1 in 4 shoppers admit refund abuse, and 98% get approved
How widespread refund abuse is in online retail, and what a UK delivery operator can prove at the counter.
One in four shoppers says they have abused a refund policy, and 98% of those attempts were approved (Ravelin, State of Refund Abuse 2026, read 30 September 2026). The survey covers online retail in general, not delivery or restaurants.
Delivery carries more of that risk than shop retail. The food is eaten before anyone can inspect it, so a claim is normally settled on the customer’s description of the bag. A restaurant that answers with its own version of what went in has no evidence, only an opposing account. The approval rate above is what happens to the customer’s account in Ravelin’s sample.
How often is refund abuse approved?
In Ravelin’s 2026 survey, 98% of the refund abuse attempts shoppers admitted to were approved. One shopper in four says they have made one. Because the sample is online retail as a whole, it gives no delivery-specific rate. Read as an order of magnitude, it puts refund abuse at the scale of a standing cost line rather than an occasional incident.
| What the survey measures | Figure |
|---|---|
| Shoppers who admit abusing a refund policy | 1 in 4 |
| Of those admitted attempts, the share approved | 98% |
| What the sample covers | Online retail in general, not delivery |
In our experience, a group that handles refund claims one at a time is always working after the fact. The deduction lands on the weekly statement days after the order, by which time the counter has packed thousands more bags. Nobody remembers that one. The area manager then reads a claim about an order that no record in the business describes, and signs it off because arguing costs more than the item.
What does a restaurant hold as proof?
Bronze photographs every order at the pass, compares what was packed with what the customer ordered and files the timestamped image against the order number. The evidence exists before any claim does, for the orders nobody complains about as well. When a deduction arrives, the photo of that bag is already filed and ready to dispute in a click. The deadlines differ by platform, covered in how to dispute an unfair refund.
Pull last month’s refund deductions and count how many were settled on the customer’s word alone: see the evidence a dispute needs.
