Please read these Terms & Conditions carefully before using Bid4Grid. By registering for an account or accessing the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, you must not use the Service.
| "Awarded Bid" | A Bid selected by a Buyer as the winning submission for a Lot within an RfQ. |
| "Bid" | A formal submission by a Seller in response to a Lot within an RfQ, containing pricing, lead time, warranty, and other commercial terms. |
| "Evaluator" | A User authorised to score and rank Bids within the Evaluation stage of an RfQ. |
| "Platform" | The Bid4Grid web application and any associated services operated by us. |
| "Buyer" | A User authorised to create RfQs, manage the buyer lifecycle, and award Bids. |
| "Product" | The specific item being procured as a Lot within an RfQ, including all defined technical specifications (e.g. transformer rating, oil type, phase configuration). |
| "RfQ" (Request for Quotation) | A procurement grouping created on the Platform that contains one or more bidable Lots, representing a sourcing event from creation through to award or closure. Identified by a reference in the format R{WXYZ}{nn}D{yymmdd}. |
| "Lot" | A specific bidable line within an RfQ, consisting of a requested quantity of units of one Category (for example, four identical transformers), each Lot receiving its own bids in the evaluation pipeline. Identified by a reference in the format L{WXYZ}{nn}D{yymmdd}{suffix} (formerly A...). |
| "Service" | All functionality made available through the Platform, including RfQ and Lot management, Bid submission, Evaluation, Inventory management, and reporting tools. |
| "User" | Any individual who accesses the Platform under a registered account, including Buyers, Evaluators, and Sellers. |
| "Seller" | An organisation registered on the Platform that is eligible to submit Bids in response to published RfQs. |
| "we / us / our" | The company operating Bid4Grid. See Section 18 for contact details. |
By creating an account, logging in, or otherwise accessing the Service, you confirm that:
If you are accepting these Terms on behalf of an organisation, references to "you" include that organisation and all Users operating under its account.
To use the Service you must:
Seller accounts are subject to an approval process. We reserve the right to approve, decline, or revoke Seller registration at our discretion. Approval does not guarantee any RfQ award.
Only a company's admin may send, resend, or cancel team invitations through Company settings. Invitations are for colleagues joining that company, not independent seller companies. Links are single-use, expire after seven days, and must be accepted using the invited email address. Resending invalidates the previous link. Acceptance does not grant company-admin rights, reserve a seat, or waive email verification, approval requirements, or applicable seat package rules.
You are responsible for all activity under your account and must notify us immediately at contact@bid4grid.com if you suspect unauthorised access.
The Platform uses Buyer or Seller company seat packages. New-company registration requests a 20-seat package for manual activation. Online payments are not enabled and registration does not charge the User. Each company has one seat package. Assigned role, company membership, and an assigned seat in the active matching package determine what actions a User may perform. Buyer seat packages renew annually. Platform administrators confirm payment and set the renewal deadline; after expiry, working actions are unavailable until renewed, while viewing, company administration and assigned seats are retained. Seller seat packages have a nominal one-time initiation fee, no annual fee or renewal, and 20-seat capacity upon manual activation. Seats are automatically assigned to eligible verified members; company admins request their own seat separately. No online fee collection is currently enabled. Company administration and authorized viewing do not require a seat. User account settings, including first name, last name, email, password changes, and optional MFA, are managed separately in the account settings page. Disabling MFA does not change any Buyer, Seller, or Evaluator permissions granted by role or seat package.
Buyers manage the full buyer lifecycle and may create and configure RfQs, publish them to approved Sellers, and finalise award or closure when their company has an active Buyer seat package. A Buyer must manually release an RfQ from Draft into Accepting Bids. The bid window then closes automatically at its configured close date, and the RfQ advances to Evaluating when an Evaluator opens the Score Bids view. The bid close date is fixed once the RfQ is released. Buyers may only manually set the RfQ status to Cancelled; other transitions are handled by the Platform. Buyers may also cancel an individual Lot within an RfQ while it is in Draft or Open status; once a Lot reaches Evaluating, Awarded, or Cancelled it can no longer be cancelled. Valid reasons for cancelling an RfQ or an individual Lot include changed procurement requirements, budget constraints, alternative sourcing identified, or a material change to the Lot specification. When an RfQ is Cancelled, all associated Bids are closed and no further submissions are accepted. A Buyer account on a Seller seat package may retain read-only visibility over buyer-side pages but does not receive buyer write permissions until a Buyer seat package is active. Buyers must exercise their role in good faith and must not manipulate the process to favour or disadvantage any Seller unfairly. Company profiles may include a website URL, plain-language description, and one organisation type. Buyers may optionally provide regions served. Annual transformer spend is not requested or displayed in company profiles and is excluded from public profile responses; existing stored values are retained.
Sellers may view the Lot specifications for any RfQ with status Accepting Bids that is published to approved Sellers, submit Bids before the close date, maintain Inventory listings, and view and manage the Bids placed by any User of their own company (including colleagues’ Bids) when their company has an active Seller seat package. If a User who is otherwise identified as a Buyer activates a Seller seat package, that User is limited to seller-side capabilities for the duration of that plan state. Sellers may not view or attempt to access another company’s Bid at any stage. A Buyer may designate a Seller as “Blocked”; while blocked, that Buyer’s RfQs, Lots, and related documents are hidden from the Seller, who will not be able to view or Bid on them. Sellers may flag individual Buyer partners as having an outstanding invoice using the Invoice Due flag on their Seller dashboard; this flag is visible on that Buyer’s RfQs and Lots as viewed by the flagging Seller.
Sellers may enrich their company profile with extended commercial information including capabilities (e.g. new manufacture, refurbished, repair/rewind, distribution), service regions, typical lead time in weeks, year established, and certifications (e.g. ISO 9001, UL, NEMA, IEEE C57). This information is presented to Buyers on seller partner cards and is not used in the automated scoring process. Sellers are responsible for the accuracy of all profile information they submit.
Sellers on an active Seller seat package may upload compliance documents to their company profile. Supported document types are: Certificate of Insurance (COI), Workers’ Compensation, Product Liability, Electrical Contractor License, and Safety Certification. Sellers are responsible for keeping documents current; a missing or expired COI results in an automatic evaluation fail on all active Bids. Uploaded documents are accessible to Buyers reviewing Bids and Award Recommendations (via the bid review panel) and to Platform administrators for audit and oversight; all documents are served through restricted links issued only to authorised roles at the point of access.
Evaluators may access closed Bids assigned to them, apply the mandatory COI compliance gate, score Bids against predefined criteria across three scoring categories (Technical, Commercial, and Risk), submit a formal Award Recommendation identifying the preferred Bid for an RfQ, and mark Bids as Selected for Evaluation within their assigned scope. The Platform is designed to limit Evaluator access to Seller identity information during scoring. Evaluators can view compliance document type labels and validity dates within the scoring panel to assess the pass/fail COI gate, but cannot open or download compliance document files through the scoring view. Datasheet and warranty files an Evaluator can open have any Seller or manufacturer company name, and any email address or website containing it, automatically redacted from the file's searchable text before it is served. This text-based process cannot reliably remove identity information embedded in scanned pages, images, or logos. Where AI-Assisted evaluation is enabled, the Platform may use the Buyer's configured AI provider to attempt to identify and redact logos; this is a best-effort enhancement and is not guaranteed. Evaluators must score impartially and must declare any conflict of interest to the relevant Buyer before undertaking an Evaluation.
The Platform facilitates a structured five-stage sourcing process.
Where an RfQ contains multiple Lots, an individual Lot that closes with no Bids received remains permanently Closed; the RfQ as a whole advances to Fully Awarded once every Lot has reached a final status (Awarded, Closed, or Cancelled), even if some Lots received no Bids.
Where a Buyer sources from an existing Inventory listing rather than through a competitive Bid round, the award may instead follow the Inventory Marketplace flow described in Section 5A.
In addition to the competitive Bid workflow, the Platform offers an Inventory Marketplace through which Sellers list available transformer units and Buyers may source them directly. The following actions are available to Users with the applicable active seat package plan:
As with Bids, reservation, seller confirmation, and direct purchase actions facilitate sourcing but do not themselves constitute a binding supply contract, which is formed only outside the Platform in accordance with the parties' own commercial agreements.
By submitting a Bid, a Seller warrants that all information is accurate and not misleading; the Seller has the legal right and technical capability to supply the Product on the stated terms; the pricing and lead times are genuine and achievable; the Bid does not infringe any third-party intellectual property rights; and the Bid is independent and free from collusion with other Sellers.
Submission of a Bid does not constitute a binding contract. A binding contract is formed only upon formal award outside the Platform in accordance with the parties' own commercial agreements. The Platform facilitates the sourcing process but is not itself a party to any resulting supply contract.
Once a Seller submits a Bid, it cannot be withdrawn, rescinded, or replaced. Sellers are responsible for reviewing pricing, quantities, delivery terms, and optional equipment details before submission.
All Users involved in an Evaluation must act impartially, disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest before participating, and not share scores, weighted totals, or rankings with Sellers or unauthorised parties. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts where Evaluation misconduct is suspected.
Buyers may optionally enable AI-Assisted evaluation from their company's company settings. This connects your own AI provider account using an API key you supply and control ("Buyer-Provided AI Access"). You are solely responsible for: (a) obtaining and maintaining that AI provider account and API key in good standing; (b) all fees, usage limits, and terms imposed by your AI provider; (c) ensuring your use of that provider complies with applicable law and your organisation's policies; and (d) any output, error, omission, or unavailability caused by your AI provider. We do not operate, control, or warrant any third-party AI provider, and we are not liable for any loss arising from your AI provider's performance, downtime, data handling, or discontinuation of service. AI-Assisted output enhances — and does not replace — the default rule-based comparison and Evaluator review; Evaluators remain responsible for all final scores and Buyers remain responsible for all award decisions. You may disable AI-Assisted evaluation and revert to the default at any time from your company settings.
All Bid information — including pricing, lead times, specifications, and exceptions — is confidential. Sellers must not disclose their Bid details to other Sellers. Buyers and Evaluators must not disclose individual Bid pricing or scoring to Sellers unless required by law. Marketplace listing views do not show the identity of a Buyer who reserves or purchases an Inventory listing to other Users. These obligations survive Termination of your account and these Terms.
We own or licence all intellectual property rights in the Platform, including its software, design, processes, and documentation. These Terms grant no rights in the Platform's intellectual property except the limited right to use the Service in accordance with these Terms.
You retain ownership of all data, documents, and content you upload or submit ("Your Content"). By submitting Your Content, you grant us a limited, non-exclusive licence to store, process, and display it solely for the purpose of providing the Service. We will not use Your Content for any other purpose without your consent. You are responsible for ensuring Your Content does not infringe any third-party rights.
We may use third-party hosting, database, email, and private object-storage providers to operate the Service and process Your Content solely on our behalf. Details about how we handle Personal Information are in the Privacy Policy.
You must not use the Platform to engage in Bid rigging, collusion, or anti-competitive conduct; submit false, misleading, or fraudulent Bids or scores; attempt to gain unauthorised access to another User's account or Bid data; reverse-engineer or scrape the Platform; upload malicious code; harass any other User; or violate any applicable law, including competition law and anti-bribery legislation. Breach may result in immediate account suspension and referral to relevant authorities.
The Platform automatically generates timestamped records of key sourcing actions. Once an RfQ is marked AWARDED or CLOSED, the sourcing record and scoring history are restricted from normal user edits. Lot records, including Bid and scoring history, are similarly restricted once the associated RfQ reaches a terminal state. Users must not attempt to manipulate or circumvent the audit trail. We may provide audit trail records to regulatory bodies, courts, or law-enforcement agencies where required by law.
The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free; that any Bid will result in a supply contract; that Evaluation scores will meet any particular standard of fairness; that identity-limiting controls will prevent every possible inference of a Seller's identity; or that the Platform is fit for any specific buyer regulatory framework. You are solely responsible for ensuring your use complies with your organisation's policies and applicable laws.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, we will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive loss; loss of profit, revenue, business, data, or goodwill; losses arising from reliance on Bid data or Evaluation scores; losses arising from a Buyer's own AI provider under Buyer-Provided AI Access (Section 7A); or any failure caused by circumstances outside our reasonable control.
Our total aggregate liability for any claim will not exceed the greater of: (a) the total fees paid by you in the 12 months preceding the claim, or (b) USD $500. Nothing in these Terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or any liability that cannot be excluded by law.
You may close your account at any time by contacting us. Closure does not delete data retained under our legal obligations or the audit trail for RfQs you participated in; see the Privacy Policy for retention periods.
We may suspend or terminate your access immediately and without notice if you breach any material provision of these Terms; we reasonably suspect fraudulent, abusive, or illegal activity; we are required to do so by law; or we discontinue the Service. Where practical and lawful, we will give reasonable notice for terminations other than for breach or legal requirement.
On Termination, your right to access the Service ceases immediately. Sections 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, and 15 survive Termination and continue in full force.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Georgia, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. The state and federal courts located in Cobb County, Georgia will have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising under these Terms, and you consent to personal jurisdiction and venue there.
Before commencing legal proceedings, you agree to notify us of the dispute in writing and attempt to resolve it in good faith within 30 days.
We may update these Terms from time to time. Where changes are material, we will notify you by email or by a prominent notice on the Platform at least 14 days before the change takes effect. Continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not accept the revised Terms, you must stop using the Service and close your account before the effective date.
For questions about these Terms, please contact us:
Email: contact@bid4grid.com
Post: Bid4Grid Administration, Address available on request.