Legal
Terms of Service
These terms govern your use of Hotend Labs — ordering prints, uploading models, and printing jobs as an operator on the network. Read them before you place or claim an order.
01
The agreement
Using the service means you accept these terms.
Hotend Labs is operated by HotendLabs LLC ("Hotend Labs", "we", "us"). By creating an account, uploading a model, placing an order, or claiming a job, you agree to these terms. If you are using the service for a company, you confirm you are authorized to bind that company.
If you do not agree, do not use the service.
02
Who can use Hotend Labs
13 and up. Under 18 needs a parent or guardian.
You must be at least 13 years old to hold an account. If you are under 18, a parent or legal guardian must review these terms and agree to them on your behalf, and is responsible for your activity and payments on the service.
Print shop operators must be at least 18 and legally able to run a business in their jurisdiction.
03
Your account
Keep your login details accurate and private. You are responsible for everything that happens under your account. Tell us promptly at legal@hotendlabs.com if you think someone else has access to it.
04
What Hotend Labs actually does
We route work to independent shops. We are not the printer.
Hotend Labs is a marketplace. We take your model, quote it, and route the job to an independent print shop on the network that has the right machine and material. The operator who claims your job is an independent business, not our employee or agent.
We are responsible for the platform, the quote, the payment flow, and the service standards we hold operators to. Operators are responsible for the physical print and its workmanship.
05
Quotes, prices and payment
Quotes are generated from your model's geometry and the material, color and quality settings you choose. A quote is an offer, not a contract, and it can expire or be corrected if it was produced from a corrupt file, an obvious pricing error, or a model that cannot physically be printed as configured.
Payments are processed by Stripe. We do not store your full card details. Prices are in US dollars and exclude taxes and duties unless stated at checkout. You are responsible for any taxes we are required to collect.
06
Your models stay yours
You keep all rights. We only get the license we need to print your part.
You keep all intellectual property rights in the files you upload. You grant Hotend Labs a limited, non-exclusive license to store, display, process and transmit your model solely to quote your job, route it to an operator, print it, and provide support. That license extends to the operator who prints your part, for that purpose only.
We do not use your models to train models, and we do not sell, license or publish them. The license ends when you delete the file, except for copies retained in routine backups.
You confirm you own the model or otherwise have the right to have it printed. If a rights holder objects to a model you uploaded, we may remove it and cancel the associated order.
07
What you may not print
No weapons, no counterfeits, nothing illegal.
You may not use Hotend Labs to produce:
- Firearms, firearm components, receivers, magazines, suppressors, or parts designed to convert or bypass a firearm's controls.
- Weapons, explosives, or restricted military hardware of any kind.
- Counterfeit goods, forged branding, currency, official seals, or security devices such as keys and lock bypass tools you are not authorized to hold.
- Parts that infringe someone else's patent, copyright, trademark or design right.
- Medical, dental or implantable devices, or any safety-critical part where failure could cause injury.
- Anything illegal where you are, where we are, or where the operator is.
Operators may refuse any job. We may cancel and refund an order at any point before shipment if we believe it falls into these categories.
08
Changes and cancellation
Cancel free until an operator claims the job.
You can cancel an order for a full refund any time before an operator claims it. Once a job is claimed, material and machine time are committed and the order can no longer be cancelled — reach out and we will do what we can, but a refund is not guaranteed at that point.
Changes to material, color, quality or quantity are a new quote. Cancel the original and place the new order.
09
Shipping and risk of loss
Operators ship directly to the address you provide. Check it — we are not responsible for parts delivered to an address you entered incorrectly. Delivery estimates are estimates, not guarantees; carrier delays are outside our control.
Risk of loss passes to you on delivery. If a package arrives damaged or is confirmed lost in transit, tell us within the claim window below and we will treat it as a failed order.
10
If a print comes out wrong
7 days to report it. Refund or reprint — your call.
You have 7 days from delivery to report a problem. Send photos and your order number to legal@hotendlabs.com or use the support link in your dashboard.
If the part is defective, damaged, or does not match the material, color or quality you ordered, you choose the remedy: a full refund or a reprint at no charge.
This does not cover parts that printed correctly from a flawed model — wall thicknesses that were never going to survive, tolerances that were too tight, or a scale error in the file. We print what you upload.
11
Terms for print shop operators
Independent businesses. Claim what you can deliver, to spec, on time.
Operators are independent contractors. Nothing here creates an employment relationship, partnership or exclusivity — you are free to run your own work and to sell through other channels.
By claiming a job you agree to:
- Print it on the machine class and with the material and color specified, using filament in serviceable condition.
- Meet the dimensional and finish standards published for that quality tier, and inspect the part before it ships.
- Ship within the stated lead time and upload valid tracking.
- Use customer models only to produce that job — never to print additional copies, resell, redistribute or publish them.
- Release a job promptly if you cannot deliver it, rather than letting it run past its lead time.
Payout is issued on shipment. If a customer claim succeeds within the 7-day window and the fault lies with the print, we may reverse the payout or offset it against future earnings. Repeated failed jobs, late shipments or misuse of customer files can cost you access to the pool.
You are responsible for your own equipment, insurance, business licensing and taxes.
12
Suspension and termination
You can close your account at any time. We can suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, abuses the service, files fraudulent claims, or exposes us or an operator to legal risk. Where it is reasonable to do so, we will tell you why and give you a chance to fix it first.
Orders already paid for are either completed or refunded. Sections that by their nature should survive — model rights, disclaimers, liability, disputes — survive termination.
13
Disclaimers
Except for the refund and reprint commitments above, the service is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all implied warranties, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, that quotes will always be available, or that a printed part will be fit for any specific engineering, structural, medical or safety-critical use.
14
Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Hotend Labs is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost revenue or lost data, arising out of your use of the service.
Our total liability for any claim relating to an order is limited to the amount you paid for that order. Some states do not allow certain limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you.
15
Indemnity
You agree to defend and indemnify HotendLabs LLC and the operators who print your jobs against claims, damages and costs arising from models you uploaded without the right to print them, from prohibited items you ordered, or from your breach of these terms.
16
Disputes — arbitration and class action waiver
Binding arbitration, individual claims only. You can opt out within 30 days.
Please contact us first — most problems are settled in an email. If we cannot resolve a dispute informally within 30 days, you and Hotend Labs agree to resolve it by binding individual arbitration rather than in court, administered under the rules of a recognized US arbitration provider, seated in Michigan or conducted remotely at your election.
You and Hotend Labs waive the right to a jury trial and to participate in a class, collective or representative action. Either party may still bring an individual claim in small claims court.
You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by emailing legal@hotendlabs.com within 30 days of first accepting these terms. Opting out does not affect anything else here.
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Michigan, without regard to its conflict of laws rules.
17
Changes to these terms
We update these terms as the service changes. If a change materially affects your rights, we will email account holders and post the new effective date here before it takes effect. Continuing to use the service after that date means you accept the updated terms.
18
Contact
HotendLabs LLC
Michigan, USA
Mailing address: [to be added]
legal@hotendlabs.com
For anything about personal data, see the Privacy Policy.