The FTC Mail Order Rule: the 30-day shipping rule, delay notices and refund deadlines

The FTC Mail Order Rule (16 CFR Part 435) says you must have a reasonable basis to ship within the time you advertise, or within 30 days if you state no time. If you can't ship on time, you must tell buyers before the deadline and let them agree to the delay or cancel for a full refund, due within seven working days for card payments.

What is the FTC Mail Order Rule?

Its full name is the Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule. Despite the old nickname, the FTC's business guide says it applies to most goods a customer orders by mail, telephone, fax or on the internet (FTC business guide). The rule covers those orders "regardless of the method of payment or the method used to solicit the order", so a supplement sold from a VSL page through a third-party checkout is covered like any store order.

A few things fall outside it. The rule doesn't apply to subscriptions after the first shipment (the FTC's example is magazines), seeds and growing plants, C.O.D. orders, or plans under the FTC's prenotification negative option rule, and the guide adds services and sales on approval. For a supplement subscription, treat at least the first shipment as fully covered. Later shipments leave this rule but not the subscription rules; see our post on auto renewal laws.

Violations can bring civil penalties of up to $53,088 each, according to the FTC's guide, and the FTC kept that level for 2026 after the year's inflation adjustment was canceled (Federal Register).

When does the 30-day shipping rule apply?

Every shipping promise needs a reasonable basis before you make it: information that would satisfy a reasonable and prudent businessperson acting in good faith. The FTC's guide lists the factors, which are expected demand, stock on hand or sources of supply, the capacity of your fulfillment system, and records. If you can't produce records of your shipping systems, the rule presumes you had no reasonable basis.

Then the deadline depends on what you said:

• You state a time ("ships within 2 business days"): you must ship within it.
• You state no time: you must ship within 30 days of receiving a properly completed order.
• The buyer applies to you for credit to pay: you get 50 days instead of 30, unless you stated a time.

Two definitions decide the dates. The clock starts when you have a properly completed order, meaning payment plus all the information you need to fill it. And "shipment" in the rule is the moment the merchandise is physically placed in the possession of the carrier, not the moment it arrives. A worked example: an order paid on March 3 with no shipping time stated must be with the carrier by April 2.

The guide reads shipping claims strictly. A promise that holds "most of the time" is read as a promise for every order, and "in-stock items ship immediately" means telling buyers when an item is out of stock. The FTC's case against Fashion Nova shows the cost. In April 2020 the retailer agreed to pay $9.3 million for consumer refunds to settle FTC charges that it advertised "Fast Shipping" and "2-Day Shipping", regularly missed those promises, failed to tell buyers about delays or offer them the chance to cancel, and issued gift cards for unshipped items, which aren't refunds under the rule (FTC).

Here is how the deadlines run for an order with no shipping time stated:

The shipping clock, when no time is stated

1. Day 0A properly completed orderPayment plus all the details you need. The 30-day clock starts.
2. By day 30Ship, or offer the delay optionSend the notice as soon as you know you will be late, and no later than the deadline.
3. Days 31 to 60A new date within 30 daysIf the buyer says nothing, that counts as consent to the delay.
4. Beyond day 60A longer or unknown delayThe order is canceled unless the buyer agrees by day 60 or you ship by then.
5. After a cancellationThe refundWithin 7 working days, or one billing cycle if you extended the credit.

What must a delay notice say?

When you learn you can't ship on time, you must offer the buyer a choice, clearly and conspicuously and without waiting to be asked: consent to the delay, or cancel and get a prompt refund. The offer has to go out within a reasonable time after you find out, and no later than the shipping deadline.

The first notice must include:

• A revised shipping date, or a statement that you can't estimate one, with the reason for the delay.
• The right to cancel, explained clearly, with a prompt refund.
• A way to answer at your expense. The FTC's examples are a postage-prepaid reply card, a toll-free number or a website; in an email notice, that can be a cancel link.
• What silence means. For a revised date 30 days or less past the original deadline, silence counts as consent. For a longer or unknown delay, the order is canceled unless the buyer agrees within 30 days of the original deadline or you ship within that time.

If the new date slips too, you need a renewed notice before it passes, and this time silence counts as a cancellation, not as consent. A buyer who agreed to an indefinite delay keeps the right to cancel until you ship. The guide accepts email notices, but says posting one only on an order-status page may not be enough.

A delay notice that covers the points (fictional):

The whole sequence, from the first warning sign to the refund:

When an order runs late

1. 1Spot it earlyA daily report of unshipped orders by age
2. 2Offer the optionNew date or "can't estimate", plus a free way to cancel, before the deadline
3. 3Buyer decidesWait or cancel; silence is consent only for a first delay of 30 days or less
4. 4Ship or refundShip by the new date, or refund within 7 working days
5. 5Slipping again?A renewed notice before the new date; silence now cancels

How fast do you have to refund?

When an order is canceled under the rule, the refund is due within seven working days for payments by cash, check, money order or a card issued by a third party. When you extended the credit yourself, the deadline is one billing cycle. The FTC's guide says store credit and vouchers can't replace a required refund, and as the Fashion Nova case shows, gift cards don't count either.

You must cancel and refund without being asked when:

• The buyer takes an option to cancel before you ship.
• A delay ran past 30 days, or had no date, and the buyer didn't consent in time.
• You missed the date in a renewed notice and the buyer hadn't agreed to a further delay.
• You decide you won't ship the order at all.
• You never sent a delay notice and missed the original deadline.

Partial shipments and substitutions have rules too. If only part of an order ships, refund what the missing items cost; the guide says a flat shipping fee needn't be refunded when some items shipped. And you can't swap in a materially different item without the buyer's prior express agreement; the guide's examples of material differences include design, style, color and promoted use.

Gift cards keep turning up in these cases. In the Hey Dude settlement of September 2023, the FTC alleged that the company didn't tell customers about shipping delays, didn't offer cancellations or refunds for delayed orders, and gave gift cards instead of money to buyers who never received their orders (FTC).

Preorders, backorders and bundles you can't fill

Backorders have only two outcomes under the rule: the buyer agrees to the delay, or gets a full, prompt refund. Preorders work if you are honest about timing. Give a ship date and you need a reasonable basis for it, with the delay-notice duties applying when it slips. The FTC's guide also describes an advisory opinion on "dry-testing" a product that doesn't exist yet: it allows taking orders if you make no suggestion that it will ship, disclose that the product is only planned and, if you haven't decided to ship within a reasonable time, tell buyers and offer them a cancellation with a prompt refund.

For a supplement launch, the usual traps are a production run that lands late and a bundle you can't fill. If the 6-bottle bundle sells faster than your stock, take it off the page, give it its own real ship date, or have the delay notices ready before you need them. The same goes for a new flavor or a reformulated batch: until it is in the warehouse, any date you print is a promise you need a basis for.

How should you write shipping times on a VSL page?

Say what you can do every time, in shipping terms, the same way everywhere. A practical pattern states processing and transit separately: "Ships within 2 business days. Delivery usually takes 3 to 7 business days in the US." The first sentence is the promise the rule measures. The second is a delivery estimate; the rule's deadline doesn't cover it, but it is still an advertising claim that must be true (VSL compliance).

Then make every place say the same thing: the VSL voiceover, the page, the checkout and the confirmation email. A presenter who says "it ships today" has made that promise, whatever the checkout says. On a RevvyScales page, the FAQ content section is a natural home for "When will my order ship?" (content sections); copy the same words into your checkout and emails.

Here is how common shipping claims compare:

Shipping claims on a VSL page

ClearSafe to say

• "Ships within 2 business days of your order", when you always do
• "Delivery usually takes 3 to 7 business days in the US", when it does
• "Pre-order: expected to ship by March 15. If that changes, we'll email you and you can cancel for a full refund"
• "The 6-bottle bundle ships in 3 weeks; single bottles ship in 2 days"

Hard to back upRisky

• "Ships today" when orders after 1 p.m. wait a day
• "Fast shipping" while orders wait two weeks
• "2-day shipping" when you mean two days in transit after five days of packing
• "In stock" when it isn't
• "Refunds as store credit" for orders you couldn't ship

Operations that keep you inside the rule

The rule is easy to follow with a few systems and hard to follow without them. Build these once:

• An aging report. Every morning, list unshipped orders by age. With no stated time, an order hits the line on day 30, so set the alert at day 20.
• Automated delay notices. Write the template now, with the revised date and a cancel link, and trigger it from the aging report.
• A refund queue with a deadline. Seven working days is short when refunds wait for a weekly batch. Barring holidays, an order canceled on a Monday must be refunded by the Wednesday of the following week.
• Records. The guide lists what to keep: when orders came in, the delay notices you sent, cancellations, shipments and refunds.
• Tracking emails. A buyer who can see the parcel moving is less likely to call the bank.

Late and missing parcels also feed disputes. When a buyer files an "item not received" dispute you need proof of shipment and delivery, and every dispute counts toward the ratios your processor watches (chargeback ratios). A clear money-back guarantee gives unhappy buyers a better door than the bank, and our post on reducing chargebacks covers the rest.

A Mail Order Rule checklist for your store

Check these before launch, and again whenever your fulfillment partner, stock levels or shipping promises change.

Mail Order Rule checklist

• Every shipping time on the VSL, page, checkout and emails matches, and you meet it every time
• You keep records that show why you expect to ship on time
• Unshipped orders are reviewed daily by age, with an alert before day 30
• A delay notice template is ready, with a revised date and a free way to cancel
• A second delay gets a renewed notice, and silence is treated as a cancellation
• Refunds go out within 7 working days, as money, never as store credit
• Preorders say they are preorders and give a date you have a basis for
• Bundles you can't fill are pulled or carry their own ship date
• Records of orders, notices, cancellations, shipments and refunds are kept

0 of 9 done

Then review the rest of the funnel, from claims to testimonials, with our VSL compliance guide.