Escrow & Refund Policy

Doc Ref: TIL-ERP-001  |  Version 1.1  |  22 October 2026

1. The short version

• The buyer pays into a dedicated escrow account — not to the seller.
• The seller is paid only after the buyer confirms the item arrived, or after the checking time ends with no problem reported.
• If something goes wrong, the buyer taps Report a problem and the money is frozen until the problem is settled.
• If the seller never delivers, the buyer gets their money back.

2. Fees

Trustiva charges 1.5% of the item price to the buyer and 1.5% to the seller on each order, and never more than ₦10,000 for each side, however big the order. Both amounts are shown before anyone agrees: the buyer sees the total to pay, and the seller sees exactly what they will receive. There are no other Trustiva charges for buyers or sellers.

For high-value commercial escrows (such as vehicles and property), any independent verification — for example a property title search or a vehicle inspection — is charged separately and is not part of the ₦10,000 cap. You will see any such cost and agree to it before it is incurred.

3. Paying for an order

• Each order has its own payment details. Pay the exact total shown, from a bank account in your own name.
• An order that is not paid within 72 hours is cancelled automatically.
• If only part of the total is paid and the rest doesn't arrive within 72 hours, the part payment is refunded to the buyer.
• Never pay a seller directly, and never pay into an account that wasn't given to you by Trustiva in your Trustiva chat.

4. Delivery and checking the item

• Once the payment is in escrow, the seller is told and delivers the item.
• When the seller marks the order as sent, the buyer is told and has time to receive and check the item: 72 hours for orders made on WhatsApp and 48 hours for orders made in the app, counted from when it was marked sent.
• If it's right, the buyer taps I got my item and the seller is paid.
• If the buyer neither confirms nor reports a problem within that time, the payment is released to the seller automatically, subject to the check below.
• Before any payment is released, the buyer confirms their identity (BVN) once, and the bank account the payment came from must be in the buyer's verified name. If it isn't — for example, someone else paid on the buyer's behalf — the payment stays in escrow until our team has checked it with the person who paid. This protects buyers from fake-seller scams.

5. Reporting a problem (disputes)

A buyer can report a problem any time after paying and before the payment is released — for example: the item didn't arrive, it isn't as described, the wrong item came, it's damaged or suspected fake, or the seller has stopped responding. Sellers can also raise a dispute, for example if a buyer won't confirm an item that was delivered.

As soon as a dispute is opened, the money is frozen. Nothing is released or refunded until it is settled.

• The other side has 24 hours to respond and share their evidence (photos, delivery receipts, tracking, chat records).
• If the seller doesn't respond in time, the buyer is refunded automatically.
• Item not received: if the seller has given no proof of shipment within 5 days of the payment, the buyer is refunded.
• Delivered but not confirmed: if the checking time has passed and the buyer has given no evidence of a problem, the payment is released to the seller.
• Disputes over ₦200,000, suspected counterfeit items, and anything not settled by the rules above are decided by a member of the Trustiva team after looking at both sides' evidence.
• We aim to settle standard disputes within 48 hours, and larger commercial escrows (such as vehicles or property) within 5 business days.

The outcome is either a full refund to the buyer or full payment to the seller. Both sides are told the decision, and every decision is recorded with its reason.

6. Refunds

• Refunds are paid to the buyer's bank account on file with Trustiva.
• Refunds are sent as soon as the decision is made; bank transfers in Nigeria usually arrive within minutes, but can occasionally take up to 24 hours.
• If a refund can't be completed (for example, the bank account details are wrong), we will contact you and retry once the details are corrected.

7. Orders started by a buyer

A buyer can start an order on WhatsApp and send it to their seller. No money moves until the seller accepts and the buyer confirms it's the right seller and price. An order nobody completes expires after 7 days, and can be cancelled at any time before it is accepted.

8. What escrow can't protect against

• Payments made outside Trustiva — directly to a seller, or to an account not given to you in your Trustiva chat.
• Confirming that you received an item before you actually checked it. Once you confirm, the payment is released and can't be reversed by Trustiva.
• Items that are illegal or prohibited under our Terms of Service.

9. Fraud and safety

To protect everyone, Trustiva may hold a payment for review, ask for identity verification, or decline an order where we see signs of fraud, as allowed by our Terms and Nigerian law. We will tell you when this happens, unless the law says we can't.

10. Getting help

On WhatsApp, type support to talk to a person on the Trustiva team, or email support@trustiva.ng with your order reference (it starts with TX-). If you're unhappy with how a complaint was handled, see section 11 of our Terms of Service.