Where the rules come from

The FTC Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule

The Late Order Desk and the shipping-time checks follow the rule at 16 CFR Part 435, as the Federal Trade Commission explains it in its Business Guide to the FTC’s Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule (September 2011, edited January 2025). The rule text is on the eCFR. What the desk uses:

• Ship time. A seller needs a reasonable basis to ship in the time it states. With no time stated: 30 days after receiving a properly completed order (50 days when the customer applies for credit from the seller to pay).
• Properly completed order. The seller has the payment and all the information it needs to fill the order. Shipment means the parcel is in the carrier’s hands.
• First delay notice. Sent before the promised time runs out. It gives a definite new date or says none is known, and offers the choice to wait or to cancel for a full, prompt refund, at no cost to the customer.
• New date of 30 days or less after the original time: the customer’s silence may be treated as consent to wait. More than 30 days, or unknown: silence is not consent; the notice says the order will be cancelled automatically if it has not shipped within the originally promised time plus 30 days. With an unknown date the customer may cancel at any time until shipment.
• Renewed notice. If the new date will be missed too, a renewed notice goes out before that date. Silence is never consent to a further delay: unless the customer agrees to wait, the order is cancelled and refunded.
• Prompt refund. Within 7 working days of cancellation for most payment methods; within one billing cycle where the seller itself extended the credit. Store credit, vouchers or scrip cannot replace the refund.
• Email. The guide says a delay notice may be sent to the customer’s email address.
• Cancelling yourself. Instead of asking for consent, a seller may cancel and refund, telling the customer within the time it would have sent a delay notice.

How we count

“Business days” and “working days” are counted Monday to Friday. We do not skip public holidays, so our dates are never later than a count that does: the cautious reading. The rule does not define working days. Dates are calendar dates in the order you enter them; we do not know your time zone, so treat each date as ending at the start of that day.

What the policies are

The Policy Writer turns your answers into plain sentences. It does not check your answers against any state law, marketplace rule or card-network rule, and it does not know your products. Returns policies are mostly a seller’s own choice; the shipping-time part is where the FTC rule bites, so the check list points there.

Limits

Not legal advice. HostNowStore is not a law firm and is not connected with the FTC. If a date matters for a dispute, read the rule itself or ask a lawyer.