Terms of Service

Who we are and what these terms cover

Reduced To Clear Enterprise, trading as RTC Stores (“we”, “us”), provides software that lets shops in Ghana sell at the counter and online. In these terms:

• Platform means everything we provide: this website (www.rtcstores.com), the shop backoffice (“admin”) with its counter, orders, products, credit, customers, reports, finance and store settings, each shop's online storefront at stores.rtcstores.com/your-shop, and the messages and emails we send through it.
• You means the person who opens a shop and the shop or business they run. Your shop is the shop you open on the platform.
• Staff means anyone you let sign in to your shop's admin. Customers are the people who buy from your shop, online or at the counter.
• Shop data means everything you put into your shop: products, prices, stock, sales, orders, expenses, customers and settings.

These terms work together with our Privacy Policy. If a shop owner and we have signed a separate written agreement, that agreement applies to the extent it differs.

Governing law

These terms, the Privacy Policy, your plan, your use of the platform, and every rule that governs that use, are governed by and must be interpreted under the laws of the Republic of Ghana. This includes any claim connected with the platform that is not strictly about the contract, such as a claim in tort. Where these terms refer to a Ghanaian law, they mean that law as amended or replaced from time to time. Nothing in these terms takes away a right you have under Ghanaian law that cannot be excluded by agreement.

Who can open a shop

• You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter a binding contract under the laws of Ghana. If you sign up for a business, you confirm you have the authority to bind it.
• You must run, or be about to run, a genuine business selling goods. The platform is built for shops in Ghana.
• You must give true and complete details: your name, email, mobile number, and the shop's name, phone number and address. The shop's phone and address are shown to customers on your online shop, so they must be real and kept up to date.
• We confirm your mobile number by texting a code to it before the shop is created. You must be the person who holds that number.
• Each mobile number and each email address can open one free trial. Opening more than one trial, or using false or borrowed details to get around this, is not allowed.

Your account and your staff

• The owner login is created when your shop is created. You choose a password through a link we email to you. Keep your password private and use a strong one.
• You decide which staff can sign in and which parts of the admin each can use. You are responsible for what your staff do, and for removing access when someone leaves.
• Tell us straight away if you think someone else has used your login. You are responsible for activity under your account until you tell us.

Free trial, plans and payment

Free trial

New shops start with a free trial, for the number of days shown when you sign up. No payment is needed to start it. The trial includes the same features as a paid plan.

Plans and prices

• After the trial you keep your shop open by paying for a plan, for example monthly or yearly. The plans and their prices in Ghana cedis (GH₵) are shown on our website.
• We may change plans and prices. A change applies only to payments made after it; a period you have already paid for is not affected.
• Plans do not renew by themselves. When you want to continue, you choose a plan and pay by mobile money from your admin. We remind you before your plan ends.

When a plan ends

• You have a 7-day grace period after your plan ends, during which your shop keeps working and you can renew.
• If you do not renew by the end of the grace period, your shop is switched off: it is hidden from the storefront, orders cannot be placed, and your staff cannot sign in. The owner can still sign in to pay, and paying switches the shop back on.
• We keep your shop data for at least 90 days after it is switched off, so you can come back. After that we may delete it, as set out in the Privacy Policy. Export what you need before then.

How you pay

Subscription payments are made by mobile money and processed by our payment partner, Paystack, and the mobile money operator. We never see your mobile money PIN. We give you a receipt number for each payment, and you can look up your payments in your admin.

Refunds

The free trial exists so you can try the platform first, so subscription payments are not refundable, including for part of a period you did not use. The one exception is a billing mistake: if you were charged twice, charged the wrong amount, or charged without receiving the period you paid for, tell us within 14 days of the payment and we will correct it by refund or by adding the missing time. This does not limit any right you have under Ghanaian law that cannot be excluded.

You are the seller

The platform is software. You, not us, sell to your customers. This means:

• Each sale or order is a contract between you and your customer. We are not a party to it and we do not buy, sell, store, deliver or inspect any goods.
• You are responsible for your products, descriptions, photos, prices, stock levels, expiry dates, delivery, returns, refunds and customer complaints, and for meeting your duties to customers under the laws of Ghana.
• The platform helps you avoid selling expired goods (it stops an expired product from being sold online or at the counter), but it only knows the dates you enter. You stay responsible for the safety and quality of what you sell.
• You must hold any licence or approval your goods need (for example for food, drugs, cosmetics or regulated products) and follow the rules that apply to them.
• Fees you add for customers, such as credit, part-payment or mobile money fees, are set by you. You must make them clear to customers and keep them lawful and fair.
• Selling on credit at the counter, and any debt that results, is an arrangement between you and your customer. We only keep the records you enter.

Taxes and records

The tax settings, tax lines on receipts, and reports in the platform (including the GRA tax report) are tools to help you keep your own records. They are not tax or accounting advice. You are responsible for registering for, charging, reporting and paying every tax that applies to your business, and for the accuracy of what you enter.

Payments from your customers

• Online mobile money payments from your customers are processed by Paystack and the mobile money operators under their own terms. Their fees, delays, reversals and disputes are between you and them.
• We are not a bank, e-money issuer or payment service provider, and we do not hold your money. We record that a payment happened; the money moves through the payment provider.
• Cash, cash on delivery, and payments you record by hand are your own to collect and account for.

Customer information and data protection

• Details your customers give you (such as name, phone number, address and what they bought) are personal data. You are responsible for how you use them. We process that data for you, to run the platform.
• You must follow the Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843) and other laws on personal data: use customer details only to serve those customers and run your shop, keep them secure, and not sell or share them for unrelated purposes.
• Do not send marketing messages to a customer who has not agreed, and stop when they ask. Receipts, order updates and verification codes sent through the platform are service messages.
• Do not enter into the platform someone else's personal data that you have no right to use.

How we handle personal data is explained in our Privacy Policy.

Business verification and the Verified badge

• We may ask you to prove you run a real business, for example by giving a Ghana Card number, a business registration number or a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), with the name it is registered in. We may ask when you first pay for a plan or at any other reasonable time.
• The details are used only to check your business, and are seen only by our team.
• A Verified badge means we checked the details you gave at that time. It is not a guarantee or endorsement of your goods, prices or conduct. We may remove the badge, and suspend the shop, if the details turn out to be false or no longer true.

Acceptable use

You must not use the platform to:

• sell anything illegal, stolen, counterfeit, or dangerous, or anything the laws of Ghana prohibit;
• pretend to be another person, shop or brand, or open a shop that is not a genuine business;
• deceive customers, take payment for goods you do not intend to supply, or misuse customers' details;
• send spam or unwanted messages, or use the platform to harass anyone;
• upload viruses, try to get into accounts or systems that are not yours, or break or overload the platform;
• get around our limits and protections, such as the limits on sign-ups and text-message codes, or collect data from the platform in bulk by automated means;
• copy, resell, or reverse-engineer the platform, except where the law allows it.

Unauthorised access to computer systems and similar misuse can also be an offence under the laws of Ghana, including the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038).

Messages from us

We may send you notices through your admin (the bell at the top), by email, by SMS, or by call or WhatsApp to the contact details you gave us. These cover your plan, payments, changes to the platform and these terms, and your shop's status. You are responsible for reading them and for keeping your contact details up to date. A notice we send to those details is treated as received.

Content and intellectual property

• Yours: you own your shop data and the content you upload, such as product photos and descriptions. You confirm you have the right to use them, and that they do not break anyone's rights or the law.
• You give us permission to store, process and display that content only as needed to run the platform for you, including showing it on your online shop.
• Ours: the platform, its software, design and the RTC Stores name and logo belong to us. These terms give you the right to use the platform for your own shop while your plan is active; they do not transfer ownership of anything.

Availability, support and your data

• We work to keep the platform available and your data safe, but it is provided “as is”. We do not promise it will always be available, uninterrupted or free of errors. We may do maintenance and change or improve features.
• Support is by phone and WhatsApp on 0256 253 494.
• You can export many of your records (for example customers and reports) from your admin. Keep your own copies of anything you cannot afford to lose.

Suspension and ending the agreement

• You can stop using the platform at any time by not renewing. Cancelling does not entitle you to a refund (see Refunds above).
• We may suspend or close a shop, with notice where we reasonably can, if you break these terms, give false details, do not pay, put customers or us at risk, or if the law or a court or authority requires it.
• When a shop is closed, the storefront is taken down and staff can no longer sign in. We keep your data as described above and in the Privacy Policy.
• Clauses that by their nature should continue after the agreement ends, such as governing law, dispute resolution, limits on liability, and the data and payment clauses, continue.

Limits on our liability

• To the fullest extent the laws of Ghana allow, we are not liable for loss of profit, loss of sales, loss of data, loss of goodwill, or any indirect or consequential loss arising from your use of the platform, even if we were told it was possible.
• We are not liable for the acts of your customers, your staff, payment providers, mobile money operators, mobile networks, internet or power providers, or other third parties.
• Our total liability to you for all claims connected with the platform in any period is limited to the amount you paid us for your plan in the 3 months before the event that gave rise to the claim.
• Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including liability for fraud or for death or personal injury caused by negligence.

Your promises to us

You agree to compensate us for loss, claims and reasonable costs (including legal costs) that we suffer because of the goods you sell, the content you upload, how you treat your customers, or your breach of these terms or the law.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms, for example when the law or the platform changes. For a change that matters, we will tell you through your admin or by email at least 14 days before it starts. If you keep using the platform after that date, you accept the new terms. If you do not agree, stop using the platform and do not renew. The date at the top shows when these terms were last updated.

Agreeing electronically

You agree to these terms electronically, by ticking the box when you sign up or by using the platform. This is as valid as a signed paper agreement under the Electronic Transactions Act, 2008 (Act 772). We keep a record of when you agreed and which version of the terms you agreed to. Notices and records under these terms may be given and kept electronically.

Settling disagreements

All rules that govern your use of the platform, including this clause, are governed by the laws of the Republic of Ghana (clause 2). If a dispute arises:

1. Talk first. Tell us in writing what the problem is and what you want. We will both try in good faith to settle it within 30 days.
2. Mediation. If that fails, either of us may refer the dispute to mediation under the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act, 2010 (Act 798), in Accra or by video call, with a mediator we agree on.
3. Courts of Ghana. If mediation does not settle it within 60 days, the dispute is decided by the courts of the Republic of Ghana, which have exclusive jurisdiction.

Either of us may ask a court of Ghana for urgent protection (such as an injunction) at any time, without going through these steps first.

The small print

• Whole agreement. These terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between us about the platform and replace anything said or written before.
• If part is unenforceable, the rest still applies, and the part is read as narrowly as needed to make it lawful.
• No waiver. If we do not enforce a right straight away, we have not given it up.
• Transfer. You may not transfer your shop or this agreement to someone else without our written agreement. We may transfer ours to a successor to our business.
• Events beyond our control (such as power or network failures, disasters, strikes or actions of authorities) do not make us in breach where they stop us performing.
• Language. These terms are in English, and the English text is the one that applies.

Contact us

Reduced To Clear Enterprise, trading as RTC Stores.

• Phone and WhatsApp: 0256 253 494