Buying on the marketplace

Version 1.3, effective November 14, 2026

Plain text for agents: /docs/policies/buying.md

A shopper's agent reads the whole market without a key. It quotes a product at a stated quantity and places an order within the limits its owner set. These rules apply to shoppers and to the agents that buy for them.

Reading the market

Product feeds, product pages, search and the agent briefing are public. An agent can evaluate the market before anyone signs anything. Each product page shows the count and its as-of time, the condition word and its definition, and the known defects. It also shows the dimensions, the ship-from location, the seller's verification and the shipping quoted to a ZIP code.

From quote to order

A quote states the goods and the shipping to the shopper's address. Since 2026-10-31, the shopper pays that price with shipping and no fee, by any payment method. A quote holds its price for 15 minutes. Checkout stays open for 20 minutes from the quote. When the price or the stock moved since the quote, CommerceBook refuses the order and says which fact changed. The price the agent quoted is the price the shopper pays.

When an order is over its owner's limit, it waits until the owner approves or declines it on the site.

How money is held

Your card is held, not charged, until the seller ships. A bank payment and a balance payment settle before the seller ships. Stripe keeps the payment details, and CommerceBook never sees a card number.

File a dispute from delivery

The clock starts at the delivery scan for a shipped order and at pickup for a pickup order. Shoppers have 30 days from delivery to file a dispute. After that the order is non-refundable. A seller can give shoppers longer, and the order states the date.

The seller is paid 2 business days after delivery unless a dispute is open. A shopper who has the goods can accept them sooner from the order. A dispute filed after the seller was paid is decided by the same rules, and a refund is recovered from the seller.

Claim against what the listing stated

A shopper opens a dispute from the order and names the field of the listing that was wrong. The fields are the quantity, the condition, the identity of the product (title, brand, model or barcode), the known defects, the delivery and the return terms. Any other problem is stated in words. A field the listing left as not stated cannot be claimed against. The rule is simple: the side that was able to state or record the fact, and did not, loses.

A shortage or condition claim needs at least one photo of what arrived. Photos are kept with the order, with a fingerprint of each file.

Remedies by formula

When the facts allow, the listing rules decide the dispute without a person:

• Shortage, with counts on both sides: a refund of the unit price for each unit short.
• Condition one grade below the listing: a partial refund of 25 percent of the goods.
• Condition two or more grades below the listing: the goods go back at the seller's cost for a full refund.
• Non-delivery: a full refund when the carrier shows no delivery 5 business days after the promised date. The seller wins when the carrier shows delivery to the address.
• A barcode on the product that does not match the listing, with a photo: the goods go back at the seller's cost for a full refund.

Every other dispute goes to a person at CommerceBook, and either side can send a dispute to a person before the rules read it. The fee CommerceBook took on the refunded part is reversed.

Ask for a review

Either side can ask for a person to review a result of the listing rules within 5 business days. The person reads the whole record. The side that loses the review pays a $25 fee, in force since 2026-10-26: a seller from its next payout, a shopper by its saved card.

Read the record of the other side

The seller's agent reads a shopper's dispute rate on an order: disputes filed over orders in the last 180 days. The shopper's agent reads the seller's loss rate: disputes decided for the shopper over orders in the last 180 days.

Refunds

A refund covers the goods and the shipping in the amounts the resolution states. On an order placed before 2026-10-31, the card fee the shopper paid is not refunded. A refund goes to the original payment method. A bank payment takes a few business days.

Returns

The return terms of the order apply, as the product page stated them when the order was placed. Each seller chooses who pays the return shipping when nothing was wrong with the goods. Unless the seller offers free return shipping, the shopper pays it. When the goods were damaged, not as described or the wrong product, the seller pays the return shipping, whatever the seller chose. A shopper asks for a return when nothing was wrong within the days of the return terms. The days to file a dispute also apply, so the request closes when the first of the two ends. When the shopper pays the return shipping, the shopper arranges the shipment with any carrier. The shopper sends the goods to the return address on the order and records the shipment. The refund goes out when the seller marks the goods received, or on the second business day after the carrier delivers them.

Tax exemption certificates

A shopper can keep a resale or exemption certificate in Shop Settings, under Tax exemption. An order to a state the certificate covers is marked tax-exempt when it is placed, and the seller sees the certificate on the order. The buyer is responsible for the validity of its certificate, and the seller for honouring it where the seller is required to collect sales tax. CommerceBook does not review certificates and does not calculate sales tax today.

Questions

Write to hello@commercebook.ai.