Refunds, disputes, and reporting a listing
Most deals close without incident. When one does not, here is what is available to you and how to use it.
Refunds that happen automatically
You do not have to file anything in these cases — the system handles them:
- The seller never accepted your purchase. They have 2 days. Miss it, and a refund is scheduled.
- The seller accepted but never completed the handover. They have 7 days from acceptance. Miss it, and a refund is scheduled.
In both cases the refund is processed after a further holding window, both parties are emailed, and the listing goes back on the market. Expect the money back on your original payment method within roughly two weeks of the missed deadline, depending on your bank.
Filing a dispute
Use this when the seller did respond, but something is wrong: the machine does not match the listing, the revenue records do not hold up, the location is not what was described, or the handover did not actually happen.
Do not release the payment first. Releasing is the one action that is hard to undo. If in doubt, file the dispute and let it sit — deadlines pause while a dispute is open.
To file: go to Dashboard → Transactions, open the transaction, and choose to file a dispute. Explain what is wrong in specific terms.
What helps a dispute succeed
Our team decides on evidence, and the difference between a resolved and a stalled dispute is almost always the quality of what you provide:
- Dated photos of the machine and the location as you found them
- The on-platform message thread — this is why keeping negotiations on the platform matters
- The listing details as they stood when you unlocked it
- A specific, factual account of what was promised versus what was delivered
Vague complaints ("the seller was difficult") are hard to act on. Concrete discrepancies ("the listing states a card reader; the machine is coin-only") are straightforward.
How a dispute is resolved
A member of our team reviews both sides and the evidence, and reaches one of two outcomes:
- Resolved in the buyer's favour — the held payment is refunded to you.
- Resolved in the seller's favour — the payment is released to the seller.
You will be emailed the outcome and a note explaining the reasoning. Disputes are reviewed by a person, not automatically, so allow a few working days.
Reporting a listing or a user
Disputes are for transactions. Reports are for behaviour — and you do not need to have bought anything to file one.
Report a listing if you see:
- Revenue proof that looks fabricated or belongs to a different machine
- A machine or location that does not exist
- Duplicate listings of the same machine
- A seller pushing you off-platform for payment before you have even seen the machine
- Contact details or off-platform links stuffed into the description to avoid the unlock
Use the report option on the listing, or contact us with the listing URL and what you noticed. Reports go to our review team and are treated confidentially — the seller is not told who reported them.
A note on cash meetups
If you agreed a cash meetup instead of escrow, there is no held payment to refund and no dispute process available. We can act on the account — suspend a seller, remove listings — but we cannot recover money that never passed through the platform. This is the single biggest reason to use escrow.
Still stuck? Get in touch and we will help.