Refunds & Disputes

How refunds and disputes work on igitems. What you can open, when you can open it, how long each stage lasts, and what you get back.

Overview

When you raise an issue on an order, the funds are placed on hold and a dispute opens. You and the seller get a direct window to resolve it. If you cannot, the case moves to the igitems staff, and any refund is handled through a separate flow that tracks the money.

The rules below cover the standard path. Individual cases that fall outside these rules are reviewed manually rather than auto-decided, and a handful of category-specific edges (Kinguin key orders, BoostRoyal-routed orders) diverge where noted. Section content reflects the current policy.

Opening a dispute

A dispute is a formal claim tied to an order you placed. You can open one from your dashboard once the conditions below are met.

Who can open

You and the seller can each open a dispute on any order you are a party to. The igitems staff can open one on your behalf when needed. If your account is under review for a separate reason, you cannot open a dispute until that review clears.

Order-state requirements

The order must still be active or recently completed. You cannot open a dispute on an order that has already been refunded, cancelled, or disputed. Each order can only carry one dispute.

Time windows

Two time limits apply.

For the first 15 minutes after your payment goes through, you cannot open a dispute yet. This short pause gives the seller a chance to deliver.
After an order is marked completed, you have 10 days to open a dispute. Past that point, the order is treated as final.

If you have igPlus, the 15-minute pause does not apply to you.

Message and reason requirements

Your opening message must be at least 30 characters and must carry one of the standard reasons.

Very short or empty messages are not accepted.
You pick one of five reasons: item not received, item not as described, seller not responding, cancellation requested, or other.
Your message is posted into the dispute chat with a short header that names the reason and labels the sender as you, the seller, or the igitems staff. You cannot make a message look like it was posted by the platform.

Side effects at open

Any refund request that is still pending on the order is cancelled the moment the dispute opens. The dispute takes over.
A shared chat opens on the dispute. You, the seller, and the igitems staff all post into the same thread.
The seller is notified in-app, by email if opted in, and through any seller integrations they have set up.

※Disputes on Kinguin key orders go straight to the igitems staff. You do not go through the direct resolution window with the seller on those.

How a dispute progresses

Every dispute moves through a handful of stages. Some stages advance because you or the seller take an action from the dashboard. Others advance on their own after a set amount of time. Once a dispute is closed, it stays closed.

Stages

Under discussion. You and the seller try to settle it directly. Whoever opened the dispute can also close it themselves at this stage.
With the igitems staff. The case has been escalated. This happens either because someone escalated it, because a bank chargeback came in, or because the dispute went stale.
Waiting on your reply. The igitems staff has responded, and it is now your turn. If you do not reply, the case goes back to the staff queue.
Closed. The case is settled. An outcome and an optional 1 to 5 rating may be recorded.
Permanently closed. The case is closed for good and cannot be reopened.

Automatic transitions

The following changes happen on their own, without anyone having to act.

1
Opening
A new dispute starts in the direct phase where you and the seller talk it out. Kinguin key orders and bank chargebacks skip that phase and go straight to the igitems staff.
2
Escalating it yourself
You can escalate a dispute 24 hours after opening it. The seller, the igitems staff, and igPlus members can escalate at any time.
3
Age
Any dispute that stays in the direct phase for more than 10 days is escalated to the igitems staff automatically.
4
Seller silence
If the seller has not posted in the dispute chat within 24 hours, the case is escalated to the igitems staff.
5
Inactivity
If either side stays silent for more than 3 days at any point, the case is escalated to the igitems staff.
6
No reply from you
If the igitems staff has replied and you have not answered within 24 hours, the case goes back into the staff queue.

Terminal decisions

A closed dispute has at most one outcome on it. These are the possibilities.

Resolved directly. You and the seller settled without the igitems staff having to rule, or the seller issued a full refund.
Ruled for you. You get a full refund, either as an igitems ruling or after a lost bank chargeback.
Ruled for the seller. The seller keeps the funds, either as an igitems ruling or after the bank sided with the seller on a chargeback.
Custom ruling. The igitems staff wrote a bespoke outcome because the three standard ones did not fit.
Closed without a formal outcome. A rating from 1 to 5 may still be recorded.

Blocking conditions

You cannot close a dispute while a refund request tied to it is still open. The refund has to finish first.
You cannot escalate a dispute once it has already left the direct phase.
Closed disputes cannot be reopened by you or the seller. Only the igitems staff can send a case back to the direct phase in the rare cases where that is warranted.

Peer resolution and self-close

The direct phase is your chance to work it out with the seller before the igitems staff gets involved. Most disputes are resolved here. Everything happens in a shared chat tied to the dispute. You and the seller post there, and system notices about the dispute post there too. If you send a message on a dispute that has already been resolved, the conversation reopens so the igitems staff can see it.

Whoever opened the dispute can close it themselves at any point during the direct phase, as long as no outcome has been recorded yet. The close is logged as a direct resolution. If the seller wants to move things along, they can send a refund offer instead of waiting for a self-close.

Mid-dispute refund offer

The seller can offer a refund while the dispute is still in the direct phase. When they do, you get to pick between wallet credit and a refund back to your original payment method before the refund goes through.

Escalation to igitems staff

Escalation moves the dispute out of the direct phase and into the hands of the igitems staff. The paths below all end at the same place.

Manual escalation

You can only escalate a dispute while it is still in the direct phase. You get access to the escalate action 24 hours after opening the dispute.

The seller, the igitems staff, and igPlus members can escalate at any time during the direct phase. You do not get an early bypass unless you have igPlus.

When a dispute is escalated, it moves to the igitems staff, and any refund request that is still pending on the order is cancelled so the escalation takes over.

Automatic escalation triggers

The following triggers escalate a dispute on their own when any of these conditions apply.

1
Age
The direct phase has run for more than 10 days.
2
Seller silence
The seller has not posted in the dispute chat within 24 hours of it opening.
3
Inactivity
You or the seller has stayed silent for more than 3 days.
4
No reply from you
The igitems staff has replied and 24 hours have passed with no answer from you.
5
Kinguin key orders
These skip the direct phase entirely.
6
Bank chargebacks
These open the dispute already in the igitems staff's hands.

After escalation

Once a case is with the igitems staff, it is picked up from the queue. If it stalls, it re-enters the queue for someone else to take. When the igitems staff replies, it is your turn, and you have 24 hours to respond before it goes back into the queue. In rare cases, the igitems staff can also send a case back to the direct phase.

How refund amounts are calculated

Every refund is calculated the same way. The rules below cover how amounts are converted between currencies, how partial refunds are scaled, and when a refund counts as a full refund.

Currency conversion

Refunds are calculated in USD. The exchange rate is the one that applied when you paid, not the rate on the day of the refund. That way currency movement in between does not change what you get back.

Full vs partial refunds

If the total refunded on the order matches the amount you originally paid (allowing a cent of rounding), the order counts as fully refunded. Anything less counts as a partial refund.

Partial refund scaling

On a partial refund, the order value shown on your order is scaled down by the fraction that was refunded. If more partial refunds happen later, they scale off what remains. After each one, the displayed order value reflects what you still hold.

What a chargeback costs on igitems

When you file a chargeback through your bank, the payment processor charges igitems a per-case fee. igitems covers that fee by default. If the igitems staff determines the seller invited the chargeback (for example, by delivering an account after you had already opened a dispute), the seller absorbs it instead. Filing a chargeback carries costs for the seller either way.

Wallet credit vs original-payment refunds

Every refund goes to one of two places. Which one it goes to depends on what you pick, where the order originated, and whether the amount is large enough to require the igitems staff to sign off.

Where refunds can go

Refunds can land in your igitems balance or go back to your original payment method. Balance refunds are instant. Refunds to your original payment method go through the payment processor on its usual timelines. Orders that you paid for from your igitems balance in the first place are always refunded back to your balance.

Choice window

When you are asked to choose, you have 5 days to pick. If you do not pick within 5 days, igitems applies a default. On igitems orders that means your balance, on BoostRoyal orders that means the original payment method. The BoostRoyal default is there because you did not sign up on BoostRoyal to receive an igitems wallet balance.

Larger refunds require sign-off

Refunds to the original payment method above $500, and any refund to the original payment method on an order the seller has already been paid out on, require the igitems staff to sign off first. This is a safeguard so that a large refund is not sent out purely on a dashboard pick.

Wallet credit is the full USD amount

When you take a refund as wallet credit, your balance is topped up with the full USD amount the order was worth, before any payment processing fees are taken out. You do not eat the fee twice.

※igitems still recovers the payment processing cost, but it does so through the service fee on the next order you spend the balance on. It is not deducted from your wallet credit.

Cashback claw-back on refund

If you earned cashback on the order, part of it is taken back when the order is refunded. The amount taken back matches the fraction that was refunded. You keep the cashback tied to the part of the order you still hold.

Evidence, decisions, and chargebacks

When the igitems staff rules on a case, they look at what happened on the platform, they pick from a fixed set of outcomes, and they handle bank chargebacks through the same flow.

Evidence types accepted

The igitems staff mainly looks at things that happened on igitems itself: your order chat, the dispute chat, any delivery proof posted into those chats (screenshots and identifiers), and any reference you added to a refund request (a transaction id, a ticket number, or a link). Everything they consider has to live on the platform.

Evidence explicitly ignored

Anything that happened outside igitems is not considered. Screenshots of external chats, forum posts, or emails sent to your personal inbox are not accepted as evidence. Harassment, personal attacks, and knowingly false claims posted inside the dispute chat are also ignored, and they can carry consequences for the account that posted them.

Terminal outcomes

One of the outcomes below closes the case. The igitems staff also picks whether the order returns to active or is marked completed.

Resolved directly. You and the seller worked it out, no ruling was needed.
Ruled for you. You get a full refund.
Ruled for the seller. The seller keeps the funds.
Custom ruling. The igitems staff wrote a bespoke outcome that did not fit the three standard ones.
Closed without a formal outcome.

On close, the order either continues along its normal lifecycle or is marked completed. When it is marked completed, the usual completion effects apply, such as cashback being credited and the order counting toward your paid-orders total.

Chargebacks

A bank chargeback is a claim you file through your card issuer or bank. When it reaches igitems, a dispute is opened automatically with the igitems staff, the funds on the order are frozen, and a response is filed with the bank on the seller's behalf using the record from the platform.

If the bank sides with the seller, the case closes as ruled for the seller and the order returns to the state it was in before the chargeback. If the bank sides with you, the case closes as ruled for you and the refund is issued. Filing a chargeback after receiving the item, or after already getting a refund, is grounds for a permanent account action.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

How long do I have to open a dispute after an order is completed?

You have 10 days from the moment the order was marked completed to open a dispute. After that, the order is treated as final and you can no longer open one.

How soon after purchase can I open a dispute?

There is a 15-minute pause after purchase so the seller can deliver before you can open a claim. If you have igPlus, the pause does not apply and you can open a dispute right away.

How long do you and the seller have to resolve a dispute directly before igitems steps in?

You can escalate 24 hours after opening the dispute. The dispute is also escalated on its own if the seller has not posted within 24 hours, if either side stays silent for more than 3 days, or if the direct phase has run for more than 10 days.

If I choose to get my refund as wallet credit, do I lose the payment processor fees?

No. Wallet credit is issued at the full USD amount the order was worth, before any payment processing fees. igitems recovers the processing cost through the service fee on the next order you spend the balance on.

What happens on a partial refund to the price fields on my order?

The order value shown on your order is scaled down by the fraction that was refunded. If more partial refunds happen later, they scale off what remains.

What happens if my bank issues a chargeback on an igitems order?

A dispute is opened for you automatically with the igitems staff, the funds on the order are frozen, and a response is filed with the bank using the record from the platform. If the bank sides with you, the refund is issued. Filing a chargeback after you received the item, or after you already got a refund, is grounds for a permanent account action.

What if I don't respond when igitems asks for information during a dispute?

You have 7 days to respond when the igitems staff asks for information during a dispute. If you do not respond within that window, your claim may be forfeited. That decision is made by the igitems staff on a case-by-case basis rather than by an automatic timer.