General Terms and Conditions

This translation is provided for convenience. In case of discrepancy, the German version prevails.

1. Scope

These terms apply to the purchase of the chargeable evaluation report on the Kognita website. The provider is:

Kai Schnider Bleuenweg 4 2542 Pieterlen Switzerland kontakt@kognita.ch

The test itself is free and does not require a contract. You can work through it, look at the free short result and leave the site again without owing anything.

The version of these terms that was published at the time of your order is the version that applies.

2. What you are buying

You are buying a digital evaluation report as a PDF file. There are two levels, whose scope is described during the ordering process.

You are not buying an expert opinion, advice or support from a qualified professional. The report is a value for orientation from a short online test. What that means is set out in the disclaimer. It forms part of this contract. Please read it before ordering.

3. How the contract comes about

The presentation of the report levels on the website is not yet a binding offer. It is an invitation to you to make one.

1. You choose a level and give your email address.
2. You see an overview with the level you chose, the price and your email address.
3. On this overview page you can correct input errors or abandon the process.
4. By triggering the payment you place your binding order.
5. The contract comes about as soon as the payment succeeds.

You immediately receive a confirmation by email. The language of the contract is German; this English text is a translation for convenience.

4. Prices

All prices are in Swiss francs and are final prices. What you see on the order overview is the amount that will be debited. No handling fees, no service surcharges and no shipping costs are added. Digital reports are not shipped.

This follows the Swiss Price Disclosure Ordinance, which requires the price actually payable to be stated, including every surcharge you cannot freely opt out of (PBV Art. 4 para. 1), and requires the same of advertising (PBV Art. 13). Prices are quoted in Swiss francs only, without a conversion into any other currency, and your card issuer, not this website, decides what that means for your account if you hold it in another currency.

Whether value added tax is included, and at what rate, is stated in the legal notice.

5. Payment

Payment is processed by the service provider Stripe. The payment methods available are shown to you during the ordering process, before you pay.

You enter your card details directly with Stripe. We neither see them nor store them. The details are set out in the privacy policy.

We do not offer payment against an invoice, either in advance or afterwards.

6. Delivery

The report is produced and made available immediately after the payment succeeds. As a rule this takes a few minutes. You receive it in two ways: as a download through a link and as an attachment to the email address you gave.

You expressly agree to this immediate delivery. That is precisely the point of a digital report.

If the report does not arrive, contact us. We will send it again. Please check the spam folder first, and check that the address you gave is correct.

We keep your report for 24 months so that we can send it to you again during that time. After that we delete it. Save the file on your own device.

7. Refunds

The details are set out on the page Refunds and Withdrawal. In short:

If something goes technically wrong, we refund in full. That covers a report that is not produced, does not arrive, is damaged, does not match the level you ordered, and a double charge. You need give no reason beyond telling us what went wrong.

Beyond that we voluntarily grant 14 days. If within 14 days of the purchase you conclude that the report is of no use to you, we refund the purchase price on request. You do not have to explain yourself.

These 14 days are a concession on our part, not a statutory entitlement. Swiss law provides no right of withdrawal for orders placed on a website: the Code of Obligations lists the situations in which a purchase can be revoked exhaustively, and buying online is not among them.

This paragraph is written out at length because of where many of our readers come from. If you have moved to Switzerland from the European Union or the United Kingdom, you will know a 14-day cooling-off period as something the law owes you, complete with a model withdrawal form. That box does not exist in Swiss law, and a Swiss shop that displays one has copied a foreign rule. Our 14 days come from us, not from a statute. The practical consequence is favourable to you nonetheless: a voluntary commitment written into these terms is a contractual promise and binds us just as firmly once it stands here. The reasoning, including the parliamentary decision behind it, is set out on the page Refunds and Withdrawal.

We also say this because staying silent would not be an option. Principle C.2 of the Swiss Commission for Fairness in Commercial Communications (Lauterkeitskommission) requires a distance seller to state whether a return option exists. The answer has to be given even when it is no.

8. What you may do with the report

You receive a simple, non-transferable right to use the report for private purposes. You may store it, print it, evaluate it for yourself and show it to individual people you trust.

The following are not permitted without our written consent:

• publishing the report or substantial parts of it,
• passing it to an unlimited circle of people,
• commercial use, in particular in staff selection, consultancy or expert opinions,
• removing or altering the notes on where the result comes from and where its limits lie,
• rebuilding, reproducing or distributing the test items.

The last point is not a formality. Items that are in circulation lose their value for everyone who sits the test afterwards.

9. Availability

We aim for continuous operation but do not owe it. Maintenance work, faults at the hosting provider, attacks and failures of third-party services can lead to interruptions.

There is no claim to permanent availability of the website or of the test. If a report has been paid for and was not delivered because of an interruption, clause 7 applies: you receive it afterwards or you get your money back.

10. Liability

We are liable to you for damage we cause intentionally or through gross negligence. Under Art. 100 para. 1 OR that part of liability cannot be excluded by agreement, and we do not try to.

For slight negligence, liability is excluded to the extent the law permits. Liability for indirect damage and consequential damage is likewise excluded, in particular for lost profit and for loss of data on your side.

Liability for personal injury is not excluded.

The following point matters most. We are not liable for decisions that you or third parties base on the test result. The report is not a clinical expert opinion and not a recommendation. Anyone who builds a decision about school, work, health or money on it does so on their own responsibility. We set out the reasons openly in the disclaimer, deliberately not in the small print.

11. Applicable law and place of jurisdiction

Swiss law applies, to the exclusion of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.

If you are a consumer, the mandatory places of jurisdiction in your favour are reserved in every case. In particular, you can bring a claim against us at your own place of residence. You cannot waive that venue in advance, and these terms do not ask you to. This holds regardless of what any clause in these terms says, and regardless of your nationality or where you lived before moving to Switzerland.

Otherwise the registered office of Kai Schnider is the place of jurisdiction.

12. Amendments to these terms

We can amend these terms for future orders. For a contract already concluded, the version published at the time of your order always applies. We reserve no right to change your contract unilaterally after the event.

13. Final provisions

Should a provision of these terms be invalid, the remaining provisions stay in force. The statutory rule takes the place of the invalid provision.

Side agreements require text form.

If you have questions, write to us at kontakt@kognita.ch. We would rather hear from you than have you quietly annoyed.