Faire damaged item reports: what brands should capture and how to dispute

A wholesale order of 48 ceramic mugs goes to a boutique in four cartons. Nine days later a report arrives: six mugs damaged in transit, one photo, refund requested. The deduction is already on your payout. Whether you accept it, replace the mugs or dispute the report depends on one thing: what you can show about how those four cartons left your bench.

What happens to a brand when a Faire retailer reports damage

The money moves before anyone looks at your evidence. According to Faire's brand help article What if a retailer reports issues with my products?, the cost of the reported products is deducted from your payout if you have not been paid yet, and if you have, your bank account is charged for their value 12 days after the retailer's claim.

From there the retailer chooses between a replacement and a refund. A replacement order lands in your Orders page; shipping it does not cancel the deduction on the original order, but you are paid for the replacement products once it ships, and Faire covers the retailer's shipping. You cannot issue a refund outside this process, and you cannot undo a report once it is filed.

Every report also counts against you. Faire's damaged items metric is the share of your orders with items reported damaged, and its commitment to service and quality lists the damaged and missing order rate, and how you resolve those orders, among the standards it monitors, with suspension possible for brands that consistently exceed the thresholds. Reports you successfully dispute are excluded from that metric.

Faire's issue report rules, side by side

Faire runs the same report through two clocks: the retailer's and yours. These rules are taken from Faire's retailer and brand help centers, checked October 2026.

Sources: retailer issue reports, brand issue reports, shipping insurance on Faire.

Two details catch brands out. First, a product listed as one unit that actually contains several gets reported as a whole, so a single broken piece in a set of six can be deducted as six; Faire asks brands to contact its team when that happens. Second, multi-carton orders invite "missing item" reports while a carton is still in transit, which is why Faire recommends adding every tracking number to the order.

What to capture per carton before a wholesale order ships

Capture each carton as one continuous recording, from the open carton with every case pack counted to the sealed, labelled box, tied to the Faire order number. Each frame answers a specific report type.

The same per-carton discipline is what answers retail shortage deductions, covered in retail compliance chargebacks, and pallet-level counts on B2B shipments.

How to respond to a Faire damage report, step by step

Respond in the same order every time and the 10-day window is more than enough.

Reading the report against your record

Copy-ready templates for Faire damage reports

Beyond Faire: damage claims on other wholesale channels

The carton record you keep for Faire answers wholesale damage claims everywhere else, because every channel asks the same question: what was in this carton, and how was it packed? Wholesale orders placed through your own Shopify store sync into PallasMark like any other order through the Shopify integration, so the same scan-and-record routine covers them without retyping order numbers. Retail buyers who short-pay invoices are covered in B2B shipments, and if a 3PL packs your wholesale orders, 3PL mispick disputes explains how to hold them to the same standard. Carrier deadlines for the claims that follow are collected in shipping damage claims by carrier.

How PallasMark handles wholesale damage reports

PallasMark records each carton on the phone at your packing bench and keeps the recording, the photos and the order together as one sealed record. Add the Faire order as a manual order, or keep a warehouse record per shipment with the Faire order number and carton count in custom fields; orders from your own Shopify or WooCommerce store arrive on their own, and scanning their slip or label opens the order before the first case pack goes in. Photos are stamped with your company name, the order number and the upload time.

Every file gets a SHA-256 fingerprint, and the tamper-proof recording has a public verification page that re-checks it on the spot. That is the link you paste into a dispute description or a Messenger reply: a retailer or a Faire agent opens it with no account and sees exactly what went into carton 2.

When a document is needed, the evidence dossier builds one PDF for the order: four stills from each recording, the photos, the fingerprints and the carrier and tracking read from your store, which is how the same record supports chargeback and dispute evidence. You download it and send it yourself; PallasMark never submits anything to Faire.

For a large opening order or fragile goods, buyer approval lets the retailer watch their own cartons being packed and approve before they ship. Sending is one tap, they need no account, and their decision and watch time stay on the order, so a later damage report starts from cartons they already accepted. The free plan needs no card; see pricing.

This guide is part of packing proof by industry. Brands that also sell direct to backers should read damaged crowdfunding rewards, and food and drink brands the perishable shipping claims guide.