Quotes, paying in the app, refunds, cancellations and how providers are paid.
Not yet. Paying inside Localsville is switched off, and no card can be charged today. The app says so where a Buy button would otherwise be: "Payments aren't available on Localsville yet — arrange the details here in the conversation."
So for now, neighbours agree the details and settle up between themselves, outside the app. Localsville is not part of that and takes nothing from it.
Fixed-price offerings show Request instead of Buy while this is the case.
Because Localsville would rather have no payments than payments it is not certain of. The payment system is built and tested, but it is deliberately held behind an operator switch until every part of it — charging, refunding, holds and payouts — has been proven end to end.
We are not publishing a date. When it is on, this page will say so and the app will show pay buttons again.
A quote is a specific price a provider sends you inside your conversation. You can accept it, decline it, or let it expire.
Only one live quote can exist in a conversation at a time, so there is never any doubt which price is on the table. A provider can withdraw a quote until payment has started.
A quote a provider sends expires after 48 hours by default. Only someone with a live, complete profile can send one.
Accepting a quote charges nothing. Your card is only charged when you confirm inside the payment sheet — which is Stripe's own screen, not Localsville's.
The amount comes from Localsville's records, never from the app on your phone, so it cannot be altered in transit. Tapping twice cannot create two charges.
None of this happens today, because in-app payment is switched off.
Stripe does. Localsville stores no card data of any kind — there is no card number, brand, last four digits, expiry or security code anywhere in Localsville's database.
Card details are typed into Stripe's own payment sheet. Localsville's app opens it and is told only whether the payment completed, was cancelled, or failed.
Saving a card for next time is off by default and only happens if you switch it on.
An appointment comes from an accepted quote, and the time is agreed afterwards. It starts with no time set; the provider proposes the time and it is confirmed between you.
Only the provider can mark an appointment complete, and only once the agreed time has passed. Only the provider can mark a no-show, and not until an hour afterwards.
A no-show moves no money in either direction by itself.
Appointments depend on in-app payment, which is currently switched off.
Cancelling in the app is free. Localsville charges no cancellation fee, and a provider cannot set their own cancellation terms — there is no such setting in Localsville.
If you cancel before the work has begun, the full amount you paid is refunded automatically. Nobody has to approve it.
"Before work begins" means an appointment whose confirmed time has not yet arrived, or a pickup or delivery that has not been started. Once a courier has collected an item, it can no longer be cancelled.
The complete policy is on the Refunds, Payments & Cancellations page.
There are three situations, and only the first is automatic. Cancelled before the work began: a full refund, sent automatically. Started but not finished, or already completed: a person reviews it.
A refund always goes back through Stripe to the card that paid. Localsville never refunds in cash or outside the original payment.
If a refund is owed by the policy, an operator cannot decline it — the system creates it and blocks the manual path.
Full detail lives on the Refunds, Payments & Cancellations page.
After 48 hours it becomes fully refundable. If you paid for an appointment and no time was ever agreed, once 48 hours have passed since you paid you can cancel and get the whole amount back.
This exists so that an unresponsive provider can never leave your money in limbo.
While it is happening, and for 72 hours after it ends. Reporting inside that window freezes the other person's payout so the money is still there while it is looked at.
The 72 hours is a limit on reporting a problem — it is not a deadline for receiving a refund.
Outside that window, contact support anyway. It is simply not automatic.
Through Stripe, into your own bank account. You set it up once through a Stripe-hosted onboarding form; Localsville never sees or stores your bank details.
Money is not sent the instant a job finishes — it is held briefly first, and payouts run on a schedule. See When do providers get paid?
None of this is running today, because in-app payment is switched off and so no earnings are being created.
After a short hold, and then on a weekly run. Money from a completed job is held for 7 days before it becomes payable — 14 days if the profile is less than 60 days old or the job was over $500.
Payouts to providers run weekly on Tuesdays. Courier payouts run the same day, and Local Partner commissions run monthly on the 1st.
A payout is only sent once you are owed at least $25; below that the balance carries into the next run. There is no instant or same-day payout.
This schedule is not running today, because payments are switched off.
It becomes a negative balance that is taken out of your later payouts. Localsville does not reach into your bank account to reverse a transfer that has already been made.
Partial refunds reduce each side's earnings proportionally, and never by more than was earned.
With Stripe, in Localsville's Stripe account, until it is transferred to the provider. Localsville is not a bank and does not hold customer funds itself — the money sits inside the payment processor.
Localsville is not an escrow service and does not describe itself as one.
No. There is no tipping feature in Localsville.
Nothing stops you thanking a neighbour directly — it just is not something the app handles.
A quote a provider sends you is good for 48 hours. A quote created by tapping Buy on a fixed-price item is much shorter — 30 minutes — because it is holding a specific price for you right then.
An expired quote is not a rejection. Ask again and the provider can send a new one.
Yes, until you start paying. Once a payment is in flight the quote can no longer be cancelled, so you can never be charged for something that was pulled out from under you.
A withdrawn quote frees the conversation for a new one.
Wait a moment — the app will tell you the money was received and is still being confirmed rather than showing a failure. Confirmation comes from the payment processor and occasionally lags by a few seconds.
Your card is not charged twice by trying again; a quote reuses the same payment attempt.
If it stays unresolved, contact support with the conversation open.
The provider can record a no-show, but only an hour after the agreed time — and it moves no money by itself. There is no automatic no-show charge and no automatic refund.
If a no-show has left something unfair, report the problem inside the window and a person will look at it.
It is recorded and a person reviews it — nothing is reversed automatically.
If something has gone wrong, telling Localsville first is almost always faster than a bank dispute, and the cancellation and refund rules may already cover you.
No. Localsville is not a bank, an escrow service or a licensed money transmitter. Card payments and transfers are handled by Stripe.
Localsville does not hold customer funds itself and does not describe itself as protecting them.
Still stuck? Contact support — a person reads every message.