Payment and Refund Policy

Effective date: 2026-10-18

1. How Payment Works

When a buyer funds a transaction, the buyer pays, in dollars shown before payment:

the listing price,
a protection fee (a fee for the Service, covering processing both ways and the cost of running the protected exchange), and
their share of delivery.

Delivery is the courier's price plus Vessel's markup on it. The person who starts the deal says the most delivery they will cover, from nothing up to all of it. The other side covers the rest, and agrees to that before anyone pays. A seller never covers more than the listing price. If a seller's share would pass the listing price, the rest is added to the buyer's total, which the buyer sees before paying.

The seller pays no fee. The seller keeps 100% of the listing price. If the seller covers part or all of delivery, that share is the only thing taken out of what they receive, and the seller sees the amount in dollars before they agree to the deal.

When the buyer pays, their card is charged, or held, for the total shown at checkout. A held card is charged when the courier picks up the item. That charge is up to the amount held, and never more. Any part of the hold that is not charged is released back to the card, and the buyer's bank decides how soon they see it. If the deal ends before pickup, the hold is released and the buyer is not charged.

A charged payment is held by our licensed payment custodian. It is held in a Stripe account that BlueScroll controls, and BlueScroll is the merchant of record for the charge. From there, BlueScroll can instruct Stripe to do only one of two things with it:

Release to the seller: after the buyer accepts the item, or the 3-hour inspection window ends without action (see Section 2). The seller receives the listing price.
Refund to the buyer: if the transaction is cancelled, the courier loses or damages the item, the item is marked delivered but never came (Section 3), or a return completes under this Policy. A cancellation, a loss, damage in transit, and an item that never came each return everything the buyer paid: the listing price, the protection fee, and delivery. The one exception is a buyer who cancels after their card was charged: the card fee is not refunded. A return returns the listing price and delivery, and keeps the protection fee. All of these are in Section 3.

There are no other outcomes. The Service has no wallets, no stored balances, and no way to send money to another user.

Maximum hold period: a payment is never held longer than 30 days from funding. If the transaction has not completed by then, the buyer is automatically refunded in full to the original payment method. If a refund to the original payment method fails, we will contact you to arrange it; funds that remain unclaimed are handled as required by applicable unclaimed-property law.

2. The Timeline

Delivery starts the clock. A courier hands the item to the buyer in person: the courier scans and photographs the handoff, and that scan starts the buyer's inspection window.

Step	Deadline	If missed
Buyer funds the transaction	n/a	n/a
Seller hands item to courier	48 hours from funding	Transaction auto-cancels; buyer refunded in full, including the protection fee and delivery
Courier delivers to buyer	Per courier quote	Transit failures covered in Section 3
Buyer accepts or starts a return	3 hours from confirmed delivery	Item is automatically accepted; payment released to the seller
Approved return: buyer picks a return slot	48 hours from starting the return	The deal parks for support and the clock pauses (see the backstop below)
Approved return: item back to seller	Per courier scheduling	Buyer refunded when the return is picked up (see Section 3)

Automatic acceptance, stated plainly. After delivery you have 3 hours to look the item over. We remind you at the 2-hour mark. If you take no action by the end of the 3 hours, the item is automatically accepted and the payment is released to the seller. You do not have to do anything to accept; you only have to act if something is wrong.

Starting a return. To return the item you start the return in the Service and add photos of the problem. Starting a return stops the 3-hour clock. You then have 48 hours to pick a return pickup slot. A courier collects the item and brings it back to the seller.

The 72-hour backstop. No deal stays open forever. By 72 hours after delivery the deal resolves, and the default depends on who was in control:

If the buyer has been silent (no accept, no return started), the item is automatically accepted and the seller is paid.
If the buyer started a return but no pickup slot was offered, the deal parks for our support team and the clock pauses, so a buyer who did their part is never timed out for a delay that was not theirs.

3. Returns: Cash Refund of the Price and Delivery

Any return refunds the listing price and delivery, in real money. When a return completes, the buyer is refunded what they paid for the item and what they paid for delivery. The refund goes back to the original payment method. We never issue store credit, and there is no return fee: the buyer is charged nothing for returning, and nothing is deducted for the courier trip either way.

The protection fee is not refunded on a return. The protection fee is what pays for the return itself, including both courier trips. The buyer pays it when they buy, whether they keep the item or send it back, so a buyer who returns is charged no more than a buyer who keeps. It is the only part of the payment that is not returned on a return, and it is disclosed on the payment screen before the buyer pays and again on the return screen before the buyer confirms a return.

The reason for the return does not change the money. Whether the buyer changed their mind or the item was not as described, the refund is the same amount. The buyer records a reason when starting the return, but the reason is kept separate from the refund. It is used to run the Service, not to decide how much you get back.

When the refund is issued. For a returned item, the refund is issued when the return courier picks up the item from the buyer. The buyer's money is held the whole round trip until then, so money and item are never resting on the same side at the same time.

Cancelled before pickup. Either party can cancel a paid transaction until a driver takes the job. A transaction is also cancelled if the seller misses the 48-hour hand-off. What happens to the money depends on whether the buyer's card was held or charged (Section 1):

The card was held: the hold is released and the buyer is not charged, whoever cancels. Nothing is kept.
The card was charged, and the seller cancels or misses the hand-off: the buyer is refunded in full, including the protection fee and delivery.
The card was charged, and the buyer cancels: the buyer is refunded everything except the card fee, which is 2.9% of the payment plus 30 cents. The fee pays for the charge the buyer asked us to make and then undo. The buyer sees both amounts before they confirm the cancel.

Lost or damaged in courier transit. If the courier loses the item, or the item is damaged, after the courier picks it up from the seller and before it is delivered to the buyer:

The buyer is refunded in full, including the protection fee.
The seller is still paid in full: the same amount the seller would have been paid if the buyer had accepted the item. Vessel pays it from its own money, not from the buyer's payment, once we confirm the courier lost or damaged the item, and it reaches the seller's bank on the seller's normal payout schedule (Section 6). The seller does not wait for the courier's claim, and is never paid less because of it.
Vessel claims the loss from the courier. Where Vessel refunds the buyer, the buyer assigns to Vessel the buyer's claim against the courier for that loss. If the courier pays less than Vessel paid out, Vessel covers the difference.

Marked delivered, but it never came. If the courier marks the item delivered and the buyer tells us it never came within the 3-hour inspection window, before the item is accepted:

The 3-hour clock stops, and nothing is released to the seller.
About an hour after the report, we look for the courier's own drop-off photo. If no courier photo shows the item at the door, the buyer is refunded every dollar they paid, including the protection fee and delivery, to the original payment method. The buyer does not have to send us anything.
If the courier's photo does show the item at the door, nothing is refunded automatically. A person on our team looks at the deal and decides, and the payment stays held until they do.
When the buyer is refunded because no courier photo shows the item at the door, the seller is paid in full too. We do not wait to confirm what happened to the item first. The seller gets the same amount as for a loss in transit (above), from Vessel's own money, and it reaches the seller's bank on the seller's normal payout schedule (Section 6). Vessel claims the loss from the courier, and the buyer's claim against the courier passes to Vessel, as above.

Notes:

Return legs are booked on the most economical courier available.
Nothing in this Policy waives any non-waivable right you have under applicable law. If you believe a return outcome was handled wrongly, you may raise it through the ToS dispute process.

4. Save-the-Sale Offer

When a buyer starts a return, the seller may make one offer to keep the sale by giving the buyer a partial refund (a discount off the price). This is optional and always seller-initiated.

The seller sees the buyer's return photos and reason next to their own listing photo, with a suggested number.
The offer is capped at 15% of the listing price.
The buyer's response is binary: accept the discount and keep the item, or decline and continue the return. There are no counter-offers and no chat.
The return courier is booked in parallel while the offer is open, and cancelled if the buyer accepts the offer.

An accepted save-the-sale offer is a partial refund of the amount the buyer paid.

5. Refund Timing

BlueScroll instructs Stripe to issue a refund promptly after the triggering event (cancellation, return pickup, a loss or damage in transit, an item that never came, or claim approval).
Refunds go back to the original payment method only. Depending on your bank, funds typically appear within 5–10 business days after the refund is issued.
Refunds cannot be redirected to another card, person, or account.

6. Release Timing (Sellers)

On buyer acceptance, or when the 3-hour window ends without action, BlueScroll instructs Stripe to release the seller's proceeds.
Payout timing to the seller's bank then follows Stripe's payout schedule.
New sellers may have payouts held briefly (typically to the next day) below a completed-deal threshold while they build a track record. This is a payout schedule, not a fee: the seller keeps the full listing price either way.
The held payment itself is never touched before release or refund.
If the courier loses or damages the item after picking it up, the seller is still paid in full once we confirm it (Section 3, "Lost or damaged in courier transit").
If the courier marks the item delivered, the buyer tells us it never came, and no courier photo shows it at the door, the seller is paid in full when the buyer is refunded, with no wait for us to confirm it (Section 3, "Marked delivered, but it never came").

7. Chargebacks

We ask buyers to use the in-Service return and claims process before initiating a card chargeback. It is almost always faster, and it does not affect your rights. Nothing in this Policy waives any right you have under card-network rules or applicable law to dispute a charge.
Acceptance includes automatic acceptance: a transaction the buyer accepted, or that was automatically accepted after the 3-hour inspection window, is an accepted transaction. Filing a chargeback on an accepted transaction, or filing chargebacks the card network resolves as unfounded, may result in account closure for abuse of the Service.
Vessel responds to payment disputes with transaction evidence: the listing, the courier pickup and delivery records, and acceptance records. By transacting, both parties consent to this evidence being shared with the payment processor and card networks.
If a chargeback or payment dispute is lost on a transaction after funds were released to the seller, BlueScroll covers the loss. We do not charge the seller for it, take it out of the seller's future payouts, or invoice the seller. The one exception is a dispute we can prove the seller caused through their own fraud, or by working with the buyer to cheat. Then we may recover the loss from money we would otherwise pay that seller. We never invoice a seller for a chargeback (ToS §11).

8. Questions

Contact support@bluescroll.com. Nothing in this Policy limits any non-waivable rights you have under applicable law.