Penalties
BOONKA keeps buying and selling fair for everyone. This guide explains how penalties work, the reputation badges businesses display, and how to appeal a decision.
How penalties work
Penalties are automatic consequences for businesses that repeatedly lose disputes and for clients who repeatedly file claims that get rejected. They are never triggered by a single incident.
Everything is calculated as a rate over a rolling period, and a minimum amount of activity is required before a penalty applies. The most severe automatic outcome is a temporary suspension, nobody is ever banned automatically.
For businesses: penalty levels
Businesses are assessed on their lost-dispute rate over a rolling 180-day period, with a minimum of 50 completed transactions. A lost dispute is one resolved in the client’s favour, or settled with a mutual refund.
The levels are:
- Level 1, Warning: lost-dispute rate of 3% or more. You are notified with a clear path back to normal, and there is no restriction.
- Level 2, Restricted: lost-dispute rate of 5% or more. Your payouts may be delayed, and BOONKA keeps a closer watch on your account.
- Level 3, Suspended: lost-dispute rate of 10% or more. You cannot receive new payments for at least 30 days, your profile is hidden from search, and any payouts already in progress continue normally.
For clients: false-dispute levels
Clients are assessed on the share of their disputes that get rejected, over a rolling 365-day period and with a minimum of 5 disputes filed.
The levels are:
- Level 1, Warning: 40% or more of your disputes are rejected. Future disputes will receive priority review from the BOONKA team.
- Level 2, Evidence required: 60% or more rejected. You must attach evidence to open any new dispute.
- Level 3, Dispute suspended: 75% or more rejected. You cannot open new disputes for at least 60 days, but you can still use BOONKA for all other payments.
Reputation badges
Businesses display a reputation badge on their profile so clients can shop with confidence:
- New business, fewer than 100 completed transactions; badge only, no score yet.
- Trusted, at least 100 transactions, a success rate of 97% or more, and no active penalty; badge and score.
- Standard, at least 100 transactions with no active penalty, but not yet reaching Trusted; score only.
- Under review, an active penalty at level 1 or 2; badge and score.
- Suspended, an active penalty at level 3; badge only, and the profile is hidden from search.
Appeals
If you believe a penalty is a mistake, you can appeal by emailing appeals@boonka.io or completing the appeals form on our website.
Our team reviews every appeal manually and replies with a written decision. There is no automatic reinstatement.
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