Buyer Protection Policy

What buyer protection covers and what it does not

SMProud's buyer protection covers the period from escrow deposit through buyer confirmation of a clean transfer. Within that window, funds remain in escrow and cannot be released to the seller without the buyer's explicit confirmation that the three release conditions have been met. If the deal fails during that window — credentials do not work, recovery transfer is incomplete, the seller stops responding, the analytics differ materially from what the listing showed — the buyer can open a dispute and the funds remain held while the case is reviewed. Outside that window, after release has occurred, buyer protection is structurally limited because the marketplace no longer holds the funds and the platform-side action that triggered the buyer's concern is not within SMProud's control.

The dispute categories and how each is reviewed

• "Seller stopped responding mid-handover." The most common dispute category. Triggered when 72+ hours pass without seller action after the buyer has signaled readiness to receive. Review staff reach out to the seller with a deadline; if the seller does not respond, funds return to the buyer.
• "Credentials work but recovery transfer is incomplete." Triggered when the buyer can log in but the recovery email or phone number on the account still belongs to the seller. Review staff direct the seller to complete the recovery transfer; if the seller refuses or cannot, funds return to the buyer.
• "Analytics shown in listing differ materially from what the buyer sees post-access." Triggered when the buyer accesses the account and finds the dashboard numbers (subscriber count, watch hours, engagement rate) differ from what the listing's verified recording showed. Review staff compare the recording-snapshot to the current dashboard, account for normal day-to-day drift, and make a determination. Material discrepancies (5%+ on follower counts, 10%+ on engagement metrics) usually result in a partial refund or full return of funds, depending on the magnitude.
• "Account suspended during the escrow window." Triggered when the platform suspends the account between escrow open and buyer confirmation. If the suspension is unrelated to the transfer and predates the deal, the seller's listing was inaccurate and funds return to the buyer. If the suspension occurred because of the transfer activity (rapid login pattern changes, geographic IP shifts), responsibility allocation depends on the specifics.
• "Buyer is delaying confirmation without cause." Triggered by the seller when the buyer has access and recovery transfer is complete but is not confirming. Review staff request the buyer's specific concern; if no specific concern materializes within 96 hours, funds release to the seller.

What happens after release

Once funds release, the buyer's protection through SMProud ends. This is the structural limit of any escrow-based protection — the marketplace can hold funds while the deal is in flight, but cannot recover funds after they have moved to the seller's controlled account. There are three secondary protection layers buyers can lean on after release:

• Credit-card chargeback rights, if the buyer funded escrow with a major credit card. The chargeback window depends on the issuer (typically 60–120 days). This is the strongest secondary protection layer.
• Platform-side dispute mechanisms, for buyers whose post-release issue is with the platform's behavior (suspension, monetization change, restriction). SMProud cannot resolve a platform's actions, but we can provide the buyer with the documentation needed to make a case to the platform.
• Civil legal recourse against the seller, for cases of clear fraud where the seller misrepresented the asset. SMProud retains transaction records and seller identity verification documents that may be subpoena-accessible to support such cases.

The post-release reclamation risk and how to avoid it

The single most expensive failure mode that occurs after release is post-sale reclamation — the seller using a residual recovery vector to take the account back days or weeks after the deal closed. This happens almost exclusively when the buyer confirmed without verifying that the seller was removed from the recovery chain. SMProud's release conditions are structured to prevent this; the third condition (seller no longer in any recovery position) exists specifically because we have seen this failure repeatedly when escrow released without that check. Buyers who want to minimize post-release reclamation risk should treat the recovery-removal verification as the most important step in the deal, not as a footnote.

Refund mechanics when a deal fails

Refunds for failed deals process within 48 hours of the dispute resolution. The refund returns to the original payment method — funds wired in return as wire, USDC in return as USDC, ACH in return as ACH, card payments in return as card credit. The marketplace fee is not retained on failed deals; if the deal does not close, neither party owes us anything. Partial refunds (when the dispute resolves with a price adjustment rather than full failure) process the adjustment back to the buyer and the reduced amount to the seller, with the fee calculated on the adjusted gross.

Related operational pages

• How escrow works
• Formal refund policy
• How listings get verified