Community Guidelines

Riv Community Guidelines

Riv is built on the power of community. Community is at the center of who we are, what we do and why we do it. We want Riv to be an enjoyable and safe experience everyone. These ground rules are designed to ensure that both Callers and Riv Assistants have a five star call when using Riv. Please take a moment to read them. Whether you’re a Caller trying to get through your to-do list or a Riv Assistant supporting a caller; your behavior always matters.

Respect each other

At Riv, we are committed to treating the people around us the way we want to be treated; with respect. The Riv community is diverse and inclusive. Both Callers and Riv Assistants should expect to interact with people from different backgrounds; they may speak and think differently from you. Please respect those differences at all times. Riv is committed to ensuring a safe and supportive environment for callers, Riv Assistants, our employees and our community. We have zero tolerance for harassment, discrimination or retaliation of any kind.

Safety first

Everyone wants to get tasks done and stay safe while doing so. Riv was built so callers can be productive while being hands-free. As a caller, please follow all local and state laws while behind the wheel. No task is more important than your life and the lives around you. Riv uses technology to keep Riv Assistants and callers safe. This is all backed up by a robust system of pre-screenings of Riv Assistants.

Children must be supervised

Only adults can have an Riv caller account. If your child is using your account, a parent or guardian must be on the call at all times.

Feedback makes us all better

Whether you are a caller or Riv Assistant, please rate your call. Honest feedback helps ensure that everyone is accountable for their behavior. This accountability creates a respectful, safe environment for both callers and Assistants. If you experience something negative during a call, make sure to report it by tapping “Help” in the app so that our customer support team can follow up. When providing feedback, please remember kindness is free. Riv will not tolerate abusive language in any format.

How to be a 5-star Caller

The guidelines below help explain some of the specific kinds of behavior that may cause you to lose access to Riv as a Caller. Ensuring a respectful, safe environment for all Riv Assistants and CallersThe way you behave while using Riv can have a big impact on the quality of your call. Courtesy matters. That’s why you are expected to exercise good judgment and behave decently towards other people when calling with Riv — just as you would in any public place.Actions that threaten the safety of Callers and Riv Assistants will be investigated and, if confirmed, lead to permanent deactivation of your account. Here are some reasons why you could lose access to Riv as a caller:

Use of inappropriate and abusive language. For example, asking overly personal questions, using verbal threats, and making comments or gestures that are aggressive, sexual, discriminatory, or disrespectful.
Unwanted contact with a Riv Assistant after the call is completed. Everyone deserves privacy. For example; unwanted texting, calling, or attempting to visit a Riv Assistant in person after a call has been completed.
Breaking the law while using Riv. For example; asking a Riv Assistant to break laws such as downloading illegal content; use abusive language or harass another person or business on your behalf or using Riv to commit a crime.
Damaging property. For example, asking a Riv Assistant to complete a task which knowingly will break or vandalize a phone.

If we are made aware of this type of problematic behavior, we may contact you so we can investigate them. Depending on the nature of the concern, we may put a hold on your account during our investigation. If the issues raised are serious or a repeat offense, or you refuse to cooperate, you may lose access to Riv. Any behavior involving violence, sexual misconduct, harassment, discrimination, or illegal activity while using Riv can result in the immediate loss of access to your account. Additionally, when law enforcement is involved, we will cooperate with their investigation in accordance with our Law Enforcement Guidelines.

Terms of Use

As a caller, you agree to our Terms of Use when you sign up for your account. We may take action against you for violating these terms, including permanently closing your account. For example the failure to maintain accurate, complete, and up-to-date account information, including having an invalid or expired payment method on file; allowing a person who does not meet the minimum age requirement to use your account while unaccompanied, or if you don’t meet that age requirement yourself.

Discrimination

Riv has a zero tolerance policy towards discrimination of any kind. This means you will lose access to your account if you are found to have discriminated against Partners or other callers based on their race, color, religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, sex, marital status, gender identity, age or any other characteristic protected under applicable law.

Fraud or Illegitimate Behavior

How to be a 5-star Riv Assistant

Ensuring a respectful, safe environment for all Callers and Riv AssistantsThe way you behave while using Riv can have a big impact on the quality of your call. Courtesy matters. That’s why you are expected to exercise good judgment and behave decently towards other people when calling with Riv — just as you would in any public place.Actions that threaten the safety of Callers and Riv Assistants will be investigated and, if confirmed, lead to permanent deactivation of your account. Here are some reasons why you could lose access to Riv as a Riv Assistant.

Use of inappropriate and abusive language. For example, asking overly personal questions, using verbal threats, and making comments or gestures that are aggressive, sexual, discriminatory, or disrespectful.
Unwanted contact with a Riv Caller after the call is completed. Everyone deserves privacy. For example; unwanted texting, calling, or attempting to visit a Caller in person after a call has been completed.
Breaking the law while using Riv. For example; asking a Caller to break laws such as downloading illegal content; use abusive language or harass another person or business on your behalf or using Riv to commit a crime.
Damaging property. For example, asking a Caller to complete a task which knowingly will break or vandalize a phone.

Terms of Use

As a Riv Assistant, you agree to our Terms of Use when you sign up for your account. We may take action against you for violating these terms, including permanently closing your account. For example the failure to maintain accurate, complete, and up-to-date account information, including having an invalid or expired payment method on file; allowing a person who does not meet the minimum age requirement to use your account while unaccompanied, or if you don’t meet that age requirement yourself.

Discrimination

Riv has a zero tolerance policy towards discrimination of any kind. Riv’s mission is to allow Callers unlimited access to their phone technology. What leads to you losing access to your account? It is unacceptable to refuse to provide services based on characteristics like a person’s race, color, religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, sex, marital status, gender identity, age or any other characteristic protected under relevant federal, state, or local law. Actions like these may result in permanent deactivation of your account.In addition, it is not acceptable to discriminate on the basis of a caller’s task request.What does this mean? We understand how important it is to fit calling around your life, rather than the other way around. It is not a violation of these guidelines to pass on a call because the call does not work for you—for example, it would interfere with a personal commitment or prior obligation, such as a job, a doctor’s appointment, a school pick-up, or a family event. But cancelling calls or using features in the Riv app to avoid receiving call requests solely for the purpose of avoiding a particular person’s race, color, religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, sex, marital status, gender identity, age violates these guidelines and may cause you to lose access to your account.

Fraud or Illegitimate Behavior

Fraudulent or illegitimate behavior undermines the trust on which Riv is built. We may deactivate any account(s) associated with this type of activity, including: abusing promotions; collusion between caller and Riv Assistant; disputing charges for fraudulent or illegitimate reasons; or duplicate accounts.If you are a Riv Assistant, and your account is temporarily blocked or deactivated, it limits your ability to contribute to the Riv community as well as earn income. That’s why we believe it is important to have clear policies that explain the circumstances in which you may be denied access to Riv; how (if at all) you can use the app again; and if you can appeal these decisions. [2]There will always be unforeseen events that may ultimately lead to you losing access to your Riv Assistant account — and we’ll update this policy regularly — but the following are sufficient cause for Riv to take action: quality; safety; fraud; and discrimination.

Quality

Callers who use Riv expect their Riv Assistants to complete tasks quickly, and also to be courteous and professional. The higher the quality of the service, the more callers want to make calls, which in turn means more opportunities for Riv Assistants. Poor service has the opposite effect over time. There are several ways we measure Riv Assistant quality, with the most important being Star Ratings and Cancellation Rate.

Star Ratings

After every call, Riv Assistants and Callers are able to rate each other on a scale of one to five stars, as well as give feedback on how the call went. This two-way system holds everyone accountable for their behavior. Accountability helps create a respectful, safe environment for both Riv Assistants and callers.

Riv Assistants can see their current rating in the Ratings tab of the Riv Assistant app.How is my rating as a Riv Assistant calculated?

Your rating is based on an average of the number of post-call stars callers gave you (from 1 to 5 stars), up to your last 500 rated calls or the total number of rated calls you’ve taken, if less than 500.The easiest way to keep your average rating high is to provide great service on every call. Riv Assistnats using Riv typically provide excellent service, so most calls run smoothly. But we know that sometimes a call doesn’t go well—that’s why we only look at your average rating over your most recent 500 calls (or your total rated call count, if under 500). This gives you the chance to improve over time.What leads to you losing access to your account? There is a minimum average rating in each city. This is because there are cultural differences in the way people in different cities rate each other. We will alert you over time if your rating is approaching this limit, and you’ll also get information about quality improvement courses that may help you improve. However, if your average rating still falls below the minimum after multiple notifications, you could lose access to your account. We may allow you to regain access to your account if you complete one of Riv’s quality improvement courses.

Cancellation Rate

A Riv Assistant cancellation is when you accept a call request and then cancel the call. Cancellations create a poor caller experience and negatively affect other Riv Assistants. We understand that there may be times when something comes up and you have to cancel an accepted call. But minimizing cancellations is critical for the reliability of the system.

How is my cancellation rate calculated?

Your cancellation rate is based on the number of calls canceled out of the total number of calls you accept. (For example, if you’ve accepted 100 calls and 4 of them are canceled, your cancellation rate would be 4%.) High-quality Riv Assistants typically have a cancellation rate lower than 5%.What leads to you losing access to your account? Each city has a maximum cancellation rate, based on the average cancellation rate of Riv Assistants in that area. We will alert you multiple times if your cancellation rate is much higher or if you are consistently canceling more often than other Riv Assistants in your city, after which you may be logged out of the app. If your cancellation rate continues to exceed the maximum limit, you may lose access to your account.

Acceptance Rates

High acceptance rates are a critical part of reliable, high-quality service, but not accepting call requests does not lead to permanent loss of your account.Consistently accepting call requests helps maximize earnings for Riv Assistants and keeps the system running smoothly. We know that sometimes things come up that prevent you from accepting every call request, you may want or need to take a break. Not accepting call requests causes delays and degrades the reliability of the system. If you don’t want to accept calls, simply log off.If you consistently decline call requests, we will assume you do not want to accept more calls and you may be logged out of the app. [3]

Compliance with the Law

We expect Riv Assistants using the Riv app to act in compliance with all relevant state, federal and local laws and the rules of content privacy at all times.What leads to you losing access to your account? Riv may permanently deactivate your account for activities such as: engaging in serious illegal activity while using the Riv app; downloading illegal content to a Caller’s phone; accessing content the Caller did not give permission to access, making decisions based on content in a Caller’s phone, or copying content from the Caller phone, while using the Riv app.

Background Checks

All Riv Assistants wanting to use the Riv app are required to undergo a screening process, like background checks, to ensure safety and compliance with our criteria. [4]What leads to you losing access to your account? We will permanently deactivate a Riv Assistant account if a routine background check uncovers a violation of Riv’s safety standards or of other criteria required by local regulators.

Unacceptable Activities

To maintain the transparency and safety of each call for all users, activities conducted outside of Riv’s system.What leads to you losing access to your account? We will take action against a Riv Assistant for activities such as: harming the business or brand, like unauthorized use of Riv‘s trademark or intellectual property, or otherwise violating the Riv Assistants’ agreement with Riv.

Fraud

Fraudulent activity undermines the trust on which Riv is built. That’s why we are constantly on the lookout for fraud by callers and Riv Assistants. What leads to you losing access to your account? We will deactivate any account or accounts associated with fraudulent activity, which may include: deliberately increasing the time of a call; accepting calls without the intention to complete, including provoking callers to cancel; creating dummy caller or Riv Assistant accounts for fraudulent purposes; and intentionally accepting or completing fraudulent or falsified calls.

Accurate Personal Information

The Riv app is designed to give callers identifying information about the Riv Assistant, like their name, before the call begins. Inaccurate or outdated information creates confusion among callers and can diminish their experience with Riv.What leads to you losing access to your account? We will deactivate your account for activities such as: providing Riv with inaccurate information; allowing someone else to use your account; and taking a call using an unapproved phone.In addition, we will take action to prevent any Riv Assistant whose required documentation becomes invalid from going online until the Riv Assistant provides Riv with updated information.

Getting Back on Calls After Deactivation

If your account has been deactivated for quality reasons like low star ratings, you may have the opportunity to get back on the calls if you successfully taken a quality improvement course. In addition, we are exploring ways to create an appeals process for the most contentious cases. We will update this document as and when we have that process in place.