Why is my order on hold - what does this mean?

On occasion, you may notice in your Transactions section, that a payment for your order has been placed on hold. 

Why has my order been placed on hold?

In most cases orders are placed on hold when we are unable to confirm whether the artwork has reached the customer, and the estimated time of arrival (ETA) set by the artist has passed.

By placing an order on hold this ensures that orders are not paid out before they are delivered, and the 14 day return policy time-frame has lapsed.

There are several reasons as to why we cannot confirm delivery such as:

• There’s no tracking details provided or we are unable to track the order with the details provided.
• The artwork was shipped untracked and the customer has not confirmed delivery.
• The tracking details have not updated in some time and the customer has not confirmed delivery.
• The customer advised that their order has not arrived via our delivery acknowledgment email, which is sent 3 days past the ETA date for orders that cannot be tracked with Aftership. 
• The artwork has been returned to the sender.
• There was a delivery exemption with the shipment such as a failed delivery attempt, delivery to the post office or customs clearance.

My order has been placed on hold, what should I do next?

• Follow up with the courier in regards to the status of the shipment, and if they are able to provide further information.
• Keep up to date with the tracking information, and provide updates where possible to the Artfinder team as well as the customer.
• Launch an investigation with the courier, if the tracking has not updated in a while.

My order has been delivered, so why has it been placed on hold?

• When a customer requests a return for an artwork, this action automatically places the order on hold until we can confirm the safe receipt of the piece back to the artist, we will then release the hold and refund the customer, unless a repair or a replacement is being shipped. For more information, please check our returns documentation. 
• If the artwork has been delivered to the customer damaged, or there is another issue such as this not being as described in the listing, the order may be placed on hold while we investigate further.
• The order shows as delivered by the courier but it has not been delivered to the customer; please follow up with the courier and the customer. For more information, please refer to this article: My customer has claimed non-delivery but the tracking is showing as delivered. What do I do?.

What to do if your order has not been delivered and passed the ETA, and has not been placed on hold

If you discover that one of your orders is past ETA and has not been delivered to the customer yet, but is not on hold, then you will need to contact us to place it on hold. Please email sellers@artfinder.com to let us know, and we will be able to monitor the order.

How can I avoid my order being placed on hold?

• Ship your artworks using a trackable method, to ensure the system can confirm delivery.
• Ensure that you are inputting the shipping details correctly by providing the tracking number and the courier used- please do not put links into the tracking information as the system will not recognise this.
• Should you see any delivery exception, notify the customer immediately and update the Artfinder team as well.