The health guarantee and if your animal arrives sick

Buying a living animal sight-unseen is a real act of trust. Creatures' held-funds model is built so that trust is protected: you are not committed to paying out until the animal has arrived and you have confirmed it is what you expected. This article explains the health guarantee idea and what to do if something is wrong on arrival.

What "held until you confirm" means for health

The core protection is timing. Because the seller is only paid when you confirm delivery, you have the chance to actually receive the animal and check it over before any money is released.

• What it is: a hold-and-confirm structure. Your payment stays held safely by Creatures through delivery, and is released only by your confirmation.
• What it means for you: if the animal does not arrive, or arrives sick or clearly not as the listing described, you simply do not confirm delivery. The funds remain held while the issue is worked out, rather than already being in the seller's hands.

Individual sellers may also offer their own health guarantee or terms on a listing (for example a window to have a vet check the animal). Those are the seller's commitments, stated on the listing, and they sit on top of the platform's held-funds protection. Read a listing's terms so you know what the seller is promising.

If your animal arrives sick or not as described

The most important move is what you do not do: do not confirm delivery if something is wrong, because confirming releases payment.

1. Hold off on confirming. Keep the funds held by not confirming delivery.
2. Report the problem. Use the report-a-problem option on your purchase to flag that the animal arrived sick or not as described. This opens the issue with Creatures rather than leaving you to argue it alone with the seller.
3. The funds stay held while it is reviewed. Once a problem is reported and a purchase is in dispute, releases are paused while it is resolved, so money is not paid out from under an open issue.
4. Work toward a resolution. Depending on the situation, that can mean a return, a refund, or another remedy. A seller has a defined window to respond to a return offer, so the process keeps moving rather than stalling.

What this article does not promise

Creatures does not assert a single fixed health-guarantee period that applies to every sale; specific guarantee windows, when offered, come from the seller's listing terms. What Creatures provides on every sale is the held-funds protection and a way to report a problem before payment is released. If you are unsure what a particular seller guarantees, ask before you buy, and read the listing's terms. See Receiving your animal and confirming delivery and How buying works.

Related information

• Receiving your animal and confirming delivery
• How buying works: payments, held funds, and protection
• When does the seller get paid? Your role as the buyer

Updated on: 23/06/2026