Disputes and safety FAQ

Trust is what makes a B2B platform usable. The structural protections, dispute mechanics and safety mechanisms behind every transaction.

What protects my money on Haubot?

Layered:

1. Counterparty verification. Every business profile that transacts goes through identity verification — see What the verified badge means.
2. Document trail. Every claim a seller makes (description, photos, parameters, attached docs) is recorded with timestamps and, for sealed UnitVault snapshots, with SHA-256 hashes.
3. Independent inspection. Haubot Inspect lets a third party verify what the seller claims before money moves.
4. Escrow. SecureTrade holds funds against agreed milestones — payment doesn't release if the milestones don't.
5. Structured dispute process. When something does go wrong, the rounds-based arbitration model walks both parties through evidence submission and reaches a binding outcome.

The combination is the point. Verification without escrow is half a system; escrow without inspection is the other half.

How do I open a dispute?

Two surfaces depending on the transaction:

• SecureTrade dispute — from the active transaction view in your dashboard, the "Open dispute" action initiates a case. You'll be asked to pick the dispute type (asset doesn't match description, asset not delivered, document discrepancy, etc.) and submit your evidence.
• Auction dispute — for auction-related issues (winning bidder didn't pay, seller didn't deliver), see Auction disputes. Same evidence-submission pattern, scoped to auction-specific outcomes.

Once opened, the other party is notified and given a window to respond. The dispute moves through rounds — initial evidence, counter-evidence, arbitrator decision, optional appeal — toward a binding resolution.

What evidence is useful in a dispute?

Things the dispute team can independently verify:

• Sealed UnitVault snapshots — proves what documents were shared and when.
• Inspection reports filed via Haubot Inspect — the inspection company is an independent party and their report is treated as primary evidence.
• On-platform Messenger threads — full transcript with timestamps, can't be edited after the fact.
• Photos and videos — particularly from the inspection or from the handover.
• Carrier-issued proof of delivery / non-delivery — when relevant.
• Customs documentation — when the dispute involves cross-border issues.

Things that count less:

• WhatsApp screenshots, emails, off-platform documents — can be helpful but are weaker evidence than on-platform records (anything can be screenshotted, edited or generated).
• "He told me on a phone call" — no record, hard to weigh.
• Strong feelings — please leave these in your living room. The dispute team can't act on them.

This is why we keep saying stay on-platform. Off-platform evidence is the weakest evidence.

How long does dispute resolution take?

Depends on complexity:

• Clear-cut cases (one party simply didn't deliver, or evidence is one-sided) — typically resolved in a few business days.
• Contested cases with multiple rounds — 1-3 weeks while both parties submit evidence and the arbitrator deliberates.
• Cross-border with customs / regulatory questions — sometimes longer, because waiting on customs records or external verification can add weeks.

Funds in escrow stay locked during the dispute — neither party can withdraw. This is intentional: it keeps both sides motivated to engage with the process rather than walking away.

What happens if I lose a dispute?

The arbitrator's decision specifies:

• What funds go where — full release to one party, partial split, refund.
• What documents transfer — title, etc., if part of the resolution.
• Any reputation impact — disputes that result in clear seller-side fault are recorded against the seller's profile; same for buyer-side fault.

The decision is binding within the SecureTrade transaction. If you genuinely believe the decision is wrong, see escalation below.

Can disputes be escalated?

Yes, once. The initial dispute rounds happen between you, the counterparty and the assigned arbitrator. If either side rejects the decision, the case can be escalated to a senior arbitrator who reviews the full evidence record and the original decision, then issues a final binding outcome. There's no further escalation after that — at some point, the deal needs to close one way or the other.

The escalated decision is final on the platform. If you want to pursue the matter further (e.g., in court), the on-platform record is available to you as evidence.

What if the other party stops responding?

Common pattern: a counterparty goes silent mid-deal. The platform handles this:

• For active SecureTrade transactions — if one party doesn't respond to milestone events within the agreed window, the platform auto-prompts and ultimately can resolve in favour of the responding party. Specifics depend on which milestone is stuck.
• For ongoing disputes — if one party doesn't engage in the dispute process within the response window, the case proceeds and may resolve in the engaged party's favour by default.
• For non-transaction silence — a seller who's gone dark on a listing's messenger thread isn't a dispute case; it's just unresponsive. Move on to the next candidate.

Bottom line: disengagement doesn't win a dispute. Engagement does.

Is there a blacklist of bad actors?

Internally, yes — the platform maintains records of profiles that have lost disputes, that have been verified-and-then-de-verified, that have been linked to fraud reports. These are weighted into the trust-scoring shown to other counterparties (response rates, completion rates, dispute history). Profiles with severe issues are removed from the platform entirely.

We don't publish a "wall of shame" — public shaming creates legal exposure for the platform and doesn't help anyone make better decisions. The signals are in the trust-scoring on every profile.

What if I get scammed off-platform?

We can't do much — the protection mechanisms only kick in when you use the platform's flows. Off-platform deals between Haubot users that go wrong:

• The platform can't intermediate (we have no transaction record).
• The platform can't release escrowed funds (none were ever escrowed).
• Reports of fraud will be investigated and may result in the offending profile being removed, which protects future users from the same actor. But your specific deal is between you and your jurisdiction's legal system.

This is why everything we publish strongly recommends staying on-platform end-to-end.

How does Haubot vet sellers?

At onboarding: identity verification, registration validation, contact verification, sanctions screening. See What the verified badge means.

Continuously after: response rates, transaction completion rates, dispute outcomes, review patterns, sanction-list updates. Significant changes (newly-flagged registration, repeated dispute losses, sanctions hits) trigger re-verification or removal.

This isn't a recommendation system — Haubot doesn't tell you which sellers are good. The verification confirms they exist; the reviews and trust signals tell you how they've performed. Both are visible on every profile.

Can a buyer cancel mid-transaction?

Mutually with the seller — yes, any time before delivery. Funds return to the buyer.

Unilaterally — no. Once SecureTrade is open and the seller is performing (e.g., shipping has been arranged, inspection has been done), the buyer can't simply walk away. If the buyer has genuine grounds, that's a dispute case — open one. If the buyer just changed their mind, the seller is owed reasonable cancellation terms (typically what's been spent so far on the deal).

What if the asset is damaged in shipping?

Carrier responsibility — claim is filed with the carrier under the freight contract. Standard cargo insurance covers most cases.

For the platform side: if damage is discovered on receipt, mark the "delivered" milestone as contested rather than accepted. Open a dispute referencing the carrier's damage report and any inspection photos. The dispute process will sort out whether the seller bears any responsibility (e.g., if packaging was inadequate) or whether it's purely a carrier issue.

Don't accept "delivered" on a damaged asset and then try to dispute later — once delivered is accepted and the final SecureTrade milestone clears, recovery is much harder.