Help & Support

How SoekSoek works

SoekSoek helps buyers and sellers in South Africa find each other. You agree the deal and arrange payment and collection directly with each other.

• Browsing, searching, messaging, buying and ordinary selling are free.
• SoekSoek doesn't take a commission on your sale.
• SoekSoek doesn't handle payments or hold money, and won't ask you to pay anyone through a link.

Buying

• Search by keyword, category, area and price. Tap the heart to save a listing to your Favourites.
• Message the seller from the listing. Your conversation stays on SoekSoek, so there's a record if anything goes wrong.
• Make offer to propose a price. The seller can accept, decline or send a counter offer. When an offer is accepted the listing is marked reserved for you.
• Bought it? Tap I purchased this on the listing. The seller confirms, and the item is marked sold. If they don't respond within 48 hours, your claim lapses.
• After an accepted offer you can leave a review of the seller from the conversation, and they can review you.

Selling

• Tap Sell, add a title, description, price, condition, your area and photos. You can save a draft and publish later. Photos are resized for you, and hidden location details are removed before they're shown.
• You can have up to 5 active listings at a time for free. To list more, mark items sold or expired on My Listings.
• Listings stay up for 30 days. We remind you 5 days before one expires; if it's still available, tap Still available — reset the countdown on the listing.
• Sold it? Mark as sold on My Listings. Sold items stay on your profile as your sales history.
• Don't put phone numbers, email addresses or links in listings, and don't ask for payment upfront — buyers contact you through SoekSoek messages. Listings that do are checked by our team.
• Want more buyers to see a listing? Tap Promote on My Listings to ask us. Promoted listings appear, labelled, above matching search results.

Staying safe

• Meet in a busy public place, in daylight, and bring someone with you.
• Inspect the item properly before you pay. Never pay a deposit up front.
• Keep your conversation on SoekSoek so there's a record if something goes wrong.
• Never share OTPs, PINs, banking passwords or your ID number.
• If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. Report suspicious users.

If a message looks like a common scam (for example asking for a deposit before you've seen the item), SoekSoek shows you a warning under it.

Badges, reviews and reply times

• Profiles show reviews, completed sales, how long someone has been a member and — once they've had a few enquiries — how quickly they usually reply.
• Verification badges show only what was checked. They can't be bought, and promoting a listing doesn't give you one.
• Reviews come from people who agreed a deal with that person on SoekSoek.

Reporting, blocking and account notices

• Report this listing or Report this user (on listings, profiles and in conversations) if something looks wrong. Our team reviews every report; one report alone never gets anyone banned.
• Something not working, or an idea? Use Send feedback at the bottom of any page — it goes straight to our team.
• Block this user in a conversation or on their profile to stop them messaging you. You can unblock them under Account → Blocked Users.
• If we warn or suspend your account, a notice appears at the top of the site and on your Account page, with the reason. Open it to read the details — you can appeal a suspension once from there, and a person will review it.

Your account

• Change your display name and area, and switch email alerts about new messages and offers on or off, under Account → Settings.
• Add a second step to your login with an authenticator app under Account → Two-step login.
• Forgot your password? Use Forgot password on the login page.
• You can delete your account at any time under Account → Settings → Delete my account. Your listings, messages and profile are deleted for good.
• Want a copy of everything we hold about you? Use Account → Settings → Download my data.

Contact us

• Help with your account or a listing: support@soeksoek.co.za. Tell us the email address you signed up with. Never send your password.
• General questions, privacy requests and anything else: info@soeksoek.co.za.
• A scam, abuse or a listing that breaks the rules: please use Report on that listing or profile instead, so we can act on it.