Buyer Agreement

You agree to post jobs and Requests for Quote ("RFQs") that describe real work for which you have authority to engage a fabricator. Your RFQ description must be accurate and complete with respect to material, quantities, tolerances, certifications, delivery location, and lead time.

You acknowledge that Fabmaster's AI structures RFQs into a standard schema for matching purposes only. The AI does not parse, generate, price, or evaluate engineering files. All quotes are produced by humans at the matched Vendor shops.

To protect your intellectual property and prevent unauthorized distribution, you may not upload drawings, DXF, DWG, STEP, IGES, native CAD files, BOMs, or any other technical documents at the RFQ stage. These files are exchanged exclusively inside the secure Data Room, after you have selected a Vendor's quote, paid the engagement fee, and the Vendor has executed the job-specific NDA.

The RFQ itself uses a standard fields schema (material type and grade, thickness or tube dimensions, quantity, tolerances and finish, required certifications, delivery location and lead time, optional budget). The Platform may block uploads that appear to contain protected technical content at this stage.

When you accept a Vendor's quote, you will be asked to confirm acceptance via an explicit checkbox confirmation and to pay a 10% engagement fee on the accepted quote amount through Stripe. The engagement fee is non-refundable once paid, except where required by law, because it funds the verification, anonymity, Data Room, and dispute mechanisms that activate at acceptance.

The engagement fee is separate from any deposit or milestone payment owed directly to the Vendor under the payment model selected at acceptance.

Until you accept a quote and pay the engagement fee, every counterparty is represented by an anonymous handle (e.g., FabShop-447) and identifying details are masked. On successful payment, the Vendor's legal name, primary contact, facility address, certifications, and verification artifacts are revealed to you, and your identifying information is revealed to the Vendor.

You agree to use revealed contact information solely for the purpose of executing the accepted job through the Platform.

You retain control over the job-specific Data Room. By default, files are made available to the Vendor on a view-only basis; downloads, printing, and redistribution require your explicit per-file permission. You may revoke access, replace files, or close the Data Room at any time.

Every NDA acceptance and access event is logged with timestamp, IP, user identity, file, and action, and is permanently linked to the job. See the Data Room NDA for the per-job acceptance flow.

You agree to pay the Vendor directly under the payment model selected at acceptance (typically Standard 40/40/20, Buyer Protection 30/30/40, or Vendor Favored 50/25/25) on the milestones described in the accepted quote. Payment instruments (wire, ACH, credit card) are agreed between you and the Vendor. Fabmaster is not a party to those payments and does not act as escrow or paymaster.

Unless otherwise agreed in writing, each milestone payment is due within net seven (7) days of the corresponding milestone event. Late payment beyond contract terms may result in suspension of your Buyer account and removal of the protections funded by the engagement fee.

You agree not to use information obtained through the Platform — including Vendor identity revealed after acceptance — to transact with any Vendor first introduced through Fabmaster outside the Platform in a manner that avoids or reduces the engagement fee, for a period of twenty-four (24) months from the introduction. Breach is treated as collusion under the Terms of Service and renders you jointly liable for the engagement fee that would have been due, plus enforcement costs.

After job completion you agree to rate the Vendor honestly across quality, schedule, communication, and overall experience. Ratings are permanent and may be removed only through the dispute process. Retaliatory, defamatory, or factually inaccurate ratings may be removed by Fabmaster.

Limitation of liability, indemnification, dispute resolution, binding individual arbitration, and class-action and jury-trial waivers are governed by the Terms of Service and are incorporated here by reference.