[Animats]

An entire API for "pre-orders". Is there a feature to easily notify the Federal Trade Commission of a violation of the Mail Order Rule when the product doesn't show up on schedule?

The FTC finally dropped the hammer on Butterfly Labs for not delivering on "pre-orders":

http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2014/09/ftcs-r...

[cktsai]

That's a great point. Pre-order merchants regularly run over their initial production timelines. A pre-order platform like Celery https://www.trycelery.com/ solves this problem by allowing the merchant to accept a credit card without charging it until the product is ready to ship

[Animats]

The FTC rules are clear, and pro-consumer. The software being shown isn't. Notice the example image in the article, with "Your card will be charged immediately" in small type in light grey on a dark grey background. That probably violates the FTC's "clear and conspicuous" rule on shipment representations.

Here's the FTC's Mail Order Rule:

http://www.business.ftc.gov/documents/bus02-business-guide-m...

This spells out what has to happen when a seller can't deliver on time. There are time limits. Extensions on delivery times require the buyer's explicit consent. If the buyer doesn't do that, a full refund is required. Without the buyer asking for it.

Responsibility to comply with the rule falls on the "seller", the "person soliciting the order". If another party actually ships the product, and they screw up, that's the seller's problem, not the buyer's. So you don't want to set up a platform where you take orders for a third party and give them the money up front. If the stuff isn't delivered, you, the platform operator as seller, have to pay out refunds.