Refused at the dock: what to do when your inbound restock bounces
Sign or refuse the inbound shipment: a 90-second decision rule, the 48-hour status trail, a who-pays table, and the recovery math for a bounced restock.
InventoryX is in development and not available today. ClearStock is the live Shopify app.
The driver is in your yard with two pallets of dog harnesses, one crushed at a corner, and four more stops on his route. You have about ninety seconds to decide: sign, sign with an exception, or refuse. Choose wrong and a routine restock turns into a three-week argument about who owes whom. Choose right and the incident is a footnote. This piece gives you the sign-or-refuse decision table, the 48-hour status trail, the who-pays table, and the math of getting a bounced restock back on schedule.
(The formal process for goods you're sending back on purpose — RMAs, credits, the whole RTV workflow — is covered in our return-to-vendor guide; this piece owns the dock-side refusal event itself.)
The 90-second decision: sign, sign with exception, or refuse
| What you're looking at | What to do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Cartons intact, counts look right | Sign, receive, full count within 24h | Concealed damage is a separate claim; refusing conforming goods backfires (who-pays table below) |
| Visible damage, load still usable | Sign with an exception noted on the POD ("2 cartons crushed, contents unknown"), photograph everything | The notation preserves your claim without stranding the goods at the carrier's yard |
| Load obviously wrong — different SKUs, wrong quantities, goods you never ordered | Refuse, note the reason on the POD | Refusing nonconforming goods is your right, and the refusal reason is evidence |
| Unsafe, leaking, or impossible to store | Refuse, note the reason, call the supplier same day | Safety and capacity are legitimate grounds; document |
Carriers generally treat refusal before signature as the clean path; once you sign clean, the claim window narrows to concealed-damage rules, which differ by carrier (UPS and FedEx publish their own refusal and claims policies — check the one on your label; accessed November 2026). The exception notation is the middle path most merchants underuse: the goods keep moving and the evidence keeps existing.
The first 48 hours: the status trail
- Photograph before the truck leaves — pallet shot, labels, BOL, close-ups of any damage, time-stamped. Photos settle arguments that words start.
- Annotate the POD or BOL — exception text or refusal reason — and get your copy.
- Get the tracking or PRO number, and the refusal receipt if refused. "Returned to sender" is a destination, not a status; you need to be able to see where your goods are.
- Notify the supplier the same day with photos and the POD note attached. Same-day notice is the difference between a credit and a debate.
- Freeze the PO as shipped-but-not-received. Refused units never touch sellable inventory — receiving mechanics below.
- Set the 48-hour alarm. If the supplier hasn't proposed a remedy — reship, credit, or formal return — within two business days, escalate with a written remedy request.
Who pays: cost follows the contract
Risk and cost allocation come from your trade terms, not from who argued hardest at the dock. The ICC Incoterms 2020 rules define the standard menu of terms; your PO contract controls which one applies (ICC, accessed November 2026). The typical patterns:
| Refusal reason | Who usually eats the freight | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Wrong goods or wrong quantity vs PO | Shipper | Nonconforming goods; return leg plus correct reshipment is the standard remedy — contract controls |
| Damaged in transit before delivery | Depends on your term | Where risk passed from seller to buyer is the deciding line — EXW and FOB pass it early, DAP late; check your rule |
| Buyer refused conforming goods | Buyer | Your call, your cost — often both legs |
| No delivery appointment / dock closed | Per carrier rules | Redelivery and storage fees bill per the carrier's rules tariff, often to the consignee |
The rule of thumb underneath the table: if the goods didn't match the PO, the refusal is usually the shipper's problem; if the goods were fine and you declined them, it's usually yours; transit damage depends on where risk passed under your term. When the refusal involves real damage, the aftermath — carrier claims, salvage, documentation depth — has its own guide (freight damage claims).
What happens to the goods, and what the bounce costs
Refused freight travels back to the shipper — sometimes immediately, sometimes into a carrier terminal where storage and redelivery fees accrue per that carrier's rules tariff. Get the tariff quote before agreeing to hold anything anywhere.
Worked recovery example (illustrative): 120 units of HARNESS-M-19 refused at the dock — carton count doesn't match the PO.
- On hand at refusal: 60 units; weekly velocity 15 → 4 weeks of cover (illustrative)
- Return leg to supplier: ~1 week; inspection and correct reship: ~2 weeks; new transit: ~1.5 weeks → total loop ~4.5 weeks
- If every leg connects, you reach zero exactly as the reshipment lands — with any slip, you're selling air for a week or more
- Bridge option: partial air shipment of 40 units for an illustrative $260 freight → 40 ÷ 15 ≈ 2.7 weeks of cover → ~$97 per bridged week (estimated)
- Weekly gross margin on this SKU: 15 units × $9 ≈ $135/week (estimated)
Decision rule the numbers produce: bridge when the gap beyond the normal reship flow exceeds about two weeks ($260 ÷ $135 ≈ 1.9). And if the refusal was the supplier's error, push the bridge cost into the remedy conversation — credit or freight absorption — with the POD photos attached. The evidence trail from the first 48 hours is what converts that ask from a favor into a claim.
Reconciling inventory while the goods are in limbo
Refused units never enter sellable stock. Keep the PO open as "shipped — refused," and receive the reshipment against the same PO when it lands; if part of the load entered your warehouse before the refusal, receive only what physically arrived (Shopify Help Center covers receiving and inventory adjustments, accessed November 2026). The trap to avoid: a PO marked "received in full" while a shipment circles back to the supplier — your next reorder math then counts phantom units, and the reorder lands late. Run days-of-cover on real on-hand, not on PO hopes (the metric is defined in the days-of-cover guide).
A note on the mirror incident: extra pallets arriving that you never ordered is the twin problem, with its own ledger and keep-or-return logic (the supplier shipped twice).
Prevention: the pre-ship checklist
- Confirm carton count and pallet configuration in the supplier's PO acknowledgment — mismatches get caught on paper, not in your yard.
- Check whether your LTL lane requires a delivery appointment, and book it the week the shipment is due.
- Verify your dock can actually receive on the delivery day — a full dock is the most expensive possible reason for a refusal.
- On arrival: labels and PO references before signature, every time. Refusals spike when a rushed load meets an unready dock, so the delivery day needs a real receiving slot, not a hope.
Common questions
Should I refuse a damaged inbound delivery? Usually no — sign with a damage exception noted on the POD and photograph everything. Refusing strands the goods at the carrier's yard and narrows your options; the exception notation preserves your claim while the load keeps moving. Refuse outright only for loads that are wrong, unsafe, or impossible to store.
Who pays when an inbound shipment is refused? It follows your contract terms. Nonconforming goods (wrong items or counts) usually make the return leg the shipper's cost; refused conforming goods usually make it yours; transit damage depends on where risk passed under your Incoterm. Storage and redelivery fees bill per the carrier's rules tariff.
What happens to goods after I refuse them? They return to the shipper, sometimes via a carrier terminal where storage fees accrue. Get the return tracking or PRO number so you can verify arrival, and press the supplier within 48 hours for a remedy — reshipment, credit, or formal return — with your photos and POD notation attached.
How do I record a refused shipment in my inventory? Don't receive the units. Keep the purchase order open as shipped-but-refused, and receive the reshipment against the same PO when it arrives. Receiving refused units creates phantom stock that corrupts your reorder math until the next physical count catches it.
Can I refuse a delivery that arrived without an appointment? Generally yes for freight that skipped a required appointment, but the cost side is governed by the carrier's rules tariff, which assigns redelivery or storage fees to a named party. Confirm the appointment requirement in your carrier's rules before making refusal your default response.
Next step
Write your dock rule down today — photograph first, annotate the POD second, freeze the PO third, escalate in 48 hours — and pin it where receiving happens. Then audit your last five purchase orders for one marked "received in full" while any leg is unverified; if one exists, reconcile it now. The receiving state machine that prevents this class of error is in the purchase order process guide.