legal
Terms and Conditions
These terms govern your relationship with Alárìnà Services. Please read them before you send an enquiry. By submitting the enquiry form you accept sections 1, 2, 3, 13, 14 and 15. The remaining sections take effect only if you engage us, and will be restated in the written engagement letter you sign at that point.
1. About these terms
Alárìnà Services is a trading name of Yetunde The Alarena Limited, a company registered in the Federal Republic of Nigeria under registration number 7736690, with its registered office at 43 Onasanya Street, Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria. In these terms, "we", "us" and "our" mean that company. "You" means the person sending an enquiry or engaging us.
Where these terms conflict with a signed engagement letter, the engagement letter prevails.
2. What the service is
We are a private matchmaking practice. A matchmaker works with you personally to understand who you are and who you are seeking, identifies and verifies candidates, and makes an introduction when both parties have consented to it.
The following describe what this service is not, and we set them out plainly so there is no misunderstanding later:
- It is not a dating application, and there is no platform to log into, no profile to maintain and no catalogue to browse.
- It is not an introduction agency operating on volume. We work with a small number of clients at any time.
- It is not a background investigation service, though we do verify identity.
- It is not a guarantee of marriage, of a relationship, or of any particular number of introductions.
Acceptance is by referral and by private consultation. We are not obliged to accept every enquiry, and we may decline without giving a reason.
3. Who we can accept
To be considered, you must:
- Be at least eighteen years of age.
- Be legally free to enter a relationship and, if that is your intention, to marry.
- Provide information that is truthful, current and complete.
- Be willing to verify your identity before any introduction is made.
- Be willing to sign a confidentiality agreement.
We may decline or end an engagement at any time if any of these ceases to be true. Misrepresenting your marital status, your identity or your intentions is a serious matter, and it ends the engagement immediately and without refund.
4. How an engagement runs
- Enquiry. You send the short form on this website. We read it personally. A matchmaker responds within two business days.
- Private consultation. A confidential conversation, held under a mutual non-disclosure agreement, to understand who you are and who you seek. The consultation and registration fee described in section 5 becomes payable at this point. Neither side is obliged to proceed to a search afterwards.
- Engagement. If we both wish to proceed, you receive a written engagement letter setting out the scope, the term, the fee and the expectations on both sides. The engagement begins when it is signed.
- Considered search. Your matchmaker identifies and verifies candidates personally. Nothing about this process is automated, and nothing about it is public.
- Introduction. We introduce you only when both parties have consented. Your identity is protected until you choose otherwise.
The pace of an engagement depends on how specific your requirements are and on the pool of suitable candidates. We would rather make no introduction than make a poor one.
5. Fees and payment
The consultation and registration fee is ₦250,000. It covers the private consultation, the confidentiality agreement, and the verification of your identity and your circumstances. It becomes payable only after we have invited you to proceed, and never at the point of enquiry.
Sending the enquiry form on this website costs nothing and commits you to nothing. If we do not think we can serve you well, we will say so and no fee arises.
Where a search follows the consultation, its fee is set out in the written engagement letter you receive before any further sum becomes payable. We quote that figure in advance and we do not vary it once the letter is signed.
Fees are quoted and payable in Nigerian Naira unless the engagement letter states otherwise. Where you pay in another currency, your bank or card issuer sets the exchange rate and may add its own charges, which are yours to bear.
The consultation and registration fee is not refundable once the consultation has taken place, whether or not either side chooses to go further. The work it pays for, the conversation itself and the verification around it, is done by that point. If you have paid the fee and the consultation has not yet been held, you may cancel and we will return it in full.
Any search fee is likewise not refundable once the search has started, because our work begins immediately on engagement and is personal to you. The exception in both cases is where we end the engagement for a reason that is not your fault, and there we refund the unused portion.
Nothing in this section limits any statutory cancellation right you may hold under the consumer law of the country you live in. Section 6 sets out how that right works, and it prevails over this section wherever the two differ.
6. Cancellation rights
If you engage us as a consumer resident in the United Kingdom or the European Union, you hold a statutory right to cancel a contract made at a distance within fourteen days, without giving a reason. This section explains how that right sits alongside a consultation you may want held sooner than fourteen days away. It does not reduce the right; it explains what happens when you choose to start early.
Asking us to begin before the fourteen days are up
Consultations are usually held within days of engagement, because that is what clients want. Where yours is scheduled to fall inside the cancellation period, we will ask you to confirm two things in writing first:
- that you expressly request that we begin before the cancellation period ends, and
- that you understand you will lose the right to cancel once the consultation has been fully performed.
We ask for that confirmation in the engagement letter and again at the point of payment. We will not hold a consultation inside the cancellation period without it. If you would rather keep the full fourteen days, say so and we will simply schedule the consultation after they have passed.
What happens if you cancel
- Before the consultation is held. You receive the fee back in full.
- After you asked us to begin early, but before the consultation is complete. You may still cancel. You pay only for what has actually been supplied by that point, in proportion to the service as a whole, and we return the balance.
- Once the consultation has been fully performed. The statutory right to cancel no longer applies, and the fee is not refundable, as section 5 sets out.
How to cancel
Write to hello@alarinaservices.com before the period ends. Any clear statement is enough; there is no form to complete and no reason to give. We will acknowledge it within one business day and refund within fourteen days of doing so, by the same method you paid.
If you engage us other than as a consumer, for example through a company, these statutory rights do not apply and the terms in section 5 govern refunds.
7. Confidentiality
Confidentiality runs in both directions and is the foundation of this practice.
Our obligations to you. We will not disclose your identity, your circumstances or the fact that you are a client to anyone without your written consent, except where we are legally compelled to. Every member of our staff is bound by confidentiality obligations that continue after they leave. No photographs of you are circulated. No profile of you exists anywhere that can be browsed.
Your obligations to us. Information you learn through us about a candidate or another client, including their identity, is confidential. You may not disclose it, publish it, or use it for any purpose other than considering the introduction. This obligation continues indefinitely, and it survives the end of your engagement.
Both sets of obligations are set out in full in the non-disclosure agreement signed before the first consultation.
8. What we ask of you
- Tell us the truth, including the parts that are uncomfortable.
- Tell us promptly if your circumstances change, particularly your relationship status.
- Treat every person we introduce you to with courtesy, whether or not there is a mutual interest.
- Respond to your matchmaker within a reasonable time.
- Do not record a consultation without our agreement.
- Do not approach a candidate outside the process we have agreed.
9. Verification
All identities are verified before any introduction is made. Verification may include government identity documents, a live photograph captured at the time of verification, and confirmation of the facts you have given us. Photographs supplied from device storage are not accepted, because they cannot be relied on.
We may decline to make an introduction where verification is incomplete or where its results are inconsistent with what you have told us.
10. What we do not promise
We promise care, discretion and diligence. We do not promise an outcome.
Specifically, we do not warrant that we will find a suitable match, that any introduction will lead to a relationship, or that any person introduced to you will behave as you expect. Verification confirms that a person is who they say they are. It does not make us responsible for their character, their conduct, or anything they tell you.
Any decision to meet, to continue seeing, or to enter a relationship with a person we introduce is yours alone. Please exercise the same judgement you would in any other part of your life, and meet in a public place the first time.
11. Liability
Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.
Subject to that, our total liability arising out of an engagement, whether in contract, in tort or otherwise, is limited to the fees you have actually paid us under that engagement.
We are not liable for the acts or omissions of any person we introduce to you, for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, opportunity or reputation.
12. Ending an engagement
You may end an engagement at any time by writing to us. We may end an engagement if you breach these terms, if you misrepresent yourself, if your conduct towards a candidate or towards our staff is unacceptable, or if we conclude in good faith that we cannot serve you well.
On termination, your confidentiality obligations continue, as do ours. We will handle your information as described in the Privacy Notice.
13. Use of this website
The text, design and marks on this website belong to us. You may read and print them for your own use. You may not copy, republish or adapt them commercially without our written permission.
You agree not to submit false information through the enquiry form, not to submit information about another person without their knowledge, and not to attempt to disrupt, probe or overload the site.
The website is provided as it is. We aim to keep it available and accurate, but we do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted or free of error.
14. Complaints and disputes
If something has gone wrong, write to hello@alarinaservices.com and set out what happened. We will acknowledge within three business days and give you a considered response within twenty business days.
If we cannot resolve it between us, both sides agree to attempt mediation in good faith before beginning proceedings. Nothing in this section prevents either of us from seeking urgent injunctive relief, in particular to restrain a breach of confidence.
15. Governing law
These terms and any dispute arising out of them are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the courts of Nigeria have exclusive jurisdiction.
If you engage us as a consumer resident in the United Kingdom or the European Union, this does not deprive you of the protection of any mandatory consumer law of the country you live in.
16. Changes to these terms
We may amend these terms. The date at the top of this page shows when they last changed. An amendment does not alter the terms of an engagement letter already signed, unless both sides agree in writing.
17. Contact
Yetunde The Alarena Limited, trading as Alárìnà Services
43 Onasanya Street, Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria
RC 7736690