It's the fear behind almost every first purchase on any online marketplace: you pay, and then nothing happens. Here's exactly what actually happens on vendor, and why it isn't as frightening as it sounds.
The one thing to understand first
When you pay for something on vendor, that money doesn't go to the seller immediately. It's held — genuinely held in escrow — until you confirm, inside the app, that you actually received your order. The seller only gets paid after that confirmation, never before it.
Which means: if your order never shows up, the money hasn't gone anywhere yet either.
What to actually do, in order
• 1. Don't confirm receipt. This is the single most important thing. Confirming is what releases payment — if you haven't actually gotten what you paid for, don't tap it, no matter how much time has passed or how many times you're asked to.
• 2. Message the seller first. Sometimes it's a genuine delay, not a problem — ask directly, in the order's own chat, where things stand.
• 3. If that doesn't resolve it, raise a dispute. This flags the order for review while your payment stays exactly where it's been the whole time: held, not released to anyone.
What not to do
• Don't confirm receipt just to “see what happens” or because a seller is pressuring you to — confirming is the one action that actually ends your protection on that order.
• Don't move the conversation outside the app to sort it out — keep it in the order's own chat, where there's a real record of what was actually said.
• Don't wait indefinitely without saying anything — raising it promptly gives whoever reviews it more to work with than a dispute filed long after the fact.
What happens after you raise it
The order gets looked into, with the actual conversation history between you and the seller as real context — not just your word against theirs from scratch. From there, it resolves one of two ways: refunded back to you, or released to the seller, depending on what the situation actually shows.
If the seller themselves agrees something went wrong, they can also refund you directly and immediately, without needing to wait on a formal review at all.
The same protection applies either way
Wrong item, damaged item, or nothing at all — the process is the same. For warning signs worth catching before you ever get to this point, see How to Spot a Fake Listing Before You Pay.
The honest truth about any marketplace is that most orders arrive exactly as expected. But knowing precisely what to do on the day one doesn't is what makes it safe to buy from someone you've never met before — not a promise that nothing will ever go wrong, but a real, working process for when it does.