Service Satisfaction Guarantee

This Guarantee is not part of the Terms and Conditions. It is a standalone commercial policy. It is not published in the Platform Rules, it is not incorporated into the Terms by reference, and a decision under it is not subject to the dispute resolution procedure at Clause 40 of the Terms. Section 9 explains why it sits where it does.

Clause 21.2(b) of the Terms makes the Joining Fee non-refundable save on cooling-off, where the law requires it, or where a refund is made under this Guarantee. That carve-out is what allows a refund under this policy to be paid at all.

1. Purpose

This Guarantee reflects Silvatree's commitment to delivering value through active member engagement.

It applies solely to the Joining Fee paid in pounds sterling under Clause 21.2 of the Terms. It is independent of your SILVA balance and of any SILVA activity. It is offered as a discretionary commercial commitment in respect of platform service quality.

2. Eligibility

You are eligible to apply only where, at the time you apply, all of the following are true.

Your SILVA balance does not decide whether you can apply. You may apply whether your balance is positive, zero or in deficit. A deficit means you have, in net, taken more value out of the network than you have put back into it, and we will weigh that in the assessment — it is real evidence about what the platform delivered you. But it does not shut the door, and section 6(e) explains how a refund is paid if you are carrying one.

A Member in genuine financial difficulty whose balance has become negative through legitimate trading may also be dealt with under the Hardship Wind-Down provision at Clause 29.5 of the Terms. That route and this one are separate: Hardship Wind-Down is about leaving the network affordably, this Guarantee is about the Joining Fee. You may be eligible for both.

3. Engagement

This Guarantee is for Members who engaged genuinely and meaningfully and still did not get value commensurate with the Joining Fee. It is not for Members who joined and did nothing.

Engagement is measured using the same Participation Credits that determine the Network Participation Surcharge — nine credits across a rolling three calendar months, earned from Silva Purchase Requests, named business referrals or published reviews in any combination, as set out in section 6 of the Fee Schedule. Across a membership year that is approximately thirty-six credits, averaging three a month.

In assessing an application we look at the whole membership year:

• Silva Purchase Requests. The volume and quality of genuine SPRs — real commercial requirements for things you actually needed, not requests raised to reach a number.
• Business referrals. The volume and quality of genuine introductions to businesses you know and trust and consider suitable for membership.
• Published reviews. Reviews you published of another Member's service, relating to a transaction completed through the platform, of reasonable substantive length.
• Trading activity. The volume and value of completed transactions, on either side.
• Listing maintenance. Whether your directory listing, Business Description and Key Words were kept current and accurate.
• Platform participation. Attendance at member events, responsiveness to matching opportunities, member reviews, engagement with Trade Broker outreach.

The credit figure is guidance, not a pass mark. We assess engagement holistically and in good faith, having regard to your circumstances, your sector, the size of your business, and what level of activity was realistically available to you. A Member who narrowly missed a monthly figure but otherwise engaged strongly is not disqualified on that basis.

If you have been discharged from the Surcharge

Section 6.4 of the Fee Schedule discharges you from the Network Participation Surcharge permanently once you have introduced ten Members, or transacted 50% or more of your Declared TAE within your first six months. It also tells you, in terms, that you are then under no obligation to keep submitting purchase requests, referrals or reviews.

So we do not hold the credit guidance against you. If you have been discharged, the thirty-six-credit figure in this section does not apply to your application, and a low credit count in the year does not count against you. Your engagement is assessed on what earned you the discharge in the first place, together with your trading, your listing and your participation since. Having proved the point once, you are not asked to prove it again.

4. Quality of engagement

Engagement has to be real. Specifically:

• SPRs must be genuine commercial requirements, not requests fabricated to reach a threshold.
• Referrals must be businesses you actually know and trust and which are eligible under Clause 3.1 of the Terms.
• Published reviews must be genuine assessments of your own experience of a completed transaction — not reciprocal, inflated or exchanged reviews written to earn credits.
• Trading activity must be real commercial exchange — wash trading and artificial transaction structures are prohibited by Clause 28.1(c) in any event.

We may disregard activity that, in our reasonable judgement, does not meet these standards. Where we do, that is a disqualification of a Participation Credit under Clause 20.4(b) of the Terms and we will tell you, with reasons.

5. The refund

Where you are eligible under section 2 and have applied under section 6, we assess the application against sections 3 and 4 and may:

(a) Approve in full. Members who demonstrate sustained, high-quality engagement across the year may be considered for a refund of up to 100% of the Joining Fee.

(b) Approve in part. Where engagement was material but partial, we may grant a proportionate refund.

(c) Decline. Where engagement was insufficient, or where we consider the application is not made in good faith.

All decisions are discretionary, made in good faith on the application as a whole, and based on the quality of engagement rather than on numerical thresholds alone. The maximum refund under this Guarantee is 100% of the Joining Fee paid. The Company's decision is final.

6. How to apply

(a) Submit a written application to [email protected] setting out: the date you joined; your confirmation of eligibility under section 2; a summary of your engagement across the year; and the reasons for your dissatisfaction.

(b) Acknowledgement within 5 Business Days.

(c) Review. We assess against sections 2 to 5 and may ask for supporting documentation we reasonably require.

(d) Decision in writing within 30 Business Days of a complete application. Where we cannot decide in that time we explain why and give you a revised timetable.

(e) Payment, where approved, in pounds sterling to your bank account on record, within 14 Business Days of the decision.

Where you are carrying a SILVA deficit, the refund is still paid to you in cash. We do not apply it against your SILVA balance. Clause 6.3 of the Terms permits SILVA to enter your account only through completed sales, a reversal or correction, a transfer from another Member, or a limited operational adjustment — and Clause 6.3(d) expressly forbids any adjustment that would amount to issuing SILVA on receipt of funds. A cash refund cannot buy SILVA back, and we will not pretend otherwise by calling it something else.

The one exception is on exit. If you terminate and a negative balance crystallises as a cash debt under Clause 29.2(c)(ii), we may set an approved but unpaid refund against that cash debt and pay you the difference. That is cash against cash. No SILVA is bought, sold, redeemed or issued, and your SILVA balance is untouched by it.

(f) Finality. The Company's decision is final.

7. Independence from SILVA

A refund under this Guarantee:

(a) is a discretionary commercial gesture in respect of platform service quality;

(b) applies solely to the Joining Fee and is determined independently of, and does not depend in any way on, your SILVA balance, SILVA activity, SILVA earnings or SILVA spending;

(c) is not a redemption of SILVA, an extension of credit, the assumption of credit risk in the regulatory sense, the issuance of electronic money, the operation of a payment service, or any regulated activity under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, the Consumer Credit Act 1974, the Regulated Activities Order 2001, the Electronic Money Regulations 2011, the Payment Services Regulations 2017 or any related regulation; and

(d) does not create any creditor relationship between you and the Company, in respect of a SILVA balance or anything else.

The set-off described at section 6(e) does not qualify any of the above. It operates only on a cash debt that has already crystallised under Clause 29.2(c)(ii), never on a SILVA balance, and it does not convert, redeem or price SILVA in cash.

8. Exit and SILVA settlement

(a) Receiving a refund does not require you to leave. You may continue in membership.

(b) If you do terminate after a refund, the standard Wind-Down Period at Clause 29.2 applies to your SILVA balance in the ordinary way. The refund does not affect the operation of Clause 29.2.

(c) For the avoidance of doubt: a positive SILVA balance at the end of the Wind-Down Period is forfeited to the Reserve Fund under Clause 29.2(c)(i); a negative balance is settled in cash under Clause 29.2(c)(ii). Where a refund is still outstanding when a cash debt crystallises under Clause 29.2(c)(ii), the two may be netted under section 6(e). The forfeiture of a positive balance under Clause 29.2(c)(i) is unaffected by this Guarantee, and a refund is never applied against it.

9. Status, variation and withdrawal

(a) This Guarantee is a standalone commercial policy published by the Company. It does not form part of the Platform Rules and is not incorporated into the Terms and Conditions by reference. We may vary, amend or withdraw it at any time on not less than 30 days' prior written notice to Members.

(b) Where it is varied or withdrawn, applications already submitted before the effective date are assessed under the version in force when they were submitted.

(c) This Guarantee is not part of the Terms and Conditions. The Terms take precedence in the event of any inconsistency. A decision under this Guarantee is a discretionary commercial decision and is not subject to the dispute resolution procedure at Clause 40 of the Terms.

Why it sits outside the Terms

Placing this policy in the Platform Rules would make it contractual — Clause 1.1 incorporates the Platform Rules by reference and Clause 47.1 makes them part of the entire agreement. A refusal would then be reviewable under Clause 40, and section 5's "the Company's decision is final" would not hold.

We would rather be straightforward about what this is: a discretionary commitment we intend to honour, offered outside the contract, rather than a contractual promise dressed as a discretion. The trade-off is that you cannot force us to pay under it. Everything the Terms do guarantee you remains fully enforceable, including under the Consumer Rights Act standards we have mirrored at Clause 51.