Late-shipment refund

Definition

The refund a store owes when it cannot ship inside the window its own page stated.

Why It Matters

Account health names the marketplace's private score, and late shipment is one of the two metrics that drive it. The same event has a public consequence the score cannot see. The federal mail and internet order rule sets the window at whatever the seller clearly stated, or thirty days if it stated nothing, and requires a prompt refund within seven working days once the buyer's right to it vests. A store shipping from a third-party warehouse has promised a window it does not control. The rule also puts a rebuttable presumption against a seller who holds no records of systems assuring compliance, so the absence of a delay-notice template is itself the evidence. Ask for the shipping promise as it appeared across the trailing year and the fulfillment lag by product.