Please Read: How to open a dispute properly — what moderators actually need

A dispute we can act on takes about ten minutes to write. One we cannot act on takes two sentences and goes nowhere, which is most of them.

Include all of this

• A link to the seller's marketplace thread
• The date you paid, the amount, and the method
• Proof of payment with the transaction id or reference visible
• What was promised, quoted from the listing, not paraphrased
• What was delivered, with dates
• Every message between you, in full, screenshotted in order — not the three you think make your case
• What you are asking for: refund, delivery, or partial

Before you post
Give the seller 72 hours to respond to a direct message first. About half of what reaches us is a seller who was asleep in a different timezone.

What we can and cannot do
We can hold a seller's marketplace access, remove their listings, and record the outcome against their account. We cannot recover money that left the forum. If you paid directly on a messaging app after being asked to move off the forum, we will still hear the dispute and it will still go on their record, but understand that our leverage is their reputation here and nothing else.

Sellers
You get the same right of reply, with the same evidence standard. "They are lying" without a timeline will be treated the same way as a buyer's two-sentence complaint.

Escrow
Use it. Every dispute where the money is unrecoverable is a dispute where somebody skipped escrow to save a fee.

The "every message in full, in order" requirement is the one people resist and it is the one that decides most cases. Selective screenshots usually reveal the poster's own problem.

As a seller: the 72-hour rule has saved me three times. Two were buyers who messaged at 3am my time and opened a dispute at 7am.

Worth stating that a resolved dispute is not a black mark forever. I had one in 2024, resolved it, and buyers still reference it as a reason they trust the thread.

That is correct and deliberate. A seller who resolves a dispute properly is a better bet than one with no history at all.

Been at this three months and can confirm it is slower and more boring than it sounds.