Indies 101! Help, my order is going wrong!

By AG

Nothing to Disclose

Hey everyone! Today we're continuing our beginner's guide to indies with some tips on what to do if something goes wrong with your order. I actually had an order go sideways when I was a newcomer to buying indies, so I understand just how stressful it is to be unsure of what to do. I hope this guide helps everyone feel a little more comfortable advocating for themselves as customers!

I'll address specific problems below, but in the vast majority of issues the first and best step is to...

Contact the Brand Owner

No matter how shy or awkward you might feel about it, it's so important to send a polite message to the brand owner first if you run into trouble with an order. This goes for pre-shipping concerns like turnaround time, mid-shipping concerns like a lost package, and any concerns you have with the product once you receive your package. If the brand owner has made a mistake, they can't fix it unless they know about it. Even if a problem is out of the brand owner's control, they might still be able to provide assistance or adjust their process so future orders don't run into the same problem. Almost every brand owner I've contacted has been kind, approachable, and extremely responsive when I reach out to them for any reason, so you have no excuse not to bring your problems to them!

Let's talk about some more specific problems and how to address them...

Order is over TAT

TAT stands for "Turn Around Time" and is often listed on an indie brand's webpage. It stands for the business days between when your order is placed to when it is handed off to the post office.

It's always a good idea to write down the TAT when you place your order so you can refer back to it if any issues arise. If you suspect your order is over TAT, make sure to count out the business days from your order date to the current date. If the brand is based in a different country than you, be sure to check if they have any national holidays that your country does not have and account for those. Just to be safe, check your spam folder to see if your shipping notification went in there. I also tend to check social media (especially Facebook) - life happens, and if a brand owner has some major crisis that unexpectedly interrupts their shipping process, they'll usually post it there.

Once you've confirmed you're past the TAT, have not received a shipping notification, and don't see anything unusual on social media, reach out to the brand owner. It varies by brand, but you can often reply directly to your purchase receipt. This way your order number and order date are readily accessible. With any luck, the brand owner should be able to resolve things for you by either shipping out your package or giving you an estimate of when you can expect it to ship.

If the brand owner cannot resolve the issue for you, you can take the issue up with PayPal, your bank, or your credit card company, depending on how you paid for the purchase. PayPal recently extended their dispute filing window to 180 days, which means you have 180 calendar days (NOT business days) after ordering to file a dispute. A dispute is an "official" signal to both the brand owner and PayPal that something is wrong. The seller can resolve the dispute by giving you a refund or providing a tracking number for your goods. If this doesn't fix the issue, you can ask escalate your PayPal dispute to a claim and ask them to intervene. PayPal will refund your money and then go after the brand owner themselves for reimbursement.

Package has shipped but doesn't arrive on time

We are very lucky, in these modern times, that tracking comes standard on packages from the majority of brands. This makes it very easy for you to keep tabs on how your package is doing. Most of the time, this is due to USPS getting slowed down by very bad weather, national holidays, or other shipping snafus and is completely out of the brand owner's control. If a claim needs to be filed with USPS to find a lost package, often the sender is the person required to do so, so definitely get in touch with them.

The big red flag to watch out for is if your tracking information never moves beyond the initial message of "Shipping Label Created" (for USPS) or the equivalent for other shipping services. This message merely indicates the brand owner has printed a shipping label; the tracking should update again when the package is scanned in as received by the post office. There are multiple legitimate reasons why the tracking info may not progress beyond that first message, but it might also mean something's up on the brand owner's end of things. Either way, reach out to the brand owner and see if they can fill you in.

Products arrive damaged or missing

This is pretty much always an honest mistake, and easily rectified. On the few occasions this has happened to me, I've sent the brand owner a photo showing the products I received sitting next to my invoice (or mailing envelope, if it doesn't come with an invoice) to show what I got. The brand owner is usually happy to replace the products.

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I think that covers the major problems that might happen to an indie order! Did I miss any important situations? Do you need help troubleshooting a problem? Let me know in the comments and I'd be happy to help as best I can.

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