Grooming Terms

Welcome to Swipaw grooming 🐾 A good groom leaves your cat or dog clean, comfy and calm, never hurt or scared. Here is what owners and groomers each do, at the salon or at home, so every session stays gentle, safe and fair.

In short: Tell your groomer about your pet's health, coat, fears and bite history first. Groomers bathe, brush, clip and style, but never sedate, medicate, vaccinate or diagnose; that is a vet's job. A groomer may refuse or stop a session to keep a pet safe (walang pilitan): anything not done is refunded, and a shave-down needs your OK. Injuries are reported within 2 hours, and the groomer pays vet costs its work caused. Payment waits with our payment partner until the session is done (protektado ang bayad mo). Tips are optional.

1. About these Grooming Terms#

1. These Grooming Terms govern grooming booked on Swipaw between the member who books (the "Owner" or "you") and the salon or home-service groomer, with its staff (the "Groomer"), for each cat or dog groomed (the "Pet"), at the Groomer's salon (a "Salon Session") or the Owner's home (a "Home Session"; each a "Session"). Swipaw is operated by Parada Technologies Inc. ("we").
2. They form part of the Terms of Service and prevail on grooming matters, alongside the Payments & Refunds Policy, Privacy Notice and, for Groomers, the Provider Agreement.
3. Groomers accept these terms before a first grooming listing, Owners before a first grooming request and again when paying. We record each acceptance's version, time and platform (Electronic Commerce Act of 2000, RA 8792); each paid booking keeps its version.
4. A booking is a contract for a piece of work between Owner and Groomer (Civil Code of the Philippines, RA 386, Article 1713). The Groomer is an independent business, not our employee or agent; Swipaw is not a party and does not insure Sessions.
5. Price and Payment Protection. Swipaw computes the price (your menu items plus any declared home-service fee, or the accepted offer), taxes included; pay within 24 hours of acceptance or the booking lapses. Under Payment Protection, our payment partner Xendit Philippines, Inc. collects your payment into an account it keeps for the Groomer and holds it there until release (clause 9.1), when our commission (by default 10%) is split off. Swipaw never holds your money. Extras are booked through Swipaw, never paid at the Session.
6. Eligibility. Owners need verified contact details and, by default, basic identity verification to pay. Groomers need the Provider Agreement, identity verification, a verified BIR tax profile and payment set-up with Xendit; salons also need business verification (clause 11.1).

2. Before the Session: your Health Declaration#

1. Vaccinations. Listings offering salon grooming require each Pet's profile to show anti-rabies vaccination within the last 12 months and a current core combination vaccine; bring the card. Home-service-only Groomers may waive this, and requests show your Pet's vaccination status.
2. Health Declaration. Before the Session, in your request message or the booking chat (which opens once you pay), tell the Groomer in writing your Pet's age and any skin, ear, eye, heart, breathing, joint or seizure problem; allergy or past reaction to grooming products; pregnancy; recent surgery, injury or illness; medicines (including any your vet prescribed to calm it); fleas, ticks or matting; fears; and aggression or bite history (your "Health Declaration"). Agree the style there too.
3. Hiding something you knew is at your risk (section 7), may lead to account action and allows a Welfare Stop (clause 5.3). Do not bring a Pet that is unwell or may be contagious: cancel, or agree another day (clause 8.4).

3. What Groomers do, and what only vets may do#

1. Grooming covers bathing, drying, brushing and dematting, clipping and styling, nail and hygiene trims, outer-ear cleaning and tooth brushing, with the ordinary products the menu describes.
2. Under the Philippine Veterinary Medicine Act of 2004 (RA 9268), only a PRC-licensed veterinarian may diagnose, treat, prescribe, operate or certify an animal's health. So a Groomer never: (a) sedates, tranquillises or anaesthetises; (b) vaccinates or injects, including dewormers; (c) gives any medicine (calming drugs, tablets, ear or eye drops, spot-on or oral flea and tick products), even if you supply it; (d) treats a skin, ear or eye condition, including with a medicated bath as treatment; (e) treats the anal glands, beyond routine external expression that the menu lists and you request; (f) scales teeth or performs surgery, such as declawing, docking or cropping; or (g) diagnoses or issues health certificates.
3. Unlicensed veterinary practice is a crime (a fine of ₱50,000 to ₱100,000, one to five years in prison, or both), so never ask for it. Menus naming common vet acts, such as sedation or vaccination, are refused; we remove listings and accounts offering any and may report them to the authorities.

4. A safe, gentle Session#

1. Check-in. Before starting, the Groomer checks the Pet with you (at drop-off for a Salon Session), posts photos in the booking chat of any matting, skin problem, wound, lump or parasites (the "Condition Note") and confirms the plan.
2. Handling. The Groomer is gentle and never hits, shakes, hangs, chokes or forces a Pet. A soft, well-fitting muzzle is used only briefly when safety needs it, never on a Pet struggling to breathe or left alone, and a grooming loop only with the Groomer right there. No Pet is left alone on a table, in a tub, or in a cage or crate; drying air and rooms stay at safe temperatures; and heated cage dryers are never used on flat-faced, senior, very young, sick or anxious Pets.
3. Flat-faced, senior and anxious Pets. Flat-faced (brachycephalic) breeds such as Shih Tzus, Pugs, bulldogs and Persian cats get short, cool Sessions, and the Groomer stops at any sign of breathing trouble or overheating. Seniors and Pets with heart, breathing or joint problems are groomed in short stages, with your vet's go-signal if the Groomer asks. A panicking Pet is stopped, never forced.
4. Hygiene. Tools, tables and tubs are disinfected between Pets; salons keep cats away from dogs where they can, and possibly contagious Pets apart.
5. Hand-back. The Groomer returns the Pet only to you or an adult you named in the chat. It never keeps a Pet to force a payment and waives any right to retain it (Civil Code, Article 1731).

5. Matting, parasites and Welfare Stops — kaligtasan muna#

1. Matting. Mild mats are brushed out only as long as the Pet tolerates it. Tight mats call for a shave-down (clipping the coat short), which needs your consent in the chat or your request (or in person, then noted in the chat), after the Groomer explains that it may reveal hidden sores and that the coat takes time to regrow. It replaces a booked haircut at that price; otherwise it is an extra (clause 1.5).
2. Parasites and skin findings. The Groomer shows you any fleas, ticks, sores, rashes or lumps in photos and may comb out parasites while bathing, but applies no medicine and suggests a vet. Salons keep infested Pets apart and disinfect afterwards.
3. Welfare Stops. To protect the Pet or other animals, the Groomer may refuse or stop a Session (a "Welfare Stop") if a Pet is aggressive, sick, injured, pregnant, frail or elderly, too matted to groom humanely, heavily infested, possibly contagious or panicking, or if you ask because it is distressed. It gives the reason in the chat and records the stop in the booking with the items done. Everything not done is refunded in full, the stop does not count against the Groomer, and our team checks stops for misuse.

6. Home Sessions#

1. Your part. Give directions and parking or entry details in the chat, have an adult (18 or older) home and reachable throughout, and provide the agreed space: clean, bright, ventilated and safe, with a stable, non-slip surface and, if agreed, water and power. Keep other pets and children away.
2. The Groomer's part. The Groomer arrives on time with clean equipment, uses only the agreed space, respects your home, cleans up and takes away hair and waste.
3. Safety. If the space is unsafe, or anyone there threatens or harasses the Groomer, it may leave at once, record a Welfare Stop and report it to us; we may act on any account involved.

7. Injuries, bites and vet costs#

1. Accidents. A small nick, clipper irritation or a nail cut too short can happen even with care. The Groomer then stops, gives first aid and tells you at once, and within 2 hours of any injury, bite, escape or other incident files the booking's incident report, alerting you and Swipaw. Serious injuries, such as heavy bleeding, eye injuries, burns or breathing trouble, need a vet at once; from a salon, the Groomer takes the Pet to your clinic or, if you cannot be reached in time, the nearest open one.
2. Vet costs. The Groomer pays reasonable veterinary costs of any injury or illness its Session caused, but not of conditions the Pet already had or that grooming only revealed (such as sores under mats), nor of harm caused solely by something you knew and did not disclose. Share clinic receipts in the chat, then settle by dispute while the payment is held, or directly.
3. Bites. The Groomer helps anyone bitten. A dog's owner reports a bite to the barangay or city veterinary office within 24 hours, keeps the dog under a vet's observation for 14 days and pays the victim's medical expenses (Anti-Rabies Act of 2007, RA 9482); for cats, follow the city veterinarian's directions.
4. Liability. The Groomer answers for harm its or its staff's negligence or breach causes and, while handling the Pet, for damage the Pet does to others, unless force majeure or the victim's fault caused it (Civil Code, Article 2183). You bear harm from a dangerous trait you knew of but did not disclose. No release a Groomer asks you to sign can remove its liability for negligence or your legal remedies (Consumer Act of the Philippines, RA 7394, Article 106), and nothing here limits liability for fraud (Civil Code, Article 1171), bad faith or gross negligence.

8. Punctuality, no-shows and cancellations#

1. Lateness and no-shows. If you are late, the Groomer may still end on time, leaving out items that no longer fit (settle them in the chat or by dispute). If you or your Pet are not there, the Groomer may report a no-show from 60 minutes after the start, settled as a late cancellation. If the Groomer never arrives or never takes your Pet, open a dispute: a confirmed Groomer no-show is refunded in full.
2. Windows. Unless the listing showed its own policy before you paid, the grooming row of the table below governs your cancellations, counted back from the booked start (Philippine time); the pay screen shows each cut-off as a date and time and saves it with your booking. Unrefunded amounts go to the Groomer, less our commission.
3. These windows cover a change of mind and the Groomer's lost slot, and never limit your Consumer Act remedies (clause 9.2).
4. A Groomer cancellation, other than a Welfare Stop, refunds you in full and counts as a strike under the Provider Agreement. Cancellations covered by a Swipaw declaration of a typhoon, flood, earthquake or government order, or made by our team when the Groomer agrees in the chat to move your Session, refund in full with no strike.
5. The default windows are:

9. Completion, remedies and disputes — pag may problema#

1. Completion. The Groomer marks the booking complete with a note and, where possible, photos. The payment is released when you confirm or, if you neither confirm nor dispute within 48 hours (or the period your booking shows), automatically. Confirming does not waive your rights for problems you could not see at the time, such as later irritation: contact support.
2. Your remedies. If the Session was unsafe, incomplete or not as booked, open a dispute before release and ask, at your option, for a free re-do of the faulty part, a refund or a fair price reduction (Consumer Act, Articles 99 and 102). The payment stays frozen while Swipaw's team reviews the Condition Note, photos and booking chat (read only for the dispute, every access logged), then refunds, releases (say, after an accepted re-do) or splits it.
3. We decide complaints within 7 calendar days (Internet Transactions Act of 2023, RA 11967). Our decision settles only the payment; your other remedies, including a complaint to the Department of Trade and Industry, remain (Complaints).

10. Photos, reviews and tips#

1. Photos. The Groomer may photograph the Pet for the booking and share the photos in the chat; public use, such as in its listing or social media, needs your consent there, and no photo may show people, home interiors, addresses or plate numbers without consent. Salons disclose cameras in their listing, and Owners before a Home Session.
2. Reviews. After release, you and the Groomer may review each other honestly about this booking; reviews appear together (Review Policy). Never trade anything for a review or threaten a bad one to get a refund; use a dispute.
3. Tips. Tips are optional and never expected. Swipaw has no in-app tipping, so a tip is your own gift after the Session, outside Payment Protection and not refundable through us. Groomers never ask for tips or make service depend on them, and a tip never replaces any part of the price.

11. Permits, personal data and contact#

1. Salon permits. A grooming salon is an animal facility under the Animal Welfare Act (RA 8485, as amended by RA 10631) and needs a Mayor's or business permit and a Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) Certificate of Registration as a grooming facility (Department of Agriculture Administrative Circular No. 04, s. 2015). Before a salon listing goes live, our business verification checks the permit and the BAI registration, or your declaration that the BAI confirmed in writing that you need none (keep that letter); the "BAI-registered" badge needs a certificate we verified. Home-service Groomers follow the same handling and hygiene rules and register if the BAI or their city requires it.
2. Personal data. Once a booking is confirmed, you each see the other's verified legal name and the exact Session address. Under the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (RA 10173), each of you uses the other's details, the Health Declaration and Session photos only for this booking, keeps them secure, never markets to the other, deletes them once the booking and any dispute end, and reports any loss or misuse to [email protected] within 24 hours.
3. Contact. The booking chat becomes read-only 7 days after completion or cancellation. Questions go to [email protected] or a support ticket in the app.