Forum Moderators: buckworks
New F.T.C. Trade Rules Aimed At Speeding Up Goods Shipments
The Rule requires that when you advertise merchandise, you must have a reasonable basis for stating or implying that you can ship within a certain time. If you make no shipment statement, you must have a reasonable basis for believing that you can ship within 30 days. That is why direct marketers sometimes call this the "30-day Rule."
If, after taking the customer’s order, you learn that you cannot ship within the time you stated or within 30 days, you must seek the customer’s consent to the delayed shipment. If you cannot obtain the customer’s consent to the delay -- either because it is not a situation in which you are permitted to treat the customer’s silence as consent and the customer has not expressly consented to the delay, or because the customer has expressly refused to consent -- you must, without being asked, promptly refund all the money the customer paid you for the unshipped merchandise.Business Guide to the FTC's Mail or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule [business.ftc.gov]
If you make no shipment statement, you must have a reasonable basis for believing that you can ship within 30 days.
If I am not explicitly advised to the contrary, I expect the seller to be dispatching from stock by the next business day.
because it is not a situation in which you are permitted to treat the customer's silence as consent
There are many niches where the product is built on demand. Printed items, for example, like business cards. Or built-to-suit, like window blinds, or custom leather goods, etc.
With those items it is implicit that they aren't being shipped from stock.
