Facebook Marketplace Delivery & Collection

Facebook Marketplace is full of genuine bargains: barely used sofas at a fifth of retail, solid oak wardrobes for less than a flat-pack, complete dining sets from house clearances. The catch is nearly always the same two words in the listing: collection only. Sellers do not deliver, most items will not fit in a car, and hiring a van yourself for one sofa means a deposit, fuel, and wrestling a two-seater through a doorway on your own.

That is the gap this service fills. You buy the item and agree a collection time with the seller as normal. Then you book a TowManVan driver, give us the seller's address and phone number, and the driver handles the rest: confirms arrival with the seller, checks the item over, loads it properly with straps and blankets, and delivers it to your door. You can be at the collection if you want to inspect the item yourself, but most customers simply wait at home for the delivery.

Every driver is DBS-checked and carries goods-in-transit insurance with a £10,000 minimum plus public liability cover, so your bargain is protected from the seller's living room to yours. There is no membership and no joining fee - you pay for the job, nothing else.

Buying from a private seller involves a few realities that a normal courier job does not, so it is worth being straight about how each one works.

Agreeing the collection window. Sellers are ordinary people with jobs and school runs, and no-shows are the number one Marketplace complaint on both sides. Agree a specific window with the seller first ("between 5 and 6 on Thursday" beats "sometime Thursday"), then book that slot. The driver messages or calls the seller when they are on the way, and you can track the van live in the app, so nobody is left standing in a doorway wondering.

Paying the seller. Payment for the item is strictly between you and the seller. Most buyers send a bank transfer once the driver confirms the item is right, or pay cash in person if they attend the collection. Our drivers do not carry payment and cannot hand over money for you - that keeps drivers safe and keeps your purchase simple. Sort payment terms with the seller before booking so the handover takes minutes.

Checking the item matches the listing. Add the listing photos and description to your booking notes. At the door, the driver gives the item a common-sense check: is it the same sofa, the right colour, free of damage the photos did not show? If anything is off, they phone you before loading and you decide - go ahead, negotiate with the seller, or walk away. A driver's time at the address is covered by your booking either way, so there is no pressure to accept a dud.