When should you charge for a pre-order?

Charge for a pre-order when it ships, unless the customer agreed in plain words to a stated date. The FTC's mail order rule expects a seller with no stated ship time to have a reasonable basis to ship within 30 days, and in our reading a late pre-order charged on day one is hard to defend.

What does the FTC rule say about ship dates?

The rule sets a default of 30 days when you state no ship time. Under the Federal Trade Commission's Mail, Internet or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule, a seller taking such an order must have a reasonable basis to ship within 30 days. That becomes 50 days if the buyer applies for credit with the order.

A pre-order page that says "ships December 15" gives the customer a date to hold you to. A page that says "coming soon" gives none, so the default applies. In our view a pre-order often ships well beyond 30 days, and a card charged on the day of the order with no date and shipped 8 weeks later has no obvious basis under the rule.

The rule also presumes that a seller with no records of its shipping systems lacked a reasonable basis to ship. If you cannot show how you arrived at a ship date, that presumption argues for the other side. The FTC's guidance on pre-orders is thin. Its business guide mentions only dry-testing, where a seller offering something not yet made must disclose that the product is only planned, and it says nothing about how long a pre-order may wait. The word "pre-order" on your page gives you no special rules.

Note how each ship date was set.

What must you do when a pre-order is delayed?

You must offer the buyer a choice, without being asked, between accepting the delay and cancelling for a prompt refund. Production schedules slip, and this is where pre-orders fall apart. If the delay is up to 30 days, the customer's silence counts as consent. If it is longer, or you cannot give a date, the order is cancelled unless the customer agrees to wait within 30 days of the original deadline. A second delay brings the choice back.

Keep a dated copy of each notice and each customer's answer. That record turns a complaint about lateness into proof of consent.

How fast must refunds go out?

Refunds are due within 7 working days, or within one billing cycle for card sales where the seller is the creditor. Store credit cannot replace a refund the customer is owed on cancelling.

A customer who asked for their money and got a coupon has not been refunded. Visa's credit-not-processed dispute, reason code 13.6, is then open to them. If a credit receipt was issued, Visa makes the issuer wait 15 days from its date and allows a dispute up to 120 days from it.

How long can a customer dispute a late pre-order?

A customer can dispute a pre-order as not received for many months. Visa's rules let the issuer file within 120 days of the processing date or of the last date the cardholder expected delivery, up to 540 days from processing.

A hypothetical October charge for a product promised in March and slipped to June sits inside a window that runs from whatever date the customer last expected the goods. That expected date comes from your product page and the notices you sent, so keep both accurate. The Visa 13.1 not received code page sets out what an issuer expects from a merchant in answer.

Charging at ship time removes most of this exposure. A card charged on the day of dispatch has a delivery date measured in days, a tracking number and no waiting customer with a pending charge to forget about.

Takeaway: what to do this week

1. Charge on dispatch. Unless the customer agreed in plain words to a stated date, take payment when the item ships.
2. Put deposit terms in writing. If you need deposits for production, state the deposit, ship date and refund terms on the product page and receipt, and keep that wording by date.
3. Send a notice every time the date moves. Offer the accept-or-cancel choice and keep each answer; holiday sellers whose pre-orders will not arrive by December 25 should say so before payment.
4. Refund within 7 working days. Never swap store credit for a refund owed on cancellation.

Sources: eCFR, 16 CFR 435.2(a)(1) and 435.2(a)(4), Mail, Internet or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule; FTC, "Business Guide to the Mail, Internet or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule", edited January 2025; Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules, edition 18 April 2026, Table 11-125; Visa Core Rules, edition 18 April 2026, Table 11-92. All checked 24 October 2026.