One purchase, all the way through.
This page shows a single protected purchase end to end — the agreement, the protection terms, what went wrong, and the decision that resolved it. The parties and dates are composed for illustration. The format is the product.
One sale, a fixed scope, a recorded direction.
Alder Studio, an independent design studio, agreed to design a refreshed brand identity and build a five-page marketing site for Kestrel Supply Co., a small outdoor-goods brand: the identity refresh plus Home, Work, Services, About, and Contact pages, responsive, on a CMS, with two structured revision rounds. $8,000, delivered in three weeks.
The agreement did one thing many agreements skip: it wrote the visual direction down.
“Editorial, quiet, confident. Typography-led, minimal motion. The approved moodboard and the three reference sites named in this proposal govern visual direction.”
That clause is what the decision below turns on.
Your $8,000 is protected by .
No extra fee. If there is an issue, Arbit independently evaluates the exchange and creates a full, partial, or no refund.
The protection terms for this purchase.
Ten clauses, readable before anyone clicks Buy. Live terms are set per transaction and stated in the checkout; these are the sample terms for the purchase above.
- What is protected. This purchase — $8,000 for the brand identity and website described in the agreement. The maximum remedy is the purchase amount.
- Who pays for it. The seller. Protection costs the buyer nothing.
- The standard. The parties’ own agreement and recorded intent — the proposal, the approved moodboard, the revision record — read in context. Not a generic checklist.
- Raising a problem. The buyer may open a case up to 14 days after final delivery.
- Acknowledgment. Within one business day.
- Evidence. Both parties get the same 7-day window to add statements and materials. Evidence informs the judgment; it does not replace it.
- The decision. Written, reasoned, and signed, within 5 business days after the evidence window closes. It may return all, some, or none of the purchase amount.
- The remedy. Any refund is issued on the payment rail the purchase used, back to the original payment method, and tracked as pending until the provider confirms it.
- Fairness cuts both ways. Outcomes may favor either party.
- The record. Both parties receive the full decision record. The decision resolves the protection remedy; it does not remove rights either party otherwise has.
Three weeks of work, one open question.
- May 4Agreement signed. The seller opts this transaction into Arbit, protection appears in checkout, and the buyer pays $8,000.
- May 6Both parties approve the moodboard that governs visual direction.
- May 26Staging site delivered — on time and complete.
- May 27 – Jun 12Two structured revision rounds. The direction gap closes on three pages and stays open on two.
- Jun 16The buyer opens a case: the identity is accepted and the site works, but the Home and Work pages do not follow the agreed direction.
- Jun 17Arbit acknowledges the case — within one business day. The 7-day evidence window opens for both parties.
- Jun 24Evidence window closes. Both parties have submitted statements and materials.
- Jun 27Written decision issued: a partial refund, $2,400 of $8,000. The terms allowed five business days; it took three.
- Jun 30The payment provider confirms the refund to the buyer’s original payment method.
The decision record.
The question
The buyer accepts the identity and that the site is complete and works. The buyer contends the Home and Work pages do not follow the visual direction both parties approved. The seller contends the direction language was subjective and the moodboard was inspiration, not specification.
What Arbit considered
The signed proposal and its three named reference sites; the moodboard approved by both parties on May 6; the delivered staging site; both revision rounds; and both parties’ statements.
Findings
- The scope was delivered, on time, and works. The identity, all five pages, responsive, CMS in place. This weighs for the seller.
- The direction was recorded, not implied. The proposal names three reference sites, and both parties approved the May 6 moodboard. The standard is the parties’ own record — not the buyer’s taste, and not the seller’s.
- The delivered Home and Work pages depart from that record in nameable ways — display typography, motion density, and color treatment — and two revision rounds narrowed the gap without closing it. This weighs for the buyer.
- The buyer keeps a working site it can use and build on. This bounds the remedy.
Decision
A full refund would treat delivered, usable work as worthless. No refund would treat the recorded direction as optional. Neither is faithful to the deal the parties actually made. Arbit returns $2,400 of the $8,000 purchase to the buyer; the seller retains $5,600. Both parties receive this record.
Every live decision is written and signed by the reviewing human. This sample shows the format. In the founding pilot, decisions are reviewed and signed by the Arbit team.
Composed for illustration: the parties, dates, and amounts above depict no live case and no live protection.
What would have changed the outcome.
No approved record
If the direction had lived only in conversation — no named references, no approved moodboard — this is a taste dispute, and it likely ends with no refund.
A broken deliverable
If the site had also failed structurally — missing pages, a broken build — the remedy grows, up to the full purchase amount.
A closed gap
If the revision rounds had brought Home and Work onto the approved direction, there is likely no remedy to decide — and nothing to pay.
Outcomes may favor either party. The seller pays to be held to their own agreement — that is why a protected yes means something.
Put a decision like this behind a real sale.
Bring an upcoming transaction. Arbit will review the sale, the checkout, and the agreement and explain what would be required to protect it.
Request early accessSubmitting an intake does not make a transaction protected. Protection exists only when the specific checkout and approved terms say so.