Cratemint Marketplace Dispute Policy

This policy sets out how buyer disputes are handled on the Cratemint marketplace. It is part of the Cratemint Marketplace Terms (marketplace-terms.md) and works together with the platform return floor described there.

1. Scope: the two platform-mediated dispute types

Cratemint mediates two, and only two, dispute types. These are the platform return floor: they are refundable regardless of the seller's own stated returns policy.

1. Item not received. The buyer paid and did not receive the record.
2. Significantly not as described. The record the buyer received is significantly different from the listing (for example, materially misgraded, the wrong pressing, or damaged in a way the listing did not disclose).

Anything a seller offers beyond these two, such as a broader change-of-mind returns policy, is the seller's own policy and is not mediated by Cratemint.

Two routes sit outside this dispute process entirely, and a buyer should be sent to them rather than to a dispute where they apply:

• The 60-minute cancellation window (marketplace-terms.md section 6b). A buyer who has paid within the last hour, on an order the seller has not yet marked shipped, cancels directly in the app and is refunded automatically. There is nothing to adjudicate, and a dispute opened in that window should be answered by pointing at the cancel action.
• The statutory 14-day cancellation right against a business seller (marketplace-terms.md section 6a). This is a right the buyer exercises against the seller, not a claim against Cratemint, and it is not conditional on anything being wrong with the record. It is not one of the two mediated dispute types and Cratemint does not adjudicate it. Where a buyer raises a change-of-mind return against a business seller, they are told the right exists and pointed at the seller; where the seller then refuses, that becomes a matter between buyer and seller, though a pattern of refusals is grounds for action against the seller account under the terms.

1a. Seller protection: tracked postage decides a not-received claim

[VERIFY WITH COUNSEL] This section states how Cratemint adjudicates. It does not affect the buyer's rights against a trader under section 6a of the marketplace terms, nor a card chargeback, which Stripe decides.

• A seller who posted with tracking wins an item-not-received claim. Where the seller recorded a tracking number when marking the order shipped, and that tracking shows the parcel delivered to the buyer's address, Cratemint resolves the claim in the seller's favour and no refund is made from the seller's funds.
• A seller who posted without tracking carries the risk. With no tracking there is nothing to weigh against the buyer's account, and the claim resolves in the buyer's favour.
• Above £20, tracked postage is what we tell sellers to use. At or above that order value the app warns the seller, at the moment they mark the order shipped, that posting untracked leaves them unprotected. Below it, untracked postage is a legitimate choice: requiring tracking on a £6 single would cost a meaningful fraction of the record.
• The evidence is recorded when the parcel is posted, not when a claim arrives. The tracking number and carrier are captured at the moment the seller marks the order shipped and cannot be edited afterwards, so they are a statement made before any dispute rather than an argument made during one.
• A fabricated tracking number is a breach of these terms. Cratemint does not yet verify tracking numbers with carriers, so a false one may pass at the point of entry. It is discoverable on adjudication, and using one is grounds for removing listings and suspending the account under section 7 of the terms.

This rule exists to be knowable in advance. A seller should never have to guess what would have protected them.

2. When a dispute can be opened (windows)

• Item not received. A buyer can open this dispute only after the order's ship_by date has passed, plus a grace period to allow for normal delivery time. Opening before that point is not possible, because the item may simply be in transit. (The ship_by date is the seller's shipping deadline, set when the order is paid, for example within a set number of working days.)
• Significantly not as described. A buyer can open this dispute within N days of delivery, or of the order auto-completing, whichever applies. The value of N is finalised in the build plan using windows familiar to record buyers, and is confirmed with counsel.
• Orders auto-complete a set number of days after the order is marked shipped if the buyer takes no action. Auto-completion does not by itself remove a live not-as-described window that is still open.

3. Evidence expected

• Item not received. The seller is expected to show evidence of dispatch, and proof of postage or tracking where available. A tracking number is encouraged at shipment for this reason.
• Significantly not as described. The buyer is expected to provide photos of the item received showing the problem, and to point to the specific part of the listing (grade, pressing, condition, or photos) that the item does not match.
• Both parties may be asked for further detail. The order history and the listing as it appeared at purchase are part of the record.

4. How a dispute is decided (v1)

• In v1, disputes are decided by the founder reviewing the evidence directly. This is a deliberate, concierge-scale process for the marketplace's early life. It is stated plainly here so buyers and sellers know a person, not an automated system, makes the call.
• The decision is based on the listing, the order history, and the evidence each side provides. The underlying process and record-keeping are built to scale later without changing this policy's substance.

5. Refund mechanics

Refunds for upheld platform-mediated disputes are funded from the seller, consistent with the seller being the merchant of record:

• Before the transfer (funds still held). Payment is taken at checkout onto Cratemint's platform balance, and the transfer to the seller only fires when the seller marks the order shipped. If the order has not shipped, the refund comes from those held funds and the seller is never out of pocket.
• After the transfer. Once the order is shipped the money is in the seller's connected account, and the refund is recovered by reversing that Stripe transfer (a clawback from the seller's connected account balance). This is the ordinary case for a significantly-not-as-described claim, which by definition can only arise after the record was sent. The seller's payout schedule holds the money in their connected account for 14 days precisely so it is still there to reverse (marketplace terms section 5).
• Partial refunds. A partial refund is taken out of the seller's payout penny for penny rather than apportioned between seller and platform, and it is capped at what the seller was paid. Cratemint does not claw back more than it transferred.
• Chargebacks. If a buyer instead goes to their card issuer and the payment is reversed as a chargeback, that liability sits on the seller's Stripe connected account, as stated in the marketplace terms.

6. How a decision is communicated

• Both the buyer and the seller are notified of the outcome of a dispute, with a short reason for the decision.
• Where a refund is due, the buyer is told the refund has been issued; where funds are recovered from the seller, the seller is told how (held funds or transfer reversal).
• Every dispute step and status change is recorded in the order's history.