Buying safely: how escrow works, step by step
When you buy a machine through VendingBay, your payment does not go straight to the seller. It is held in escrow and only released once you have confirmed you actually received what you paid for.
Here is exactly how that plays out.
The timeline
Step 1 — You pay. Your card is charged and the funds are held by our payment processor. The listing moves to In Escrow so nobody else can buy it out from under you. The seller cannot touch the money at this point.
Step 2 — The seller accepts (within 2 days). The seller has 2 days to accept the sale. If they do not respond in time, the purchase is cancelled and a refund is scheduled automatically — you do not need to chase anyone.
Step 3 — Handover (within 7 days of acceptance). Once accepted, the seller has 7 days to complete the physical handover and mark it done. You inspect the machine, verify it matches the listing, and take possession. We email the seller a reminder before that deadline.
Step 4 — You release the payment. After the handover you confirm it from Dashboard → Transactions. That is what releases the money. There is then a short holding period before the transfer actually reaches the seller's account.
What happens if the seller goes quiet
You are not left hanging. The system handles it:
- Seller never accepts — a refund is scheduled automatically after the 2-day deadline.
- Seller accepts but never hands over — after 7 days the transaction is flipped to a scheduled refund, and both of you are emailed.
- In both cases the refund is then processed after a further 7-day window, and the listing goes back on the market.
In practice, a completely unresponsive seller means your money is back with you within roughly two weeks, without you having to file anything.
Fees
The platform fee is 10% of the sale price, deducted from the seller's payout. As a buyer, the price you see is the price you pay — the fee is not added on top.
Cash meetups — read this before you agree to one
Some sellers will offer to do the deal in cash at a meetup instead of through escrow. That option exists on the platform, and it is legitimate, but understand the trade-off:
A cash meetup has no escrow protection. There is no held payment to refund, no automatic deadline enforcement, and no dispute process we can resolve on your behalf. If it goes wrong, we cannot recover your money.
If you do choose cash, meet in a public place during business hours, inspect the machine and its revenue records in person before handing over anything, and get the handover confirmed on the platform.
Our advice: for anything above a token amount, use escrow.
If something is wrong at handover
Do not release the payment. Once released, the money is on its way to the seller and there is very little we can do.
Instead, file a dispute from the transaction in Dashboard → Transactions. That freezes the release and puts it in front of our team. See our article on refunds, disputes, and reporting a listing for what happens next.
Still stuck? Get in touch and we will help.