before your scheduled pickup window for a 100% refund of service fees and coverage fee.

75% Refund (within 24 hours of scheduled pickup): Cancellations made within 24 hours of the scheduled pickup window are subject to a 25% cancellation fee. By this point we have committed a dispatcher's time, scheduled a specific courier, and begun route preparation.

50% Refund (within 1 hour of pickup OR after courier dispatch): Cancellations made within 1 hour of the scheduled pickup, OR after a courier has accepted the booking (whichever is earlier), are subject to a 50% cancellation fee. Courier acceptance occurs when a courier accepts the booking and begins traveling to the pickup location, and is recorded by timestamp in your account dashboard. Cancellations at or after courier acceptance cannot be processed self-serve in the customer dashboard — please contact support@grailguard.io. The applicable refund tier is determined by the timestamp of your support email, not the timestamp of agent review. Support replies within 1 business day; eligibility is non-discretionary and based solely on the acceptance and email timestamps recorded in your dashboard.

No Refund (after pickup): Once the bailment has begun (the assigned courier marks pickup complete in the GrailGuard app per §1A), the booking is non-refundable. Service failures, damage, and loss are addressed under the procedures in our Refund & Cancellation Policy and Coverage Policy.

Non-refundable third-party charges (e.g., prepaid flight segments, premium parking) that we cannot recover are deducted from your booking total first, and the cancellation-tier percentage is then applied to the remainder; these deductions are itemized on your refund receipt. Approved refunds are issued to the original payment method within 1 business day of approval; your bank or card issuer typically posts the refund within 5-10 business days. The full detail — including how dispatch is timestamped, how multi-leg deliveries are evaluated, refund-request time limits, and force-majeure exclusions — is set out in our Refund & Cancellation Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference.

10. Dispute Resolution

Informal Resolution (Required First Step)

Before filing a formal claim, you agree to contact GrailGuard customer support at /support (or support@grailguard.io) with a clear description of the dispute, the booking or tracking number(s) involved, and the relief requested. GrailGuard will investigate and provide a substantive response within 10 business days. The parties agree to make a good-faith effort to resolve disputes informally for at least 30 days before initiating arbitration.

Binding Individual Arbitration

Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services that is not resolved through the informal process above shall be resolved exclusively by final and binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) pursuant to the AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules for any dispute in which you are acting as a consumer for personal, family, or household purposes, or the AAA Commercial Arbitration Rules for non-consumer business disputes. The most current versions of those rules are available at www.adr.org. This arbitration agreement is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. §§ 1 et seq.

The arbitration shall be conducted by a single, neutral arbitrator. The legal seat of arbitration shall be San Francisco, California, USA, which fixes the lex arbitri for purposes of the Federal Arbitration Act (9 U.S.C. §§9–10) and the petition to confirm or vacate the award. The hearing locale is separate from the seat: (a) hearings may be conducted telephonically, by videoconference, or on documents only where permitted by the applicable AAA rules, (b) for any consumer with a claim of $25,000 or less, the arbitration shall be conducted on documents or at a hearing locale reasonably convenient to the consumer (including the county of the consumer's residence) at the consumer's election, and (c) for any consumer residing outside the United States, the hearing locale shall be determined by the AAA International Centre for Dispute Resolution under its current rules, with preference given to a locale reasonably convenient to the consumer. The arbitrator's decision shall be final and binding, and judgment upon the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Arbitration Fees

Filing, administrative, and arbitrator fees are allocated in accordance with the applicable AAA rules. For consumer arbitrations governed by the Consumer Arbitration Rules, GrailGuard will pay all AAA filing, case-management, and arbitrator fees in excess of the consumer filing fee, as required by those rules. For non-consumer (commercial) arbitrations, each party initially bears its own filing fees, and the arbitrator may reallocate administrative and arbitrator fees in the final award. Each party bears its own attorneys' fees and costs except where a statute or these Terms expressly provide otherwise, and the arbitrator may award attorneys' fees and costs to the prevailing party to the extent authorized by applicable law. GrailGuard waives any right to recover its own attorneys' fees and costs from any consumer claimant in arbitration, except where the consumer's claim is found by the arbitrator to be frivolous within the meaning of California Code of Civil Procedure §128.5.

30-Day Right to Opt Out of Arbitration

You have the right to opt out of this binding individual arbitration agreement. To opt out, you must send written notice to legal@grailguard.io with the subject line "Arbitration Opt-Out" within 30 days of the later of (a) the Effective Date of these Terms (for customers whose first acceptance pre-dates the Effective Date), or (b) your first acceptance of these Terms (for new customers). Your opt-out notice is effective on the date GrailGuard receives the email at its SMTP gateway, regardless of internal routing or read-receipt timing. Your opt-out notice must include your full name, the email address associated with your GrailGuard account (if any), and a clear statement that you wish to opt out of arbitration. GrailGuard will acknowledge receipt within one (1) business day. Opting out will not adversely affect your relationship with GrailGuard or the delivery of our Services to you. If you opt out, neither you nor GrailGuard may require the other to arbitrate, but you remain bound by all other provisions of these Terms, including the class-action waiver (as limited by the McGill carve-out) and the jury-trial waiver. Effect across future versions. An arbitration opt-out, once received, remains effective for all subsequent versions of these Terms unless the Shipper expressly rescinds the opt-out in writing. The Shipper does not have to re-opt-out each time the Terms are updated, and a material-change notice under §13 does not reset the opt-out clock.

Class Action Waiver

ALL CLAIMS AND DISPUTES MUST BE BROUGHT IN THE PARTIES' INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS, CONSOLIDATED, COLLECTIVE, PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL, OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION. THE ARBITRATOR MAY NOT CONSOLIDATE MORE THAN ONE PERSON'S CLAIMS AND MAY NOT PRESIDE OVER ANY FORM OF CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. Public-injunctive-relief carve-out (McGill v. Citibank, 2 Cal. 5th 945 (2017)): Notwithstanding the foregoing, this Class Action Waiver does not apply to a claim for public injunctive relief brought under California law, which may be pursued in a court of competent jurisdiction. The non-applicability of this Waiver to a public-injunctive-relief claim shall not affect the enforceability of the remainder of this arbitration agreement or this Waiver as to any other claim. If this Class Action Waiver is held to be unenforceable as to any other particular claim or remedy, then that claim or remedy (and only that claim or remedy) shall be severed and brought in a court of competent jurisdiction, while all other claims shall remain in arbitration. Blue-pencil severability (post-Viking River / Adolph). If a court holds in any particular case that the McGill carve-out above requires court adjudication of the entire arbitration agreement (rather than only the carved-out claim), the parties intend the remainder of this §10 (Binding Individual Arbitration, the Jury Trial Waiver, and the Carve-Outs) to remain enforceable as to all severable claims, and the court is authorized to "blue-pencil" only the minimum portion of this §10 necessary to enforce the McGill carve-out while preserving the parties' intent that all other claims proceed in individual arbitration.

Jury Trial Waiver

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, EACH PARTY WAIVES ANY RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL IN ANY ACTION, PROCEEDING, OR COUNTERCLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICES PROVIDED BY GRAILGUARD.

Carve-Outs

Notwithstanding the foregoing, either party may (a) bring an individual action in small-claims court for any claim that qualifies under that court's rules and jurisdictional limits, and (b) seek injunctive or equitable relief in any court of competent jurisdiction to prevent actual or threatened infringement of intellectual-property rights or misuse of confidential information.

11. Limitation of Liability

Carve-outs. Nothing in this Section 11 limits or excludes GrailGuard's liability for (a) gross negligence, willful misconduct, or fraud, (b) personal injury or death caused by GrailGuard's negligence, or (c) any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded by applicable law.

Per-shipment coverage cap. Subject to the carve-outs above and to the fullest extent permitted by law, GrailGuard's aggregate liability for any loss, damage, theft, or non-delivery of a shipment is limited to the declared value of the shipment as recorded at the time of booking, up to a maximum of $500,000 per shipment. Where coverage is denied under the Coverage Policy (including but not limited to misdeclared value, prohibited-item violations, customer packaging failure, or a published coverage exclusion), no payment is due under the Coverage Policy itself; GrailGuard's aggregate liability under any other theory (including ordinary negligence or breach) remains capped at the declared value as recorded at the time of booking, except that nothing in this paragraph caps liability arising from GrailGuard's gross negligence, willful misconduct, fraud, or personal injury or death caused by GrailGuard's negligence (California Civil Code §1668; analogous non-waivable provisions of other applicable law). Where ordinary negligence by GrailGuard is a proximate cause of loss, the declared-value cap remains the limit of recovery, but the loss is not separately denied coverage solely by reason of customer packaging failure or comparable customer-side conditions that did not actually cause the loss. For the avoidance of doubt, the General Cap on all other claims (below) does NOT apply to shipment loss, damage, theft, or non-delivery claims — those are governed exclusively by the declared-value cap in this paragraph.

Released Value formation (Hughes v. UPS four-part test). The declared-value cap above is offered to and accepted by the Shipper as a Released Value election under Hughes v. UPS (CD Cal. 2008) and progeny. Each of the four formation prongs is satisfied at booking time, and the Shipper acknowledges the same: (1) fair opportunity to declare a higher value — the booking interface allows declared values from $1 up to the per-tier ceiling and the absolute $500,000 cap, with surcharges itemized in real time before payment; (2) reasonable notice of the limit — the declared-value cap is displayed during the booking flow, restated in the Booking Acknowledgments and Limited Release (Ack #4, separately initialed), restated in the booking confirmation email, and is the subject of this section; (3) reasonable opportunity to obtain higher coverage — declared values above the included amount add a coverage surcharge at checkout up to the tier ceiling, shipments above tier ceilings or above $500,000 are eligible for custom-quote review on request, and the Shipper may decline GrailGuard's coverage surcharge and independently arrange third-party transit insurance through the carrier of the Shipper's choice; GrailGuard does not condition acceptance of any booking on the Shipper electing GrailGuard's coverage and imposes no opt-out penalty (this opportunity is communicated to the Shipper at the declared-value entry field on the booking page, with a link to this section); and (4) actual knowledge by the Shipper — Ack #4 of the Booking Acknowledgments and Limited Release is a separately initialed acknowledgment that the Shipper has read and understood the declared-value cap and the lesser-of-declared-value-or-$500,000 formulation. All four formation acts are timestamped, IP-stamped, user-agent-stamped, and persisted with the booking record for seven (7) years (three (3) years for Illinois-recipient shipments per the biometric retention schedule in our Privacy Policy).

High-value rider requirement. For declared values above the per-tier coverage ceiling (Metro $99,000; Nationwide $249,000; International $249,000; Animal-Nationwide $249,000) and at or below the absolute $500,000 per-shipment cap, manual review at booking is required and GrailGuard will confirm coverage before pickup. For declared values above $250,000, the separately-countersigned Coverage Rider must be signed by the Shipper and returned to GrailGuard before pickup; the Rider documents the Shipper's good-faith representation of the item's identity and value and the bargained-for arms-length assent to the declared-value cap on a high-value shipment (Hughes v. UPS prong-2 hardening). For declared values above the $500,000 absolute cap, custom review on a per-shipment basis is required and must be requested by email to support@grailguard.io before booking.

Declared value — what coverage applies. For self-serve bookings (declared value at or below $250,000), the per-tier ceilings above apply; for shipments covered by a signed and countersigned Coverage Rider (declared value above $250,000), the per-tier self-serve ceilings do not apply. In either case, GrailGuard's Released Value coverage applies up to the lesser of (i) the declared value recorded at booking or (ii) the absolute $500,000 cap, with no per-category subcap (no separate cap for art, jewelry, collectibles, manuscripts, gemstones, currency, bearer instruments, bullion, or trading cards). The declared-value surcharge paid by the Shipper at booking is the consideration for this coverage. Accurate declaration of item description and value is required for full coverage; misrepresentation of value or nature voids coverage as set out in §4 (Accurate Declaration). Nothing in this paragraph limits liability arising from GrailGuard's gross negligence, willful misconduct, or fraud (California Civil Code §1668).

General cap on all other claims. For any claim not directly tied to the loss or damage of a specific shipment (for example, service-quality, privacy, or contract disputes), GrailGuard's aggregate liability shall not exceed the greater of (a) the total amount you paid to GrailGuard for Services in the 12 months preceding the claim, or (b) $100.

Anti-stacking — election of exclusive remedy. For any single loss event during GrailGuard's custody, the Shipper's recovery from GrailGuard is limited to ONE of the following exclusive remedies, at the Shipper's election: (a) a payout under the Coverage Policy (declared-value cap in this §11, subject to the carve-outs), (b) a service credit under the SLA v1.0-2026-06-08, or (c) a recovery under the General Cap on all other claims (above). The Shipper may not stack two or more of (a)–(c) for the same loss event. Election of one remedy waives the others as to that event. Carve-outs. This anti-stacking rule (i) does not limit liability arising from GrailGuard's gross negligence, willful misconduct, or fraud (California Civil Code §1668); (ii) does not waive any defense GrailGuard would otherwise have to the elected remedy, including the four-part Released Value formation test below and the Coverage Policy exclusions in §5; (iii) does not affect remedies for separate, unrelated events; (iv) does not apply to pre-pickup cancellation refunds under §5A (cancellation refunds extinguish the booking and are not a "loss event" for purposes of this rule); and (v) does not waive or limit any right preserved in §8 (Final Delivery Ping carve-outs, including FCBA, Regulation Z, card-network consumer protections, and non-excludable statutory consumer rights); and (vi) does not apply to the service-fee refund for a total-loss or non-delivery shipment. Service-fee refund for total loss / non-delivery is not stacking. Receiving the service-fee refund together with a declared-value coverage payment for the same total-loss or non-delivery shipment is permitted and is not stacking; the service-fee refund returns payment for the undelivered service while the coverage payment compensates the lost item. Where an item is delivered but damaged, the Shipper receives the declared-value coverage payment for the damage and the service fee is retained, because the delivery service was performed. Anti-stacking continues to bar collecting two remedies for the same harm (for example, a late-delivery credit and a non-delivery refund for the same shipment, or claiming the item's value more than once). The election described below is a choice among the overlapping remedies for the same harm — the Coverage Policy payout (a), the SLA service credit (b), and the General Cap recovery (c) — which compensate the same loss event; the service-fee refund and the coverage payment for a total loss are not overlapping remedies for the same harm and are therefore outside the election. Election procedure. The Shipper's election is made in writing in the claim submission. If the Shipper does not expressly elect, GrailGuard will (1) within ten (10) business days serve the Shipper with its scoring of each potentially-applicable remedy showing the calculation under each, (2) propose the remedy that produces the largest recovery for the Shipper after applying all applicable caps and exclusions, and (3) treat that proposal as a non-binding recommendation pending the Shipper's written confirmation. The Shipper has fourteen (14) calendar days after receiving GrailGuard's scoring to either confirm GrailGuard's recommendation or elect a different remedy in writing. Until the Shipper confirms an election in writing, no remedy is paid and no remedy is waived. Scoring-arbitration carve-out (Armendariz / McGill safeguard). If the Shipper disputes GrailGuard's scoring of any potentially-applicable remedy (for example, the application of an exclusion, the calculation of the declared-value cap, or the application of a per-tier ceiling), the Shipper may elect to arbitrate the scoring issue separately from the underlying loss claim, and GrailGuard shall pay 100% of AAA filing, case-management, and arbitrator fees for the scoring-only arbitration regardless of outcome. The scoring-only arbitration is limited to whether GrailGuard's scoring of each remedy is correct; it does not adjudicate the underlying loss, and an award on scoring does not waive the Shipper's right to elect the highest-scored remedy following the award. This carve-out applies in addition to any non-waivable consumer-arbitration fee-shifting rules under §10 above.

Excluded damages. In no event shall GrailGuard be liable for:

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. To the extent any such limitation is held unenforceable in your jurisdiction, the remaining limitations shall be enforced to the fullest extent permitted by law.

11A. Chargebacks and Payment Disputes

If you believe a charge from GrailGuard is incorrect, you agree to contact us first at support@grailguard.io before initiating a chargeback with your card issuer. We will investigate and respond within 5 business days. This cooperative first step is required by these Terms and is not a waiver of your rights under the Fair Credit Billing Act or applicable state consumer-protection law.

Evidence we submit. If a chargeback is filed, GrailGuard will submit to the card network the following evidence, consistent with our Privacy Policy: your booking confirmation and declared value, pickup and delivery timestamps and GPS traces, pickup and proof-of-delivery photographs, recipient signature or acceptance record, courier chain-of-custody log, and your correspondence with GrailGuard support.

Fraudulent or repeated chargebacks. Submitting a chargeback that an arbitrator or court (or, where neither has been engaged, the card network's final dispute decision) determines to have been filed in bad faith or fraudulently, or submitting three or more such chargebacks in any 12-month period, may result in (a) suspension or termination of your account, (b) recovery of the disputed amount, the chargeback fee assessed by our payment processor, and reasonable collection costs, and (c) a ban on future use of our Services. FCBA non-retaliation: GrailGuard will not suspend, terminate, refuse service to, or otherwise penalize any cardholder solely because they exercised a good-faith dispute under the Fair Credit Billing Act (15 U.S.C. §1666 et seq.), Regulation Z (12 C.F.R. §1026.13), or their card network's chargeback rules. Nothing in this section waives or limits your non-waivable rights under the FCBA, Regulation Z, or applicable state consumer-protection law; this paragraph addresses only chargebacks determined to have been filed in bad faith or fraudulently after the fact.

12. Privacy

Your use of GrailGuard services is also governed by our Privacy Policy , which outlines how we collect, use, and protect your personal information. Please review our Privacy Policy to understand our practices.

13. Changes to Terms

GrailGuard may update these Terms of Service from time to time. For non-material updates (typographical corrections, contact-information changes, clarifications that do not reduce your rights or expand your obligations), the updated Terms are effective when posted to our website. For material changes that affect your rights under these Terms (including changes to fees, liability, dispute resolution, refunds, or coverage), we will give you at least thirty (30) days' advance notice by email to the address on your account or by in-app notification, and the change will not apply to a booking already paid for at the time the new Terms take effect. Your continued use of the Services after the notice period constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms; if you do not agree, you may stop using the Services and request account closure before the new Terms take effect.

14. Governing Law and Venue

These Terms, and any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services, are governed by the internal laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. For consumers domiciled in the EU/UK/EEA, the choice of California law does not deprive you of the protection of mandatory consumer-protection provisions of the law of your habitual residence (Rome I Regulation (EC) 593/2008 Art. 6(2); UK CRA 2015 s.74). For consumers domiciled in Australia, Quebec, or any other jurisdiction with non-waivable consumer-protection statutes (including the Australian Consumer Law §§54 and 64 and the Quebec Consumer Protection Act §10), nothing in these Terms waives or limits those rights.

Subject to Section 10 (Dispute Resolution), which makes binding individual arbitration the exclusive forum for most disputes, any judicial proceeding permitted under Section 10 (for example, to compel arbitration, confirm or vacate an arbitration award, or seek injunctive relief for intellectual-property claims) shall be brought in the state or federal courts of competent jurisdiction in the county where the consumer resides at the time the action is filed, or in the City and County of San Francisco, California, at the consumer's election. You and GrailGuard each consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts. Nothing in this paragraph waives or limits a consumer's right under California Code of Civil Procedure §395(b), California Civil Code §1812.10, or any other consumer-protective venue statute that applies to the consumer's claim.

All claims arising from or relating to sub-bailee custody (§1A), including any claim preempted in whole or part by the Montreal Convention or any air-carrier tariff, shall be brought against GrailGuard exclusively in the Section 10 arbitration forum. Nothing in these Terms confers jurisdiction over any sub-bailee, and GrailGuard's recovery actions against sub-bailees may be governed by other law.

15. DMCA Notice and Designated Agent

GrailGuard respects the intellectual-property rights of others and responds to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512). If you believe that content available on or through our Services infringes your copyright, please send a written notice to our Designated Agent that includes all of the information required by 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3), namely: (1) a physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or authorized agent; (2) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed; (3) identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing and information reasonably sufficient to locate it; (4) your contact information (address, phone, email); (5) a statement that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material is not authorized; and (6) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner.

Designated DMCA Agent:
GrailGuard LLC, Attn: DMCA Agent
Email: dmca@grailguard.io
The address above is GrailGuard’s registered Designated Agent contact under 17 U.S.C. §512(c)(2); the current registration can be verified at the U.S. Copyright Office Directory of Designated Agents at dmca.copyright.gov.

Counter-notice. If you believe your content was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification, you may submit a counter-notice to the Designated Agent that complies with 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3). Repeat-infringer policy. GrailGuard will terminate, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of users who are repeat infringers.

16. Contact Information

If you have questions about these Terms of Service, please contact us at:

GrailGuard LLC is a limited liability company organized under the laws of the State of California. A mailing address for service of legal process will be listed here upon publication; in the interim, legal process may be served on GrailGuard's registered agent on file with the California Secretary of State.

We are committed to addressing your concerns and providing excellent customer service.