Terms of Use

1. About these terms

1.1 Pet Sales Australia is a registered business name of Maxwell Jacobs, a sole trader (ABN 43 597 814 497). “We”, “us” and “our” mean Maxwell Jacobs, trading as Pet Sales Australia, and anyone who takes over the business (clause 19.1).

1.2 Creating an account means you accept these terms.

1.3 Our Listing Rules and Moderation page is part of these terms. We’ll publish our Seller Terms, which add to these terms for anyone who lists, before listings open. If the Listing Rules conflict with these terms, these terms apply. Our Privacy Policy covers personal information.

2. What Pet Sales Australia is, and isn’t

2.1 Pet Sales Australia is an online classifieds site for buying, selling, rehoming and adopting animals within Australia.

2.2 We’re not part of any sale, or an agent for either side. Any deal to buy, sell, rehome, adopt or use a stud is between buyer and seller. We don’t breed, own, sell, inspect, house, transport or deliver animals, and give no guarantee about any animal.

2.3 We don’t hold, transfer or protect payments between members, or take the price of an animal or a deposit. Payment and handover happen off the site, and we can’t recover money you paid another member.

3. Your account

3.1 You get a free account the first time you sign in or message a seller.

3.2 You must be 18 or over to have an account.

3.3 We sign you in with an emailed code. Enter it only on our sign-in page, and never share it, even with us. Too many wrong codes can lock sign-in for that email address for 24 hours.

3.4 Use your own email. Sellers’ details must be true, and anyone acting for an organisation must be authorised. Buyers can use a first name or another name. Don’t impersonate anyone, or use a name suggesting you’re from Pet Sales Australia, the RSPCA, Scamwatch or a government body.

3.5 You’re responsible for your account and anyone you let use it. Anyone who can read your email can sign in as you, so keep it secure. Don’t sell, share or transfer your account, or open another to get around a limit, block, hold or suspension. Tell us straight away at info@petsales.net.au if someone gets in without permission. If you took reasonable care and told us once you knew, you’re not responsible for what they do.

3.6 We email you about your account and messages, and you can turn message emails off. We send marketing only if you’ve said yes, and you can unsubscribe without signing in.

3.7 We’ll never ask you, by email or message, for your bank or card details or a sign-in code, or ask you to pay another member. Until listings open, we don’t charge for anything.

3.8 You can stop using the site at any time. To close your account, email info@petsales.net.au. We’ll send a confirmation to your account’s email address; reply to it. We then take your listings down, but keep some records, such as ID check results and scam or welfare evidence, as our Privacy Policy explains.

4. What our checks show, and what they don’t

4.1 A stamp shows a check that passed and is still current, with its date. It isn’t a guarantee about the seller or the animal. Everything else a seller says is their own statement. Our checks rely partly on government registers, whose errors can make our check wrong. If you think we got a check wrong, email info@petsales.net.au and we’ll look at it.

4.2 ID check. “ID Checked” with “Photo ID and selfie” means Stripe Identity checked a government photo ID and matched it to a selfie taken during the check. The check doesn’t:

• ask the government that issued the ID whether it’s real;
• show the seller owns the animal, or that the animal exists or is healthy;
• show the seller is honest; or
• show the person messaging you is the person on the ID.

No ID check is perfect. It makes listing under a false name harder, but can’t rule it out.

4.3 Rescues. We check each rescue’s organisation for an active ABN, a name matching the ABN’s record or the ACNC’s, and a charity registration with the ACNC (the charities regulator). Rescues get no stamp for this. The check doesn’t show how well the rescue cares for animals, or that the account holder works for it.

4.4 Victorian source numbers. “Source Number Checked” means Victoria’s Pet Exchange Register said the seller’s source number was active on the date shown. Following Animal Welfare Victoria’s guidance, upcoming litters show no source number until they’re born and listed. The check doesn’t show who holds the number, or anything about the animal, its microchip or health.

4.5 Other checks. For microchip numbers and any other number, such as another state’s breeder or supply number, we check that each is there and correctly formatted. A number in the right format can still be wrong. We may put a listing on hold if another account uses the same state number, or if the same microchip number is on another current listing, even one of yours. Rules such as “at least 8 weeks old before going home” test what the seller entered, not whether it’s true. Our photo check compares photos only with other sellers’ photos on this site. It doesn’t check whether a photo was copied from elsewhere or made by a computer.

5. Buying an animal

5.1 Your deal is with the seller. Agree the price, any deposit, refund terms and handover in writing.

5.2 The NSW Government’s buying a pet page says a pet bought from a business comes with consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law. That page and Western Australia’s Consumer Protection both say the guarantees don’t cover a one-off sale by a private seller. Your state or territory’s fair trading or consumer affairs office can explain your rights. By our own rule, every seller must have the right to sell or give away the animal.

5.3 Some states give buyers information or rights at handover. Ask the seller what their state’s law requires.

5.4 When available, a deposit receipt records what you and the seller both confirmed, including that you met in person before the deposit was paid, and the name you both say it was paid to. We don’t see or check the payment, and the receipt doesn’t change anyone’s Australian Consumer Law rights. A real receipt is only in your conversation on petsales.net.au, so check any copy there.

5.5 Before you pay:

• Meet the seller and the animal in person before you pay anything, including a deposit. For a breeder’s puppy or kitten, meet its mother too.
• Transfer money only to an account in a checked name we show you, once your bank says the name matches. If your bank can’t check names, pay in person, once you’ve met the seller and the animal.
• A matching name rules out one common trick, but doesn’t make a payment safe.
• Never pay a seller for transport, crates or insurance. Book any transport yourself.
• Never pay by gift card, cryptocurrency or a money transfer service.

If you’ve been scammed, call your bank straight away, then see our pet scam guide.

6. Messages

6.1 Sellers see the first name a buyer gives, never their email address. Either side can block the other.

6.2 After the seller replies, you can choose to see their checked name: the first and last name on their photo ID. For a rescue, you also see its checked name and ABN. Where state law puts the name on the ad (South Australian dogs and cats, Tasmanian cattle, sheep, goats and pigs), it shows there from the start. The seller sees that you viewed it, and the date you first did. It isn’t shown while the listing is on hold or a draft, during a payment report review, on an upcoming litter’s waitlist until the litter is born and listed, after a block, or past our limits on names. Seeing it doesn’t show the seller or animal is genuine.

6.3 Our systems check every message before delivery for common scam patterns and contact details. They may stop a message for the sender to change, add a safety tip, or keep it back for review. They won’t catch every scam. A person reads a conversation only in the cases our Listing Rules list, such as a report or a legal requirement.

6.4 Rules for everyone:

• Don’t put phone numbers, email addresses, social media handles or links in messages, or try to get them past our checks. The one way to give a phone number is the Share My Phone Number button, which shows once you’ve both written. It doesn’t show while the listing is on hold or a draft, or while messaging is paused for either of you after a payment report. We don’t run our scam checks on shared numbers, so a safety tip shows under each one. Addresses of some trusted sites, such as government and RSPCA pages, are fine and show as plain text.
• Don’t ask anyone for a sign-in code, claim to be us, or say we hold, protect or guarantee a payment.
• Don’t message by script or bot, or keep contacting anyone who has blocked you, here or elsewhere.

Sellers mustn’t ask for a deposit, or any other payment, before the buyer has met them and the animal in person. They mustn’t ask for payment for a litter that hasn’t been born and listed, or ask buyers to pay them for transport, crates or insurance.

Limits on messages help keep out spam and scams.

7. Content that isn’t allowed

7.1 Illegal and seriously harmful material. Don’t post, upload, send, store, ask for or try to get anything that:

• sexualises children, or shows child sexual abuse or exploitation;
• promotes, incites or instructs in terrorism, violent extremism, crime or violence;
• shows extreme violence, torture or sexual violence;
• shows or promotes cruelty to animals, animal fighting, or sexual activity involving animals;
• promotes or instructs in using or making illegal drugs;
• is pornographic or sexually explicit;
• bullies, threatens, harasses or abuses anyone, or promotes hatred of a group;
• shares an intimate image without consent; or
• publishes someone’s personal information to threaten, harass or intimidate them.

7.2 Don’t post anything false, misleading or otherwise unlawful, or anyone else’s photos, words or other work without permission.

7.3 Some animals can’t be listed. Our Listing Rules have the list.

8. Conduct that isn’t allowed

8.1 Don’t use the site to scam or mislead anyone, including by:

• listing an animal that doesn’t exist, isn’t yours, or you know isn’t as described;
• copying another seller’s listing, photos or numbers, or using someone else’s identity, ID or card;
• asking anyone to pay a name other than a checked name we show, or to pay by gift card, cryptocurrency or a money transfer service;
• fake-buyer tricks, such as overpaying and asking for the difference back; or
• trying to get someone’s sign-in code or bank or card details.

8.2 Use other members’ details only to deal with them about the listing, or to report them to us, a bank, police or another authority. Don’t collect members’ details, such as checked names or phone, microchip or source numbers, to build lists, market or copy listings.

8.3 Don’t scrape the site or collect information with bots. Crawlers may read public pages as our robots.txt file allows. Don’t get around our checks, limits, blocks, holds or bot protection, or test, attack or interfere with the site. Don’t spam or market to people you met here without their agreement, or pressure anyone. Don’t make a report you know is false, or to harm someone.

8.4 Follow the laws that apply to you, including your state’s animal welfare, breeding, identification, sale and advertising laws.

9. Reporting a concern

9.1 Anyone can report a concern, such as animal welfare or a scam. Use “Report This Listing” on a listing or email info@petsales.net.au, with or without an account. In a conversation, use Options, then “Report This Conversation”. Claude, an AI assistant made by Anthropic in the United States, reads every email sent to info@petsales.net.au, to sort it and send our reply that we’ve got it. Your email goes to Anthropic, but not the files attached to it (Privacy Policy).

9.2 We reply within 2 working days to say we’ve got your report. A person then looks into it and decides what we do. Working days are Monday to Friday, not counting Victorian public holidays. Some reports put a listing on hold during review, which isn’t a finding against the seller. Our Listing Rules explain when.

9.3 If you report and give your email, we tell you what we did, as far as privacy, safety and any investigation allow. We don’t tell the person you reported who you are unless the law requires it, though in a conversation they may guess. Clause 10.2 covers what we tell anyone we act against.

9.4 If you paid and the seller stopped replying, call your bank first. Then report the conversation and choose “I paid, and they stopped replying”. We pause the seller’s messaging straight away while we review it, if:

• the seller had replied;
• you’d seen their checked name, in the conversation or on the ad; and
• your account is more than a day old.

You can make this report once every 90 days.

9.5 Authorities. Before each listing goes live, sellers accept this notice: “Pet Sales Australia may pass my details and my animals’ details to animal welfare authorities, councils or police after a report of, or if it suspects, poor animal welfare or a breach of animal welfare, sale or advertising laws.” We may give a member’s or reporter’s details to police, courts, animal welfare authorities, councils and the other bodies our Privacy Policy lists, in the cases it gives. A person decides each time. We may put a listing on hold while an authority looks into it.

9.6 eSafety. You can report an intimate image shared without consent, and illegal or restricted online content, to the eSafety Commissioner straight away. If someone is blackmailing you over an intimate image, for money or more images: if you’re under 18, report it to the ACCCE; if you’re 18 or older, report it to the platform where they contacted you, then to eSafety if the image is shared or the platform doesn’t help. For cyberbullying of a child, or serious online abuse of an adult, you can go to eSafety once you’ve reported it to the site or service where it appeared and it hasn’t been removed.

9.7 Defamation. If you think something we published here defames you (unfairly harms your reputation), email info@petsales.net.au with your name, the material and where it is, saying you consider it defamatory. A person will look into it.

9.8 Copyright. If something here uses your work without permission, email us a link to it and why it’s yours.

9.9 Emergencies. We’re not an emergency service. Call 000 if anyone is in danger. If an animal is, contact the RSPCA or animal welfare authority in the state or territory where it is. A pet locked in a hot car? Call police straight away: 000 in an emergency, or 131 444. Most RSPCA phone lines aren’t open around the clock, so if an animal’s life is in immediate danger and you can’t get through, call police on 000 or 131 444.

10. Holds, removals and suspensions

10.1 Our automatic checks can put a listing on hold, which takes it off the site. We tell the seller about the hold and, where we can, why and how to clear it.

10.2 When we find content that breaks these terms or the law, or reasonably believe it does, we remove or hide it. If we act on your listing, content or account, we tell you what we did and why, unless that would put someone at risk, help a scam, harm an investigation or break the law.

10.3 We act in proportion:

• A mistake you fix when we ask ends there.
• Any other breach gets an email warning saying which rule and why, unless it’s a ground for suspension or closure below.
• Suspension. We may suspend an account if:
  • it breaks a rule again within 12 months of a warning
  • we reasonably believe, on the evidence, it was used for a scam or fraud
  • it lists an animal using someone else’s identity, or a number, microchip or photo it has no right to use
  • there’s credible evidence that the account holder was cruel to or neglected an animal
  • the law, a court, police or a regulator requires it
  • it posts illegal or seriously harmful material (clause 7.1), or threatens anyone
  • it was opened or used to get around a suspension, a block or our checks
  • only while we review a serious report, if leaving the account active could put people or animals at risk. If we decide the report doesn’t hold up, we restore the account straight away.
• Closure. We may close an account permanently if we find, on the evidence, a scam or fraud, use of someone else’s identity, cruelty to an animal, illegal or seriously harmful material, or threats. We may also close an account that, within 12 months of being suspended, again does something that is a ground for suspension above. We may also close an account opened to get around a closure.

A person decides every suspension and closure. Where it’s safe to, we tell you first and let you reply. Our Listing Rules say what happens to a suspended or closed account.

10.4 A suspended or closed account can’t sign in, and its listings and photos stop showing.

10.5 Asking us to look again. If you think we got a decision wrong, such as a hold, a removal, a refused or kept-back message, a pause on your messaging, a warning, a suspension or a closure, email info@petsales.net.au and say why. There’s no deadline. A person will look again and email you the decision and reasons within 10 working days, or 30 days for a privacy complaint or request (Complaints). You can also go to Consumer Affairs Victoria or your state or territory’s consumer protection agency.

10.6 If we end or significantly cut back a paid service before its paid period ends, other than because of a serious or repeated breach, we refund the unused part.

11. Your content

11.1 You keep whatever rights you have in what you post.

11.2 You must have the right to post it (clause 7.2).

11.3 You let us use your content, free and not exclusively, to run the site: to store, copy, resize and compare it, strip hidden location data from photos, and show it on our pages, in search on the site and in link previews. That includes a listing’s ended page and its photos for 90 days after it ends.

11.4 The permission ends when your content comes off the site, though we may keep copies, such as backups and scam evidence, as our Privacy Policy explains. We don’t use your photos in our advertising without asking.

12. Our name, site and stamps

12.1 Our site and stamps belong to us or to people who license them to us. You may view, link to and print pages for your own use, but don’t copy the site or listings, or show them inside another site. Don’t use our name, logo or stamps, or anything like them, to suggest we’ve checked, approved or partnered with you, or show a stamp outside the listing it belongs to. A stamp is real only on a listing or in your messages at petsales.net.au, so check any other copy there.

12.2 Stripe runs the ID check and handles payments to us under its own terms. We’re still responsible for the ID check (clause 15).

13. Fees and paid services

13.1 Buyers pay nothing.

13.2 Sellers list free, with a one-off $9.95 ID check before their first listing. It’s free for whoever runs a rescue or shelter’s account, once we’ve checked the organisation (clause 4.3).

13.3 When you start the check, Stripe sets $9.95 aside on your card (a hold). The $9.95 pays for running the check, whatever the result, and covers up to 3 tries in 30 days. We charge it when your first try gets a result, pass or fail. If none does, we release it. A new check costs another $9.95. Each account and each card can have at most 3 tries with a result in any 30 days. After a try gets a result, we don’t refund it for a fail or a change of mind, so testing a stolen ID here isn’t free. We refund any charge made by mistake. You keep your rights under the Australian Consumer Law, including to a refund where it gives you one (clause 14).

13.4 Optional paid features, such as Featured listings and Pro profiles, aren’t open yet. Their planned prices are on our Prices page, and we’ll publish their terms before they open.

13.5 Paid placement is always labelled, such as “Featured”. It isn’t a check.

13.6 Our fees are in Australian dollars, and the price shown is the total you pay us. We don’t add GST, card surcharges or booking fees on top. If GST applies to a fee, it’s already in the price shown, and your receipt shows the GST amount.

14. Your consumer rights

14.1 Nothing in these terms takes away, limits or changes any right or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law, or any other law that can’t be excluded.

14.2 Our services, including the site, checks, stamps and messages, come with guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law: due care and skill, fitness for any purpose or result you’ve made known to us, and supply within a reasonable time. For a major failure, or one that can’t be fixed, you can cancel for a refund of the unused part, or get compensation for the drop in value. For any other failure, you can ask us to fix it within a reasonable time; if we don’t, you can have it fixed elsewhere at our reasonable cost, or cancel. You can also claim reasonably foreseeable loss.

15. Our responsibility to you

15.1 We’re responsible for our conduct and services, including due care in running the site and checks, what we say (including stamps), our providers’ work for us, such as Stripe’s, and loss from our negligence or breach of these terms.

15.2 We’re not responsible for:

• an animal;
• what another member says or does, including payments you make to them;
• what sellers or registers tell us, beyond what our check says we checked; or
• events outside our reasonable control that we couldn’t reasonably have avoided or planned for.

This list never limits clause 14 or 15.1.

16. Sellers who cause us loss

16.1 Our Seller Terms will explain when sellers are responsible for loss they cause us. We’ll publish them before listings open.

17. Changes to the site and these terms

17.1 We may change, add or remove features. Where we can, we’ll give at least 30 days’ notice before we stop running the site. Clause 10.6 covers refunds.

17.2 We may update these terms and the pages that form part of them, with each new version dated. If a change could disadvantage you, we’ll email account holders at least 30 days before it takes effect. You can close your account first, with a refund of the unused part of any paid feature. Changes the law requires, or that only benefit you, can apply sooner.

17.3 If you keep using the site after a change takes effect, the new terms apply.

18. Problems and disputes

18.1 If you have a problem with us, email info@petsales.net.au first. Our Complaints page explains the process. You can still go to a regulator, tribunal or court.

18.2 Disputes with other members are between you and them.

18.3 Victorian law governs these terms, and Victorian courts can hear disputes. You can still use your own state or territory’s tribunals and courts where the law lets you, and its consumer laws still protect you.

19. General

19.1 If we sell or transfer the business, we may transfer these terms only to a new owner who agrees to keep them, after at least 30 days’ notice by email to account holders and people on our waitlist, and on the site. You can close your account first, with a refund of the unused part of any paid feature. Our Privacy Policy covers personal information.

19.2 If part of these terms can’t be enforced, the rest still applies. If we don’t enforce a term straight away, we can still enforce it later.

19.3 We contact account holders at their account’s email address, and anyone else at the address they gave us or wrote to us from. Earlier versions of these terms are available on request.