Help

What is Commuto?
How does Commuto work?
Creating an Account
Updating Account Information
Posting Items on Commuto
Shipping & Delivery
What is a Wish List?
Are the trades only between two people?
Is this only for students?
What's a Community?
How do I create a Community?
Can I belong to more than one community?
Can I delete a community I've created?
Can I block another member?
What rights does a Moderator have?
Can I give up my Moderator rights?
How do I send or check my messages?
How do I narrow down the result of my searches?
How do I confirm a trade?
How can I report a bad experience with another user?
How do I stop getting emails from Commuto?
Can I suspend my account?
Why am I not getting emails from Commuto?

What is Commuto?

com.mu.to

Latin for barter or trade.
A social community that aims to help college and university students, as well as anyone else, trade their unwanted goods for desired goods.

We are looking to not only allow friends, neighbour, students and co-workers to save money by trading items such as text books, movies, video game and anything else you may own, but to meet others with similar interests who you would have otherwise never met.

This service is free and is available to anyone worldwide. We are constantly adding cities and schools to Commuto, so if you don't see your school listed in our registration page, please contact our support team at support@commuto.com and we will add your school to the list.

The growth and opportunity for trade is based on your support. The more members we have, the more items are listed and therefore the more trade opportunities everyone will have.

How does Commuto work?

Create an account.
Join or create your own communities.
Post all the items which you are willing to trade by searching the database, or click on the "I want this" icon beside any item you see on the site.
Create a list of items you want by searching the database, or clicking on the "I own this" icon beside any item you see on the site.
Wait for the system to automatically notify you of matching trades by messages or email.
Contact other member and arrange for trade.

Creating an Account

Creating an account is very simple. Choose your login name, enter your contact details and choose your school if you are currently attending. Afterwards create or join other communities and populate your lists with items you want to trade and items you desire.

Updating Account Information

If your personal contact details, school or community have changed, you can update all this information in your Profile page.

Posting Items on Commuto

Posting items on Commuto can be done in multiple ways:

In the Add an Item page, which you can navigate to by click on the "Add an item" button on the top left of the site, you can either enter a UPC or ISBN code in the field provided and the system will automatically enter the information details.
If you do not have a UPC or ISBN code, you can search the database by name. Just type in the name or part of the name, choose the category and subcategory and click "Search". The system will provide you will all items that match your description. Click Select to choose the correct item and then click "I own this" or "I want this".
If the item is not in our database you can enter the details manually on the same page.
You can also add any item you see in Commuto to either your My Items list or My Wish List by clicking on the appropriate button bellow the item image.

Shipping & Delivery

Commuto is based on the social aspect of meeting and trading with other students in your school, friends in your city or co-workers. Once a trade has been found, the members arrange a time and place to meet, therefore not having to ship the items by mail. However, if two members decide they want to ship the items to each other they are free to do so. They can communicate through the My Messages page on Commuto and arrange all the shipping details.

What is a Wish List?

My Wish List is the list of items you are interested in. You can find these items by searching through the database of your school or community through the categories, searching by the name of the item, or adding any items you see on the site by clicking the "I want this" button underneath the item image.

Both lists are needed in order to complete a trade, so populating your Wish List is as important as the My Items list. The more items you have in your Wish List the easier and faster you will find matching trades.

Are the trades only between two people?

No. If there are no direct matches between two users, Commuto will automatically look for a third member in order to finalize the trade. This third member will need to have one item in the My Items list which the first member wants, and another items in the My Wish List which the second member has. This process is automatic and when a suitable trade is found, all three members will be notified by email or in their My Trades page.

Is this only for students?

Commuto is focused on helping students save money and meet other students, however, the social aspect of meeting people can be used for any community. Members can open their own communities for work places, living communities, and other controlled environments where members are able to meet each other to complete trades. Some examples of the communities you can join or create are:

Your high school, college or university.
Your city or other cities.
Your workplace.
With people who have a common interest in video games, books, movies etc...
Any other type of social community you can imagine.

What's a Community?

A community is a group of people looking to trade with other people. When first registering an account you will automatically create a community for the city you live in. If you are a student you will also automatically join your schools' community. Once inside the community you can view all its members and all the items the members are willing to trade or want. You can then add to your My Items list and My Wish List, propose a trade or communicate with another member of your community.

How do I create a Community?

Creating a community is simple and quick. Just click on the My Communities link on the top of the site. This link will take you to the page that lists all the current communities of which you are a member. Click on the Create a Community button. From here you can choose the name of your community, location and what kind of items will be traded there. As well, you can choose to make the community a private community open only to those who are invited, or a public community which is open to all users.

Can I belong to more than one community?

Yes. Members can belong to as many communities as they wish including multiple schools, workplaces, other communities or any combination thereof. Since many schools and cities are within driving distance of each other, it allows the members to expand his/her search scope while still keeping the premise of social trading.

Can I delete a community I've created?

You can delete a community only if you are the only person in the community. If the Community has more than 1 person then you can leave the group, but the group will still be open to the other members to use and the second person who joined the group will become the moderator.

Can I block another member?

Yes. In order to block another member, you need to visit that user's profile and click on the 'Block Member' button. Blocked members will not be able to view your profile or send you messages. If you wish to unblock a member, visit that members' page and click on the 'Unblock Member' button.

What rights does a Moderator have?

When a community is created, the creator will automatically become the moderator. As a private community, the moderator can invite members, decide to remove members, give other members moderating rights and edit any comments made by members. As a public community, the moderator can only invite members give other members moderating rights and edit comments made by members. In order to remove members, the moderator or any of the other members must file a complaint with support@commuto.com and our service team will remove the member if there is due cause.

Can I give up my Moderator rights?

Yes. As a moderator you can choose to give up those rights to anyone in your community as long as they accept to take over the position. However, once those rights have been given to another member you cannot get them back unless they are given to you. In order to give up your rights, you can click on the Distribute Moderator Rights link on the bottom of the community.

How do I send or check my messages?

You can go to the Messages page in order to check or send messages. You have three options:

Compose - Write a message to another member of Commuto

Inbox - This is where all the messages you received are stored. From here you can read your messages or delete them

Sent - A list of all the messages you have sent to other members.

Trash - A list of all the messages you have erased from your inbox. From here you can permanently delete your messages.

How do I narrow down the result of my searches?

If you are searching for an item that is returning too many results you can narrow it down in one of two ways:

In the Home page you can type the item you are looking for in the search field at the top of the site and click on any of the categories to the right of the search field to narrow down the results.
In the Add an Item page, you can narrow down the results by choosing a category and subcategory from the pull down menu to narrow down your results.

Please be aware that the search field in the Home page is to search for items that users have added to their My Items page in Commuto, while the search function in the Add an Item page is to search for items which you would like to add to your My Items list or My Wish List.

How do I confirm a trade?

In order to confirm a trade you must go to the My Trades page. There you can see the following tabs:

Pending: Trade that have been confirmed by one or more users, but no by all.
Matching: Trades matched by Commuto that meet all users' requirements.
All Trades: All items offered to you by other users.
Trade History: History of all your completed trades.

How can I report a bad experience with another user?

If you want to report another users' behaviour you can provide your comments through our Contact Us link at the bottom of the site, or provide a negative rating and comments towards the user after the trade has been confirmed in your My Trades page. All negative ratings and comments will be investigated leading to warnings and possible suspension of accounts.

How do I stop getting emails from Commuto?

There are three types of emails that Commuto might send you:

Trade Related Emails: These are mandatory as they inform you of any trades that have been proposed to you, completed or cancelled.
Promotional Emails: These are optional. These are emails regarding promotions and contests that Commuto might be hosting for our members.
Updates and Changes Emails: There are optional. These are emails regarding any major upgrades or changes to Commuto. These will also be covered in the News Page.

If you would like to stop receiving either or both of the optional emails you can click on "Security Settings" link in the My Profile page and click on the appropriate boxes.

Can I suspend my account?

Yes you can. Click on the "Security Settings" link in the My Profile page and choose the option "Suspend my account". If you want to reinstate your account just go to the same page and click on that option.

Suspending your account will not allow you to be involved in any trades while suspended and will not allow other users to see your items or send you messages.

Why am I not getting emails from Commuto?

If you're not receiving emails from Commuto when you should be they might be going into your spam folder. To ensure proper delivery of our emails please make sure your email address is correct in your profile and add noreply@commuto.com to your address book, trusted sender list or company white list.