Buyer protection: how we hold your money until your print is delivered

One of the biggest concerns new buyers have is paying someone they have never met for something that has not been made yet. So we hold your money until your print is delivered.

How the hold actually works

No outside company holds the money. When you pay for a marketplace order, your card is charged to 3D Hub Plus's own Stripe account and the money stays there. The maker can see that payment is confirmed, but nothing reaches their bank until the hold is released — at which point we send it to them as a Stripe Connect transfer. Transfers go out on a daily payout run, so expect a business day between release and money landing.

Two things about the amounts, so there are no surprises:

• The maker keeps 100% of their price. Nothing is deducted from their quote.
• The service fee is charged to you, on top of the maker's price and never on shipping (current rate on the Pricing page). It is not refunded if the order is later refunded, because it pays for the work of running the order.

When funds actually release

The hold ends in one of three ways:

1. You confirm delivery. You click "Confirm" on the order page. The hold is released immediately and the transfer goes out on the next daily payout run.
2. The 3-day inspection window expires. After the carrier marks the package delivered, you have 3 days to inspect the part. If you do nothing, the order auto-confirms. This is a safety net for makers so they are not stuck waiting forever.
3. A dispute resolves in the maker's favor. If you open a dispute and our review team finds the maker delivered what was agreed, the hold releases to them.

When funds come back to you

Funds return to your original payment method (minus the platform fee, which is not refundable) if:

• The maker cancels. Full refund of the maker's price.
• The print never ships within the agreed production window plus the grace period. You can cancel and get a refund.
• You open a dispute within 3 days of delivery and our team sides with you — full or partial refund depending on the issue.
• The part is fundamentally wrong (wrong file printed, wrong material, wrong scale).

Catalog orders are simpler. Fixed-price items bought from the shop have no platform fee and no hold — a refunded catalog order is refunded in full, at any status.

What the hold does not cover

• Changes of mind after delivery confirmation
• Damage caused by shipping (handled separately through carrier claims)
• Design flaws in your CAD file that the maker printed faithfully
• Off-platform conversations or agreements we have no record of

Extra protections

Pay by card instead of bank transfer. Your card issuer has its own chargeback protection that stacks on top of our hold — two layers instead of one.

Keep all communication on platform. If a dispute happens, we review the chat history. Messages sent through Telegram, email, or SMS are not evidence we can use.

Never send money off-platform. No matter what a maker says about "saving fees" or "faster payment", paying outside our system means zero buyer protection. This is also a scam pattern — legitimate makers never ask for off-platform payment.

Release timeline, visually

Note the order: the photos are approved before anything is shipped.

You pay  →  Platform  →  Maker prints  →  You approve  →  Maker  →  Delivered  →  You confirm  →  Transfer
(day 0)     holds        + photographs     the photos      ships     (carrier)     or 3-day     on the next
                                                                                   auto-confirm   daily run

Fixed-price catalog orders skip the photo-approval step by design — the item is a published product, so there is nothing to approve before it ships.

Your money is held by the platform for the whole of that window.