Seller Protection Policy

This policy is part of the Artist Agreement, incorporated into §4 by reference and versioned with it. It is kept as a separate document because it decides who bears a chargeback, which is the single term most worth reading properly.

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The principle

Protection is a bargain, not a benefit. You bear a chargeback by default. Custom Canvas covers it instead when you did the things that would have won the dispute.

Every dispute — won or lost — counts against Custom Canvas's standing with the card networks. One careless sale can jeopardize processing for every artist on the Platform. That is why the requirements are what they are.

Scope of protection

Seller Protection applies only to an eligible card chargeback that Custom Canvas contests and ultimately loses. For a Protected order, Custom Canvas will not recover from you the protected portion of the artwork price and ordinary outbound shipping included in your payout.

Unless Custom Canvas expressly agrees otherwise, Seller Protection does not cover taxes, the buyer service fee, processing fees, dispute fees, penalties, consequential losses, insurance deductibles, or amounts exceeding the original transaction.

Seller Protection is a contractual platform benefit, not insurance, a bank guarantee, or a promise that any dispute will be won.

When Custom Canvas covers a chargeback

An order is Protected when all of the following are true:

1. Shipped within 5 business days of the sale
2. A tracking number from USPS, UPS, FedEx or DHL recorded before you marked it shipped
3. Delivery confirmed to the address on the Custom Canvas order and recorded before the dispute arrived
4. Signature confirmation obtained, for orders of $750 or more
5. Your listing carried 3+ photographs and a description of 150+ characters — as measured at the time of sale
6. No buyer message about the order left unanswered for more than 3 business days, between the sale and confirmed delivery and for any later message about that order

How eligibility is determined

Custom Canvas determines protection eligibility reasonably and in good faith based on the order record, payment-processor information, carrier records, communications, and other relevant evidence.

Meeting the listed requirements does not guarantee that a chargeback will be won. Custom Canvas may request additional evidence reasonably required by the payment processor or card network.

A technical error by Custom Canvas will not automatically disqualify an otherwise eligible order if you can provide reliable alternative evidence demonstrating compliance.

Two limits to know about before you rely on this:

Delivery confirmation is your attestation, not the carrier's. We do not yet read tracking from carrier APIs, so marking an order delivered is something you record. It still has to be true, and we may check it against carrier records. A false attestation is a breach of the Artist Agreement and forfeits protection. Carrier verification is coming, and we will tell you before it changes.

Local pickup is not eligible today. The rule is that pickup is Protected when both parties confirm handoff in the message thread, but that confirmation feature is not built yet, so pickup orders currently evaluate as unprotected. Until it ships, treat a pickup sale as carrying its own risk, and still get the buyer to confirm the handoff in writing in the thread. It remains the best evidence available to you.

Why each requirement exists

They are not arbitrary — each is a piece of evidence a card network actually weighs:

• Tracking and delivery are the single strongest defense against "I never received it", which is the most common dispute.
• Signature at $750 matches the card networks' own evidence rules for higher-value goods.
• Photographs and a real description are what defeats "not as described". A listing that says only "Beautiful abstract in blues, ready to hang" defends nothing — which is exactly why the bar is 150 characters rather than a token minimum.
• Answering messages resolves most complaints before a bank is ever involved.

Requirement 5 is frozen at the moment of sale

Photograph count and description length are recorded when the buyer pays and cannot be changed afterwards. Adding photographs to a sold listing does not retroactively protect that order — it protects the next one.

Seeing where you stand

Every order in Studio > Sales shows its protection standing before any dispute exists, and expands to list precisely what is missing. Anything still fixable is listed separately from anything already fixed at the point of sale.

Accepting a dispute

You may tell Custom Canvas that you do not wish to contest a dispute. If accepted before Custom Canvas incurs a dispute-response fee or other processor cost, Custom Canvas will ordinarily not impose an additional platform penalty solely because you declined to contest it. Fighting a dispute you will lose costs everyone.

The transaction, refund, or dispute may nevertheless remain part of Custom Canvas's and the payment processor's records and may be considered in future risk, reserve, payout, or account decisions.

Custom Canvas may contest a dispute notwithstanding your preference when necessary to prevent fraud, protect the Platform, or comply with processor requirements.

What happens when a dispute arrives

1. We mark the order disputed and tell you immediately, stating in the first line whether you are protected.
2. We ask for any shipping or delivery evidence you hold, and we respond to the bank.
3. If we win, nothing changes and your payout stands.
4. If we lose and the order was Protected, Custom Canvas absorbs the loss and your payout is not touched.
5. If we lose and the order was not Protected, the payout is reversed.

A reversal can push your Stripe balance negative. That is why payouts run on a 14-day delay — so the money is usually still in your Stripe balance rather than already spent out of your bank account.

If your balance will not cover a reversal, the shortfall is an amount you owe Custom Canvas, and we may recover it by reversing or adjusting an unsettled transfer, deducting it from current or future payouts, applying an account reserve, or requesting direct reimbursement. We may also hold a payout or place a reserve while a dispute or a claim about a piece is investigated. The full terms are in Artist Agreement §4, under Payout holds, reserves, and amounts owed.

What this does not cover

Protection covers card chargebacks. It is not shipping insurance, and it does not cover a piece lost or damaged in transit — insure your shipments, and note that risk of loss sits with you until delivery under Artist Agreement §7.

It also does not cover a refund you approved yourself, a refund we make because a piece was never shipped, or one we make because we substantiated that a piece arrived damaged or was materially not as your listing described it. Protection is about defending against a bank; it is not a guarantee against the consequences of a sale that went wrong.

Protection does not apply when:

• you, a related party, or someone acting with you participated in fraud or collusion;
• the artwork or transaction violated the Artist Agreement or Listing Standards;
• the listing contained a material inaccuracy or omitted a required disclosure;
• you provided false, altered, or misleading evidence;
• the shipment was redirected or delivered to an address different from the Custom Canvas order without written approval;
• the transaction was split, duplicated, or conducted partly outside the Platform;
• you failed to provide requested evidence within the stated response period; or
• the claim concerns a refund, safety issue, infringement claim, counterfeit work, or other matter outside the card-chargeback protection described here.

Changes to protection requirements

Custom Canvas may prospectively modify supported carriers, documentation requirements, signature thresholds, response periods, payout timing, or other protection criteria to address fraud trends, processor requirements, card-network rules, or operational changes.

A change will not retroactively remove protection from an order that qualified under the policy in effect when the order was placed, except where you engaged in fraud, supplied false information, or were never eligible under that version.

Material changes will be disclosed to artists and may require renewed acceptance before additional listings or sales.

Questions: support@customcanvas.shop