Policies & Procedures

The Global Inspector School® has set forth the following policies and procedures:

DEFINITIONS:

“Global” refers to the company “Global Inspector School® and Global Inspector Certification Association®”, the owner, employees/contractors and the “globalinspectionschool.com” website.

“Content” refers to all courses, lessons, text, documents, photographs, images, illustrations, graphics, sound recordings, video and audio-video clips, including all of the software and code associated with Global.

“Learner” refers to the student/client/purchaser/user of the Global Inspector School® online home inspector training program and Membership plan.

“Membership” refers to the Global Inspector School® online home inspector training yearly paid membership plan. The Membership provides access to all courses, lessons, documents, videos, and any/all other material including, but not limited to: PDF, slide shows, videos, jpeg, zoom, chats, emails, and any future enhancements to Global. Global reserves the right to modify the Membership plan at any time. Global will contact the Learner by email, if the modifications include a price increase in the following year’s Membership renewal.

PURCHASE AGREEMENT:

By purchasing the Membership plan, the Learner agrees to be bound by these Policies & Procedures and to follow the Terms & Conditions outlined below. The Learner must be at least eighteen years old and has read, understood and agrees to all statements in this document.

TERMS & CONDITIONS:

Course & Membership Fees:

The Membership plan fee is paid for one year. This cost includes access to all online Home Inspector courses, lessons, quizzes, continuing education courses, and all other online material as described in the “Membership” paragraph above.

NOTE: ONCE PURCHASED, YOUR MEMBERSHIP PLAN WITH AUTO RENEW EVERY YEAR UNTIL THE LEARNER CANCELS IT. THE LEARNER WILL RECEIVE AN EMAIL REMINDER, APRROXIMATELY ONE MONTH BEFORE THE MEMBERSHIP PLAN WILL RENEW & AUTO-BILL THE LEARNER’S CREDIT CARD.

Global Inspector School® and Global Inspection Certification Association® Copyright & Trademarks:

All text, courses, lessons, documents, PDFs, photographs, icons, logos, images, illustrations, graphics, sound recordings, videos, audio and webinars, including all of the software and code on Global’s website are protected under applicable intellectual property and other laws, including without limitation, the laws of the United States and other countries. All Content and intellectual property rights therein are the property of Global or the Content is included with the permission of the rights owner and is protected pursuant to applicable copyright and trademark laws. The Learner does not acquire ownership rights to any such Content viewed on Global’s website. None of Global’s Content may be changed, copied, displayed, distributed, downloaded, modified, posted, reproduced, republished, tampered, transmitted, or used in any form or by any means, including, but not limited to, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express prior written permission from Global.

Global reserves the right to take action, as necessary at any time, to protect all copyrighted material including termination, revoking, modifying, or otherwise changing Learner permission to access & use the Global website. Global expressly reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to object to any use or misuse of its Content in any jurisdiction worldwide. Global reserves the right to pursue any legal action against any and all violators as allowed by the laws of the United States and other countries.

Any comments, references and remarks related to Global and its Content, must be truthfully and accurately given by enrolled Learners for the purpose of fostering a productive learning environment for the home inspector training community, and should not be made with the intent of defamation of character or to slander Global’s character or reputation.

Global Inspector School® and Global Inspector Certification Association® Contact:

A contact form is provided on the Global website Support>Contact Us menu.

Global’s business phone is: 1-313-510-0284

Global’s Correspondence address is:

Global Inspector School®
C/O: Matt Fletcher
8155 Annsbury, Suite 109
Shelby Township, MI  48316 

Global’s email address, for refunds and disputes:

admin@globalinspectionschool.com 

Minimum Program Requirements:

It is expected that the Learner has basic reading and writing skills in English. Global’s online home inspection training program was created in the USA and therefore has been created in English. If the Learner chooses to use their own language converter, Global will not be responsible for any mistakes or misunderstandings. Global cannot provide technical support for any language converter or translation software purchased/used by the Learner.

A desktop computer or laptop, running current software and virus protection, along with reliable internet access, is required, and must be provided by the Learner at their own expense. Basic computer and typing skills are highly recommended. Credit card or electronic payment is required for the Learner to purchase the yearly Global Inspector School® Membership plan.

Learner Personal Safety Responsibility:

It is assumed that the Learner is in good health, and is able to safely perform the suggested basic home inspector activities (for example: getting into a crawl space, or climbing a ladder to inspect a roof). The education provided in the Global Inspector School® Home Inspector training program always includes best practices using common sense and will explain basic safety measures. However, Global is not responsible for any Learner injury and Global does not offer any insurance or reimbursement for any injuries.

Learner Diversity:

We here at Global strive to ensure the availability and inclusivity of all activities, services, and technologies for all Learners. We recognize the diversity in the world and we believe in encouraging everyone to be respectful of each other, to help make this learning environment a great place to belong. Learner activities or behaviors that violate these beliefs will subject the Learner to removal from the Membership plan and cancel all access to the Global Inspector School® online Home Inspector training program, without refund, and may be subject to refusal of future participation in the Membership plan.

The Learner agrees not to constitute, encourage, engage, post, transmit, or upload the following (including, but not limited to):

• abusive behavior or content
• advertising, marketing, or promotions
• bullying
• criminal false information
• defamatory behavior or content
• fraudulent solicitation of any kind
• harassing behavior or content
• hardware or software viruses of any kind
• harmful behavior or content
• hateful behavior or content
• illegal behavior or content
• impersonate or otherwise misrepresent your identity
• indecent behavior or content
• invading another’s privacy
• libelous behavior or content
• misleading behavior or content
• obscene behavior or content
• plagiarizing
• pornographic behavior or content
• profane behavior or content
• racist behavior or content
• solicitation of money, goods, or services
• threatening behavior or content
• unauthorized data sharing
• unlawful behavior or content
• violate any local, state, national or international law, rule or regulation
• vulgar behavior or content

Academic Integrity, Honesty and Oath:

Global prides itself in providing Learners with exceptional skills training for a specific occupation and workforce preparedness. Global will conduct itself with integrity and honesty at all times. All Learners are expected to behave with integrity and honesty in all interactions associated with the Global Inspector School® online Home Inspector training program and Membership plan. Learners acting dishonest, unethical, or violating items under these Policies & Procedures, will be removed from the Membership plan and have all access canceled, without refund, and may be subject to refusal of future participation in the Membership plan.

The Learner also agrees to be the sole person logging into, taking the courses, lessons and quizzes and accessing all other Content that they have purchased through the Membership plan and on the Global website.

The Learner declares NOT TO:

• Alter
• Copy
• Disclose
• Distribute
• Give
• Misappropriate
• Provide
• Sell
• Share
• Use

any Global Content and confidential information, except for your own personal educational training and for your own personal home inspection business. This includes NOT providing (as listed above) Global Content and confidential information to any third-party business, personnel or schools that may be considered a competitor to Global.

The Learner’s account, including the username and password, are not be used by anyone else. The Learner is fully responsible for all activities that occur under their username and password by you or by anyone else using your username and password, whether or not authorized by you. The Learner agrees to change their password immediately, if they believe their password may have been compromised or used without authorization.

Problem Resolution:

Should a Learner have a grievance, they should make a good faith effort to resolve the problem with the party involved.

If no resolution has been made, the Learner may submit a formal written grievance to the Global Inspector School® which should include:

1. The person against whom the grievance is directed.
2. A brief description of the grievance with date and time of occurrence.
3. Any efforts that were made to resolve the issue.
4. Details about the resolution the Learner is seeking.

Following review of the materials, the Global Inspector School® will issue a decision on item #4 above, within 14 business days of receipt of the written grievance.

Limitation of Liability:

The Learner agrees that Global is not responsible or liable, in any manner, for any Learner generated Content. As stated in this document, Global has set rules regarding Learner generated Content and Learner participation.

The Learner agrees that by completing the Global Inspector School® online Home Inspector training program, the Learner is NOT LICENSED in any profession that is required to be licensed by any state or country, including but not limited to:

• Architecture
• Carpentry
• Electrician
• Engineering
• Environmental
• Excavation
• Fire & Safety
• General Contractor
• Handyman
• HVAC (heating and cooling)
• Maintenance and/or alteration
• Mechanical
• Plumbing
• Residential builder

The Learner agrees it is their responsibility to understand and comply with any state-specific professional licensure requirements, in the state for which they intend to practice.

The Learner agrees that Global is not liable for any damages, expenses, or losses to any parties, either directly or indirectly, due to use or in connection with the Global Inspector School® online Home Inspector training program or Membership plan. Including, but not limited to:

• Allege breach of contract
• Causes of action
• Civil damages, request for
• Claims
• Demands
• Disputes
• Errors & omissions arising from or related to Global Inspector School® online Home Inspector training program and/or Membership plan
• Equitable relief
• Interpretation and enforceability of this agreement
• Negligence

Should the Learner seek legal action, the Learner agrees to be bound by the Laws of the state of Michigan concerning all issues arising out of and/or related to this agreement. If the Learner resides outside the state of Michigan, the Learner agrees to personal jurisdiction in the state of Michigan and the appropriate venue within the state of Michigan.

THE LEARNER AGREES THAT ANY AWARDS TO THE LEARNER, FROM GLOBAL, ARE LIMITED TO THE COST OF THE ONE-YEAR MEMBERSHIP PLAN, AT THE TIME THE LEARNER PURCHASED THE MEMBERSHIP PLAN.

Privacy Policy:

The Global website was created with and is hosted by WordPress.com. WordPress has the following privacy and safety features:

Cookies: If you leave a comment on Global’s website you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit Global’s login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

Personal Data:

Global agrees not to sell nor provide any Learner personal data to third parties. Learner data that is stored for the Membership plan includes: Name, email, username and course status. Global will use Learner personal data for any communication between parties, online login verification, and course status related to Global Inspector School® online Home Inspector training program. Both the Learner and Global’s Administrator can see, edit, or delete personal data at any time (except for username, which cannot be changed). Any other data the Learner chooses to provide for the online “Find an Inspector” directory locator feature may include Learner name, business name & address, and business phone number – this data is not considered harmful nor an invasion of privacy, however, the Learner is not required to participate in the “Find an Inspector” directory locator. Learners may request to receive an exported file of the personal data Global holds about you, including any data you have provided to Global. Learners may request that Global erase any personal data held about you. This does not include any data that is required to be retained for administrative, legal, or security purposes. All formal written requests will receive a response within 14 business days from receipt of the written request.

Financial Data:

The yearly Membership plan uses WooCommerce, WooSubscriptions and WooMemberships for it’s payment processing. WooCommerce has provided the following information:

WooCommerce collects information about you during the checkout process on our store. While you visit our store, we’ll track:

• Products you’ve viewed: we’ll use this, for example, to show you products you’ve recently viewed.
• Location, IP address and browser type: we’ll use this for estimating taxes.
• We’ll also use cookies to keep track of cart contents while you’re browsing our site.

When you purchase from us, we’ll ask you to provide information including your name, billing address, shipping address, email address, phone number, credit card/payment details and optional account information like username and password. We’ll use this information for purposes such as:

• Send you information about your account and order.
• Respond to your requests, including refunds and complaints.
• Process payments and prevent fraud.
• Set up your account for our store.
• Comply with any legal obligations we have, such as calculating taxes.
• Improve our store offerings.
• Send you marketing messages, if you choose to receive them.
• If you create an account, we will store your name, address, email and phone number, which will be used to populate the checkout for future orders.

We generally store information about you for as long as we need the information for the purposes for which we collect and use it, and we are not legally required to continue to keep it. For example, we will store order information for 10 years for tax and accounting purposes. This includes your name, email address and billing address.

Members of our team have access to the information you provide us. For example, both Administrators and Shop Managers can access:

• Order information – like what was purchased and when it was purchased.
• Customer information – like your name, email address, and billing information.
• Our team members have access to this information to help fulfill orders, process refunds and support you.

Learner financial data, used to purchase the yearly Membership plan, includes credit card information which is secured by the payment vendor selected by the Learner at the time of purchase – Global will only use the services provided by the chosen payment vendor for auto-renewal of the yearly Membership plan.

Payments, Cancellations, & Refunds:

Payments

The cost of the yearly Membership plan is listed on the Global website and in the Cart at Checkout – the price is subject to change based upon inflation and other external or internal factors, such as limited-time discount coupons.

The Membership plan utilizes WooCommerce and their plugins to except all major credit cards, Stripe and PayPal. When processing payments, some of your data will be passed to PayPal, including information required to process or support the payment, such as the purchase total and billing information. Please see the PayPal Privacy Policy for more details:

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full

Cancellations & Refunds

Should a Learner want to cancel or request a refund of the yearly Membership plan, the Learner should submit an email to tech@globalinspectionschool.com and include the following:

• Learner User ID
• Date of Membership plan purchase
• Learner Name and Address
• Learner Email (for any correspondence)
• Whether a cancelation or a refund is requested
• Brief description of why cancelation or refund is desired
• Any additional comments or suggestions about the Global Inspector School® online Home Inspector training program

100% refund can be made within 7 calendar days from purchase of Membership plan. Any cancelation or refund request made after 11:59pm EST on the 7th calendar day after purchase, does not qualify for a cancelation or refund.*

* Refund amounts are based on macomb.edu class cancelation and refund policy.

Refunds will be processed within 30 calendar days from the submitted request.

Data Safety & Protection:

Additional WordPress.com information is provided below:

ACTIVITY: WordPress only records/retains activities of a site’s registered users for a maximum of one year.

Data Used: To deliver this functionality and record activities around site management, the following information is captured: user email address, user role, user login, user display name, WordPress.com and local user IDs, the activity to be recorded, the WordPress.com-connected site ID of the site on which the activity takes place, the site’s Jetpack version, and the timestamp of the activity. Some activities may also include the learners IP address (login attempts, for example) and user agent.

Activity Tracked: Login attempts/actions, post and page update and publish actions, comment/pingback submission and management actions, plugin and theme management actions, widget updates, user management actions, and the modification of other various site settings and options.

Data Synced: Successful and failed login attempts, which will include the learners IP address and user agent.

CONTACT FORM: (Akismet) submission data: IP address, user agent, name, email address, website, and message is submitted to the Akismet service (also owned by Automattic) for the sole purpose of spam checking. The actual submission data is stored in the database of the site on which it was submitted and is emailed directly to the owner of the form (i.e. the site author who published the page on which the contact form resides). This email will include the submitter’s IP address, timestamp, name, email address, website, and message.

COMMENTS: (Akismet) data: We collect information about visitors who comment on websites that use our Akismet Anti-spam service. The information we collect depends on how the site owner sets up Akismet for the website, but typically includes the commenter’s IP address, user agent, referrer, and website URL (along with other information directly provided by the commenter such as their name, username, email address, and the comment itself).

Data Synced: Post and post meta data associated with a user’s contact form submission. The IP address and user agent originally submitted with the comment are synced, as well, as they are stored in post meta.

GIF BLOCK: Data Used: An iframe is inserted into the page, using an HTTP connection. The iframe is governed by Giphy’s privacy policy.

Activity Tracked: We don’t track any activity. For details of what Giphy tracks, refer to their privacy policy:

https://support.giphy.com/hc/en-us/sections/360003012792-Privacy-and-Safety

LIKES: This feature is only accessible to users logged in to WordPress.com.

Data Used: In order to process a post like action, the following information is used: IP address, WordPress.com user ID, WordPress.com username, WordPress.com-connected site ID (on which the post was liked), post ID (of the post that was liked), user agent, timestamp of event, browser language, country code.

Activity Tracked: Post likes.

BRUTE FORCE ATTACK PROTECTION: Data Used: In order to check login activity and potentially block fraudulent attempts, the following information is used: attempting user’s IP address, attempting user’s email address/username (i.e. according to the value they were attempting to use during the login process), and all IP-related HTTP headers attached to the attempting user.

Activity Tracked: Failed login attempts (these include IP address and user agent). We also set a cookie (jpp_math_pass) for 1 day to remember if/when a user has successfully completed a math captcha to prove that they’re a real human. Learn more about this cookie:

https://jetpack.com/support/cookies/#protect

Data Synced: Failed login attempts, which contain the user’s IP address, attempted username or email address, and user agent information.

SEARCH: Data Used: We use any of the visitor-chosen search filters and query data in order to process the search request on the WordPress.com servers. We also use aggregate data about page views and searches to adjust our search results.

Activity Tracked: We anonymously track when and what visitors search for and click on. This data is used to improve our search algorithms and track how well search is working. This tracking includes: IP address, URL, user agent, timestamp of event, browser language, country code, search query, filters.

SHARING: Data Used: When official sharing buttons are active on the website, each button loads content directly from its service in order to display the button as well as information and tools for the sharing party. As a result, each service can in turn collect information about the sharing party. When a non-official Facebook or a Pinterest sharing button is active on the website, information such as the sharing party’s IP address as well as the page URL will be available for each service, so sharing counts can be displayed next to the button. When sharing content via email, the following information is used: sharing party’s name and email address (if the user is logged in, this information will be pulled directly from their account), IP address (for spam checking), user agent (for spam checking), and email body/content. This content will be sent to Akismet (also owned by Automattic) so that a spam check can be performed. Additionally, if reCAPTCHA (by Google) is enabled by the website owner, the sharing party’s IP address will be shared with that service. You can find Google’s privacy policy here:

https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/

SUBSCRIPTIONS: Data Used: To initiate and process subscriptions, the following information is used: subscriber’s email address and the ID of the post or comment (depending on the specific subscription being processed). In the event of a new subscription being initiated, we also collect some basic server data, including all of the subscribing user’s HTTP request headers, the IP address from which the subscribing user is viewing the page, and the URI which was given in order to access the page (REQUEST_URI and DOCUMENT_URI). This server data used for the exclusive purpose of monitoring and preventing abuse and spam.

Activity Tracked: Functionality cookies are set for a duration of 347 days to remember a visitor’s blog and post subscription choices if, in fact, they have an active subscription.

VISEO HOSTING: Data Used: For video play tracking via Jetpack Stats, the following information is used: viewer’s IP address, WordPress.com user ID, WordPress.com username, user agent, visiting URL, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, country code. For Google Analytics, video play events will be sent there, as well.

Activity Tracked: Video plays.

WHAT’S APP BUTTON: Activity Tracked: We don’t track any activity. For details of what WhatsApp tracks, refer to their Privacy Policy & Safety Policy:

https://www.whatsapp.com/privacy

https://www.whatsapp.com/security

WOOCOMMERCE TAX: Data Used: For payments with PayPal or Stripe: purchase total, currency, billing information. For taxes: the value of goods in the cart. For checkout rates: destination address and purchased product IDs.

Data Synced: For payments, we send the purchase total, currency and customer’s billing information to the payment processors:

• Stripe’s Privacy Policy:

https://stripe.com/privacy/

• PayPal’s Privacy Policy:

https://stripe.com/privacy/

• For automated taxes we send the value of goods in the cart and the destination address to TaxJar. Please see TaxJar’s Privacy Policy:

https://www.taxjar.com/privacy-policy/

WORDPRESS.COM SECURE SIGN ON: Data Used: User ID (local site and WordPress.com), role (e.g. administrator), email address, username and display name. Additionally, for activity tracking: IP address, WordPress.com user ID, WordPress.com username, WordPress.com-connected site ID and URL, Jetpack version, user agent, visiting URL, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, country code.

Activity Tracked: The following usage events are recorded: starting the login process, completing the login process, failing the login process, successfully being redirected after login, and failing to be redirected after login. Several functionality cookies are also set, and these are detailed explicitly in our Cookie documentation:

https://jetpack.com/support/cookies/#sso

Data Synced: The user ID and role of any user who successfully signed in via this feature.

JETPACK STATS: Data Used: IP address, WordPress.com user ID, WordPress.com username, user agent, visiting URL, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, country code. Important: The website owner does not have access to any of this information via this feature. For example, a website owner can see that a specific post has 285 views, but he/she cannot see which specific users/accounts viewed that post. Stats logs — containing visitor IP addresses and WordPress.com usernames (if available) — are retained by Automattic for 28 days and are used for the sole purpose of powering this feature.

Activity Tracked: Post and page views, video plays, outbound link clicks, referring URLs and search engine terms, and country. When this feature is enabled, Jetpack also tracks performance on each page load that includes the JavaScript file used for tracking stats. This is exclusively for aggregate performance tracking across Jetpack sites in order to make sure that our plugin and code is not causing performance issues. This includes the tracking of page load times and resource loading duration (image files, JavaScript files, CSS files, etc.). The website owner has the ability to force this feature to honor DNT settings of visitors. By default, DNT is currently not honored.

WORDPRESS.COM TOOLBAR: Data Used: Gravatar image URL of the logged-in user in order to display it in the toolbar and the WordPress.com user ID of the logged-in user. Additionally, for activity tracking: IP address, WordPress.com user ID, WordPress.com username, WordPress.com-connected site ID and URL, Jetpack version, user agent, visiting URL, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, country code.

Activity Tracked: Click actions within the toolbar.