For US online stores
We build and run your store's website and an AI built for your store. It keeps the clock the FTC's Mail Order Rule starts on every paid order, drafts the delay notice before the promised date passes, and keeps a dated record of every notice, reply and refund. You set the new date. It never guesses one.
One federal rule starts a clock on every paid online order. When a shipment slips, the buyer's silence can count as yes once, for a short delay, and never after that.
We will not sell you what you already have. Most of the order is covered. The delay sequence in the federal rule is the part we did not find.
A clock on every paid order · The delay notice, written the way the rule reads · Replies counted, refunds on time, all of it on record
One federal rule starts a clock on every paid online order. When a shipment slips, the buyer's silence can count as yes once, for a short delay, and never after that.
16 CFR Part 435, the FTC's Mail Order Rule
| The clock | It starts | The deadline | Miss it and |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your ship-by promise | A paid order arrives with everything you need to ship it | The time your site states. A promise to ship in 48 hours means 48 hours, even with "most of the time" added. No stated time means 30 days, or 50 if the buyer applies to you for credit. | You needed a delay notice out by then. Without one, the order must be cancelled and refunded.16 CFR 435.2(a)(1), (c)(5); FTC business guide |
| The first delay notice | You learn you cannot ship on time | Within a reasonable time of finding out, and never later than the promised date. It gives a new date, or says you cannot give one and why, and offers cancellation with a prompt refund at your cost. | It breaks the rule, and if nothing has shipped by the promised date, the order must be cancelled and refunded.16 CFR 435.2(a)(3), (b)(1), (b)(3), (c)(5) |
| The buyer does not reply | Your first delay notice goes out | A new date 30 days or less past the original: silence counts as yes. Longer, or no date: you need a yes, or the order shipped, within 30 days of the original date. | The order is cancelled automatically and the refund is owed.16 CFR 435.2(b)(1)(ii)-(iii), (c)(2) |
| A second delay | You cannot make the new date | A renewed notice before the new date passes. This time silence counts as no. | Without a yes before that date, the order is cancelled and the refund is owed.16 CFR 435.2(b)(2), (c)(3) |
| The refund | The order is cancelled | Seven working days for card and most other payments. One billing cycle if you gave the buyer credit yourself. Store credit and vouchers do not count. | The FTC can sue for civil penalties of up to $53,088 per violation, plus refunds to buyers.16 CFR 435.1(b); FTC business guide |
| Your records | Every order | The FTC can go back three years to get buyers refunds, and five years for penalties. | Records are not required, but without records of a working system the FTC presumes you did not comply unless you prove otherwise.16 CFR 435.2(a)(4), (d); FTC business guide |
| A card dispute | A buyer tells their bank the order never came | The date on the dispute notice. It can vary by processor, and it comes from your merchant agreement and the card network's rules, not from law. | You can lose the dispute, and the amount is your loss. For these disputes the guide says to tell the buyer in writing about a delay and the expected delivery date.Card-network merchant dispute guide (June 2024), Condition 13.1 |
A plain summary of 16 CFR Part 435 and one card network's merchant guide, read 18 Sep 2026. Not legal advice. The rule does not cover seeds and growing plants, C.O.D. orders, or subscription shipments after the first, and states may give buyers more rights on top of it. Card-dispute deadlines come from your merchant agreement and the card networks' rules, not from law.
We will not sell you what you already have. Most of the order is covered. The delay sequence in the federal rule is the part we did not find.
The problems in the owner's own words, and three things we would build against them.
A clock on every paid order
When a paid, complete order arrives, it records the date your site promised: the time you state, or 30 days if you state none. It shows which orders are close to that date while there is still time to write to the buyer.
The delay notice, written the way the rule reads
It drafts the notice with the new date you approve, or says you cannot give one and why. It offers the buyer a free way to cancel for a full refund. It never invents a date, because the rule demands a reasonable basis for one and only you have it.
Replies counted, refunds on time, all of it on record
It knows when silence means yes and when it means no, flags the day an order must be cancelled, and puts the refund in front of you with its seven-working-day deadline. Every notice, reply and refund is dated, ready if the FTC or a card dispute asks.
Illustrative: a buyer replies in the store's chat to a delay notice
The caller: I got your email saying my order is delayed to October 3. What happens if I don't answer?
The AI: Then we take that as agreeing to wait until October 3. If you would rather not wait, say cancel, and the full amount, shipping included, goes back to your card within seven working days.
The caller: Fine, I'll wait. And if it slips again?
The AI: You'll get another notice before October 3, and this time we need your yes. Without it, the order is cancelled and refunded.
The caller: One more thing. Is this supplement safe with my blood pressure medicine?
The AI: I can't advise on that. Please ask your doctor or pharmacist. I can send you the full label from the product page to take with you.
It does, and we say so. Order and shipping emails, delivery updates, timed automations and AI that drafts replies come with the store platform, and help-desk and chargeback services sell the rest. We will not sell those again. What we did not find in the software we read is the Mail Order Rule's delay sequence: the wait-or-cancel notice, counting who replied, cancelling on the right day, the refund deadline, and a dated record of all of it.
The rule has no size threshold. It covers goods ordered online, by phone or by mail, however the buyer pays. It does not cover seeds and growing plants, C.O.D. orders, or subscription shipments after the first. It is federal: 16 CFR Part 435.
No. The rule requires a reasonable basis for any revised date, such as your supplier confirming one. You enter the date, or tell it you cannot give one and why, and it writes the notice around your answer. It never guesses a date.
Not under the rule. The FTC's own guide answers that question with the seller who took the order, not the company that packs it. So the clock runs from your order, and the delay notice has to come from you.
No. Health and safety questions go to the buyer's doctor or pharmacist, and it says so plainly. It answers questions about orders: where the order is, when it ships, and how to cancel.
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