Stop 8 — Check the parcel while claims are still open

• The parcel is delivered and the claim clock starts at delivery, not at the moment you open it.
• The outer condition is the first thing a claim is assessed on, which is why unopened photos matter.
• Items are matched against the order record, including variants and quantities.
• A claim is written, and what it contains decides whether it can be assessed at all.

• Opening the parcel first and photographing afterwards: the outer condition, which most claims turn on, is then unprovable.
• Writing a claim as a story instead of a list: item, order line, expected, received, and the photo that shows each difference.
• Missing the window because the parcel sat unopened for weeks; the clock started at delivery regardless.

Open this channel on Kakox

1. Photograph the parcel before opening anything
   Pass when: You have frames of every face of the outer box, including any crush, tear or tape damage, with the label visible.
2. Open with the camera running
   Pass when: There is a continuous record from sealed parcel to laid-out contents.
3. Match every item against the order record
   Pass when: Each line has been checked for variant and quantity, and any mismatch has its own photo.
4. Write the claim as a list, not a narrative
   Pass when: Each difference is one line: order line, expected, received, photo reference.
5. Submit inside the window you verified
   Pass when: The submission timestamp is before the claim window shown on the order record.

The claim clock starts when the parcel is delivered, not when you get around to opening it. That single fact decides the order of everything else in this stop: the outer box is photographed while it is still sealed, the opening is recorded as a continuous sequence, and the contents are matched against the order record line by line. A parcel opened first and photographed afterwards has already lost the evidence that most claims are actually assessed on.

What makes a claim assessable is its form rather than its tone. A paragraph explaining how disappointing the parcel was gives an assessor nothing to check. A list does: one line per difference, each naming the order line, what was expected, what arrived, and which photo shows it. The QC set from stop 5 belongs in that list too — it is a datable record of the item before it travelled, and it is already on your account.

Two limits are worth accepting before you write anything. Claims settle as refunds or credits where they are accepted; there is no route that produces a replacement item, and no route that reopens a claim once it is closed. The window itself is a platform setting shown on your order record — read it there, write the date down, and treat that date, rather than the day you finally unpacked, as the deadline that matters.