Buyer FAQs

A buySAFE merchant is an online retailer that has:

• passed the rigorous buySAFE Inspection Process;
• invited buySAFE to monitor their performance daily; and
• qualified to bond their transactions up to $25,000 from buySAFE and its surety partners — Liberty Mutual, Travelers, and ACE USA or to guarantee your transactions up to $1,000 with a buySAFE guarantee.
• has been approved to provide you with additional benefits when you receive a 3-in-1 Bond Guarantee or a 3-in-1 Guarantee: A 30 days Identity Theft Protection and a Lowest Price Guarantee for 30 days.

A buySAFE Merchant is among the best and most reliable merchants on the Internet.

A transaction can be bonded whenever a buySAFE "Bonded" Seal is present (see below). To be safe, one should always click on the Seal to verify its authenticity.

A transaction is guaranteed whenever the buySAFE "Guaranteed" Seal is present (see below). To be safe, one should always click on the Seal to verify its authenticity.

The buySAFE Bonded Seal is a graphic element that appears throughout a merchant’s site that increases buyer confidence.  It let’s shoppers know the merchant has partnered with buySAFE to:

• Inspect their website operations,
• Monitor their performance daily and
• Offer a 3-in-1 Bond Guarantee option, providing you with:
  - A purchase guarantee, up to $25,000
  - A 30 days Identity Theft Protection
  - A lowest Price Guarantee for 30 days

To be safe, one should always click on a buySAFE Seal to verify its authenticity.

The buySAFE Guaranteed Seal is a graphic element that appears throughout a merchant’s site that increases buyer confidence.  It let’s shoppers know the merchant has partnered with buySAFE to:

• Inspect their website operations,
• Monitor their performance daily and
• Offer a 3-in-1 Guarantee at no cost to you, providing you with:
  - A purchase guarantee, up to $1,000
  - A 30 days Identity Theft Protection
  - A lowest Price Guarantee for 30 days

To be safe, one should always click on a buySAFE Seal to verify its authenticity.

To verify a buySAFE Seal, simply click on the Seal to view that Seal’s verification page on the buySAFE Website. Alternatively, you may visit www.buysafe.com, click the Verify Seal link in the top right corner, and enter the buySAFE Merchant’s marketplace User ID or Website information. If you believe that you have encountered an unauthorized Seal, please report it by sending an e-mail to fraud@buysafe.com.

The buySAFE Shopping Advisor is a web security tool.

Shopping Advisor will display security ratings about online stores when you need it—while searching for products in the results of your favorite search engine, like Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and eBay.

And Shopping Advisor will give you access to risk-free shopping results—each transaction is secure with a Bond guarantee and 30-day ID theft protection. You must be a registered Shopping Advisor user because each purchase is a unique transaction, with personalized protection just for you.

buySAFE Shopping is a one-of-a-kind comparison shopping site that lets shoppers search all Bonded Items from a single location. Only buySAFE Shopping comprehensively inspects, verifies, and monitors each merchant on its site. And only buySAFE Shopping stands behind the merchants that display the buySAFE seal by bonding every purchase, up to $25,000 and providing a 30 Day ID theft protection. Eligible items are available for purchase from buySAFE online merchants, marketplaces including eBay, and TIAS, with many more items added every day.

buySAFE is like an online shoppers’ guardian angel.

• buySAFE inspects every buySAFE Merchant’s website operations and monitors their performance daily to ensure they are of the highest quality, consistently reliable and committed to delivering on the promises they make you (terms of sale).

buySAFE is an exclusive club.

• buySAFE approves only a small percentage of the merchants that apply so when you see the buySAFE Seal, you know you’re dealing with one of the best merchants online.

buySAFE purchase guarantees are the safest & smartest way to buy online.

• Every buySAFE BONDED Merchant has been approved to bond your purchases, up to $25,000 with a 3-in-1 Bond Guarantee, backed by buySAFE and its surety partners — Liberty Mutual®, Travelers®, and ACE® USA — so you can rest assured, you’ll always get what you pay for.
• Every buySAFE GUARANTEED Merchant has been approved to guarantee your purchase up to $1,000 with a buySAFE 3-in-1 guarantee at no cost to you.

Put simply, buySAFE is the strongest trust signal in e-commerce.

The buySAFE Certification Process is the industry’s most rigorous inspection process. Only the best merchants qualify so buyers can avoid problems in the first place. And, we feel so strongly about the merchants who qualify for buySAFE, that we are willing to guarantee every transaction up to $25,000 with a 3-in-1 Bond Guarantee and up to $1,000 with a buySAFE 3-in-1 guarantee issued by buySAFE Guaranteed merchants.

No other company offers a complete performance guarantee or a qualification process as comprehensive.

The maximum possible bond guarantee is the amount of the item's final sale price, up to $25,000 (up to $1,000 for buySAFE guarantees issued by buySAFE Guaranteed merchants.)

Shopping at a buySAFE Bonded Merchant website costs you nothing so the added peace of mind that buySAFE provides is free.  At the merchant’s discretion, they can either have a 3-in-1 Bond Guarantee automatically included with your purchase at no cost, or provide you the option to purchase the 3-in-1 Bond Guarantee for an additional fee.  In that case, it is entirely at your discretion as to whether you’d like the added peace of mind that comes from a bonded purchase.
If you purchase from a buySAFE Guaranteed merchant, the 3-in-1 Guarantee is included with your purchase at no cost to you.

A bond is a financial instrument that has been used for centuries to help two parties to a contract have greater confidence that everything will go as expected. 

A bond is issued by a bonding company (such as buySAFE's bond partners) when they are so confident that a merchant will honor their promises that the bonding company is willing to guarantee those commitments with their own assets.

A bond is one of the strongest signals of professionalism and competence available.

The 3-in-1 Bond Guarantee and 3-in-1 Guarantee offer protection for 30 days following the close of a transaction.

To report a problem, you must complete a Report a Problem Transaction form found in the Buyer Service Center on the buySAFE Website within 30 days after the close of a bonded transaction.

buySAFE is legally obligated to notify buyers about a 3-in-1 Bond Guarantee’s issuance or 3-in-1 Guarantee’s issuance and coverage expiration. This e-mail provides you with information about your bonded or guaranteed transaction and confirms that you know about the protection and benefits that you received.

buySAFE is a certified developer for several marketplaces (eBay, and TIAS.com). buySAFE Merchants in these marketplaces and on retail Websites where buySAFE is available provide buySAFE and our bonding partners with access to their customer transaction details so that we can issue bonds or guarantees to their buyers. buySAFE takes your privacy very seriously and does not use this information other than to notify you of the 3-in-1 Bond Guarantee’s issuance or 3-in-1 Guarantee’s issuance and coverage expiration. buySAFE does not and will not ever use your e-mail address for solicitation purposes or sell/share your e-mail address with any other companies. 

buySAFE is legally obligated to notify buyers about a bond’s issuance or guarantee’s issuance and coverage expiration. You will not receive any additional e-mail from buySAFE unless you opt-in to other buySAFE subscription-based services (like the Smart Buyers Club) or make a subsequent bonded or guaranteed purchase. To unsubscribe from subscription-based communications, please follow the unsubscribe instructions in the e-mail.

In the rare instance that a buySAFE Merchant does not honor the terms and conditions of a bonded or guaranteed transaction, we recommend that buyers first contact the merchant directly to attempt to resolve the matter. Typically, buyers and merchants can come to a reasonable resolution on their own without buySAFE's intervention.

No. buySAFE offers this service to both merchants and buyers at no cost. It’s just another great benefit of buying from buySAFE Merchants!

Typical problem resolution should take no longer than two weeks.