If a seller can't ship within the time they promised — or 30 days by default — and you never explicitly agreed to wait longer, they're required to cancel your order and refund you automatically. You don't have to ask.
The Default Timeline, and What Happens When It's Missed
The FTC's Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule (16 C.F.R. Part 435), commonly called the 30-Day Rule, governs sellers accepting orders for physical merchandise by mail, phone, or online. The baseline: a seller must ship within whatever timeframe they clearly advertised. If no timeframe was stated at all, the default deadline is 30 days from the date the seller received your completed order and valid payment.
If the seller can't meet that deadline, the rule doesn't just require an apology email — it requires action with legal consequences attached, depending on how the delay is handled.
The Critical Distinction: Silent Consent vs. Required Consent
This is the part most consumers don't realize, and it changes who has to act:
- First delay, 30 days or less: the seller must notify you before the original deadline passes, give a revised ship date, and tell you explicitly that you have the right to cancel for a full refund. If you don't respond to that notice, the rule treats your silence as consent to the new date — the revised date becomes binding without you doing anything.
- Any subsequent delay, or any delay longer than 30 days: silence is no longer enough. The seller must get your explicit, affirmative consent to the new date. If you don't give it — or don't respond at all — the seller is legally required to automatically cancel your order and refund you, without you having to request it.
In practice, this means a seller who keeps pushing your ship date back indefinitely, hoping you'll eventually give up and forget, is violating the rule the moment a second delay or any 30+ day delay occurs without your explicit yes.
How Fast the Refund Has to Come
Once a cancellation is triggered under the rule, refund timing depends on how you paid:
- Credit card: the seller must issue the credit within one billing cycle.
- Cash, check, or money order: the seller must mail a refund check within 7 working days.
What Enforcement Actually Looks Like
Violating the 30-Day Rule is treated as an unfair or deceptive practice under Section 5 of the FTC Act. As of the FTC's most recent inflation adjustment (effective January 17, 2025, with no further adjustment for 2026), the maximum civil penalty the FTC can pursue is $53,088 per violation, alongside potential restitution orders. This penalty framework is enforced by the FTC directly — it's not something an individual consumer collects — but it's the mechanism that gives the automatic-refund requirement real teeth for sellers operating at scale.
What to Do If You're Owed an Automatic Refund
- Check your original order confirmation for any stated shipping timeframe — this determines your actual deadline, not just a general 30-day assumption.
- Check whether you received a delay notice, and if so, whether you gave explicit consent to a new date or simply didn't respond.
- If a second delay occurred, or the delay exceeds 30 days, and you never explicitly agreed to it, you're entitled to cancellation and a refund without needing to make a special request.
- Contact the seller directly, citing the 30-Day Rule by name and stating that no valid consent to the delay was given.
- If the seller refuses, you can file a complaint with the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and if you paid by card, a chargeback is a separate available option.