Your money waits until the item does
You pay us, not the seller. We hold it, and the seller is paid only after the item reaches you and you say so. If it never arrives, or it is not what was described, the money comes back.
What that looks like, step by step
You pay
Card or transferBy card, or by transfer to an account number generated for that single order when one is available. Either way the money goes into an escrow balance we hold — not into the seller's wallet, and not into our revenue.
The seller dispatches
Within 5 daysThey have 5 days to hand the parcel over. If they miss that deadline the order is cancelled automatically and you are refunded — you do not have to chase it, and you do not have to ask us.
It reaches you
You say soThe seller sends it with a rider and gives us the rider's number, which you will see on your order. When it arrives, you are the one who tells us — not the seller — so nobody can mark your parcel delivered from their sofa.
You confirm, or you say something is wrong
48 hoursFrom the moment delivery is reported you have 48 hours. Confirm and the seller is paid immediately. Report a problem and the money stays exactly where it is until a person has looked at it.
Say nothing and it completes on its own at the end of the window — which is the one part of this worth reading twice. The clock is there so a seller who did everything right is not left unpaid by silence.
What you pay
Three things, and we show all three before you pay: the item, delivery, and a buyer protection fee. Nothing is added afterwards.
On an item of ₦18,000 that comes to ₦21,300. Those figures are computed on this page by the same function that charges your card, so they cannot drift from what you are actually asked for.
The protection fee is what pays for holding your money safely and for somebody reading your dispute. It is not insurance and we are not an insurer — what it buys you is the escrow and the process on this page, nothing broader.
What counts as a problem
These are the reasons you can choose from when you report one:
- It never arrived
- Not what was described
- It arrived damaged
- It's a fake
- Something was missing
- Something else
You can open a dispute from the moment the parcel is in transit until the 48-hour window closes. What we can decide, and what each outcome does to the money.
Once an order completes and the seller has been paid, we cannot pull the money back. That is the honest limit of escrow: it protects the gap between paying and receiving, and that gap closes when you confirm or when the window runs out.
Keep it on 9jaCycle
Phone numbers and links are hidden in messages — both directions, sellers and buyers alike, before an order and after it. Not to be difficult: an item you pay for outside 9jaCycle has none of this. No escrow, no courier we can chase, no dispute for anyone to read.
Delivery never needs them: once an order is paid, the buyer gets the rider's number and the seller gets the delivery phone, on the order itself, for as long as it is on its way. Collecting in person is arranged in the chat. Staff can reach everyone involved if something goes wrong.
Verified sellers
Some sellers carry a verified badge, which means we have checked a government ID against the name on the account. It is worth looking for, especially on expensive items.
It is not the thing protecting you, though. Every order on 9jaCycle goes through the escrow above whether the seller is verified or not, and you can filter the shop to verified sellers only if you would rather.