FLIP/GIFT
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Honest disclosure

Risks & How We Handle Them

FlipGift runs one product: escrow deals. The seller keeps their gift card and uses it to place the buyer’s order; the buyer’s money is held until the parcel arrives. That design removes the one risk this market is built on — a card code changing hands — and leaves a different, smaller set that this page lists without softening.

Removed by design

No card code ever moves

We never ask for a gift card number, a PIN, a photo of the card or a balance screenshot — not from sellers, not from buyers — and we do not store any. Even a complete database breach could not leak a single card code, because there are none to leak.

This is the whole reason the platform is shaped the way it is. A gift card is a bearer instrument: whoever knows the code can spend it, and the previous owner still knows it after any handoff. That is not a flaw in one company’s process, it is the model every buy-back site runs on — and it is why a dispute over a drained balance can never be settled by anyone. The full argument, and why “instant” buyouts cannot be safe.

What it costs: patience. A deal is a real retail order moving through a real carrier, so it completes in shipping time — not in minutes. Everything below is the risk that remains once the code risk is gone.
The main one

Every stage has a deadline, and silence is a decision

Nothing on FlipGift waits for you indefinitely. Each stage has a clock, and when it runs out the system acts on its own — usually in favour of whoever did respond. This is the single most important thing to know about using the platform, and the most common way a deal goes wrong for somebody who did nothing else wrong.

Buyer: 1 hour to fund
A matched deal has to be paid for within an hour or it expires and the seller’s card goes back on the market. If your balance already covers it, we pay it automatically the moment the match is made.
Seller: 3 hours to accept, 3 to prove
A funded store order gives you 3 hours to accept or decline from the moment you open it, and 12 hours at most if you never do. Accepting starts one more 3-hour window to have the order placed and the proof uploaded. Declining before the deadline is free the first time — saying nothing is what costs: the buyer is refunded, you take a strike and every offer pauses for 72 hours.
Buyer: 72 hours to inspect
Once the parcel is delivered you have 72 hours to open it and speak up. If something is wrong, press “Report a problem” — that is what freezes the money. Say nothing and the payment releases to the seller automatically.
Shipping: 5 days, then review
The seller has 5 days to ship after ordering. A parcel still in transit after 10 days is marked delivered automatically, which starts the inspection window — so a lost parcel needs you to report it, not to wait.
Restaurant orders: 10 minutes to accept, 15 to place
A food order runs in minutes, not days. The seller has 10 minutes to accept and 15 to place it in the app; an order nobody answers moves to the next seller and is cancelled after three, with nothing charged. Once the app shows it delivered, you have about an hour to press “I got it” or “Report a problem” — silence releases the payment. On DoorDash, Uber Eats and Instacart the courier calls the seller, not you: your drop-off note is what gets the food to the door.
Bookings: 1 hour to accept, 2 to book, paid after the trip
On a flight, hotel, ride or ticket deal the seller has 1 hour from opening the request (4 at most) to accept and 2 hours to book it in your name and enter the confirmation; you then have 24 hours to find it on the brand’s site. On flights and hotels the seller is paid only the day after your trip date — a booking that vanishes before then is still refundable, but only if you report it from the deal.
If you take one thing from this page: when something is wrong, say so before the window closes. Every protection here is triggered by somebody speaking up, and every automatic outcome assumes the silence meant consent.
Disputes

How a dispute is actually decided

When either side reports a problem, the money stops moving and the deal goes to review. What happens next is worth stating plainly, because most platforms do not:

  • An automated arbiter rules first. It waits about ten minutes — the other side is usually still typing — then reads the whole deal file: the messages, the order proof, the address match, the timings and both parties’ records. It writes a decision and the reasons for it, and both of you see the same text.
  • The ruling is published before it is carried out. There is a half-hour gap between the decision appearing in your deal chat and it taking effect, so nothing happens that you have not read first.
  • Above $1,000, a person decides. Rulings that would move more than that are never carried out automatically — they wait for our team. Our team can also pull back any ruling below that line before it executes, and will say so in the chat when they do.
  • The evidence is what you put in the deal. The order confirmation, the receipt total, the address on the proof, the tracking number and the chat are the entire case file. If it is not in the deal, it is not evidence — send photos and details through the deal chat, not by email.
Why an automated first pass, honestly: it reads the file in minutes rather than in a working day, and it applies the same rules to everyone. It is also, like any such system, capable of being wrong — which is why it publishes its reasoning, waits before acting, and stops entirely above $1,000.
Your money

Where the money sits, and what limits apply

Escrowed, not sent
A buyer’s payment is locked in escrow, not handed to the seller. It is released on confirmed delivery, refunded if the order never happens, and frozen the moment either side reports a problem. The whole cost is a flat 5% fee, split evenly — 2.5% from each side.
Limits that grow with history
New accounts start at $2,000 per deal and $4,000 per day, rising to $10,000 and $40,000 as completed deals accumulate. The cap is on the deal, so a large order simply will not match an account that has not got there yet.
Withdrawals are reviewed
Every withdrawal is reviewed by a person, and crypto withdrawals carry a security hold — 48 hours on a new account, down to 6 hours on an established one. That friction is deliberate: it is most of what makes a stolen balance recoverable.
A balance is not a bank account
Money you hold with us sits in our internal ledger against your account. It is not FDIC-insured and it earns no interest. A fifth of our fee goes into a loss-provision pool, but it is a young and small pool — treat it as a buffer we are building, not as insurance you are covered by.
Conduct

What gets an account restricted

The rules that protect a buyer are the same rules that can catch a seller having a bad week, so they are worth reading before you list:

  • Silence on a paid order costs the most. Six hours without an answer and your other offers come off the market until you reply. Let the full day run out and the buyer is refunded, your account takes a strike, and every offer you have is paused for 72 hours.
  • Strikes accumulate and then decay. Enough of them pauses your whole shop front; more than that stops new listings until a person reviews the account. Nothing is deleted at any point, and every strike has an expiry date you can see on the Sell page.
  • Card codes and contact details do not belong in the chat. Deal messages are screened. Posting a card number, or trying to move the deal off the platform, is a conduct matter — and a card code posted in a chat is a card you have just given away.
  • You cannot fill your own order, and after a cancelled deal we will not match the same two people again straight away. You can also block someone permanently, and the block is silent and mutual — the other side is never told.
Our limits

What we can’t guarantee

  • We can’t make shipping instant. Deals are real retail orders moving through real carriers. Deadlines and automatic refunds cover the downside if delivery never happens — they don’t make the wait shorter.
  • We don’t track parcels ourselves. We record the carrier and tracking number and check the seller’s order proof against the buyer’s address, but we do not poll carrier APIs. Until a parcel arrives, tracking is the seller’s claim, not a confirmation.
  • Product problems follow the store’s rules. The order placed for a buyer is a normal retail purchase, so returns, warranties and exchanges run through the store’s own policy — not through us.
  • We can’t check a gift card’s balance. We never see the code, which is the point — but it also means a seller’s card is their claim until they spend it. If it turns out to be short at checkout, that surfaces as a failed order, not as something we caught in advance.
  • We are a small marketplace. There may be no buyer for your brand this week, or no seller big enough for your order. The live market shows exactly what is there before you commit to anything.
The vast majority of deals complete cleanly. When one doesn’t, the money is still sitting in escrow — which is the whole point — and there is a documented decision before any of it moves.

Still with us?

If you would rather read the risks than be sold past them — that is the same thinking the mechanics are built on.