What if my item arrives damaged?
What online stores need to publish
Something has already gone wrong. The answer's tone matters as much as its content — this is the moment a customer decides whether to buy again.
How customers actually ask it
The same intent arrives in wording your page probably does not use. All of these mean the same thing:
- “What if my item arrives damaged?”
- “item arrived broken”
- “wrong item sent”
- “faulty product”
- “damaged in transit”
What a complete answer contains
For online stores specifically, an answer is only complete when it covers all 5:
- 1
The time limit for reporting damage, and what evidence you need
- 2
Whether you want photographs before the item is returned
- 3
Whether they get a replacement or a refund, and who chooses
- 4
An explicit statement that return postage is on you for faulty items
- 5
The escalation route if the replacement also fails
A worked example
Illustrative — not a real business
Email a photograph within 14 days of delivery and we will send a replacement immediately at no cost — you do not need to return the damaged item first. If a replacement is not available we refund in full including original postage.
Which page should own it
Returns & refunds policy, damaged goods section
What silence costs
How you handle damage determines repeat purchase rate more than almost anything else. A buried policy reads as an unwilling one.
More questions online stores get
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industry
AI customer support for ecommerce stores
Most ecommerce support is four questions wearing different hats: where is it, when will it arrive, can I return it, and will it fit. RubyRep reads your product pages and policies and answers them at the moment of hesitation, which is the moment the sale is won or lost.
term
What is AI customer service?
AI customer service means answering customer questions with a language model rather than a person. The useful implementations are grounded in a specific business's own content; the poor ones let a general model improvise, which produces confident answers that are wrong.
term
What is a knowledge base?
Traditionally a knowledge base is a help centre humans read. For AI support it is the source material a representative answers from — which means an ordinary website, well written, can serve as one without a separate help centre.
Does your site answer this already?
Point RubyRep at your website and ask it this exact question. If it cannot answer, neither can your customers.