TL;DR
Buyer protection only covers payments made within Commversar — paying a merchant directly outside the platform means you lose order protection. For in-platform payments, Commversar holds your money in escrow until you confirm your order is fulfilled (failing to do so, if reported by the merchant, can get your account suspended and your funds withheld). You can cancel and get an automatic refund, withdrawable to M-Pesa, any time before your order ships. If a merchant won't honor their stated return policy or agreed refund terms, we can intervene, including suspending their account and withholding their funds.
About This Policy
This policy explains how Commversar protects you as a buyer: how your payment is held, when you can cancel, and when we'll step in if a merchant treats you unfairly.
This protection only applies to orders paid for within Commversar, using Pay on Order or Pay on Delivery (Section 2). We strongly discourage paying a merchant directly outside the platform. Product and service pages, merchant pages, and order pages list merchant contact channels for communication — not for arranging payment. If you pay a merchant directly through one of these channels instead of through Commversar, you lose your rights to order protection: we cannot hold that payment in escrow, refund a cancellation, or intervene on your behalf, because Commversar never processed the transaction. Everything below assumes your payment went through Commversar.
For what you get back once a return happens, see our Refunds Policy . For how to physically return an item, see our Shipping and Returns Policy . This policy works alongside our Terms of Use .
How Escrow Works
Commversar offers two payment modes, clearly stated on each product or service page:
- •Pay on Order — you pay at the time of ordering.
- •Pay on Delivery — you pay when the item is delivered. (All services are Pay on Delivery.)
Both modes are processed via M-Pesa through Commversar.
In both modes, Commversar holds your payment in escrow — the merchant does not receive it until you mark your order as fulfilled. Payment held on an active order is not withdrawable; it only becomes available to you if the order is cancelled or a refund is issued.
You're required to mark your order as fulfilled once you've received it. If a merchant reports that you've failed to do this, your account becomes eligible for suspension and withholding of your funds.
Cancelling Before Shipping
As long as your order hasn't started shipping, you can cancel it. If you already paid, the amount is automatically credited back to your Commversar wallet, and wallet funds can always be withdrawn to M-Pesa.
Once an order has started shipping, it can no longer be cancelled this way. To return an item after it has shipped, see our Refunds Policy .
When We Intervene
We can intervene when a merchant treats you unfairly. This covers two distinct situations:
- •The merchant won't honor their stated return policy. This is a Returns matter — see the Shipping and Returns Policy, Section 6 , for what counts as adequate proof.
- •The merchant won't honor refund terms you both agreed on (an unfair deal). This is a Refunds matter — see the Refunds Policy , Section 4, for what counts as adequate proof.
Where we find a merchant has acted unfairly in either case, we can take action against them, including:
- •Suspending the merchant's account
- •Withholding the merchant's funds held in escrow
Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. Changes will be posted with an updated "Last Updated" date. Continued use of Commversar means you accept the updated policy.
Questions about this policy or to request intervention? Contact us at [email protected] .