A marketplace with no position is a marketplace that sides with whoever complains loudest. So here is ours, with the reasoning, because a rule you can predict is worth more than a rule that is merely fair.
The one thing that is not negotiable
The money is held until the item arrives. Everything else here is a judgement call; this is not. A buyer and a seller who have never met need something standing between them, and it has to be structural rather than a promise.
That single mechanism is what makes it reasonable to bid on a stranger's item. Remove it and no amount of policy writing replaces it.
Where we step in
When the facts are checkable. Did it arrive? Was it as described? Was it sent at all? These have answers, and we decide them — within 48 hours of a dispute being opened, on the evidence both sides give.
When somebody's safety or money is at risk. Counterfeits, stolen goods, a seller collecting payment off the platform, an account that is not who it says it is.
When the product itself misled somebody. If a screen said something untrue, that is ours to fix and ours to absorb.
Where we do not
Taste. If an item sold for more than you think it was worth, that is not a fault. An auction is a room of people revealing what they will pay, and a price you dislike is still a price.
A seller's prices, or their stock. We are not a buyer for the goods; we are the place the goods are sold. Setting prices would make us responsible for the trade and worse at it than the person who knows it.
Regret. Changing your mind is not a fault in the item. That is the sharpest line here, and the one that most often disappoints somebody — a return for a faulty, damaged, wrong or misdescribed item is a right, for 7 days, whatever the store's own policy says. A return because you reconsidered is up to the store.
Somebody's tax position. We say what we charge and what we deduct, in writing. What you owe on your earnings is between you and an accountant, and a marketplace that guessed at that would be doing real harm confidently.
What we owe sellers, specifically
Not being treated as the suspect by default. It is easy for a platform to resolve every argument in the buyer's favour, because buyers are plentiful and sellers are replaceable. It is also how a marketplace quietly becomes a bad place to sell, and then a bad place to buy.
The money, on a schedule, with the deductions visible. Every amount taken off shows against the order that caused it. A balance you cannot explain is a balance you cannot trust.
A rate card, not a surprise. Changes to what you are charged are told to you.
What we owe buyers, specifically
Protection that is real rather than reassuring. The hold, the dispute route, the 7 days.
Not being sold to dishonestly. Promoted placement is labelled as promoted. Search is not quietly for sale.
The truth about what we cannot do. We cannot inspect items before they are sent. We do not hold the stock. Saying otherwise would be the easiest sentence to write on this page and the one that would cost a buyer the most.
Questions people ask
Does the buyer always win a dispute?
No, and a platform where they did would not be a market. It is decided on what each side can show.
Why not just check items before they ship?
Because nothing passes through us. Pretending otherwise would be a promise nobody could keep.
Who pays when Metzee gets it wrong?
We do. That is the point of drawing the line here rather than somewhere more comfortable.
More: what Metzee will not do, how buyer protection works, why trust is the product, Metzee's position on counterfeits.