Frequently asked questions

Xenpen is an online marketplace where you can buy and sell new and used items, list property for rent, lease, or sale, hire pros or find work (nearby or remote), and connect with people in your community.

Xenpen is available in California and the Philippines, and will expand to more places over time. Items in the Philippines are priced in pesos and ship with Philippine couriers such as LBC, J&T Express, Ninja Van, and Lalamove. The iPhone app is in beta on TestFlight and coming soon to the App Store.

Joining, browsing, and messaging are free. Without a plan, you can make 1 new post a day, and when an item sells through in-app payment Xenpen keeps 5% of the item price (Founding Members pay no commission). Plans on xenpen.com give you more posts and no commission: Basic $9.99, Pro $19.99, or Elite $499.99 a month. When buyers pay in the app, the payment company's actual fee comes out of the seller's payout (cards 2.9% + 30¢; bank payments 0.8%, at most $5), and Xenpen holds the payment until the buyer has the item. Every fee is shown before you list, and we give at least 30 days' notice before fees change. See section 13 of our Terms.

The first 300 people to complete identity verification on Xenpen are Founding Members. They pay no commission, can post 1 new listing a day (30 a month) without a plan, and get 25% off any plan for the first year, then 10%, applied automatically at checkout on xenpen.com. Identity verification is free for everyone. See section 13.1 of our Terms.

Every listing, purchase request, and sale has a short ID, like S-7K3P-9QXM. You'll see it on the listing and in Profile → Purchases. When you contact Xenpen Support, pick the transaction from the menu so we can find it right away.

Yes. xenpen.com works like the app, with the same five tabs: Home, Search, Post, Inbox, and Profile (at the bottom on a phone, at the top on a computer). Everything works there too: post (including for an Elite's team), buy, bid, rent a tool, request a tour or a quote, respond to a job, message, add a professional license, change your home address, and manage your listings, purchases, sales, and requests. Profile has the same rows as the app, with Settings behind the gear. The same account and everything in it show up in both.

You can browse active listings without signing in, in the app or on xenpen.com. To sell, message, save favorites, or report something, sign in with Apple, Google, or GitHub. Your account is the same on the website and in the app.

You choose a unique username the first time you sign in. It's how other people find and recognize you on Xenpen.

Follow anyone on Xenpen to keep up with them. When two people follow each other, they're Contacts: we don't call them friends, because most people we connect with are people we've met, and only a few are real friends. Your profile shows how many followers, people you follow, and Contacts you have; signed-in members can see the lists. You can unfollow anytime, and blocking someone removes follows both ways. Everyone starts out following Xenpen's founder, @tjmiranda, whose followers are entered in the yearly Christmas Giveaway (no purchase necessary; official rules will be posted before each giveaway).

Text, photos, videos, voice messages, files, stickers, Genmoji, Memoji, and locations. Tap + next to the message box for Photos & Videos, Camera (photos or videos, including selfie videos), File (PDFs, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, or ZIPs up to 50 MB), or Location (move the map to choose the spot). Tap the microphone to record a voice message, then tap send or the trash can. Stickers, Genmoji, and Memoji come from your emoji keyboard and are sent right away. Touch and hold a message to react with ❤️ 👍 👎 😂 😮 😢 or 😡, or double-tap it for ❤️. Everything you send is private to the people in the conversation, and we remove the location stored in photos and videos. Our community rules apply: report anything inappropriate by touching and holding the message.

Everyone who sells or sends messages on Xenpen verifies their identity with a government ID and a quick selfie. It keeps fake accounts and scammers out, and verified people show a green Verified badge. You can browse without verifying.

Our verification partner, Didit, checks them; Xenpen never sees or stores your ID images or face data. From your ID, Xenpen keeps only your legal name, date of birth, the address printed on it (private to you, used to fill in checkout), and a scrambled, one-way code made from your ID number. The code lets us make sure each person has only one Xenpen account; it can't be turned back into your ID number. See our Privacy Policy for details.

Open the listing and tap “Message.” Your conversation stays in your Inbox, one thread per listing.

Tap Buy Now on a listing, choose pickup or shipping, enter your address if it ships, and send the request. The item is reserved for you while the seller has 24 hours to accept. When they accept, it moves to Profile → Purchases, and if you paid in the app, your card is charged then. If the seller doesn't take card payments yet, arrange payment in your conversation. You can cancel a request before it's accepted.

They're your reputation on Xenpen, and they tell people who you are before they deal with you. Your star rating (1 to 5) is the average of reviews from people you actually bought from, sold to, rented with, hired, or worked for, so it reflects how you treat others: honest listings, fair prices with no hidden fees, showing up on time, and keeping your word. Your milestone level shows how much business you've done on Xenpen over time. Your Verified badge shows you're a real, ID-checked person, and a Licensed badge shows a moderator checked your professional license. Together they appear on your profile, on every post you make, and in your conversations, so members can quickly see that you're trustworthy, and you can see the same about them. Reviews are blind (neither person sees the other's review until both are in, or 14 days pass), so they're honest, and you can post one public reply to any review about you. A strong reputation helps your posts stand out and makes people more comfortable dealing with you; breaking the rules, such as hiding a price, can cost you your account.

After a sale, a returned rental, or a hired job, both people can rate each other from 1 to 5 stars and write a review. Reviews are blind: yours stays private until the other person reviews you too, or 14 days pass, so nobody can retaliate. The person reviewed can post one public reply.

Sellers can list an item as an auction with a starting bid, a length of 1 to 10 days, and optionally a hidden reserve price and a Buy It Now price. When you bid, enter the most you're willing to pay: Xenpen bids for you only as much as needed to keep you in the lead, and nobody sees your maximum. Buy It Now disappears after the first bid. When the timer ends, the highest bidder wins (if the reserve is met) and completes the purchase in the app within 3 days. A bid is a promise to buy, so only bid if you intend to pay. Track your auctions in Profile → My Bids.

No. Every post on Xenpen must show its full price up front: items their price, rentals their rate, homes their rent or asking price, services their rate, and jobs their budget. Phrases like “PM for price” or “PM is the key” aren't allowed, sellers can't add hidden fees after you agree, and anything in Free stuff must be completely free. Report a post that breaks this with the reason “Hidden fees or price not shown.” Offenders can have their posts removed, their account suspended or closed, and be charged a violation fee. See section 4A of our Terms.

When the seller accepts card payments, tap Buy Now and pay securely by card (or US bank account for $1,000 or more) through Stripe. Xenpen holds your payment and pays the seller only after you have the item; if something's wrong, report a problem from Profile → Purchases and Xenpen Support reviews it before anyone is paid. In the Philippines, pay with GCash, Maya, a card, or QR Ph through PayMongo; you're charged at checkout and refunded in full if the seller doesn't accept. If the seller doesn't take in-app payments yet, you agree on how to pay. Never pay outside the app for something before you’ve seen it, and be cautious of anyone who asks for gift cards, wire transfers, or payment outside the app before meeting.

To protect sellers, item listings show an approximate area and distance, never an exact address, and their map shows a shaded circle instead of a pin. Arrange a safe, public place to meet in your messages. Homes for sale, and rentals after a confirmed tour, show the exact spot with directions in Apple Maps.

Sellers choose local pickup, shipping, or both. For shipping, they pick their carriers (USPS, UPS, FedEx, or DHL in the US; LBC Express, J&T Express, Ninja Van, Flash Express, Lalamove (same-day), PHLPost, or DHL in the Philippines) and set a shipping and handling fee or offer free shipping. If you pay for shipping, the seller must add a tracking number within 3 business days. You'll find it, with a link to the carrier's website, under Profile → Purchases.

Open the Post tab and choose Sell an item (or Start an auction). Add photos, a title, category, condition, price, and description, then publish. You can edit your listing, mark it sold, or delete it at any time.

Listings expire after 60 days. If your item is still available, you can renew it with one tap.

Weapons, drugs, alcohol, tobacco and vaping products, stolen or counterfeit goods, animals, hazardous materials, adult content, and anything illegal, among others. See the full list in our Terms of Service.

Yes, in California and the Philippines for now. Open the Post tab and choose Rent out a home or Sell a home. Add photos, the type of property, the rent or asking price, bedrooms, bathrooms, and the street address, and say whether you’re the owner, an agent, or a property manager. Agents and property managers need an approved real estate license first. Homes for sale show their street address; rentals show only the neighborhood until you confirm a tour. All housing listings must follow fair housing laws, and listings whose wording suggests a preference the law doesn’t allow are held for a moderator to review. See section 6 of our Terms.

On a home’s listing, tap Request a Tour and suggest up to three times. The lister confirms one, or says none work, and it all appears in your conversation. When a rental tour is confirmed, you see the street address. Applications, leases, deposits, and offers are arranged directly with the lister, outside Xenpen. Never send money or financial details before you’ve seen the home and confirmed the lister is authorized to rent or sell it. Find your tours in Profile → Home Tours.

Open the Post tab and choose Offer a service or Post a job. Pick the kind of work, describe it, and set a rate or budget (or choose By quote / Open to quotes). Customers can request a quote from a service, and freelancers respond to jobs with a message and an optional price; it all happens in your conversations. When you hire someone for your job, it closes to new responses and the others are told. After you hire someone, you can pay the agreed price in the app if they take card payments: Xenpen holds it and pays them when you confirm the work is done (or 3 days after they mark it done, if you report no problem). Otherwise, payment is arranged between you. Find your jobs and responses in Profile → Jobs and Quotes. See section 7A of our Terms.

When you hire someone for a job, they can tap On My Way as they leave. You'll get a message, and the job's page (and Profile → Jobs and Quotes) shows them on a map with their arrival time from Apple Maps. Only you see it. Sharing stops when they tap I've Arrived, when either of you taps Stop Sharing, or after 4 hours, and Xenpen then erases their location. Pros: Xenpen asks before you share the first time, and iOS shows a blue location indicator while it's on.

Everyone who offers a service or responds to a job has verified their identity. Work that needs a license, such as electrical, plumbing, contractor, or real estate work, can only be offered by people whose license a Xenpen moderator has checked against the issuer’s public records, and their profile shows a Licensed badge. We don’t check insurance, bonding, or the quality of work, so read reviews, confirm the license with the issuer, and get a written estimate for bigger jobs.

If you work in real estate or a licensed profession, go to Profile → Professional Licenses and tap +. Enter your profession, license number, the issuer (such as the California DRE or the Philippine PRC), your full name exactly as it appears on the license, your date of birth, and a phone number, and optionally a photo of the license. You need to verify your identity first. A Xenpen moderator checks the license against the issuer’s records, and once it’s approved your profile shows a Licensed badge. Others see your name as licensed, license number, and issuer; your date of birth, contact details, and license photo stay private.

Open Profile → Get Paid. In the United States, set up a payout account with Stripe, our payment processor; payouts go to your bank. In the Philippines, choose Philippines and add your GCash, Maya, or bank account in the name on your verified ID; Xenpen sends payouts through PayMongo by InstaPay (or PESONet for amounts over ₱50,000). The payment company's actual fee comes out of each payout (in the Philippines, also PayMongo's ₱10 transfer fee), and you see it before you list. If a payout is returned, for example because the account name doesn't match, Xenpen Support contacts you to fix it.

Elite members can appoint up to 100 people, including free members, to post and chat for their business. Add them by username in Profile → Team; they accept the invitation in their own Team screen and choose "Post for" your business on the Post tab. Their posts are your listings: your name is on them, buyers pay you, and payouts go to your account, so team members never receive the money. They post without limits and you pay no commission (payment processing still applies). You see everything each member posts and every chat about it, and you can remove anyone at any time. Members see only the listings they posted and those chats.

Open the listing, tap ⋯ → Mark as Sold, and choose the buyer and carrier. If the buyer paid for shipping, add the tracking number within 3 business days of the sale; late tracking is flagged for review.

Live shows are for selling your listings, using your own Amazon IVS, YouTube, Facebook, or Twitch account; Xenpen takes nothing for streaming. In the app, open Profile → Go Live, choose your platform, paste your channel link, then either stream with this phone's camera (add your server and stream key; they stay on your phone) or start streaming in OBS, Larix, or another app and tap Go Live with an External App. See the video guide. You need to be ID-verified.

On xenpen.com, open Feature your listing, pick one of your live listings and 3, 7, or 30 days, and pay once. It shows at the top of Home and Search with a Featured badge in the app and on the website. Featuring is bought on the website only.

Double-tap a live video to send a heart. Hearts are free likes, not gifts: they have no money value. Shows with more hearts appear higher in Live now. Xenpen has no virtual gifts, tips, or coins.

It depends on the kind of work and where you do it. Xenpen moderators set the rule for each country and state (for example, babysitting may need a license in one place and not another). The Post form tells you when a license is needed where you work. Add it under Profile → Professional Licenses; you can publish once a moderator approves it. A license counts only where it was issued.

Yes. Open the Post tab, choose Rent out a tool or equipment, and set a daily rate, an optional weekly rate, a deposit equal to the item's replacement value, a daily late fee, the longest rental you allow, and how far you'll lend it (in miles in the US, kilometers in the Philippines). Tool rentals are local pickup only: people outside your radius can see your tool but can't request it, and nothing is shipped. You'll accept the lending terms before publishing, and the details on your listing are the terms of your deal. Renters pick dates and send a request; you accept or decline within 24 hours. At pickup and return, you both take condition photos in the app, so there's a record if anything gets damaged. Xenpen sends reminders the day before and on the day it's due back, and if it's late. After the return, you can review each other. Owners must keep equipment safe and recall-free and give the manufacturer's instructions; renters must be 18 or older and return it on time in the same condition. If the owner takes card payments, you pay the rent and deposit in the app when you request: you're charged only if the owner accepts, the owner gets the rent at pickup, and the deposit comes back automatically after the return, minus any late fees. Xenpen doesn't provide insurance, and vehicles, drones, and equipment that needs a license can't be rented. See section 7 of our Terms.

Tap Watch on any listing to follow it. Your watched items appear on Home and in Profile → Watching, and you get an alert there when the price drops, an auction you watch has less than an hour left, or the item sells. Sellers see how many people are watching, but not who.

The owner sets a late fee per day (usually the daily rate), and it comes out of your deposit. The deposit equals what it would cost to replace the item, so if late fees use it all up, the rental becomes a sale: you keep the item and the owner keeps the deposit. If you bring it back after that, the owner can refuse it unless you pay what's owed. See section 7.13 of our Terms.

Meet in a busy public place during the day, bring a friend if you can, tell someone where you’re going, inspect items before paying, and trust your instincts. Many police stations offer safe exchange zones.

Use the Report option on the listing, profile, or message. We aim to review reports within 24 hours, and a listing reported by 3 different people is hidden until we review it.

Open their profile or your conversation with them and choose Block. They won’t be able to message you, and you won’t see each other’s listings. Manage blocked users in Settings.

Report the user in the app and contact Xenpen Support (Profile → Settings → Contact Support) with the transaction ID and any screenshots. If you lost money, also contact your bank or payment provider and file a report with local police or the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.

In the app, open Profile → Edit Profile → Username; on xenpen.com it's the same: Profile → Edit Profile → Username. Usernames are 2 to 30 letters, numbers, or underscores. You can change yours once every 30 days, and your old username is held for you for 30 days so nobody else can take it.

Yes, if your account completed ID verification. Sign in a new way (for example, a different Google account), and on the "Your Username" screen tap I Lost Access to My Account. Send a photo of your ID and two recent proofs of address, and add your WhatsApp number. A moderator checks them and schedules a short WhatsApp video call, where you sign your name three times on blank paper. After at least 72 hours, a Super Admin moves your new sign-in onto your account. Your documents are deleted when the request ends.

Open Settings (or Account on xenpen.com) and tap This Wasn't Me. The request stops right away and moderators are alerted. We never hand over an account without checking ID, address, and a video call, and we always wait at least 72 hours.

It's a level from 1 to 50 shown on your profile, with a crown that changes color as you rise: green (1–34), white (35–39), silver (40–44), gold (45–49), and a VIP badge at Level 50. You earn XP only on what Xenpen earns from your activity, never on your sale price: 1 XP for every $0.014 of Xenpen's commission on your sales, rentals, and hired jobs, or for every $0.10 of a monthly professional fee (a $30 fee is 300 XP). Amounts in pesos or other currencies are converted to US dollars at that day's exchange rate. XP adds up for life, and your Milestone Level page shows how much more you need for the next level. Have a TikTok gifter level? Go to Profile → Milestone Level → Transfer My TikTok Level and send the code you get to @XENPEN_TIKTOK_HANDLE in a TikTok message. Once a moderator checks it, you start at that level plus a +1 Xenpen welcome bonus.

Yes. Each person can have one Xenpen account, and you can sign in to it any of those ways. If they use the same email address, they’re linked automatically. Otherwise, go to Profile → Settings → Sign-in Methods and link the others. If you try to verify a second account with the same ID, we won’t verify it, and we’ll message you in Xenpen Support saying which account is yours.

So you don’t have to type it every time you buy something: it fills in checkout for you. It’s private: it’s never on your profile, and only the seller of something you buy sees the address you send them. If your ID shows your address, we add it when you verify. If you’ve moved, or your ID has no address, go to Profile → Home Address and add the new address with 2 or 3 recent documents that show your name and the address, such as a utility bill and a bank statement. A Xenpen moderator checks them and approves the change, and the documents are deleted once they’re reviewed.

In the app, go to Profile → Settings → Delete Account. This permanently deletes your account and your content and can’t be undone.

No. We don’t sell your personal information or share it for advertising. Read our Privacy Policy for details.

In the app, go to Profile → Settings → Contact Support and choose the reason “Privacy request.” California residents and users in other regions have specific rights described in our Privacy Policy.

In the app, go to Profile → Settings → Contact Support (or tap the life-preserver in your Inbox). Choose a reason and, if it’s about a listing, purchase, or sale, its transaction ID. You can attach photos, screenshots, a voice message, a video link, or a PDF. We reply in your Inbox under “Xenpen Support,” usually within 1–2 business days.

Yes, one message at a time. Touch and hold it, then choose Delete. Delete for Me hides it from your view only. On your own messages, Delete for Everyone removes it from the chat for both of you, and it shows as “This message was deleted.” To protect members from scams, Xenpen keeps a private copy of deleted messages and attachments for 1 year that only moderators can see when reviewing a report, and that we share with law enforcement only with valid legal process. See our Law Enforcement Guidelines.

Yes. In your Inbox, swipe left on a Xenpen Support conversation and tap Delete. It moves to Recently Deleted, where you can restore it for 7 days; after that it's gone from your app. If Xenpen Support replies, the conversation comes back. Xenpen Support keeps its own record as described in our Privacy Policy; to have it erased, send a Privacy request or delete your account.