How fulfillment errors are handled on your weekly invoice: what's deducted, what never is, and how to raise a question about any line.
The short version: when a fulfillment error means we have to replace or refund an order, the cost of that error is deducted from your invoice — at your own invoiced prices, itemized line by line, and never more than you were paid. You're paid in full for every good bag you deliver, including replacements you ship. Carrier problems and customer taste are never your responsibility.
The principles
- You're paid once for every good bag delivered. If an order has to be redone, you're paid in full for the replacement — and the original, which didn't serve the order, is deducted. Never both, never double.
- Deductions are restitution, not penalties. Every amount is exactly what appeared on your invoice for the affected bags — your wholesale prices, never retail, never an estimate, never a fee on top.
- A deduction only happens when we actually replaced or refunded. If a customer mention is resolved with no replacement and no refund, nothing is deducted.
- Shipping is only yours when you shipped it. The cost of a replacement label applies only when you shipped the replacement yourself on its own label. If we route the replacement elsewhere or add it to an existing delivery, you're deducted for bags only.
- You can never owe more on an order than you were paid for it — plus, at most, the one replacement label above. Deductions reduce a payout; they never turn an invoice negative and never arrive as a separate bill.
- Carrier problems and taste are never yours. Packages damaged, lost, or delayed in transit are between Bean Box and the carrier — you're paid in full, including for any replacement you ship. "The customer didn't love it" is never a deduction.
- Telling us beforehand always costs you nothing. If you can't fulfill an order, flagging it in the portal is free, every time. Swapping in a different coffee instead is the one thing that turns a free problem into a deducted one.
- Every deduction is a human decision, itemized, and open to question. Each line shows the date, order, reason, and amount. Nothing is generated automatically, and every line carries a 30-day review window.
What's deducted, case by case
| Situation | Deduction |
|---|---|
| Wrong coffee shipped | The original bag, at the price we paid you — plus the replacement label if you shipped the replacement yourself. |
| Unflagged substitution | Shipping a different coffee than the one ordered, without first marking the order Can't Fulfill in your Orders view, is treated as wrong coffee shipped — the original bag, plus the replacement label if you shipped it. See "Substitutions" below. |
| Wrong grind | The original bag only. The coffee was right, so the replacement shipping is on us — never deducted. |
| Wrong size shipped | The ordered size's line, at the price we paid you — plus the replacement label if you shipped the replacement. |
| Fewer bags than ordered | Only the missing bags — you keep full payment for every bag that arrived — plus one replacement label if you shipped the make-up bags. |
| Label created, never shipped | The bag(s) for that shipment. Original postage is recovered from the carrier, not from you. See the 21-day rule below. |
| Other verified errors | Packaging that didn't protect the coffee, gift-note errors, and similar: deducted (bags, plus label per rule 4) only when a replacement or refund was actually required. |
| Never deducted | |
| Told us before shipping | If you can't fulfill an order and mark it Can't Fulfill before it ships, we re-route it and there is no deduction — ever. Flagging early is always the right move. |
| Carrier damage, loss, delay | Never deducted; you're paid in full, including for replacements you ship for carrier failures. |
| Customer taste | Never deducted. |
Worked example — wrong coffee
| We paid you: original bag | $12.00 |
| We paid you: replacement you shipped | $12.00 |
| Deduction: original bag | −$12.00 |
| Deduction: replacement label | −$7.25 |
| You keep | $4.75 |
That's the replacement bag paid in full, less the second label the error required. If we had routed the replacement to another roaster instead, your deduction would be the $12.00 bag only — no label, and never below $0 on the order.
Substitutions — always flag, never swap
Sometimes you can't ship what was ordered: the lot is out of inventory, the coffee is no longer offered, the roast won't make the ship date. That is a normal thing, and telling us costs you nothing.
What isn't fine is quietly sending a different coffee instead. The customer ordered a specific coffee, and in most cases we picked it for them for a specific reason. A substitution they didn't agree to reads to them as the wrong coffee — because it is one — and it usually ends in a replacement or a refund at our cost.
The rule
If you can't fulfill a bag, select the order in your Orders view, click Can't Fulfill, and choose Out of inventory (or whichever reason fits). We'll re-route it. No deduction, ever.
If you swap in another coffee without doing that, the order may be charged back as a wrong-coffee error under the table above — the bag at the price we paid you, plus the replacement label if you shipped the replacement.
This applies whether the substitute is more expensive, cheaper, or something you think the customer will like better. Flag it and let us decide — that path is always free to you, and it's usually faster than the make-good would have been.
If you're ever unsure whether something counts as a substitution, ask us before the order ships. Nobody has ever been charged back for asking.
"Label created, never shipped" — the 21-day rule
This deduction applies only when a shipment was marked fulfilled, its label was created, and the package shows no carrier movement for 21 days. That's a deliberately long window — slow first scans happen, and we'd rather wait than deduct a package that's actually moving.
If the package is later delivered, the deduction reverses automatically — the credit appears on your next invoice without you asking. If tracking shows any movement after a deduction, we review it rather than assume.
Where you'll see it
Deductions appear on your regular weekly invoice — the same invoice as that week's earnings — in a dedicated section listing each line's date, order number, reason, and amount. The same detail appears in your reporting page alongside your invoice line items. A deduction never arrives as a separate bill, and an invoice never goes below zero: if a deduction is larger than a given week's earnings, the remainder simply waits for the next invoice.
Questions and disputes
If any line looks wrong, reply to your invoice email or write to finance@beanbox.com within 30 days of the invoice date with the order number. A person reviews every dispute; if the deduction shouldn't have happened, it's reversed as a credit on your next invoice.
We built this to be boring: accurate orders see none of it, and the rare error costs exactly what it cost — once, itemized, at your prices.