How it works

Deposits, handover and safety

BoxShare introduces two neighbours and keeps the dates straight. The money and the box change hands between the two of you, in person. That keeps it simple and cheap — but it means you should know exactly what BoxShare is and isn't doing before you lend someone a €500 box.

What BoxShare does

• Shows the box, its fit details, its rate and the dates it's free.
• Passes a booking request to the owner, who approves or declines.
• Reveals each side's email to the other once a booking is approved, so you can arrange when and where to meet.
• Records the borrow, so both of you can leave a review afterwards.

What BoxShare doesn't do

This is the honest bit, and it's deliberate rather than an oversight.

• No escrow. BoxShare never holds the rate or the deposit. Nothing is paid through this site. Whatever the listing says is what the two of you have to agree between yourselves.
• No insurance. A box lent through BoxShare is not covered by us for damage, loss or theft. If it matters to you, check your own home or motor policy before lending or borrowing.
• No fit guarantee. The fit details on a listing are the owner's own words. Whether a given box fits a given car is between you, the manufacturer's fitting list and your vehicle handbook.
• No dispute service. If a box comes back scratched, or a deposit isn't returned, BoxShare can't adjudicate it, refund anyone, or take a side. We'll help you reach each other; the rest is between you, the same as lending a trailer to someone down the road.

Agreeing the deposit

The deposit on a listing is a number the owner has picked — a signal, not a transaction. Most people settle it on the doorstep by Revolut or cash when the box is collected, and return it the same way when the box comes back. Whatever you use, agree it in writing by email first: the amount, when it's handed over, and what would justify keeping some of it.

An owner is entitled to say no deposit at all, and plenty will. Some neighbours lend for nothing. That's a perfectly good use of this site.

At the handover

• Look at it together. Two minutes walking round the box with the owner, before money moves, prevents most arguments. Photograph anything already marked.
• See it clamped on once. Ask the owner to show you how it mounts to your bars before you drive off. The first fitting shouldn't be you alone in a car park with a diagram.
• Check the bars and the roof limit. The box clamps to crossbars, not the car. Your handbook gives a maximum roof load — often 50–100kg — and that figure includes the bars and the empty box, not just what you pack.
• Meet somewhere sensible. A driveway in daylight beats a car park at night, and you need somewhere you can actually lift a box onto a roof.
• Bring it back as found. Clean, dry, all keys and fittings, on the agreed day.

If something goes wrong

Talk to each other first — nearly everything is a misunderstanding about dates or a scratch nobody noticed. If you can't sort it out, you have the same options you'd have with any private arrangement between two people, and BoxShare isn't one of them.

Do tell us anyway, at hello@boxshare.ie. We can't rule on it, but we can remove a listing or an account where someone's acting badly, and we'd rather know.

Will this always be the case?

Maybe not. Holding deposits properly — escrow, with a real dispute process — is something we'd consider once enough borrows have actually happened to show it's worth building. Until then we'd rather say plainly that it doesn't exist than imply a safety net that isn't there.