Meca Terms of Use

1. Who provides Meca

Meca (“Meca”, “we”) is provided by a sole proprietorship doing business under the name “Meca” (registration with the Québec Enterprise Register pending). NEQ: [NEQ TO BE COMPLETED]. Business address: [BUSINESS ADDRESS TO BE COMPLETED]. Phone: [PHONE TO BE COMPLETED]. Email: contact@gomeca.ca.

These terms apply to the gomeca.ca website, the installable web app (PWA) and the Meca mobile apps (together, the “Service”).

2. Accepting the contract

You accept these terms by ticking the box provided when you create your account and continuing. You can re-read them at any time (“Terms of Use” page, at the bottom of the sign-in screen and in Settings). A copy of this contract is also emailed to you when you start a Premium subscription (see section 8).

If you do not agree with these terms or with the Privacy Policy, do not use the Service.

3. Minimum age

You must be 18 or older to create an account and use the Service. This rule applies because the Service includes a paid subscription by payment card, and minors generally cannot enter into this type of contract on their own. When you create your account you confirm that you are 18 or older. If we learn that an account belongs to a younger person, we close it and delete its information.

4. Your account

• You sign up with your first name and an email address. There is no password: you sign in with a link sent to your email.
• You provide accurate information and keep your email secure. You are responsible for what is done with your account; if you think someone is accessing it without your consent, write to us.
• An account is personal. You may not share or resell it.

5. What Meca does (and what is free)

Meca helps you understand a car problem using artificial intelligence: diagnostic conversation, OBD2 code reading and explanation, video and photo analysis, garage-quote analysis, used-car buying help, maintenance tracking and reminders, a digital glovebox, and electric-vehicle tools.

Free account

• Diagnostic conversation (up to 3 new diagnoses per month), with the full safety triage.
• For an OBD2 code: the official code name and safety information. The explanation, causes, price and the OBD2 conversation are Premium.
• The price estimate and detailed causes of a diagnosis are Premium; safety information is always visible.

Meca Premium (paid subscription)

• Price estimate for your vehicle, detailed causes and what to check first.
• Full OBD2 reading (code explanation and a dedicated conversation).
• Follow-up questions in the conversation (up to 12 follow-up messages per conversation), unlimited diagnoses and multiple vehicles.
• Video analysis, garage quote analysis, pre-purchase assistant, electric-vehicle tools (battery, winter range, charging), vehicle history and maintenance alerts.

The exact content of the plans may change (we may add features); if a change reduces what you paid for, section 15 applies.

6. General information only: what Meca is not

This is the most important part of these terms. Please read it carefully.

• Meca is not a mechanic or a garage. Diagnoses are hypotheses produced by artificial intelligence from what you describe or show. They may be incomplete or inaccurate. They do not replace a qualified professional's inspection or judgement.
• Prices are general estimates, not a quote. Ranges come from a reference grid (parts, labour hours, hourly rate) based on the Québec market. The actual price depends on the garage, the vehicle, the region and the real cause found. Meca guarantees no price a garage will charge you.
• Safety information does not replace an inspection. When Meca says a problem seems less urgent or that you can drive carefully, that is a general indication: it does not guarantee the vehicle is safe. If in doubt, do not drive and see a professional.
• If your vehicle seems dangerous (brakes, steering, smoke, overheating, fuel smell, red warning light…), stop in a safe place and call a professional or a tow truck. In an emergency, call 911.
• Repair guides are informational. If you do a repair yourself, you do so at your own risk, following the manufacturer's safety instructions.
• Quote analysis, the pre-purchase assistant and payment estimates are decision aids: they are not legal, financial or mechanical advice.
• Safety recalls come from official sources; we do not guarantee that they are complete or up to the minute.

You remain responsible for the decisions you make about your vehicle. This section does not limit the rights the law gives you (see section 13).

7. Premium offer: information before you subscribe

This section contains the information that Québec's Consumer Protection Act requires us to give you before a distance contract is entered into. It is also summarised in the invitation screen, before payment.

8. How the subscription works

1. You choose your plan (monthly or annual) in the invitation screen, which shows the prices, the length of the trial, the date of the first charge and the cancellation terms.
2. You expressly agree by ticking the box confirming that you understand that, if you do not cancel before the trial ends, the amount of the chosen plan will be charged automatically on the date shown, then at each renewal. You may decline: the “No thanks” button keeps you on the free account. You can also change your plan choice before paying.
3. You save your card on Stripe's secure payment page. That page repeats the price, the trial and the link to these terms.
4. You receive written confirmation by email when the subscription starts: it repeats the information in section 7, the contract date, your name and email address, and a copy of these terms (no later than 15 days after the contract is entered into).
5. The charge happens on day 7 (if you have not cancelled), then each period (each month or each year, on the anniversary date). The date of the first charge is shown in the invitation, in your contract confirmation and in Settings.

One free trial is offered per account. If you have already used your trial, the subscription starts on payment, with no trial, and the invitation screen tells you so.

9. Cancelling your subscription

• You can cancel at any time, with no fee or penalty: Settings → Manage my subscription (Stripe's secure portal), or by email to contact@gomeca.ca. We do not require a phone call or a reason.
• During the trial: if you cancel before the 7 days end, nothing is charged. You keep Premium access until the trial ends, then it ends and your account goes back to free.
• After the first charge: you keep Premium access until the end of the period already paid (end of the month on the monthly plan, end of the year on the annual plan). There is no automatic renewal afterwards: Premium access ends on that date and your account goes back to free. No further charge is made.
• Deleting your account immediately cancels the subscription and deletes the customer at Stripe: no further charge will be made, and Premium access ends at that moment, with no refund of the current period.
• Your history, vehicles and documents remain accessible on the free plan after cancellation (subject to the free plan's limits) until you delete your account.

10. Refunds

Meca offers no refunds for a subscription period already paid, including if you cancel part-way through a period or delete your account: you keep Premium access until the end of the paid period (section 9). This rule does not limit the rights the law gives you and that you cannot waive by contract.

• Free trial: if you cancel before the 7 days end, you pay nothing.
• Service ended by us: if we end your subscription without you having breached your obligations, we refund the paid portion corresponding to the unused period (Civil Code of Québec, art. 2129).
• Rights provided by law: if the information in section 7 was not given to you before you subscribed, if you could not clearly accept or refuse the offer, or if the written confirmation was not sent to you, the Consumer Protection Act (s. 54.8 and following) lets you cancel the contract within 7 days after receiving the copy of the contract; we then refund everything you paid within 15 days.

To exercise a right provided by law: write to contact@gomeca.ca from your account's email address.

11. Acceptable use

You agree not to: use the Service unlawfully or to deceive anyone; try to access other people's accounts or data; get around technical limits (quotas, Premium access) or disrupt the Service (abusive automation, overload); upload illegal content or content that is not yours; mass-extract the Service's content; or use the Service for decisions where a mistake on your part would endanger someone's life or safety.

12. Your content and our intellectual property

• Your content (descriptions, photos, videos, documents, messages) stays yours. You only give us the limited permission to do what is needed to provide the Service: send it to our technical providers (see the Privacy Policy), analyse it, display it and keep it for your account. We do not sell it and do not use it to train artificial-intelligence models.
• You warrant that you have the right to upload what you upload.
• Meca (name, logo, interface, texts, price grid, content) is protected by copyright and trademarks. You receive a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Service under these terms.

13. Liability

The Service is provided with care but cannot be perfect: artificial intelligence can be wrong, and a third-party service can be unavailable. To the extent permitted by law:

• Meca is not liable for indirect damages (lost income, time or opportunities), nor for those resulting from a decision you made relying on the Service without consulting a qualified professional where the safety information or the warnings in section 6 recommended it.
• Except in the case of gross or intentional fault, Meca's total liability to you for a single event is limited to the amounts you paid Meca in the 12 months before the event (or $100 if you paid nothing).
• Meca is not responsible for the prices, services or conduct of garages, merchants or third parties whose details or links are displayed (for example links to maps, parts or sellers): these are convenience links, not recommendations.

What is never limited. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits Meca's liability for its gross or intentional fault, or for bodily or moral injury (art. 1474 of the Civil Code of Québec), nor the rights and warranties that the Consumer Protection Act or any other public-order law gives you, which you cannot waive by contract. If a clause of these terms is prohibited or inapplicable to you by law, it has no effect for you, and the rest of the contract continues to apply.

14. Availability of the Service

We aim for a Service that is always available but cannot guarantee it (maintenance, an outage at a provider such as the host, the AI provider or the payment provider, force majeure). If Premium is interrupted for a significant period through our fault, write to us: we will refund the corresponding share of your subscription or extend your period.

15. Changing the Service, prices or these terms

• Features: we may add or improve features. We will not remove an essential feature of a paid plan in progress without notifying you and letting you cancel without charge.
• Premium price: the price of a subscription in progress does not change during the paid period. To change the price at renewal (including adding taxes if we become registered for GST/QST), we send you at least 30 days before it takes effect a written notice (email) containing only the changed clause, the previous version, the effective date and your rights.
• Other changes to these terms: same procedure, with written notice at least 30 days before. You may refuse the change and cancel without charge, penalty or cancellation fee by notifying us no later than 30 days after it takes effect, if it increases your obligation or reduces ours. If you do not cancel and keep using the Service after the effective date, the change applies.
• A change made without respecting these rules cannot be enforced against you. The essential elements of your contract (nature of the service, price, length of the plan you paid for) are never changed during a paid period.

16. Termination by Meca

We may suspend or close an account only in the cases allowed by the Civil Code of Québec (notably a serious breach on your part, such as fraud, using the Service to cause harm or repeated violation of section 11). We notify you as far as possible and explain why. Absent a breach on your part, we do not end a fixed-term subscription in progress and, if we did, we would refund the unused period (section 10).

17. Governing law, courts and complaints

• These terms are governed by the laws of Québec and the federal laws of Canada that apply there.
• If you are a consumer, you may always bring a case before the court of your own domicile; no mandatory arbitration clause is imposed on you and you keep the right to bring or join a class action. These terms do not deprive you of the protection given by the laws of your province or territory of residence where that protection is of public order.
• For any other user, the courts of the judicial district where Meca's business establishment in Québec is located have jurisdiction.
• A problem? Write to us first at contact@gomeca.ca: we reply as soon as we can. You may also contact the Office de la protection du consommateur (opc.gouv.qc.ca, 1-888-672-2556).

18. Languages

This contract is written in French first, the reference version. An English version is provided for your convenience. If you choose to be bound by the English version, you confirm it when you create your account, after having had access to the French version (French version); if the two versions differ, you may rely on whichever is more favourable to you as regards your consumer rights.

19. Miscellaneous

• Entire agreement: these terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between us regarding the Service.
• Invalid clause: if a clause is held invalid, the others continue to apply.
• Assignment: you may not assign your account. We may assign the Service to a successor who takes over our commitments, with notice to you.
• Contact: contact@gomeca.ca.