A protection program has two clocks, and most stores set neither on purpose. The first says how long after an order a customer can file a claim. The second says how soon after a carrier event a stolen or stuck claim may open. Get them right and the queue is quiet. Get them wrong and every third claim is an argument about dates.
- Why claims should not open on day one, and when they should close
- Waiting periods by carrier: photo carriers, USPS, lockers and community mailboxes
- Stuck-in-transit timing for domestic, postal and international parcels
- Making the clocks visible so the claim page does the explaining
The claim window
The claim window is the period after an order during which a claim can be filed. In BuySure, claims open a set number of days after the order is placed and close between fifteen and ninety days after it, and each store sets its own.
Why not open on day one? Because a “stuck in transit” claim filed while the parcel is comfortably inside its delivery estimate is noise. It creates a record, an email, and a customer who now expects a reply about a parcel that will arrive tomorrow. Opening claims a few days after the order gives the carrier a chance to do its job before anyone is asked to judge it.
How long should it stay open? Long enough for the slow failures to surface. A cracked bottle is discovered on arrival. A missing item in a three-item order is sometimes discovered a week later when the customer goes looking for it. A quality problem can take longer still. The right length depends on how you ship:
- Domestic ground, two to five day delivery: thirty days. Long enough for everything above, short enough to keep the queue honest.
- International or postal: forty-five to sixty days, because a customs hold can eat two weeks before the parcel moves again.
- Pre-orders and made-to-order: count from fulfilment rather than from the order, or set ninety days and accept the longer tail.
A claim window is not a trap. It is a promise with a date on it, and the date should be one you would be comfortable reading aloud to the customer.
The waiting period after delivery
Most parcels reported as “delivered but not received” turn up within a day. They were scanned early by the driver, left with a neighbour, put in a mailroom, or carried inside by someone who forgot to mention it. A waiting period of two to five days after the delivered scan filters nearly all of those out without penalising a real theft.
The right length depends on what the carrier gives you:
- Carriers that photograph deliveries (UPS, FedEx, Amazon Shipping, OnTrac, Canada Post safe drop): two to three days. The photo answers most questions on day one, and a customer who can see it usually finds the parcel.
- USPS: three to five days. No photo, and mailbox deliveries are often found late by people who did not think to look there.
- Community mailboxes and parcel lockers: a shorter wait is fine. Theft from those is rare enough that the delay mostly punishes the honest.
A store in a dense city with a lot of walk-up buildings will lean toward the longer end. A store shipping mostly to suburban houses with porches will lean shorter and rely on the photo.
The waiting period for stuck parcels
A parcel is stuck when its scans have stopped moving past the expected delivery date. The question is how long “stopped” has to last before it means something.
Domestic ground carriers scan at almost every touch. Five to seven days without a scan, past the estimate, is a real problem and a trace request is warranted. Postal services skip scans routinely; a USPS Ground Advantage parcel can go five days without a scan and land on the sixth. International parcels can sit two weeks in customs and arrive perfectly well.
The tracking page should show the last scan and how old it is, so the customer sees the same thing the store sees. The claim page should apply a waiting period that matches the service before a stuck claim can open. And the AI, when it scores the claim, should know the carrier’s normal behaviour: five quiet days on OnTrac is alarming; five quiet days on La Poste is Tuesday.
Worked example
A supplements brand ships from Ohio, mostly USPS Ground Advantage, some UPS for larger orders, and a trickle of international via DHL. Their settings:
- Claim window: opens day 5, closes day 45 domestic, day 60 international.
- Stolen waiting period: 4 days after the delivered scan for USPS, 2 days for UPS.
- Stuck waiting period: 6 days past the estimate domestic, 14 days international.
Before those settings, their support inbox saw roughly one timing argument a day. After, it saw one a month, and it was usually a customer who had not read the page.
Put it on the page
Whatever you choose, the claim page should say it, in words. “Stolen claims can be filed from three days after delivery.” “Claims for this order close on 14 October.” BuySure’s claim page validates the order, the email and the window before the form opens, and tells the customer when a claim will become available if it is not yet. That one screen removes most of the disputes that the two clocks would otherwise create.
Questions
Can I change the claim window later?
Yes. The new window applies to orders placed after the change. Existing orders keep the window they were sold with, which is the only fair way to do it.
What if a customer files on the last day and the carrier is still moving the parcel?
The claim opens, the timeline records the filing date, and the AI can hold it for a few days of tracking before scoring. If the parcel arrives, the claim closes without an outcome.
Should the waiting period differ for high-value orders?
Not the waiting period; the auto-approve limit. Let high-value claims file on the same schedule as everything else, but route them to a person.
Can the waiting period be zero?
It can, and some stores set it that way for locker and community mailbox deliveries. For porch deliveries, zero means paying for a lot of parcels that arrive the next morning.
