Chapter 5 of 6 / the order has gone wrong
The order has gone wrong
The chapter where the outcome depends most on what you do and least on what happened. Two of these pages describe requests that sound reasonable and cannot be undone once agreed to.
What are you seeing
- Nothing has arrivedWhat to do depends entirely on one date.
- It arrived but not as describedDocument first, then ask for one specific thing.
- The vendor has stopped replyingNormal for most of a window, and useful evidence after it.
- I am being asked to release the funds earlyThe only action on an order that nobody can undo.
- I am being asked to pay outside escrowThe only situation on this site with no process afterwards at all.
Where the money is at each stage
| State | Who can move it |
|---|---|
| Sitting as a balance | Whoever controls the account, including anybody who takes it |
| Committed to an open order | Nobody alone. Two signatures out of three |
| Released by you | The vendor, immediately and permanently |
| Sent outside the arrangement | The person you sent it to. There is no third party at all |
Escrow means funds move only when two of buyer, vendor and market agree. The market is a tiebreaker rather than an owner. That is a narrow guarantee and it is the entire structural protection available, which is why the last two rows are the expensive ones.
If you read one line from this chapter
The single most expensive misunderstanding in this chapter is agreeing to close an order early. Closing releases the money. A request to confirm receipt before you have received anything is a request to hand over the only leverage you have, and it almost always arrives phrased as a favour.
The date that decides everything else
Write down the end of the delivery window when you place an order. Before that date, nothing arriving carries no information. After it, nothing arriving is the whole case. Almost every self inflicted loss in this chapter comes from not knowing which side of that line you are standing on.
Where the losses in this chapter come from
| What happens | What it costs | What would have prevented it |
|---|---|---|
| Filing before the window closes | A dismissal on the record and a weaker case afterwards | Write the end date down when you order |
| Releasing funds because you were asked nicely | The whole order, permanently | A flat rule with no exception in it |
| Reading shipped as proof of a parcel | Waiting on something that may not exist | Knowing states are typed in by people |
| Going quiet mid dispute | Silence weighed against you | Answering promptly, even briefly |
| Paying outside escrow for a discount | Everything, with no process afterwards | The same flat rule |
None of those require anybody clever on the other side. Four of the five are things a buyer does to themselves with the best intentions, which is why this chapter is written around dates and rules rather than around spotting bad actors.