How can we help?

Three steps, and you can stop at any of them.

1. Agree a price. Buy at the asking price, or make an offer and talk to the seller in the deal chat.
2. Pay safely. Your money goes to Trustap, not the seller. The listing is then reserved for you.
3. Get the item and check it. Collect it or have it sent. Once you are happy, the seller is paid.

Nothing is committed until you pay. Saving, messaging and making an offer all reserve nothing.

Yes, and you should. Many sellers offer viewing times you can book from the listing.

For anything expensive, the sensible order is: view it, agree the price, then pay. Trustap holding the money protects the handover — it is not a substitute for looking at the thing.

Not right now. Reserved means another buyer has already paid through Trustap, and the item has not been handed over yet.

It is worth saving, though. If that deal falls through, the listing comes straight back on sale and you will see it here again.

An offer on its own does not reserve anything. Until somebody actually pays, a listing stays open to everyone — so if it does not say Reserved, you can still buy it.

Sold means the handover has happened. Sold listings stay visible for a week so you can see what things go for, then they leave the marketplace.

Create a listing with honest photos and an honest description, set your price, and say whether you will post it or want it collected.

Buyers can buy outright or make an offer. When you accept, the buyer pays, Trustap holds the money, and you will see the money confirmed as held before you hand anything over.

Never hand over an item before you can see the money is held. That is the one rule that keeps sellers safe here.

Because you are going to receive other people's money, and the law that governs payment companies requires it. Trustap runs the check, not us — we never see or hold your documents.

It also does something useful for you: a verified seller gets a shield on their listings, and buyers are far more willing to send money to one.

An accepted offer holds the listing for a limited time. If the buyer does not pay within it, the hold lapses automatically and your listing goes back on sale — you do not have to chase anyone.

Nothing is taken from either side when a deal lapses.

If you have paid for a marketplace item, your money is held by Trustap — not by Piston Tribe and not by the seller. Trustap is a regulated payment company whose entire job is to hold money until both sides have done their part.

The seller cannot touch it. We cannot touch it. It is released to the seller once you have the item and have had a chance to check it, or returned to you if the deal falls through.

You can see the current state of any deal on its page in your offers.

Yes. When you pay on Piston Tribe, your money is held by Trustap, our independent payment partner, not by the seller. The seller is only paid once you’ve got the item and confirmed it’s as described.

You only ever pay through Piston Tribe: never pay a seller directly or through a link they send you.

After the buyer has the item and the complaint window has passed without a problem being raised. Until then the money sits with Trustap.

That wait is the whole point — it is what lets a buyer hand over £8,000 to a stranger in a car park, and it is why sellers get buyers they would never otherwise get.

Piston Tribe charges the seller a commission on a completed sale. Trustap charges its own fee for holding and moving the money, which is shown to the buyer before they pay.

• Marketplace sale up to £1,000: 3.4%. Our share of the seller’s 6.4% fee. The rest is Trustap’s processing fee, 3% + 35p.
• Marketplace sale over £1,000: flat fee by deal size. A flat fee by deal size, paid by the seller (£27.25 to £351), plus a buyer protection fee of £19 to £99 on the deposit.
• Vehicles: max £500. All fees on a vehicle sale, added together.
• The shop: retail margin. We buy stock and sell it, like any retailer.
• Community and joining: free. Forum, tribes, guides and your account.

Every figure is shown in full on the review screen before anyone commits — you will never find a fee after the fact. If a number on a screen does not match what you expected, tell us and we will explain it.

Above a certain value, card payments stop being practical — card limits, fees and fraud checks all get in the way of a £12,000 vehicle.

So high-value deals are split: a deposit by card to secure the item, then the balance by bank transfer. Both are held by Trustap exactly as a single payment would be, and the seller is paid only once you have the item.

Before handover. If the deal is cancelled, the full item price comes back to you — every penny you paid for the thing itself. Trustap's fees are not refunded: they were charged for work already done.

On a high-value deal paid in two parts, both parts come back — the card deposit and the bank transfer.

After handover. Once you have confirmed you have the item, a cancellation is no longer possible. What you have instead is a window to raise a problem before the money is released to the seller. Raise it in the deal and Trustap decides.

A marketplace purchase is not a shop purchase. There is no 14-day change-of-mind right on a private sale, because you are buying from another member rather than from a business. Buying from the Piston Tribe shop is different — see the shop returns answer.

Trustap starts the refund within about an hour of the cancellation going through. After that it is your bank's timing, not ours:

• Card: usually 2–3 working days.
• Bank transfer: usually 3–5 working days.
• A card issued outside the UK: up to 10 working days.

We quote 5–10 working days on the deal screen on purpose. It is better to tell you the slow end and have it arrive early than the other way round when it is your money.

The money goes back to the card or account it came from. It cannot be sent somewhere else.

The item price is yours and comes back in full. The fees do not, because the work they paid for has already happened: the payment was processed, the money was held securely, and the protection was in place for as long as the deal ran.

This is Trustap's policy, not a Piston Tribe decision — the same rule applies to every platform that uses them.

On a deal paid in two parts there were two payments, so there were two sets of processing fees, and neither is refunded.

If you think a deal was cancelled unfairly, say so in the deal and we will look at it. We would rather hear about it than have you quietly decide the site took your money.

Once money is in, a deal is not cancelled by one person alone. Both sides have to agree — that is deliberate, so nobody can pull out from under the other after a commitment.

Once it is agreed, the cancellation goes through immediately and your refund is queued straight away. You do not wait on a review.

Once the handover is confirmed, cancelling is not possible at all. From that point the route is to raise a problem inside the complaint window, which is a different thing: Trustap looks at it and decides.

If the seller will not agree and you think they should, raise it in the deal rather than waiting. A deal nobody is moving is the one situation we most want to hear about.

Meet somewhere public and in daylight. Take someone with you if the item is valuable.

Do not pay in cash and do not accept cash. The moment money moves outside the platform, neither of you has any protection at all — and that is exactly the situation the person trying to scam you wants.

Check the item properly before confirming handover. Once you confirm, the clock on the money starts.