Marketplace Payment Hold & Refund Policy

When you pay through the Strictly Surf Community Marketplace, your card is authorized at checkout but not charged. The authorization is held by Strictly Surf and is only captured when the seller buys a shipping label and the carrier records its first scan. If the seller never ships, no money ever leaves your account.

You can cancel a marketplace order yourself any time before the seller has purchased a shipping label. From your Marketplace Orders page, open the order and click “Cancel order”. You will be asked for an optional short reason and shown a confirmation. Once confirmed:

• The card authorization is released immediately on our side.
• Your bank typically clears the hold from your available balance within 1 to 7 days. The exact timing is set by your bank, not by Strictly Surf.
• The listing returns to the marketplace so other buyers can purchase it.
• You receive a cancellation confirmation by email.

When the seller buys a shipping label the order is locked in. The order can no longer be canceled by you, by the seller, or by Strictly Surf. The label is a commitment to ship.

If the seller does not actually hand the parcel to the carrier and the carrier never records a first scan, your payment is automatically refunded by the ship-by deadline rule in Section 4. You do not need to do anything to receive that refund.

If the parcel does ship and you decide you no longer want the item, do not refuse the package or open a card chargeback. Wait for the item to arrive and then use the refund and dispute flow on the order, which is the right place for condition or fit complaints.

If the seller does not purchase a label by the listing's ship-by deadline (5 days from order placement), your authorization is voided automatically. You do not need to take any action.

• Detection window: within 30 minutes of the deadline passing, our system runs the auto-cancel job.
• Bank visibility: the hold drops from your available balance within 1 to 7 days, depending on your bank.
• Confirmation: you receive a cancellation email and the order page shows the canceled state.

Strictly Surf is a peer-to-peer marketplace platform. Once a carrier confirms delivery, the transaction between buyer and seller is complete. Strictly Surf is not liable for items that have arrived.

If you receive an item in a condition you did not anticipate, contact the seller directly through your Marketplace Orders messaging thread. Sellers are responsible for accurately describing their items. Disputes about condition are between you and the seller. The structured refund-request and dispute flow is available for arrived items that materially diverge from the listing.

• Buyer's remorse after delivery.
• Cosmetic differences disclosed in the listing.
• Item arrives in a condition different from your expectations.
• Damage caused by the buyer after delivery.
• Items picked up in person without the platform capture flow.

While Strictly Surf is not liable for item condition after delivery, we do take platform safety seriously. If you believe you have encountered counterfeit, fraudulent, or stolen items, or if you have a safety concern, contact Strictly Surf support immediately. These situations are outside the scope of normal buyer-seller disputes and may involve law enforcement.

From your Marketplace Orders page, open the affected order to access the messaging thread with your seller. For cancellation help, automatic refund status, or account issues, contact Strictly Surf support.