The Phone A Vet app (the App) is owned and operated by Phone A Vet Pty Ltd (Phone A Vet, We, Us, Our). The App connects animal owners (You, Your, Yourself) with a Veterinarian (Veterinarian/s). The Veterinarian provides advice and information (the Service, Content) during a phone-video conferencing session (the Session) with You where You have provided enough information that may include videos and photos, that the Veterinarian can help You. The session can also be conducted via the App by verbal phone discussion (without video conference), or by using text (SMS) messaging.

Phone A Vet is an agent only, receiving a commission for providing certain administrative and technical services enabling Veterinarians to provide the Service to You. Phone A Vet is not the provider of, and does not provide, professional veterinary services.

Only Australian registered Veterinarians can provide the Services via the App and they are bound by the veterinary practice and medicine dispensing laws of the state or territory where the Veterinarian is registered and where the animal resides. This means that the Veterinarian may not always be able to practice tele-medicine or provide tele-diagnosis or prescribe restricted (S4) medicines for your animals depending on the laws of the jurisdictions and whether the animal owner meets the jurisdictions’ criteria of being a bona-fide client of the Veterinarian. Veterinarians are however able to provide educational tele-advice to anyone, anywhere, and if they fear breaking the laws around telemedicine, they may take the approach of using hypothetical scenarios to help You.

You must be aware that by using this App, the Veterinarian is giving advice without being present with the animal to physically examine it and its environment or perform tests and checks and collect samples in the same way as when Your animal attends a veterinary surgery or veterinary hospital, and therefore there may be an increased risk of error in clinical judgement. Before using the App You must consider and accept this risk.

The Service is only accessible by downloading the App from the App Store or Google Play and then entering information about Yourself and Your pet or animal/s on the App to complete the registration process. All payments are made using the third-party provider Stripe (visit stripe.com/au for more information) who provide the technical, fraud prevention, and banking infrastructure required to operate online payment systems.

Because the Session includes the option of a video-conference, and because the Veterinarian and You must be able to communicate with each other clearly, which may also require You to send the Veterinarian videos, photos, and other information, the Service is dependent on having a stable, high speed internet connection to conduct the session. You are also required to be in an area with enough lighting. If video or audio quality is not sufficient for any reason, the Veterinarian may advise You to terminate the session whereupon an alternative plan will be suggested.

Phone A Vet needs to collect certain information to provide You with Services or to answer or forward any requests or enquiries. Phone A Vet recognises the importance of protecting the privacy of this information according to the privacy laws in Australia, particularly information that is capable of identifying an individual. Any information provided through Your use of the App is subject to Phone A Vet’s Privacy Policy which governs the way Your information, obtained through the App, will be dealt with.

These Terms and Conditions, and the Privacy Policy, should be reviewed periodically so that You are up-to-date with any changes. Phone A Vet welcomes Your comments and feedback.

What follows are the Terms and Conditions, and the Privacy Policy, referred to collectively from here on as the ‘Terms’. Please read them carefully.

You acknowledge and agree that:

Registration, acceptance of Terms, and user obligations

1.       Once You have completed the registration process, You will be a registered user of the App and will have read and agreed to be bound by the Terms.

2.       By using the App, this signifies that You have read, understood and agree to be bound by the Terms. If You do not agree with the Terms, You must not use the App.

3.       Phone A Vet reserves the right, at Phone A Vet’s discretion, to modify or remove portions of these Terms at any time.

4.       Your use of the App following the posting of changes to the Terms will be deemed Your acceptance of those changes. It is Your responsibility to review the Terms periodically and become aware of modifications.

5.       The Fee for a session, which may run for up to a maximum of 15 minutes, or 30 minutes, depending on the type of consultation you choose, is shown in the App when requesting a consultation, and on the website www.phoneavet.com.au.

6.      Phone A Vet reserves the right to change any of the Terms or the Fee at its own discretion. Any changes to the Terms or the Fee take immediate effect from the date of their publication. 

7.       If the animal has been involved in a major accident or is suffering from unconsciousness, difficulty breathing, uncontrollable bleeding or other emergency condition You must not rely on the App.  You can try to obtain emergency triage advice via the App however this may not be received in a timely way if Veterinarians are not available or network problems are occurring.

Limitations to Services

8.       Phone A Vet makes no guarantee or representation that Services are provided immediately upon request or within any determined time frame. Therefore, Phone A Vet and the Veterinarian cannot be held liable for any damage or loss arising from Your reliance on the App and advice derived by use of the App including by late supply of Services or as a result of not being able to use the Services.

9.       The advice given by the Phone A Vet veterinarians is provided in good faith but is limited and may not take into account all your circumstances. In particular, the Veterinarian is giving advice without being present with the animal to physically examine it and its environment or perform tests and checks and collect samples in the same way as when Your animal attends a veterinary surgery or veterinary hospital, and therefore there may be an increased risk of error in clinical judgement. You must be aware of and accept this risk. Also, recommendations as to diagnosis, treatment and best standards of practice are constantly evolving in the veterinary industry, and opinions between Veterinarians may differ from one another. Thus, to the extent permitted by law, no warranty as to accuracy, completeness or appropriateness of the advice is given. You must therefore consider the appropriateness of the advice to your own and your animal’s circumstances before acting on the advice. 

10.   Phone A Vet and its Veterinarians cannot guarantee that the Services will help You achieve any specific goals or results including to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or condition. Reliance on Phone A Vet Services is solely at Your own risk.

11.   The Veterinarians using, providing Services, or featured on the App, are independent service providers and therefore any opinions, statements, recommendations, advice, or information expressed by the Veterinarian are theirs alone.

12.   Some Services provided to You by the Veterinarian may be or have been provided by third parties directly and are not reviewed or certified by Phone A Vet.

13.   Phone A Vet is an agent only, receiving a commission for providing certain administrative and technical services enabling Veterinarians to provide the Service to You. Phone A Vet is not the provider of, and does not provide, professional veterinary services.

14.   The registration of Veterinarians on the App does not imply recommendation or endorsement of the Veterinarian nor is the App intended as a tool for verifying the credentials, qualifications, or abilities of any Veterinarian.

15.   Phone A Vet does not recommend or endorse any specific Services, tests, Veterinarians, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned on or via the App by the Veterinarian.

Interaction between animal owners and Veterinarians

16.   You will civilly and respectfully interact with the Veterinarian and not use inappropriate language or behaviour. If You engage in threatening, abusive, intimidating, aggressive, defaming or otherwise inappropriate behaviour, the Veterinarian may terminate the session and Phone A Vet may cancel Your use of the App.

17.   At the end of a session there is the option for the Veterinarian and You to provide feedback on each other including for You to write a review. You can also provide feedback via the support function within the settings of Your App or directly writing to Us at admin@phoneavet.com.au 

18.   Phone A Vet Services must be used responsibly therefore You will not abuse or overuse the access to Veterinarians via the App. Overuse includes requests to deal with multiple problems in one session or dealing with one problem in multiple sessions seeking multiple opinions from multiple Veterinarians. The Veterinarian may discourage this practice and may be hesitant to provide advice to You if sessions become unreasonably demanding.

19.   You will refrain from contacting or seeking to contact the Veterinarians outside of the App. This protects both You and the Veterinarian to ensure the advice is delivered in a reliable, continuous and controlled platform. Phone A Vet is not responsible for any interactions with Veterinarians not conducted on the App.

Security, permitted uses and intellectual property

20.   You must not share Your password or registration details. You must immediately notify Phone A Vet of any unauthorised use of Your password or any breach of security of which You have become aware. Use of Your password by any other person may result in the immediate cancellation of the Services.

21.   Access and use of the App is limited, non-transferable and allows for the sole use of the App by You for the purposes of Phone A Vet and its Veterinarians providing the Services.

22.   Any attempt by any individual or entity to solicit login information of any other user or Phone A Vet Veterinarian or to access any such account is a violation of these Terms and privacy and security laws and laws prohibiting unfair or unethical business practices.

23.   You will only use the App for the permitted purpose, and You will not:

a.       hack or break into any unauthorised area or attempt to bypass any security measure nor upload any virus or malicious code into Our network; or

b.       harvest, scrape or otherwise collect any information about Our members or Veterinarians for any reason, including but not limited to for sending unsolicited communications, including spam, or

c.       automate the use of the App or its Services or use any automated means (such as a scraper) to access Phone A Vet, the Content, or Services for any purpose; or

d.       use the Services or the App in connection with any commercial endeavours except those that are specifically endorsed or approved by the management of Phone A Vet; or

e.       use the Services or App for any illegal and/or unauthorised use which includes collecting email addresses of users or Veterinarians by electronic or other means for the purpose of sending unsolicited email or unauthorised framing of or linking to the App; or

f.        access, attempt to access, request access not authorised by the App or use any App Content or data without Our permission; or

g.       transmit, download, upload, post, sell, rent, license, transfer, disclose, mirror, frame, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or use any aspect of the App, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means; or

h.       copy or otherwise exploit the Phone A Vet business name, trading name, domain name, trade mark, industrial design, patent, registered design or copyright, or the things, systems or processes including text, graphics, logos, button icons, video images, audio clips, App, code, scripts, design elements and interactive features that Phone A Vet uses or has developed or has had developed, without the written permission of Phone A Vet; or

i.         broadcast, republish, up-load to a third party, transmit, post, distribute, show or play in public, adapt or change in any way the Services or third party services for any purpose, unless otherwise provided by these Terms; or

j.         access Our networks, computers, or the Content and Services in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair them, or interfere with any other person's use and enjoyment; or

k.       attempt to gain unauthorised access to any Content or Services, other accounts, computer systems, or networks connected with Phone A Vet, the Content, or Services. Such unauthorised access includes, but is not limited to, using another person's login credentials to access the App.

Termination of contract

24.   Phone A Vet reserves the right to suspend, deny or terminate Your use of the App at any time without notice if:

a.       you breach any provision or intend to breach any provision of the Terms or any applicable law; or

b.       your conduct impacts the name or reputation of Phone A Vet or Veterinarians or violates the rights of another party; or

c.       you threaten, abuse, insult, intimidate or attempt to intimidate the Veterinarian or Phone A Vet staff; or

d.       Phone A Vet is required to do so by law; or

e.       the provision of the Services to You is in the opinion of Phone A Vet, no longer commercially viable.

25.   Appropriate legal action will be taken by Phone A Vet for any illegal or unauthorised use of the App.

Payments and refund policy

26.   Payment of the Fee for the Services is by Credit Card, the details of which are entered during the registration process, and payment is processed by Stripe (visit stripe.com/au for more information).

27.   Where a payment of the Fee is returned or denied, for whatever reason, or is unpaid by You for any other reason, then You are liable for any costs, including banking fees and charges.

28.   There is provision for Phone A Vet or the Veterinarian conducting the Session to refund the Fee. This will be at the discretion of the Veterinarian or Phone A Vet and may apply when the session is interrupted, or the Veterinarian is unable to provide the Service.

Recordings

29.   During the session, which may be by video teleconference, phone conversation or text chat, if circumstances warrant, the Veterinarian may ask Your permission to video or tape record the session.

30.   You must not video or tape record the session without the permission of the Veterinarian.

Service interruption

31.   Phone A Vet does not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, faultless or error free. Use of Phone A Vet’s Service is dependent on mobile networks and/or the internet which may perform unpredictably at times and which may sometimes prevent access to or use of the Service. Therefore, Phone A Vet and the Veterinarian cannot be held responsible and Phone A Vet hereby exclude liability for any injury or condition which may be exacerbated by poor video or voice communications caused by insufficient network quality, lighting, bandwidth, network interruption, congestion or other technical, hardware or software failure. Phone A Vet also exclude liability for all indirect and consequential losses which may arise from Your use of or inability to use the Service.

32.   Although Phone A Vet has taken reasonable steps to make Phone A Vet’s platform secure and stable, Phone A Vet is not able to make any warranty or guarantee regarding the security and stability of Phone A Vet’s platform and Service. Use of the App and the Services is therefore at Your own risk.

33.   You are aware that standard messaging, data and other fees may be charged by Your carrier. Your carrier may prohibit or restrict certain mobile features, and certain mobile features required to use the App may be incompatible with Your carrier or mobile device. Contact Your carrier with questions regarding these issues.

Indemnity

34.   To the extent permitted by law, none of the affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, contractors, subcontractors, contributors and licensors of Phone A Vet make any express or implied representation or warranty about the Services the Veterinarian or Phone A Vet provide. This includes:

a.       the accuracy, suitability or currency of any information on the App or provided as part of the Services.

b.        the continuity of operation, data preservation or third-party conduct.

35.   To the extent permitted by law, Phone A Vet, its employees and Veterinarians, shall not be liable for:

a.       any actions, suits, claims, demands, liabilities, costs, expenses, loss and damage (including legal fees on a full indemnity basis) incurred, suffered or arising out of or in connection with Phone A Vet and its Services;

b.       any direct or indirect consequences of You accessing, using or transacting on the App or attempts to do so; and/or

c.       any breach of the Terms.

Disputes

36.   Any dispute arising from Your use of the Service or in relation to the operation of these Terms will be governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia and the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Victoria, Australia and of courts entitled to hear appeals from those courts. Neither party can object to such choice of courts for any reason.

37.   If a dispute arises out of or relates to the Terms, either party may not commence any Tribunal or Court proceedings in relation to the dispute, unless the following clauses have been complied with:

a.       A party to the Terms claiming a dispute has arisen under the Terms, must give written notice to the other party detailing the nature of the dispute, the desired outcome and the action required to settle the dispute.

b.       On receipt of that notice by that other party, the parties to the Terms must within 14 working days of the notice endeavour in good faith to resolve the dispute expeditiously by negotiation or such other means upon which they may mutually agree.

c.       If for any reason whatsoever, 14 working days after the date of the notice, the dispute has not been resolved, the parties must either agree upon selection of a mediator or request that an appropriate mediator be appointed.

d.       The parties are equally liable for the fees and reasonable expenses of a mediator and the cost of the venue of the mediation and without limiting the foregoing undertake to pay any amounts requested by the mediator as a pre-condition to the mediation commencing. The parties must each pay their own costs associated with the mediation;

e.       The mediation will be held in Victoria, Australia.

PRIVACY POLICY

For our full Privacy Policy– (Click here) 

38.   Phone A Vet strives to ensure the security, integrity and privacy of personal information submitted to the App, and Phone A Vet review and update security measures in light of current technologies, however no data transmission over mobile networks or the internet can be guaranteed to be totally secure.

39.   In order to access the Services, You are required to register for an account through the App. As part of the registration process, or as part of Your continued use of the Services, Phone A Vet may collect personal information about You and Your animals for You to take full advantage of the App and its Services.

40.   The registration process to use the App includes submitting Your name, email address, address, telephone numbers, and options on receiving software and information updates and promotional material and other information. You may access this information at any time by logging in and going to Your account.

41.   Information is collected only when knowingly and voluntarily submitted by You. You may refuse to provide personal information, except that such refusal may prevent You from utilising some or all the Services provided by the App.

42.   Phone A Vet will need to disclose or transfer Your information to entities for reasons such as backup storage, credit card payment transactions, and to Veterinarians to allow them to provide and meet Your request for Services. Copies of information associated with use of the App, that may contain personal information, are stored as digital archives for record-keeping and back-up purposes.

43.   Phone A Vet may sometimes use Your personal information to contact You by phone, email or text about important changes to Phone A Vet’s Services, planned service outages, or for any communication necessary for the provision of agreed Services to You. If You do not agree to Phone A Vet contacting You, please write to Phone A Vet at admin@phoneavet.com.au.

44.   Credit Card details are not stored by Phone A Vet’s App but are immediately transmitted during the registration and payment processes to the Stripe payment gateway in a secure manner. This process prevents credit card details being viewed, copied, stored or otherwise accessed by Phone A Vet staff, Veterinarians or contractors.

45.   Your personal information may be disclosed in special situations where Phone A Vet have reason to believe that doing so is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against anyone damaging, injuring, or interfering (intentionally or unintentionally) with Phone A Vet’s rights or property, users, or anyone else who could be harmed by such activities.

46.   Personal information may also be disclosed in compliance with a court order, co-operation with criminal investigations, notifiable disease and animal welfare laws and other situations in which Phone A Vet reasonably believes disclosure is required to comply with laws, and to prevent or minimise harm to personal or public safety.

47.   Phone A Vet’s employees and the Veterinarians and contractors who provide Services related to Phone A Vet’s information systems are obliged to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held by Phone A Vet. Therefore, Phone A Vet and its Veterinarians will take all reasonable steps to protect the personal information You may transmit during use of the App and to keep this information accurate and up to date. However, Phone A Vet will not be held responsible for events arising from unauthorised access to Your personal information.

48.   If, at any time, You discover that information held about You is incorrect, You may contact Phone A Vet using the details on the App, to have the information corrected or change Your information Yourself by logging into Your user profile in the App. You as a registered user can access Your information by logging into the App and viewing Your user profile. 

49.   If Phone A Vet becomes aware of any privacy or security concerns with the App, Phone A Vet will take these issues seriously and work to address these concerns.

Problems or questions

If You have any queries relating to Phone A Vet’s Terms, or You have a problem or complaint, please contact Phone A Vet by writing to admin@phoneavet.com.au. Users can do this through the App – go to the “Support” heading under “Profile” tab.