Messaging and the relay
On most marketplaces, once a deal starts the two sides talk to each other. OnlyTons does not work that way, and this page explains what happens instead — because if you expect a chat window, the first thing you write will be the wrong thing.
You write to OnlyTons. OnlyTons writes to the other side.
Why
OnlyTons is not a directory and does not put operators in touch with one another. That is the whole product: a buyer gets access to supply without the supplier learning who the buyer is, and a producer reaches a market without its customers becoming other people's contacts.
A shared chat thread breaks that in one message. Not because of names — those could be hidden — but because of ordinary sentences:
"This is Giovanni, we're the farm near Bitonto with the 40 hectares. Easier if you call me on 333…"
There is no software rule that catches that. It contains no company name, no email address, and it identifies the operator completely. The only control that works is that the sentence does not travel until a person has read it.
What happens to a message you send
- You write it and press Send to portal.
- It appears on your own timeline marked awaiting review. Nobody else can see it — not the other party, not another supplier on the same deal.
- OnlyTons reads it and either:
- forwards it, possibly with an edit, to the party it concerns; or
- declines it, and tells you why.
- Your message shows Forwarded by the portal or Not forwarded, with a reason.
When a message is forwarded, the recipient sees it attributed to your deal alias — "Supplier A", "Buyer" — never your company. On a deal filled by two producers, that is what lets the buyer keep the two conversations apart.
What is instant
Waiting for a human on "yes, week 38 works" would make the platform unusable, so the exchanges that carry no risk skip review entirely. These are quick replies:
- Request a sample
- Propose a quantity
- Propose a delivery week
- Accept / Decline
They have no free-text field at all. There is nothing in them that could identify you, which is exactly why they need no review — and it is why we cannot add a "notes" box to them, however convenient that would be.
Use them where you can. They arrive immediately.
What OnlyTons will not pass on
A message is declined when it contains:
- contact details — a phone number, an email address, a website;
- anything identifying your business — the company name, a trading name, a VAT number, or a description specific enough to place you;
- a proposal to deal outside the portal.
You will be told which of these applied. You will not be told exactly what was flagged, or whether a forwarded message was edited — that would amount to publishing the rulebook for getting around it.
None of this is a judgement about you. Nearly every message goes straight through.
Attachments
An attachment is a message too. A file called Verdi-Farm-pricelist-2026.pdf
names its sender before anyone opens it, so uploads are reviewed the same way
and are passed on under a neutral display name. The file itself is unchanged —
if your letterhead is inside it, say so and OnlyTons will handle it.
What you can rely on
- Your messages are visible to you and to OnlyTons, and to nobody else, until they are forwarded.
- A supplier on an aggregated deal never sees another supplier's messages, their existence, or their quantities.
- OnlyTons's own working notes are never visible to any party.
- Nothing is deleted. A declined message stays on your timeline with its reason, and OnlyTons keeps the full record of what was sent and what was forwarded.
The honest limit
This is a guarantee inside the platform. Once goods move, a delivery note, a branded 25 kg bag or a driver who has been to both yards can reveal what the software does not. OnlyTons addresses that with contractual and operational controls — acting as consignor and consignee of record, requiring neutral packaging where it matters — and the broker will tell you when a deal relies on them. It is not something code can promise on its own.
There is also a legal question the platform does not decide on its own. Food law requires traceability one step back and one step forward, and organic audits require the operator chain. Where a buyer is legally required to know its supplier, that release is handled explicitly, recorded, and never happens by accident. Today OnlyTons discloses nothing automatically.
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