Scoping call terms

These terms apply to a booked scoping call or quick question with Hans Study. Booking one means you accept them. They sit alongside the Terms of Use, which govern this website and the tooling on it.

Who you are dealing with

The call is with Hans Study, an individual based in Ontario, Canada. There is no agency, no associate, and nobody else on the line unless you invite them.

What the call is

A conversation. Thirty minutes for a scoping call, fifteen for a quick question. The point is to understand what you are dealing with, tell you plainly whether it is something worth engaging on, and give you a straight read on the problem. Bring the real situation. Vague questions get vague answers.

What the call is not

It is not a deliverable, an assessment, an audit, a design review, or a certification. It is not engineering sign-off, regulatory advice, or legal advice. Nothing said on the call is stamped, warranted, or fit to submit to an authority having jurisdiction, an insurer, or a regulator.

It is also not a sales call in either direction. If the work is not a fit, that is what you will hear. Vendors and resellers looking to pitch a product should use the contact form instead.

Reliance

Opinions given on a call are informal, given quickly, and based only on what you describe in the time available. They are not a professional opinion you can rely on, and no professional duty of care arises from the call. Do not design, procure, commission, or remediate on the strength of it.

Reliance begins when there is a signed written engagement that says what is in scope, what is being delivered, and on what terms. Until then, treat the call as a second opinion worth exactly what it cost.

Confidentiality

What you say on the call is treated as confidential and is not repeated, published, or used in writing about the work. Anonymised patterns may inform general technical writing. Specific systems, sites, clients, and findings do not.

The same runs the other way. Anything shared about approach, methodology, or other engagements stays on the call.

What not to bring

Do not send or disclose material you are not entitled to share. That includes anything classified or protectively marked, anything covered by a non-disclosure agreement you hold with a third party, live credentials, private keys, personal information about identifiable individuals, and detailed vulnerability information about a system you do not own or operate.

If a subject cannot be discussed without crossing one of those lines, say so and the conversation stops there. A call is not the right container for it.

Recording

A call may be recorded or transcribed for note-taking. You will be told at the start if it is. Say so if you would rather it was not, and it will not be. If you intend to record, say so before the call starts and get agreement first.

Confirmation, rescheduling, and no-shows

Bookings require at least three days' notice and are confirmed by hand, so a booked slot is a request until you get the confirmation. A time may occasionally be declined or a reschedule proposed. If that happens you will be told why.

Reschedule or cancel through the link in the booking email. If nobody joins within ten minutes of the start time the call is treated as a no-show and the slot is released. Repeated no-shows mean future bookings are declined.

Cost

The call is free for the purpose it is booked for: working out what you are dealing with and whether an engagement makes sense. There is no invoice, no card, and no obligation on either side afterward. Paid work begins only under a separate written engagement.

Using the call for another purpose

The free call covers scoping. It is not a free consulting hour. Where a call is used as one, Hans Study reserves the right to invoice it as advisory time at the standard rate.

That rate is five hundred Canadian dollars (CAD $500) minimum, which covers the first hour or any part of it, plus one hundred and twenty-five Canadian dollars (CAD $125) for each additional fifteen minutes or part of fifteen minutes. It is the ordinary rate for advisory time and is charged as a fee for services actually provided, not as a penalty.

This is not a charge that applies to an ordinary conversation that wanders, or to a scoping call that simply turns out not to lead anywhere. It exists for calls booked on a false premise, and it is invoiced at discretion. In practice it stays unused.

The right to invoice arises where a call is used, in whole or in part, for any of the following:

• obtaining technical advice, design input, configuration guidance, sizing, troubleshooting, or a second opinion intended to be acted on rather than to scope an engagement;
• obtaining an opinion for a dispute, claim, litigation, arbitration, insurance, warranty, or regulatory matter, whether existing or contemplated;
• due diligence, assessment, or reference-checking on a third party, vendor, product, competitor, or prospective hire;
• sales, vendor, reseller, distributor, or partnership pitching;
• recruiting, headhunting, or sourcing candidates;
• market, pricing, or competitive research; or
• collecting material for publication, training data, or resale.

Where it is invoiced, the invoice goes to you and to any organisation you are representing, payable within thirty days. Time is counted from the scheduled start to the point the call ends, and the same rate applies to any follow-up correspondence arising from that use.

If you want any of the above, that is fine and it can be arranged. Say so before booking and it will be set up as paid advisory time from the start, at the same rate, with no ambiguity on either side.

Your own risk

You are booking an informal conversation, knowing it is not professional advice and that no duty of care arises from it. Every decision you make afterward is yours. You are responsible for verifying anything discussed against your own environment, your own vendors, the applicable codes and standards, and your own qualified professionals before you act on it.

No liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Hans Study is not liable for any loss, damage, cost, or expense of any kind arising out of or connected with a call, anything said on it, anything omitted from it, or any decision taken in reliance on it. That exclusion covers direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, and punitive loss, and it expressly includes lost profit, lost revenue, lost data, business interruption, downtime, remediation cost, replacement cost, regulatory penalty, and third-party claims. It applies whether the claim is framed in contract, tort, negligence, misrepresentation, statute, or anything else, and whether or not the possibility of the loss was known.

By booking a call you waive and release, in their entirety, all such claims against Hans Study, and you agree not to bring them or to assist anyone else in bringing them. That waiver is given by you personally and, where you are booking in the course of your work or on someone else's behalf, by every organisation, employer, client, or other party you are representing.

You represent that you have the authority to accept these terms and to give that waiver on behalf of any party you are representing. If it turns out you did not, the waiver still binds you personally, and this section applies to you as though you had booked the call entirely on your own account.

The call is free. There is no fee to refund and no consideration paid. Where liability cannot lawfully be excluded, it is limited in total to one hundred Canadian dollars (CAD $100) for all claims arising from all calls, in aggregate.

Nothing here excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited under the law of Ontario or the federal laws of Canada applicable in Ontario, including liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation. If any part of this section is found unenforceable, the rest continues to apply and the unenforceable part is read down to the narrowest extent needed to make it enforceable rather than struck entirely.

Indemnity

If you bring material to a call that you were not entitled to share, and a third party brings a claim because of it, you cover the cost of defending and resolving that claim. This is limited to claims caused by what you disclosed. It does not extend to anything else.

Intellectual property

Nothing discussed on the call transfers ownership of anything. Methods, checklists, and reference material referred to during the call remain the property of their owner. Your information remains yours.

Personal information

Booking collects your name, email, organisation, role, timeline, and what you are dealing with, through Cal.com. It is used to prepare for and follow up on the call. See the Privacy Policy for how information from this site is handled.

Changes

These terms may change. The version in force is the one published here on the date your booking is confirmed.

Governing law and jurisdiction

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario, Canada, and the federal laws of Canada applicable in Ontario, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these terms or a call is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located in Ontario, Canada.

Contact

Questions about these terms can be sent to contact@hans.study. The contact of record for legal matters is Hans Study, Ontario, Canada.