Hail Pilot'Item Not Received' Claims: How to Prove Delivery
Marketplace disputes and card chargebacks run on different rules. Build the delivery chain (tracking, POD, address match, locker logs, chat) before an item not received claim lands.
AI-assisted content notice. This article was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor at Hail Pilot before publishing.
Why an Item Not Received Claim Is Hard to Defend
An item not received claim is one of the hardest to answer without records, because in practice the seller is the one who has to show the parcel arrived. A buyer who claims the item was faulty has to describe the fault. A buyer who says the parcel never arrived only has to say it did not come.
That asymmetry makes item not received (INR) claims hard to defend. The honest version is common and real: parcels do go missing, couriers do misdeliver, porch theft happens. A mistaken or false claim looks identical to a genuine one at the moment it lands, and a seller who cannot produce delivery evidence is in the same weak position either way.
Here is the mechanic that costs you money. On a marketplace, a claim you cannot answer with delivery evidence is very hard to contest, and platforms decide within short windows. On a card chargeback, Stripe's documentation is blunt: once a dispute is active, "the only way to overturn it's by submitting evidence in a response". If you stay silent, the reversal stands, and you absorb the cost of goods, the shipping and, with some processors (Stripe, for example), a non-refundable dispute fee.
The defensible sellers are not the ones who argue best. They are the ones who kept the delivery trail before the claim ever existed. Everything below is about building that trail and using it in the right forum.
Two Different Fights: Marketplace Dispute vs Card Chargeback
A common and expensive mistake is treating a marketplace INR dispute and an INR chargeback as the same problem: they have different decision-makers, accept different evidence, and run on different clocks. Which one you face depends on who took the payment. On Shopee or Lazada orders, the marketplace collects the payment and handles any bank dispute under its own rules, so check the platform's seller terms for how that affects you. On your own store (for example a Shopify store using a card processor), the chargeback comes to you directly.
A marketplace dispute is decided by the platform's resolution team. It reads courier tracking, in-app chat, and any photos you upload, and it moves fast; Shopee's help centre, for example, says its dispute investigations take "approximately three days" on average. The most useful evidence is native to the platform: the tracking number already attached to the order, the delivered scan, and the chat thread where the buyer discussed delivery.
A card or bank chargeback is decided by the buyer's issuing bank under card-network rules. You respond through your payment processor or acquirer with a formal representment: a written rebuttal plus proof of delivery documents. The clock is set by the card network and your processor; Stripe, for example, says merchants usually have "7-21 days, depending on the card network" to respond. For a not-received claim, Stripe's evidence examples include "tracking details, carrier confirmation, or signed delivery receipts" plus customer communications and your delivery policies.
| Marketplace INR dispute | INR card chargeback | |
|---|---|---|
| Who decides | Platform resolution team (Shopee, Lazada) | The buyer's issuing bank, under card-network rules |
| You respond through | The Seller Centre dispute panel | Your payment processor / acquirer (representment) |
| Evidence to provide | Courier tracking, delivered scan, in-app chat, photos | Tracking, carrier confirmation or signed delivery receipt, customer messages, delivery policy |
| Timeline | Short response window, typically decided in days | Network-defined window; check your processor's exact deadline |
| If you stay silent | Platform decides without your evidence | Reversal stands; some processors also keep a dispute fee |
| When it reaches you | Orders on the marketplace | Orders where you are the merchant (e.g. your own store) |
Card-scheme windows and exact documentation rules differ by network and by processor, and they change. Treat the timeline as "check your processor's current representment deadline for this reason code," never as a fixed number you memorised once. The point that does not change: on both sides, a case with no evidence is very hard to win.
Proof of Delivery That Actually Holds Up
Weak proof of delivery says a parcel was delivered somewhere; strong proof of delivery ties a delivered scan to this buyer, this address, and this order, and that difference often decides the case. A raw "Delivered" status with no address and no recipient leaves a defensible order exposed. The buyer says "delivered where? Not to me," and a bare status line cannot answer.
Build the chain. Every link you add makes the record harder to dispute.
- Courier tracking to a delivered status. The baseline. A tracking number that reaches "Delivered," with the timestamp, on the courier's own portal, not a screenshot you could have typed.
- POD with signature, photo, or geotag. A proof of delivery capture at the doorstep: a signature, a photo of the parcel at the address, or a GPS geotag of the drop. Consider signature-required POD for higher-value orders as a matter of policy.
- Recipient name and address match. The delivery record should show the same name and address as the order. A match closes the "not to me" argument; a mismatch is your early warning that something is genuinely wrong.
- Locker or collection-point pickup log. If the parcel went to a parcel locker or a pickup point, the collection log (the timestamp and the code or account that opened the locker) is often the strongest single record you have, because the buyer's own action retrieved it.
- Correlating chat. In-app messages where the buyer asked "where is my order," gave revised delivery instructions, or acknowledged receipt. Chat that places the buyer in the delivery conversation is relevant context for a later "it never came."
The strong version of a case reads as one story: order placed, dispatched on this date, courier scan to Delivered at this address on this timestamp, POD photo at the door, buyer's own chat message two days earlier confirming the address. The weak version is a lone status line and a hope.
Consider an illustrative order (a made-up example, not a real case): a buyer files a not received claim eleven days after a locker pickup. You pull the collection-point log showing the parcel code was scanned out at 7:14pm on the delivery date, alongside a chat message where the same buyer had asked you to route it to that exact locker. That is a strong, coherent record to put in front of a reviewer. That is what "holds up" means: not volume of documents, but a consistent chain.
For the marketplace side, our Shopee dispute evidence guide walks the exact upload steps and what the resolution team weighs first.
Prevention: Lower Your INR Rate Before the Claim
You cannot stop a not received claim from being filed, but you can decide in advance whether you will have the proof to answer it, and that decision is made at ship time, not at dispute time. Prevention is cheaper than every representment you will ever write.
Set your shipping policy by order value, not by habit. Low-value orders can run on standard trackable shipping. For higher-value orders, consider signature or photo POD, because those are the orders where a loss hurts most and where a bare scan may not be enough. The extra courier cost on a high-value parcel is small next to losing the goods and the money together.
Use trackable shipping on everything you can. An untracked parcel leaves you with no delivered scan to point at if a claim arrives. Capture handover proof at the point the parcel leaves you: the pickup booking confirmation, the drop-off receipt, the weight slip. That handover record is what separates "we shipped it" from "we can prove we shipped it."
Then watch for the repeat pattern. A buyer who files not received on order after order, across time, is a signal — but a first-time buyer with no history is not. This is where pattern signals earn their place, and where the framing matters: a buyer with no record is treated as unknown, neutral, and not guilty by default. You are not blacklisting anyone. You are noticing when the same behaviour repeats against your own orders, which is exactly what a delivery dispute pattern looks like before it becomes a habit.
For the wider abuse picture, see detecting serial refund abusers and our breakdown of return and refund fraud on Shopee and Lazada.
Responding Step by Step: Marketplace Dispute and Chargeback Representment
Both fights follow the same shape (assemble the delivery chain, write a factual rebuttal, submit inside the window, escalate if needed), but the forum and the wording differ, so run them as two separate playbooks. Do not send the marketplace narrative to the card scheme, and do not send scheme paperwork into a Seller Centre chat.
- Assemble the proof of delivery pack. Pull the courier tracking to delivered status, the POD (signature, photo, or geotag), the recipient name and address match, any locker or pickup-point log, and the correlating chat. Put them in delivery order so the record reads as a timeline.
- Write a factual rebuttal. State what was ordered, that it was delivered, and the evidence that shows it, in that order. Cite the delivered scan timestamp, the address match, and the pickup log. No emotion, no "please kindly reconsider." Reviewers weigh facts, not feelings.
- Submit inside the window. For a marketplace dispute, respond in the Seller Centre panel before the review window closes. For a chargeback, submit representment through your processor before the scheme deadline. Evidence that arrives after the window may never be considered, however strong it is.
- Escalate with new evidence only. If a marketplace dispute is rejected and you have net-new proof, use the platform's escalation path. If a chargeback representment fails, some card networks have a further pre-arbitration or arbitration stage, but not every processor supports it (Stripe, for example, does not) and it carries its own cost and risk, so weigh it against the order value before you push further.
For the marketplace playbook applied to a specific platform, winning a Lazada dispute in Singapore covers the panel steps and the evidence order the resolution team expects.
Hail Pilot helps with step 1: it organises order data, buyer messages, tracking and your dispatch photos into one case file and evidence pack per dispute, and tracks the response deadline, so when a not received claim lands the delivery chain is already assembled instead of scattered across four tabs. You still review and submit it yourself.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an item not received claim? It is a buyer claiming that an order they paid for never arrived. It can be filed as a marketplace dispute inside the platform, or as an INR chargeback through the buyer's bank or card scheme. Either can end in a refund or reversal if the seller cannot show delivery.
How do I prove a parcel was delivered? With a chain, not a single line. Courier tracking to a delivered status, a proof of delivery capture (signature, photo, or geotag), a recipient name and address that match the order, and any locker or pickup-point log. Correlating chat where the buyer discussed the delivery strengthens it further.
Is a marketplace dispute the same as a chargeback? No. A marketplace dispute is decided by the platform against tracking and chat on a short timeline. A chargeback is decided by the buyer's issuing bank under card-network rules, needs proof of delivery submitted as representment, and runs on the network's own deadline. It reaches you directly when you are the merchant that took the card payment, such as on your own online store.
What is chargeback representment? It is the seller's formal response to a chargeback: a written rebuttal plus proof of delivery documents, submitted through your payment processor or acquirer. If you do not submit it inside the deadline, the reversal stands, and some processors also charge a dispute fee.
Can a buyer keep the item and still get a refund? If you cannot show delivery, it can happen, whether the claim is genuine, mistaken or false. The defence is evidence you captured at ship time, not an argument you make after the claim.
How do I tell when a not received claim needs a closer look? Look for the pattern against your own orders: the same buyer filing not received repeatedly over time. A first-time buyer is treated as neutral and not guilty by default. A repeat pattern is a signal that warrants review, not a verdict on a single claim.
Does signature on delivery help against chargebacks? It can, especially on higher-value orders. Processor guidance for not-received disputes lists "signed delivery receipts" among the evidence to provide, and a signature or recipient match is more specific than a bare delivered scan. Requiring signature POD on high-value orders is a practical way to strengthen your record.
What happens if I ignore an INR chargeback? The reversal stands: as Stripe puts it, submitting evidence is "the only way to overturn" an active dispute, and some processors keep a dispute fee regardless. A focused response submitted on time is always better than silence.
Keep the Delivery Proof Ready Before the Claim
You did the hard part: you shipped the order and it arrived. Whether a not received claim costs you comes down to whether the delivery proof is assembled and used in the right forum before the window closes. Hail Pilot helps you keep tracking, buyer messages, order data and dispatch photos in one case file per dispute, with deadline alerts and repeat-pattern signals from your own order history. See how Hail Pilot works.
By Charlie Lee — Founder, Hail Pilot. Reviewed 2026-07-07.
Written by Charlie Lee