Is this allowed by my school?
Students on Block Market trade meals they have already paid for. We do not touch a school’s payment system, we hold no campus funds, and we are not affiliated with any university or dining service.
Meal plan contracts differ from school to school, and some restrict transfers, so read yours. If a school tells us it does not want trading on its campus, we switch trading off there and the tracker, the school page and the study stay. Nothing about tracking what you already own depends on a school’s permission.
What happens if a trade goes wrong?
Your payment is held from the moment you order until you have your food. If the other student does not show up, you get the full amount back and they take a strike against their account.
If the two of you disagree about what happened, a person at Block Market reads the case and decides. Disputes are not settled by an automatic rule, and they are not settled by whoever complains first.
How does Block Market make money?
We take a percentage of each trade, and it is already inside the price you are shown. There is no fee added at checkout and no service charge on top: the number on the order is the number you pay.
Sellers see what they will receive before they claim anything. Scheduling an order ahead is free for everyone. There is an optional paid plan that buys speed, and nothing on the free side is broken to sell it.
Is my payment safe?
Card payments run through Stripe. Block Market never sees or stores your card number.
The money is authorised when you order and held in escrow, not paid out. It is released to the seller when you confirm you have your food, or when you exchange the pickup code at a meetup. If the trade falls through, the hold is released and you are not charged.
When do I get paid for what I sell?
The sale lands in your Block Market balance as soon as the buyer confirms the pickup or you exchange the code at the meetup.
You can cash out to Venmo or PayPal once your balance is at least $10. Payouts are sent by hand while volume is small, so allow a couple of business days after you request one.
Why is trading not live at my school?
Trading only works if there are students on both sides of it, so a school switches on when enough students there have verified a school email. Your school’s page shows how far along that is.
We do not put a date on it, because the date is not ours to set. Until then the tracker works, your page collects everyone who is waiting, and inviting people from your school is what moves the number.
Do I need my school email to sign up?
No. Any Google account signs you up, and the tracker and the waitlist work straight away. Your personal login is the one that keeps working after you graduate.
Verifying a school email is what turns on trading, lets you spend credit you have earned, and counts you toward your school unlocking. One verified school email per student, which is also how we keep invite rewards from being farmed.
Who sees my name?
Open orders are anonymous. Nobody browsing the market can see who posted one.
Once a trade is claimed, both sides see each other’s first name, photo and rating, which is what makes meeting a stranger to hand over food reasonable. Your last name and your email address are never shown to another student.