The deal in plain words.

BITS Marketplace is restricted to current students and alumni of BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus. We verify this through the email address you sign in with — only @hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in and @alumni.bits-pilani.ac.in addresses are accepted. We may revoke access if we find it being used to impersonate another student or to abuse the platform.

You sign in with a one-time code sent to your email. There are no passwords. On first sign-in we ask for a phone number and a privacy preference — providing the number is required, but whether peers and volunteers see it is up to you. We recommend keeping it private if you aren't comfortable sharing.

Don't share your email/account access with anyone. Anything done through your account is treated as done by you.

By submitting a donation you confirm that:

• You own the items, or have permission from the actual owner.
• The items are functional, hygienic, and reasonably described. We may decline anything that turns out to be broken, dangerous, or unsuited for hostel use.
• The photos you upload represent the items honestly. They become the baseline reference we and our volunteers use.

You can cancel a scheduled donation any time before pickup by emailing us. Once volunteers collect an item, it stops being yours and becomes part of the community pool.

Volunteer signups are first-come-first-served up to a cap, currently 200. Beyond that, applications go on a waitlist and may be promoted as slots open. Admission is at our discretion.

By volunteering you agree to:

• Pick up items only inside the windows you opt into, and reschedule with the donor if you can't make a slot.
• Photograph each item at pickup. The photos are kept alongside the donor's photos as a damage-tracking trail.
• Treat the items with reasonable care. Honest wear during transport is fine; deliberate damage is not.
• Treat donor and junior contacts with respect. Don't reuse phone numbers or emails for anything outside the pickup/handover.

You can withdraw any time from My volunteer dashboard. Your application stays in our records as INACTIVE so admins know you've stepped down.

Pre-bookings are a courtesy hold, not a sale. When you reserve an item we lock it to your account and reveal the holding volunteer's contact. You and the volunteer coordinate hand-off — bring your campus ID. If you don't collect within a reasonable window after arriving on campus, we may release the item to someone else.

The price you see at booking is the price you pay at hand-off. Cash only, paid directly to the volunteer.

We compare donor photos with volunteer pickup photos to track any damage that happens between drop-off and warehouse intake. Beyond that window — items in storage or in transit to the junior — wear and tear is normal and we don't guarantee items against it. We are not liable for lost or damaged items beyond the photographed delta and we don't offer refunds for cosmetic issues you can see in the listing photos.

We collect: your email, phone number, name (optional), hostel (for volunteers), uploaded item photos, donation/volunteer/booking history, and standard server logs. Phone numbers are shared with peers only if you flip your privacy toggle on. Admins always see contact details for support.

Photos are stored on Cloudflare R2. Authentication codes are stored as one-way HMAC hashes only. We don't sell data to anyone, ever. To delete your account, email us — we'll erase your record and anonymise (rather than delete) any donations or pickups already in the history so other people's records stay intact.

• Don't list anything illegal, hazardous, or someone else's.
• Don't use the platform to spam, harass, or solicit.
• Don't scrape the site or pound the API. We rate-limit and may ban abusers.

We may update these terms when the operating model evolves. Material changes get a banner on the home page; smaller changes get a quiet edit. Continued use after a change means you accept the updated version.