A shipping-policy incident occurs when the public policy, product page, checkout configuration, order confirmation, or fulfillment operation gives conflicting terms. The response must protect customers and preserve evidence. Do not silently edit the policy page before recording the affected wording, effective period, store configuration, and orders.
Open the incident record
Assign an incident identifier, owner, severity, start time, storefront, policy version, and affected destinations or products. Record who found the issue and the exact mismatch: wrong rate, unavailable service, unsupported delivery date, excluded destination accepted, delayed order, or incorrect cancellation and refund language. Separate confirmed facts from assumptions.
Preserve screenshots or exports of the public policy, cart, checkout, confirmation, shipping profiles, zones, rates, product assignments, notification templates, and representative order records. Store customer information in the approved restricted system; use order identifiers rather than copying addresses or message contents into a broad incident ticket.
Check customer obligations
The FTC’s business guide to the Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule explains that sellers need a reasonable basis for shipping representations. When covered merchandise cannot ship within the applicable time, the rule requires the delay and cancellation or refund process described by the FTC. Escalate to qualified counsel for the business’s products and jurisdictions rather than treating a generic incident guide as legal advice.
Identify orders whose promised dates or notices may be affected. Preserve the representation each customer actually saw, the order time, fulfillment status, notices, consent, cancellation, and refund activity. Do not overwrite this history when correcting the current policy.
Contain the mismatch
Pause the affected shipping option, product, destination, or campaign if new orders would receive a promise the operation cannot meet. Replace misleading wording with a truthful temporary notice through the approved change process. Do not promise a new date without an operational basis.
Shopify’s shipping profiles documentation describes how products and locations are associated with zones and rates. Review the actual profile, product, location, zone, and rate assignments rather than assuming the policy page alone controls checkout. Other platforms use different structures, so use the provider’s current documentation.
Restore and verify
Choose the least disruptive safe recovery: restore the last verified policy and settings, correct the configuration to match the approved policy, or temporarily remove the affected option. Record versions, approver, operator, and time. Preserve new legitimate orders and policy changes that occurred after the last saved version.
Run synthetic carts and checkouts for each affected product class and destination. Verify displayed rates, service names, delivery wording, exclusions, taxes or duties note when relevant, confirmation email, order record, and fulfillment location. Simulate a delay using test data and confirm that the workflow records notice, consent or cancellation, and refund action without sending a real charge or message.
Communicate and close
Notify affected customers with verified information, their available choices, and a usable contact route. Do not claim every order is unaffected when the review is incomplete. Record every correction and refund through the normal system.
Close with the timeline, scope, confirmed cause, preserved versions, affected-order query, containment, validation results, communications, and follow-up owners. Add tests that compare policy wording with checkout configuration. A recovered page is not sufficient until new synthetic orders and affected-customer handling both pass review.
Sources
- Business Guide to the FTC's Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule — Federal Trade Commission
- Shipping profiles — Shopify
- Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule — Federal Trade Commission