SURVIVAL GUIDE - Rules & Regulations - Episode 81

I went through the full Whatnot Terms of Service, the community guidelines, and the help center and pulled out every rule and policy that can quietly cost you money or flag your account if you do not know about it. Some of this changed in 2026 with no announcement. Some has been in the terms all along. All 13 rules in this episode are sourced directly from Whatnot's own terms and policies — and I read you their exact words throughout so you can hear it straight from the source. This is the episode I wish somebody had handed me when I started. Listen before you go live. 

#WhatnotSeller #WhatnotSellerTips #MustReadBeforeGoingLive #LiveSelling #WhatnotPolicy #SellerSurvivalGuide #ShippingTips #WhatnotShipping #FlatRateBox #PlainWhiteEnvelope #WhatnotTips #SellerProtection #WhatnotCommunity #ResellersOfWhatnot #LiveCommerce #EcommerceTips #ResellTips #OnlineReseller #SellerStrategy #SmallBusinessTips #KarriKennedy

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey there guys. I hope everybody is doing really, really well today. And uh today this is gonna be like a survival guide. This is going to be a must-listen to episode before you go live. And even I think if you have been selling for a while, a lot of this is new updated stuff from you know whatnot. And I'll get into that where I got all this. But you need to listen to this before you go on and do shows. And I think I'm gonna start referencing this to people. I think you need to share this one out, send it out, because it's gonna have the best practices, the rules, the terms of service, the community guidelines-like all of it is in here, guys. It is very thorough. So you need to get a piece of paper and a pen and let's go through it. And I'm gonna also tell you a lot of these things. You probably heard if you're one of those binge listeners, I know there's some of you out there that listen to every episode, and you started at the beginning and you're up where we're at now. Um, I don't think that's necessary, but but if you're one of those people, some of this might seem redundant, but I wanted it all in one episode so that it could be for sure fact-checked and clear as crystal. So that's where we're going, guys. I'm gonna tell you what happened. Um, a seller, I don't have the notes here, but I'm just gonna tell you real quick. Yesterday, a seller got a charge from her post office from me because we sent a priority box uh label on a flat rate box. Now, let me just be clear. I've I've pretty much always said flat rate box, flat rate label. I've said that I don't even know how many times priority label can go on a priority box or a brown box, okay? Or whatever box. Priority kind of is the the trump or the ace in the hole. And I've said that, and when I said it, it got misunderstood. So I want to be clear, clear here, guys. Best practice, always the way that I've always tried to say it is flat rate label on a flat rate box, priority label on a priority box, or a pro a plain brown box. Okay, that's what I teach. That's still correct, all of that. But what happened is the rules have gotten more strict since March 26th. I think it was March 4th of 26, and it became way stricter, and that judgment call is being caught more in places. The girl I talked to the other day, she got an $11 charge, like $11.21, because we put a priority, and I say me because I don't know if it was me, my assistant, my son, whatever, but we grabbed a flat rate box and put a priority sticker on it. And while that has definitely gone by, because I've said sold like 15,000 items, guys. I'm sure a handful of times in all of these years, you know, last two years, we have done that. I'm positive, but we haven't been charged like this. She says her post office is terrible and that they charge her everything at 24 cents here, $2 here, whatever. I'm guessing it's through the whatnot app, and they're just being hard. Some police officers are more difficult, some teachers are more different, difficult, some bosses are more difficult, and the same thing is gonna uh, you know, go through with the post office. So if you have one of those hardcore post offices or not, your buyer might. So we need to be clear and correct, okay? So the reason I started this episode is because of that. I she ended up uh checking with whatnot. We're waiting to see what whatnot says back if they're going to work that out with the post office or not. Honestly, in the real world, priority cost more than flat rate. So I'm not sure why it can't happen. Um, but the judgment is being called out everywhere now, it's becoming an issue. You can see it on social media, everything. Um, and that's one of the reasons I'm having this episode, okay? Um, so let me see. Uh, some of this stuff has been in the terms and and uh terms of service and stuff, and some of it has changed um really recently with no major you know announcement. They didn't send us all emails and say, hey, here's what you need to do. Should they be doing that? Yeah, I totally think they should, but they don't. So that's where I come in. Um, everything in this episode, for the most part, comes from the terms and policies. So you're welcome to go and look it up, but I am going to quote it too, so that you can do that. Okay. So um here we go. Long story short, you need to know these rules, policies, procedures, requirements, whatever, so that you don't lose money, your account doesn't get pinged, all of that. So that's where we're gonna go. It's 13 rules and let's go. Okay, number one rule the flat rate box rule. This is what I just said. Um, I don't want this buyer um having to pay. If whatnot doesn't pay, I will totally pay for it because it was my mistake. I know that a lot of the time in packing episodes that I've told you guys, it's best to put uh an item that's breakable in a smaller box rather than a big box sometimes, because you want it to be packed tightly. And I'm almost I'm like 95% sure that what whoever sent this and did that chose a flat rate box because we wanted it to be packed tight. The priority box is bigger out of our larger ones. Um, I'm sure that's what it is. Um, because we have certain boxes that we have here. Everybody has different stuff, but that that's pretty much it. So here is the rule, okay? A flat rate box and a flat rate label are a matched set. They belong together. It's like having your socks matched, okay, guys. You cannot put a flat rate box on a priority, and you can't put a priority on a flat rate. You cannot mix them up. You can't put a flat rate on a brown. I mean, I'm just trying to make it as simple as possible. If it's a flat rate, it goes on a flat rate box. Period. No exceptions, don't mess with it, whatever. You have to have the box and the label both say flat rate. Okay. Priority mail can go on a priority box or a brown box. I personally think, and I've said this before, the post office should have a color coding system because right now people are like, well, it says priority on it, which is one of the reasons it gets confusing. The flat rate boxes do say priority, but you have to look for the actual words that say flat rate, okay? But um, think of it as a train ticket seat, right? If you or movie ticket seat, if you buy a ticket for seat A, you have to sit in seat A. You know, if you sit in B, you have to, you know, whatever. If you you cannot sit with a uh, you know, what is the higher level on a train? I don't know. The fancy carts with you can't sit there because you only have the A seat, not the B seat. You get what I'm saying. So the label and the box have to match. Okay, we understand why it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense because flat rate is a priority mailing service. They are related. It seems like it should work, but for whatever reason, whatever whatnot worked out with them, it doesn't. Okay, so the best practice is flat rate box, flat rate label. I cannot be any more clear, guys. That is it. Um, I will pay for this girl's, you know, $12 if whatnot doesn't. But if it ever happens, always reach out to your buyer, cover the charge. It's it's an error on your part, not the buyers. They should never get to the post office and have to pay for something that you messed up. So make sure you order your boxes, you got the right boxes and you got the right labels. Okay, well, here we go. Number two, the plain white envelope. Okay. Whatnot offers um the PWE. Okay. It's the plain white envelope, and the official USPS name for it is um FCML, which is first class mail letter. Okay, so they're two, they they don't even keep up with the same verbiage. Um, but this is a special thing that Whatnot created, and it's because when it started, it was Funko's and and cards, and a lot of people were selling like football cards, and they wanted to be able to quickly just stick a football or baseball or Pokemon card or whatever in there and get it there quicker. So you guys know what I'm talking about, right? Hopefully, you do. So when you're doing that, um, there's five conditions that have to be true. Here it is. Condition one, um, it has to be a flat, a flat item, right? It has to be flat. Um, it has to be a sticker, a trading card, a sports card, whatever. Okay, that's the second one. Um, the seller has to turn on the feature before the show starts in the shipping. You it's at the very top of the shipping, you have to toggle it on over and it's plain white envelope. Toggle it over if you're selling a card or you're doing a giveaway with a sticker, whatever. I've mentioned this before, but making sure for everybody who hasn't heard those previous episodes, uh, there is an episode called stickers or something you can look up to. The shipment must be US domestic. You can't sell to, I don't know, wherever else it would be. Um, I guess does that count as I don't know. Might have to look that up, but that's what I wrote down. I should have gone deeper into that. The total weight needs to be three ounces or less. So you can choose zero to one ounce or one to three ounces, dependent on how much it is, okay? And the total value of the order needs to be less than 20%, okay? So if one of those conditions, just even one, is not met, whatnot will automatically upgrade that shipment to ground advantage or priority mail. That's it that they're gonna choose, and then you're going to pay the fund for it, okay? So tracking on the plain white envelope shipments is limited to only $20. So if you send something for $50, like a gift card for $50, and you put it in a plain white envelope, you're and it gets lost or something. They're not covering it, guys. So you need to be aware of that. Personally, I just think you don't do it. And if you have a giveaway that is like $100 or something, you maybe put it in a box and you don't you don't toggle the plain white envelope over. Do you do you see what I'm saying? Or you change the weight as the gift card, make it a pound, whatever. You get the point. You just have to override that because it will, if you have it toggled over, it will make it where it automatically goes in that plain white envelope. I hope that makes sense. Okay, now some envelopes may be tracked, it may not be tracked at all if the barcode is damaged. So be really careful because you only have so much space with the barcode. So I suggest you start at one side and go to the other because that's another thing. Delivery takes between two and 14 business days, and this is slower than a package. So sometimes people are like, Well, I still haven't got my giveaway. I still haven't. That's because they have more time. Now it doesn't mean it's going to be 14 days, but they have more time, two to 14 days on that. So if you're not in the category with the, you know, the football cards or the sports cards or the Pokemon trading cards, Pokemon, whatever, or what stickers category, um, and you're not using those for giveaways, then it's not as big of a deal to you. Um, but I know a lot of people in a lot of different categories, and they use this all the time. So the key is if you're doing a giveaway, you have to toggle it over to plain plain white envelope at the top. You have to have it flat, it has to be the right weight. It can only be US domestic, which I need to clarify what that means. I wrote it down, but I didn't get clarification on that. It needs to be less than three ounces, and the total value should not exceed 20 bucks unless you're willing to cover it, because it's only going to be insured for 20 bucks. Okay. Um, I I don't know what that looks like for all you Pokemon and football card people. I guess you're putting it in a bigger, like plain white, not a plain white envelope. I guess you just don't toggle that over. Okay, so uh rule three. Sorry, guys, let me have a sip of coffee here. Hold on. Okay, March 2nd, 2026. This currently applies to U.S. domestic USPS and UPS shipments. Here's what it says: this is exact words, verbatim. I quote, um, starting March 2nd, 2026, sellers will be responsible for refund cost on late shipments without valid confirmation of drop off. Okay. That's in the whatnot seller protection policy. Okay. And here's what else it says to determine whether or not something is shipped, we look at signals such as valid drop-off photo captured using the in-app scanner, whatnot manifest, or individual carry carrier scan forms showing acceptance. If these signals are missing or aren't supported by later transit scans, we will recover the cost of the refund from the seller. Okay. What does this mean to you guys? This is since March 2nd. No valid proof of drop-off plus a buyer dispute means that the refunded money is deducted from your seller balance. That's why we're going over this stuff, guys. Because if you screw up, you're losing money. Seriously. Whatnot is not going to pay it. The United States Postal Service isn't going to pay it. You are going to pay it. Okay. So when you drop off a package at the post office and the clerk scans it in front of you and gives you a receipt, you keep that receipt if you're one of those people. I don't ever do that. I go to the back, I do whatever. I scan mine before it leaves the house. And I take it to the back. And I have one of those big, huge um shipping post offices where all the trucks come and all of it. And that's why my stuff gets out fast. But you have to have a receipt. You have to have your proof. Um, that's your protection in case something goes wrong. If you don't have that, you could have a problem. So so far, I haven't had an issue and needed to, but I I'm telling you, if I start having other issues coming up, I will have to go in and have them scan every single thing, which is going to be a big pain in the butt. So I'm hoping it's not, but I know they're cracking down on this. Um, the old mark package, um, as well, okay. Mark package as a ship button inside the whatnot did not count it as proof of drop-off. It only changed when the seller sees it on the screen. That button has been replaced with the in-app scanner. Okay, so now this, I don't even know when this happened, but now you have your phone and you have to click on your middle parts on your phone in the app, and then it scans it with your phone. And that's to say, hey, this is what we're doing. I've talked about this in the past, but you have to use that every single time. If we have it in our packing area, before it goes to the front door, we scan it so that we make sure every single time it is scanned, guys. I cannot tell you how important this is. So you're going to the seller hub and you're clicking on it, and you've got your phone and you just scan it. And if it doesn't scan, that means something's wrong. Like you changed something or did something. You have to go back. You have to have to have to do that. So, number three, uh, the drop-off scan, make sure you're doing it, guys. This is the best practice. Just make sure you have the right label, the right size, and the right um scanning on every one of them. Okay, rule number four cancellation fees and account health. Um, here's what what not's exact words on the fees are. The fee is three units of local currency, e.g., three dollars or three percent of the total or the order total, whichever is higher. I don't know why they call it three units, and they couldn't have just used English and said three dollars, but whatever they do. E.g. three dollars, uh legal lease, you know. Um, and then the next thing says if you accept a buyer's request cancellation submitted through whatnot, you won't be able to, you won't be charged a seller's cancellation fee. Okay, so if you accept, you won't be whatever. Okay, this is the third thing it says, and these are quotes, guys, straight from the whatnot wording. To help maintain a trusted marketplace, repeated seller cancellations may affect your account. Okay, we don't know if it's we don't think that happens if it's the buyer, only the seller, it says right there. Okay, so basically what this means is there's a fee of three dollars or three percent, whichever um over the total order value, including the price, the shipping, the taxes, whatever, whichever is higher. And I I talk about this in an episode, I don't know what number it is, but it's like five or six back, and it says cancellations can cost you. I think it's something like that is the title. Okay. So um cancellations can also affect your position in the whatnot feed and when you receive your payouts. I say that. If you want to know more about cancellations, go listen to that episode. Um, so what to do? When something goes wrong before a package ships, you need to contact your buyer first and then ask them to submit the cancellation request through whatnot, okay? Because if it's a buyer initiates the cancellation, there's no fee. It's not gonna affect you, it's it's gonna be okay. But if you can't get a hold of the buyer and they don't do it and you have to do it on your side because you dropped, I don't know, the little uh frog, you know, glass ornament or whatever, and it broke before as you were packing it, or something normal and human happens, you don't get like you know, three or ten choices and freebies on that. I think you get one. I think in that episode I say you get one. Um, but after that, it's over. So basically, you have the buyer go into their orders, request a cancellation, you accept it. You can do it on your phone or your computer. It's super clean, it's super episode um simple. Oh, I I have it. It's um episode 76. That's which one it is, because I wrote that here. So it's called the cost of canceling. And that's I go through, I break down the fees, the account health, you know, appealing, all of that in that one. Okay, we're at rule five. I'm doing pretty good. I'm very impressed that I'm going as fast as I am. Okay, whatnot's exact words from the Whatnot community guidelines read as such we require all sellers using seller provided support to respond to their support request within 48 business hours. We issue warnings and eventually account penalties when sellers have a high rate of delayed replies to seller requests or where sellers have a high rate of support requests that have been overturned by whatnot for not following whatnot buyer protection policy. It's very wordy. Ugh, yuck. And that's why I'm here, guys. So basically, in December 1st of 2025, seller support said that um it's live now for US sellers who joined. Wait, hold on. It says seller provided support is live for US sellers who have joined after December 1st, 2025. Okay. Um, whatnot has confirmed it's like expanding to every seller account over months, but we don't know how many months we don't know that. Okay. So here's basically what changes when a buyer has a problem with an order, the support request arrives at your inbox, like in your emails. So you need to check your emails, right? Or in your customer support tab, and you have to be looking at your phone. Have to be looking at your computer. You have to check it out. You have 48 business hours, which means Saturday and Sunday, you don't have to worry about it. But you have to uh reply to them because basically what was happening is Riff Raff was getting in, they were doing bad things, whatnot was reaching out to them, going, Oh, a seller's requesting a cancellation, or or you were, you know, charged with this, or you didn't do this, or blah, blah, blah. And if you don't respond to them within 48 hours, it can affect your standings and um your account. So whatever they decide to do as you know, mom and pop in the background is up to them. I I heard uh one guy on on Whatnot uh Facebook group recently say he only had two shows and he got kicked off. I don't know what the guy did, but I'm just saying it happens. Okay, so um be uh the analogy before this change happened, the buyer complaints went directly to whatnot and when whatnot would take care of it, and it was all really great and it was wonderful. But whatnot now is asking you to handle it first. They want you to resolve the issues between you and the buyer, and then if that can't be happening, then mom and dad, whatnot will pop in. You get what I'm saying. So the best practice is to turn your whatnot notifications on. Um, go in and make sure that they're sending you emails and all that. Make sure you're checking up in the upper right hand corner of your computer. There should be a little note that says, you know, a little red dot, and you can click on that. You need to be checking your inbox every day. You need to be responding within 48 hours, period. You have to take care of it. You do not want to upset sellers and you don't want to piss off. Sorry, bad language. You don't want to irk uh whatnot either. Okay, um, rule six dimensional weight and July 12th. I talked about this in episode 75. It was whatnot shipping, it was the July 12th change that can cost you, but we're gonna hit it again just in case you didn't hear that episode 75. Um, this was July 12th of 2026. The rule is basically this every commercial package will require accurate length, width, and height measurements in addition to weight. When the numbers entered are wrong, USPS corrects them and charges the difference. That difference is deducted from your payouts. Um, being $5 or $6 off a package across, you know, 50 packages can definitely add up. So this doesn't go into effect until July 12th. I'm honestly pretty scared about it personally because I sell in vintage and estate sale categories, and we have all sizes, heights, weights, whatever. But basically, you're gonna have to make sure that if you've got a brown box, you are getting the accurate weight and everything. We do this for the most part. I'm just kind of scared of how hardcore they're gonna be. Um, anyways, it's going to happen. So everything will have to be measured accurately, your shipping profiles, all of that. So if you have a bunch of custom packaging, you know, that you have to do, you're gonna have to make sure it's really in there because the system only is going to correct underpayment. If you overpay, you don't get your money back. Okay, guys, you're gonna have to go back and look at episode 75. If you want more on this, it's happening July 12th. This is rule six, dimensional weight. Okay, that's added. Rule seven, the $500 auto signature. Okay. Um, the rule is right here: the U.S. domestic shipments with an order value of over $500 or more, whatnot, automatically adds signature confirmation at delivery. The fee is now added to your ledger automatically. It is not optional, it cannot be reviewed, it cannot be removed. Now, why this exists? Obviously, if you're sending a higher dollar package, it needs to be proven that the person got it because too many bad bad characters have said, you know, went out and bought maybe a Louis Vuitton purse or something and say, oh, we didn't get it, whatnot, give us our money. I don't know how many of those were going through. I don't know what that looks like. But instead of just having tracking where we see it goes from person to person, if it's over $500, you also have to pay for that. I don't sell things over $500. I don't think I've ever sold anything over $500. Um, so this doesn't really apply to me. I've never had to deal with it. Um, but I think it's a good thing. Um, but best practice here, guys, is if you have valuable items like high dollar jewelry or purses or electronics or whatever, it maybe some fancy there's some high dollar glass vases and stuff that go out. If it's over $500, you can expect that added cost. Now, what that cost is, I think it depends on what how much it weighs and how far it's going. Um, there's no specifics in the, you know, the rules on that. So it's just saying the fee will be added to your ledger automatically. So that's rule number seven, the $500 auto signature. Okay, rule number eight, the five free shipping adjustment cap. Um, okay, this is always okay. I'm I'm gonna do it anyways. Every seller gets five free shipping adjustments per week on whatnot. The count resets every Monday at midnight. And after those five are used, any adjustments that increase the shipping car cost are charged back to you. So if you're a new seller, you're like, ah, um, this is a big deal because and I tell you guys this best practice if you're selling lots of different things, do those big orders first. Don't do the tiny ones. I know for me, it's I'd love to get all the teeny tiny ones out first because then they're out of my way, they're out of the hallway, whatever. But you should always, always, always pack your big ones first because that's where you have the higher percentage of needing a bigger box or a higher weight or whatever. Um, I sold a large copper bin in a show. By the time it was packed and whatever, I had already used the five adjustments, and um, I had to contact Malia and say, hey, uh, this is gonna cost, it was gonna be ridiculous. It was something like 50 bucks or something. Now she's understanding, she she understands the situation. I never sent it to her. She was totally fine with it. But the thing is, if you have something really, really big, you know, do it as a set. It was one of those random shows where she was like, I like that. Let's, you know, run it. I I you should definitely do a custom shipping on that, okay, guys. Custom shipping because you only have five free adjustments. It resets um on Monday at midnight, every Monday at midnight. In my mind, I think I've said Sunday, guys, in the past. So I apologize for that, but it's Monday at midnight. So best practices weigh your items, set accurate shipping profiles before your show starts. If you know you have a lamp, if you know you have a golf bag, if you know you have one of those huge vases, whatever it is, measure out the box that it will go by itself in so that the person will have to pay for it and you're not caught with the fee. Uh, just the other day, you know, I had if you have more than one show in a week, obviously you're gonna go through this pretty fast. But uh if I if one of them is, oh, you know, $1.27, I'll put that box off to the side and then do another box that I think might be a little bit close to that. If one is $2.27, I'm gonna let what not pay that and then I'll pay the cheaper one. I hope that makes sense to you guys. Um, but anyways, make sure that you do your heavy items first and know that you only have five adjustments. Okay, rule number nine: surprise sets got stricter. That was April 22nd, 2026. This is whatnot's exact words. Sellers must use the surprise set feature to list and distribute surprise product sets. All other forms of ram randomization are prohibited. The use of physical randomizers, third-party randomizers, and concealed containers like bags, boxes, or drawers are not permitted when selling surprise sets. Um, I've talked about this in other episodes, but I don't have them listed here, guys. Um, you'll have to go back. In the lit here's what that was in the whatnot surprise sets policy. Here's what else it says. In the listing description, sellers must provide a full detailed checklist of all the items in each surprise product within each set. Proxies such as tickets one or item one are not permitted, even if disclosed elsewhere. So you have to kind of there, it's not as much fun. They took out the fun, they took out the fun, but sellers cannot include a prize in their surprise set. Sellers cannot provide or describe the floor, ceiling, or average of the items in their set. We used to be able to do that, but people couldn't math, and uh, it was pretty pathetic. I remember going into shows going, that isn't accurate at all. And I'm not even a mathing person. So, anyways, failure to follow these rules or engaging in any fraudulent or deceptive behavior will result in account penalties, including permanent bans. They are hardcore on this, guys. Hardcore. This happened April 22nd. Basically, what it means is the in-app randomizer is the only thing you got. Full individual item descriptions you have to do for every item in the set. There's no prizes, no value ranges, and violations could mean a permanent ban. Okay, guys. This is surprise sets. I am not in the card thing. I know I've done this, I've got a whole episode on it in the past. If you're confused, I would I would type that into my search engine and go back and look at that. If not, you can once again, if you're in the cards and surprise sets stuff, I would go and make sure that you know that you know that all this happened April 22nd of 2026. Okay, rule 10: Taxes are your responsibility. Okay, I have not talked about this because taxes are not fun. Um, sellers are solely responsible for determining, collecting, reporting, and paying all applicable taxes on their sales. That's quoted by whatnot terms of service. So basically, what you do, if you're selling regularly on whatnot, get an accountant. Um, keep up with your records, you know, know what your state requires for you to pay and report and all of that. I know and I I don't know. I don't have it here somewhere in my you know 226 notes on my phone. There's a guy and there's a girl, and there's a bunch of people who have different kinds of like uh forms that you can fill out. I know there's YouTubers that have them that you can, you know, buy the format or get it for free or whatever, and it tells you, you know, you bought X product on so-and-so date, it cost this much, blah, blah, blah. It's like a whole form. And I know that there's some um some more business-minded uh community shows. If you guys are brand new, you can go in and and on the whatnot app type in community. I will warn you that some of the information is not coming from people who really know what they're talking about. I'm just, I know that. I'm not trying to be mean, but I've I've even seen people who have not even sold one thing. I kid you not, they've not even sold one thing, and they're doing talk shows, acting like they know stuff, so that they can get followers because they think if they have followers, they're gonna have a big show and buyers, and you know, it's a way for them to advertise their upcoming first show. And I was just mind-blown that there's people giving advice and they haven't even, but there's no whatnot doesn't whatnot doesn't give you any specifications. Anybody can go up there and pretend they know what they're doing and sell stuff. So I would just say be very careful on that. Um, but whatnot is not going to do taxes and and and all of that. They are um not you are solely, I'm gonna read it again, you are solely responsible for determining, collecting, reporting, and paying all applicable taxes and their sales. Rule number 10 taxes are your responsibility. Okay, rule 11: whatnot can change anything at any time. Okay, here this is I love I love whatnot. I mean, come on, here's what it says whatnot may modify or discontinue temporarily or permanently the services or the features or portions there thereof without any prior notice, notice. Basically meaning that they can be complete. And I want to say a word here, but I'm not gonna say it. You fill in the blank anytime they want to be. Um, basically, fees, features, policies, programs, anything can change without any warning. You're just signing up for who knows what. I mean, there's there's nothing protecting you at all. Um, the app is is going to change. You've agreed to the terms, but you are responsible for keeping up with this, which is really hard. You're already trying to get your inventory, show your inventory, sell your inventory, you know, uh ship your inventory. Plus, you know, you've got to keep up with all these policies and these procedures and these terms of services. And I mean, it's just like spin this plate, now spin this plate, now spin this plate. It's a little on the crazy side, but basically, you need to stay informed about the platform. It's changes. It's a business, it's just like any other business, but you are your own employee, you're the boss, right? So you have to do employee evaluations, you have to get the knowledge, you need to keep up with things. That's why we will never run out of these episodes where I'm going through on rules because they are changing constantly, updating and adapting. And that's that's a good thing, okay? But it's also a little overwhelming at times because, like I said, they're not sending us an email that's like, here's the highlights, like I'm doing right now. Um, okay, so the best proc practice is follow whatnot's blog at blog.teamwhatnot.com and go to the help center, which is help.whatnot.com. And if you receive an email, we've already talked about this. Anything, you respond to it, right? If you get an email also with terms, policy update or anything, check it, read it, know because it could affect you. It could affect your shipping, it could affect your money, it could affect your rules of your games or whatever. You guys need to be responsible for this stuff. I mean, at the end of the day, we have to be responsible. I am so proud of myself that I am not squirreled as much today. Wow. And I'm I only had like five hours of sleep. Wow, maybe that's the key here. Okay. Um, rule 12 the our our arbitration clause train change. Okay, that let's say that three times. Arbitration clause change. Effective date was March 4th, 2026. Here's the rule: when the seller has a legal dispute with whatnot, it goes to arbitration instead of a court of law. Arbitration is a private legal process where an independent person reviews the dispute and makes a binding decision. On March 4th, 2026, um it changed for who pays it. Under the old terms of whatnot, uh, they covered most of the arbitration costs. But under the new terms, the cost is divided between whatnot and the seller. Meaning that if I like, for example, if I ever had a problem, like a box didn't show up at my house or the item was totally broken and trashed, uh, whatnot would just give me my money back like that. Boom, done. And it was no big deal, it was no issue. Now I think that they're gonna maybe, dependent on what the situation is, give themselves a little bit more time and cut that cost with the you, the seller, and that. Um so you just hope that there's not anything really huge and severe, right? Um also there was an opt-out window of 30 days. Um, wait, there was a 30-day uh that's the way I should phrase it. There was a 30-day window to opt out of the new arbitration terms. It was from March 4th to April 3rd. So if you're listening to that, uh you don't get to opt out because you didn't read the terms of service, neither did I. So sellers who did not opt out during that period are bound to the new terms. Well, how the hell were we supposed to know that? I don't know. Um, anyways, I I don't think I opted out. Maybe I did. I don't know. I'd have to go back and look. Um, but what to do? Read your terms of service. If a serious dispute happens between you and a buyer or a seller, because I don't know who's listening here. Um, most of you guys are sellers, but you never know. Some buyers too, maybe thinking about being sellers. If a dispute comes up with whatnot, you might need to speak to a lawyer before taking any action. If there's a formal process with specific steps and deadlines, um, I'm going to do an episode on whatnot we need to talk. Um, and it's me talking to whatnot about all the things that I think they need to do. I I'm it's on my list of to-dos. Um, yeah, we'll work on that. But hopefully you never have to deal with anything really huge like that. But I know some people do. I saw one girl and she had something like 200 orders that she sent out wrong and they all came back. And it was like this whole big deal and blah, blah, blah. Maybe it wasn't 200, maybe I'm exaggerating. I don't know how many it was. It was a lot. And uh, supposedly whatnot paid for the whole thing. She was like, I'm not paying for a thing. And I'm like, that she maybe because she went on social media and ranted and raved about it. I don't know. Maybe whatnot just didn't want to deal with her. Maybe they saw that she was a good seller and she did a great job and they gave it to her. But I definitely think that they are being, oh, I hate the the word that's coming to my mind is more overlordy. There, there are definitely more checks and balances. And I I did, I have predicted this, I prophesized this, whatever. In previous episodes, I said, guys, there's gonna be more rules, there's gonna be more regulations, and it's gonna have to happen because you've got more people on here. I had six kids, right, guys. When I had one or two kids, the rules were oh da-da-da. The more kids we had, the more responsibilities, the more age differences, all that rules had to be there. Control, balance, it all has to work out. And so they're doing what they have to do on some of these things, but some I just think are crazy. I I'll I'll get into that in the future. Okay, rule 13, because my friend messaged me last night and she said, I think this is an issue. I was like, No, here's the difference, okay? Um, I'm I'm mentioning this for you because uh you messaged me. Um, you've seen the shows where people say things, and I've done this myself too, where it says, buy my dog a treat or um help me pay for my wedding or whatever, okay? And the buyer sends money and the seller sends them something small in return, whether it's stickers or a little trinket or a necklace or whatever. People love it, it builds community, it gets attention, and a lot of people are wondering not a lot, a few, a few people are wondering, is that allowed? Okay. So here's here's um the thing. If the buyer sends money and you send them something in return, you're fine. As long as it's a real item, it's described in the listing and it's shipped to them. That's a sale, full stop. It doesn't matter how you list it, as long as the it's clear, okay? So, yes, it might be a picture of my dog, which I've done this before. Um, you know, buy Winston a treat, but then it says see description, and then in the description, sorry guys, let me get some coffee here. Hold on. Then in the description, it says, you know, if you buy this, you know, three dollar dog treat or whatever, you'll receive this also. And I'd even put a picture of what it is. You need to be crystal clear. That if they click on that, they know what they're getting. I've never had an issue with it. Never I've I've done it for other people, bought, you know, their dogs a treat or whatever it is, you know. Um, I think a lot of it is buy my dog a treat or buy me a coffee. And it's just a way for that person to give you a little bit of extra. And whatnot's getting their money on it. So um, it's not the same as a tip. I mean, honestly, why would whatnot not do that and allow that? Because they're getting uh their little percentage out of it. They like that. So as long as you got it, it's totally fine. Um, so um there is a tip button, guys. Um, buyers can, you know, so tip sellers through the app if they want, but this is just fun, it's creative, it's it's fine, okay. It's a legitimate sell if it is described. There's a picture, people know what they're getting, okay. It would not be okay if you said buy my dog a treat and not send them something. You know what I mean? You still have to send out something. Um, so I would put it under stickers and maybe send them, you know, I don't know, a postcard, uh, you know, maybe some stickers, whatever. You get the idea. So here's what what not's exact words are um on what's allowed. I'm gonna read it just because I want to be clear. Says sellers are prohibited from soliciting tips outside of the of the in-built tip functionality, terrible language, like by creating separate store or other listings of their own and for purposes of receiving tips. Now, I definitely I should have added this as a number 14. You guys are not supposed to be putting, hey, I have a Facebook group over here, you know, guys. I'm on Facebook. That's what they're talking about here. They don't want you getting money any other way or separating a different store or whatever in in ways of getting res tips. If you had a thing that said, you know, hey, if you guys tip me, um, I'll I'll, you know, put your name on. I I actually I know a guy on here who did this. He had people tipping him, and if they did, he would sign this table. And then that way that buyer's name would be on the table when people came into the show. I was like, I cannot believe people are giving him money to write the name on that. So that is no longer allowed. It also said tips cannot be used to circumcircumvent otherwise applicable fees on whatnot. This includes prohibition of tips function to facilitate sales or product of goods, evidence of any systems or techniques to avoid fees. Basically, they just want their money. So they're saying you can't do that with tips. So here's the clear, the clear line and the best practice on that. If something goes in a box or an envelope or whatever, it's fine. A listing that collects money with nothing shipped in return. Now that's a delay, um, a solicitation uh and it's a donation that it's prohibited. And once again, it's a business. What not's a business? They want their chunk of the pie. So that is why. Now, I have actually done this wrong in the past, and I don't know how to, I gotta figure out. I've never gotten trouble for it. But if we're bidding up, and I said to somebody, bid up to number seven, seven dollars for this, because I I accidentally forgot to hit the number seven, you know, human error, whatever. Or, you know, I started at a dollar, she agrees she's gonna bid up to seven, but I accidentally had it on sudden death, which I took it off. I'm not doing that anymore. But she got up to five dollars, she would tip me too. That is wrong. Uh, we should not be doing that. Uh, what I it should be is I hold up another item and you know, put it that add that two dollars there so that whatnot can get their, you know, little chunk of that two dollars. Do you see what I'm saying? So, best practice is if you run a fun, cute little community listing like your dog or buy the coffee or whatever, just make sure that you're describing the listing, that you're shipping it, your sales are gonna be fine. It's no big deal. And then if you're gonna tip, make sure it's for genuine tips, right? Um, and that's it. Okay, so um I have a wrap-up of all of these 13. I guess I could go through it real quick, but I really feel like you guys got it, especially if you took notes. So I'm gonna skip the the review on that. Um, but at the end of the day, you guys need to be aware of these things. You need to build habits that are gonna help protect you, help protect your buyer, you know, and you need to treat others as you want to be treated. I've said this before, you know, the golden rule: you need to ship things with care, you need to pack those boxes tightly, you need to clearly communicate with people when something goes wrong. Um, and at the end of the day, you guys just do your best, you know. Um, how would you want to be treated? You know, would you like to get a package where everything's all crumpled up and destroyed? Would you like to get a package, you know, three days late? I saw somebody say, I ordered all this stuff for my kid's birthday and now it's a week late. I mean, that's horrible. Would you want that? No. So, anyways, guys, I am so proud of myself for getting this done in less than an hour. Um, all right. So, um, if this episode or any of the episodes that I have helped you with um means something to you and you're appreciative of the fact that I am paying for this podcast and I don't ask you to pay for it. I pay $120 or $125 a month for this, and I am not getting paid back. I am doing this out of my own time and love for you guys. And if that resonates with you, please go give me a five-star review on Apple Podcast. I know some of you are not listening to it on Apple, but that is the one where a few bad Apples did not leave reviews, but they left me like a one-star. So my rating over there might be like a 4.6 right now or something. So please take the time to share this out, give it a five-star rating, um, and then give it a good review. If you could just take 30 seconds to a minute to write a review, I would really, really appreciate it. Also, I am doing a raffle for people who do that. And I'm gonna just give $20 Starbucks gift card or $25, I can't remember what I did last time. Uh gift card, I'm gonna pull a name and you get it. And that's all it is. You know, I can do that and uh send it to you. And uh, so I will do that in one of my shows upcoming. I just haven't figured out when. Um, it'll probably be sometime in the middle of next month because I don't get near as many reviews as I do listeners, which kind of disappointing. I'm just gonna say, anyways, if you guys want to call me, my phone number is 832-607-1526. Um, I've had a lot of longer consultations lately. I've had an uh an hour and a half consultation recently. It was wonderful. And I kept going, Do you want to go? We're at so-and-so minutes. She's like, Yep, let's go. And I really feel like if somebody spends a half an hour to an hour and a half on the phone with me, they're getting better understanding. Instead of listening to 80 things and all this stuff, I can help them with their specific questions, their specific needs. And it's totally worth it, guys, because it's 30 minutes for 20 bucks. Okay, that is like nothing. There are people on this app that charge like $175 for an hour, and I'm at $40 an hour. So I love talking to you guys, I love helping you out. It makes me happy. I will come to your shows, I will hit the hearts, I will share it out with my friends. I might even feature you on the podcast, whatever. So, um, anyways, that is it. I hope you guys have a great day. My family has been without me in California, um, with my estranged daughter for the last like five days, and they are coming into town today, uh, this afternoon. So I am going to be getting busy with um listing a bunch of stuff, trying to get to goals, guys. We talk about goals. I'm gonna try to get to 100 or 125 items. We'll see, and uh put post that um so that I can have a four o'clock vintage show. And unfortunately, Sarah is unable to help me, my assistant, my lovely assistant Sarah. And so I'm gonna be on my own. So hopefully I can swing it um because I know my family will not help me. So, um, anyways, thank you guys for being here once again. I hope everybody is doing good and I hope that this was clear. If you had any issues, I did reference a couple other episodes you can go listen to. And you can always um message me if you had any, like if there was anything I said that was wrong or confusing, or you know, you heard it different by somebody else, whatever. Feel free to message me. And also my shop, before I forget to tell you, um, it links to all of my my store stuff, and it's in the notes on Apple in the notes. So you guys should be able to just clink, click on that, and it will clink, click on that, and it will take you um where you can find out what markers I use, what boxes I use, what envelopes, all of that is in there, and you can just click on it in Amazon. I get like you know, one percent, two percent here and there. Um, and and it just helps me out a little bit to pay for this and all that. So, um, anyways, how hi there. There we go. Obviously, I'm at the end. Okay. Well, I hope you guys have a great day and I am gonna get busy. I hope you have fun buying and selling and whatnot. And until next time, we'll talk to you later. Bye bye.