1. About these terms
These terms apply when you use the mechd.co.uk website, the Mechd iPhone app or its web version (together, "Mechd"). Mechd is run by Mechd Ltd ("we", "us"), a company registered in England and Wales, company number 17259958, registered office Unit A, 82 James Carter Road, Mildenhall, IP28 7DE. Contact: info@mechd.co.uk.
By using Mechd you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, please don't use it. If you download Mechd from the App Store, these terms are the licence agreement for the app, and section 13 also applies. How we handle personal information is explained in our Privacy Policy.
2. What Mechd is
Mechd helps drivers understand a noise their car is making. You record the noise and answer a few questions, and Mechd suggests what it could be, how urgent it might be, and a rough UK repair cost.
Mechd is an iPhone app, with a web version we use for testing. We keep improving it, so it may change, and it may sometimes stop working or be withdrawn. You must be 18 or over to use it.
3. Safety comes first
- Before you start, park somewhere safe and legal, with the handbrake on. Never put yourself in danger to make a recording, for example by getting under a car held up only by a jack.
- If Mechd says "Don't drive", leave the car parked and call a garage or your breakdown service.
- Never use Mechd while driving. Only record, read results or use the app when the car is parked and stationary. If a noise only happens on the move, a passenger should record it.
- Take care around a running engine: keep the phone, your hands, hair and clothing clear of moving parts such as belts and fans, and of hot parts.
- If you think your car may be unsafe, don't drive it until a qualified mechanic has checked it, whatever Mechd says.
4. Results are suggestions
Mechd's results are produced by software, including artificial intelligence, from the sound measured on your phone and the answers you give. They are suggestions only. Mechd cannot inspect your car, and:
- a result may be wrong, or may miss a fault altogether;
- it leans towards caution, so it may say "Don't drive" when a mechanic would find nothing serious, and in our testing it has missed some dangerous faults, so never treat any result as a sign your car is safe;
- different faults can sound alike, and background noise or a poor recording can mislead it;
- it relies on what you tell us: Mechd can check that a recording sounds like a car, but not that it came from the car you're asking about, or which part of the car it came from. By asking for a result, you confirm the recording is of that car;
- repair costs are rough estimates, worked out by AI, of what a UK garage might charge. They're not quotes;
- a result is not a safety check, an MOT, or confirmation that a car is roadworthy.
Always have a qualified mechanic check your car before relying on a result, especially for anything to do with brakes, steering, tyres, suspension or warning lights.
5. Using Mechd fairly
Please use Mechd only for its intended purpose. Don't misuse it, try to break or overload it, copy or scrape it, get around its daily limits or credits, or use it to build a competing service. We may limit or block use that breaks these terms. The app has a daily limit on the number of results, so it stays available for everyone. The limit may change.
6. Payments
- Credits: in the iPhone app (version 2.2.0 and later), each result uses one credit. Your first result is free: you get one free credit per iPhone (reinstalling or "Delete my data" doesn't give another). Free credits are used before ones you've bought. The prices (£1.99 for 1 credit and £4.99 for 3 at launch) are shown in the app, in pounds and including VAT, before you buy.
- Paying: you buy credits from Apple through the App Store. Apple takes the payment under its own terms. Refunds of purchases are handled by Apple, at reportaproblem.apple.com.
- When a credit is used: when you ask for a result. If we can't give you one because something goes wrong on our side, the credit is given back, usually automatically. If it isn't, tell us at info@mechd.co.uk and we'll put it back. Asking again with the same recording and answers shows the same result without using another credit. Changing your answers and asking again uses a new credit.
- If something goes wrong: if a result you used a credit for wasn't provided with reasonable care and skill, or isn't as described, tell us at info@mechd.co.uk and we'll give you the credit back. You may also have other rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
- Your credits: Mechd has no accounts. If iCloud Keychain is on, your credits come back when you reinstall Mechd or move to a new iPhone on the same Apple account. If it's off, email us your Apple receipt and we'll put back unused credits you paid for, if we can find them. "Delete my data" removes your credits for good. Credits have no cash value and can't be transferred.
- If we stop selling results: we'll tell you in the app at least 30 days before, so you can use your credits. If you can't, ask us and we'll refund unused credits you paid for.
- Cancelling: credits are added as soon as you buy them. When you buy, you ask us to add them straight away and accept that, once they've been added, you lose your 14-day right to cancel. Apple handles refund requests for App Store purchases at reportaproblem.apple.com, under its own rules. None of this affects your other rights under UK consumer law.
- Daily limit: the daily limit in section 5 applies to paid results too. If you reach it, no credit is used.
7. Recordings you share
After a paid result (one that used a credit you bought), the iPhone app asks whether you'd like to share the recording with us. It's up to you each time. If you share one:
- Permission: you allow Mechd Ltd to keep and use the recording, your answers and the result to test, train and improve Mechd. The privacy policy says how we look after it and for how long. This permission ends when the recording is deleted. You can delete it at any time, in the app or by emailing us the share ID.
- What you confirm: that you're 18 or over, and that the recording is of a car noise and doesn't include anyone else's conversation.
- What you get in return: when you tell us what your garage found, one free credit for that recording. If you don't tell us, there's no credit. There's one free credit for each shared recording, and only after a paid result.
- What we may refuse: we may refuse or take back free credits if sharing is misused. Examples are recordings that aren't a car, or made-up answers.
- What we never do: we never publish or sell shared recordings, and never give them to anyone else to train their AI.
8. Partner garages
If your garage records car noises for us, the recording permission you agree to separately sets out what you give us and what we promise in return, including the free partner garage listing. If it and these terms ever differ, the recording permission applies.
9. Our name and content
Mechd® is a registered UK trade mark of Mechd Ltd (UK00004399909). The website, the app and their content belong to us or the people we license them from. You may use them for your own use, including sharing your results with your garage, but you may not copy, sell or reuse the website or app themselves without our permission.
10. Our responsibility to you
Mechd is free to download. After your first free result, each result in the iPhone app uses one credit. We'll use reasonable care and skill, but Mechd can't see or inspect your car, so we can't promise that a result is right or that Mechd will always be available.
If we fail to use reasonable care and skill, we're responsible for loss or damage you suffer that was a foreseeable result of that. We're not responsible for loss that wasn't foreseeable.
If you use Mechd for business, we're not responsible for loss of profit, business or opportunity, and our total responsibility to you is limited to £100.
Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability where the law doesn't allow it, including for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud. Your legal rights are not affected.
11. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms as Mechd develops. The current version is always at mechd.co.uk/terms, with the date it was last updated. If a change matters to you, we'll say so in the app or on our website before it takes effect.
If a court decides part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies. We may pass our rights and duties under these terms to another organisation, and we'll tell you if we do; it won't reduce your rights.
12. The law that applies
These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales can deal with any dispute. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring a claim in your local courts.
Apart from Apple (section 13), nobody else can enforce these terms.
13. If you got Mechd from the App Store
- These terms are between you and Mechd Ltd, not Apple. We, not Apple, are responsible for Mechd and its content.
- We give you a personal licence, which you can't transfer, to use Mechd on Apple devices you own or control, as Apple's Media Services Terms allow (including Family Sharing).
- We, not Apple, provide any maintenance and support for Mechd. Apple has no obligation to.
- If Mechd doesn't do what these terms say, you can tell Apple. Apple may refund what you paid Apple, under its own rules, but has no other obligation to you about Mechd.
- Any claim about Mechd is for us to deal with, not Apple. That includes claims that it doesn't meet legal requirements, product liability claims, and consumer protection and privacy claims.
- If anyone claims Mechd infringes their intellectual property rights, we, not Apple, will deal with it.
- You confirm you're not in a country under a US government embargo or named by the US government as supporting terrorism, and you're not on a US government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
- You must follow the terms of other services you use with Mechd, such as your mobile network.
- Apple and its subsidiaries can enforce these terms against you.
For questions, complaints or claims, see section 14.
Questions or problems? Email info@mechd.co.uk or write to Mechd Ltd, Unit A, 82 James Carter Road, Mildenhall, IP28 7DE. We'll try to put things right.