When and why do penalties occur?
As outlined in MoreCommerce's Merchant Quality of Service Agreement, certain penalties are applicable when shipping standards are not met. The penalties are as follows:
- A late shipment penalty of $5 is assessed when an order does not show a carrier pick up scan within the handling time associated with your selected shipping service level.
- By default, all merchants/products are opted into Economy Ground, which requires these carrier pick up scans take place within 2 business days of order placement.
- Orders that contain customizable items must be shipped within the estimated shipping time provided for each customizable product. For example, if your estimated shipping time is 7 days, you must show a carrier scan within 7 business days in order to avoid a late shipment penalty.
- A late delivery penalty of $5 may be assessed when an order does not show a delivery scan within within the delivery time associated with your selected shipping service level.
- By default, all merchants/products are opted into Economy Ground, which requires these delivery scans take place within 10 business days of order placement.
- Orders for customizable products must be delivered within 15 business days.
How do I keep track of my penalties?
Review the Penalties page of your merchant account located in the Account menu.
The Penalties summary page shows your penalty count and penalty total grouped by payment date. You’ll be able to review penalty details by clicking on the View link:
The details page shows each individual penalty, the order ID it is associated with as well as the penalty type, date, amount and status. Penalty statuses are:
| Status | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Holding | Penalty has been identified and is pending processing. You will be able to dispute the penalty. |
| Under Review | Penalty is being reviewed by MoreCommerce. Penalties go into this state after you dispute them. |
| Waived | Penalty has been waived by MoreCommerce and will not be charged. |
| Confirmed | Penalty has been confirmed by MoreCommerce and will be charged. |
| Confirmed-Not Charged | Penalty has been confirmed by MoreCommerce but will not be charged (i.e. violation occurred but MoreCommerce is waiving the charge). |
| Charged | Penalty has been charged. |
How do I dispute a penalty?
If you’d like to dispute a penalty, click on the blue Dispute link next to the order. Then fill in the comment field and click on Initiate Dispute:
For late shipment penalties you’ll see details on why the penalty was assessed, including shipment tracking number, date the order became available for you to ship, date when it was confirmed as shipped by the carrier, the number of days it took for you to ship the order and the number of allowable days.
Penalties are identified automatically and do not take into account your individual circumstances. It is therefore important that you monitor penalties and dispute them if you do not feel you should be charged for them.
How are penalties charged?
At the end of each payment period the following will happen:
- We'll calculate your penalty total for the payment period.
- We'll send you an email with information about your penalties.
- You'll have 2 business days to file disputes for penalties that occurred within the payment period
- After 2 business days
- We'll automatically set penalties from the Holding status to the Confirmed status
- We'll review penalties in the Under Review status and set them to either the Waived or the Confirmed status (we will contact you for more information if needed)
- We'll calculate your final penalty total for the payment period, only including Confirmed penalties
- We'll deduct the final penalty total from your next payment and we will set the penalty status to Charged