Purchase terms

These Purchase terms apply every time your business buys products through Local Margin. They are part of our Terms of service, and the defined terms there (Member, Owner, Teammate) have the same meaning here. Where these Purchase terms and the Terms of service differ about an order, these Purchase terms apply.

Our Refund and return policy and Shipping and prep policy are part of these Purchase terms.

1. You buy from Local Margin

When you order a deal, you buy the product from Local Margin LLC. We are the seller of record: we buy the product from our supplier with our own money, after you have placed your order, and we resell it to you. Your invoices, receipts and card or bank statement show Local Margin LLC.

Our suppliers are confidential. We do not tell Members which supplier a product comes from, and supplier names, links and parcel tracking numbers do not appear in the app, emails or documents we send you. You agree not to try to identify a supplier from a deal, and not to contact a supplier about a deal found through Local Margin.

We hold no stock. Every product is bought for your order.

2. The products

• Each deal names the Amazon listing it matches. We check that the supplier's product is the same product, in the same pack size, as that listing, and that it is new. If we doubt a match, the deal waits for our team to check it before anyone can order it.
• Before you order, and again before we buy, we check the product against our list of products and brands we do not sell, against restricted-product rules, and against what your own Amazon account tells us you may sell. These checks reduce risk. They do not guarantee that Amazon will let you list the product (section 11).
• A deal may have a minimum, a maximum and a step for the number of units, and a limit for each Member. When a deal's units are used up, it shows as sold out for you.

3. Prices

Checkout shows every cost before you pay, line by line, and the total:

• The product price. One price per unit. It is our selling price and includes our margin and costs. It is not broken down further, and nothing in these terms or on the site discloses how it is set.
• Prep and inspection. Per-unit fees for the work our prep partner does on your units, at the rates shown at checkout. The outgoing box is included in this price.
• Shipping. The supplier's shipping to our prep partner. Shipping from our prep partner to Amazon, and Amazon's placement and inbound fees, are not on our checkout: because the inbound shipment is created in your own Amazon seller account, Amazon bills them to that account. We do not estimate them and there is no difference to refund.
• Sales tax, where it applies (section 8).

The total at checkout is the most you can be charged for the order. If a price in your cart changes before you check out, we show you the new price and you must accept it before you can continue. We never charge a price you have not seen and accepted.

4. Your cart

Adding a deal to your cart reserves its units for 30 minutes, and we remind you before the reservation ends. If you do not check out in time, the units return to the deal. Your business has one cart, shared by the Teammates the Owner allows to build it.

5. Placing an order

1. At checkout we check the supplier's live stock and price for every line. If anything has changed, we show you the change and you confirm it. A line we cannot confirm at that moment cannot be bought.
2. When you select Place order, you make an offer to buy every line in the order at the prices shown, and we either place a hold on your card for the order total (section 8.1) or wait for your bank payment to clear (section 8.2).
3. We accept each line when we buy it from the supplier. Only then is that line sold to you. Until we buy, there is no contract of sale for that line, and either of us may cancel it (section 12).
4. You are charged only for the units we actually buy. Any part of a hold we do not use is released. If we cannot buy anything, nothing is charged and the order closes as not filled.

6. When we buy

We aim to buy every order within 2 working hours of it being placed (or, for a bank payment, of the payment clearing). Our working hours are Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. US Eastern time, excluding the US public holidays we publish in the app. Orders placed outside those hours are bought first thing on the next working morning. This is a target, not a guarantee: if we are late, the order page says so, but being late does not entitle you to a refund or credit, and you may cancel any line we have not yet bought (section 12).

The steps after that (inspection, prep and shipment to Amazon) are described in our Shipping and prep policy. Timings for those steps are expectations, not promises.

7. Partial orders and price changes

• If the supplier has fewer units than you ordered, we buy what is available and charge you only for those units. The order page shows, line by line, how many you ordered, how many we bought and why. We do not keep backorders.
• If the supplier's price rises before we buy so that the line would cost more than you accepted, we do not buy it at the higher price. We ask you to approve the new price or cancel the line. Until you decide, the line waits, and the 2-working-hour target pauses for it.

8. Payment and tax

8.1 Cards and digital wallets

When you place an order by card (including a card in a digital wallet), we place a hold on your card for the order total. A hold reserves the money; it is not a charge. An order's hold is charged once, when every line has been bought or dropped, for the units we bought; the rest of the hold is released at the same moment. A hold lasts about 7 days. If an order is still open when its hold is about to end, we charge the hold for what has been bought so far and close the rest of the order, so nothing is charged by surprise. How fast a released hold disappears from your statement depends on your bank.

8.2 Bank payments (ACH)

When you pay by bank transfer, the full order total is debited from your bank account when you place the order, and we buy once the payment has cleared, which can take up to 4 business days. The 2-working-hour target runs from clearing. When the payment clears we check stock and price again. Any amount we cannot fill (units not available, a line you cancel, a price you do not accept) becomes account credit on your Local Margin account at once, because bank payments can only be refunded whole. You can use that credit on your next order or ask us at any time to pay it back to the bank account it came from; we send the refund within 5 business days of your request. A bank payment that is returned unpaid or reversed after we have bought is treated as a failed charge (section 8.4) and a payment dispute (section 14).

8.3 Account credit

Account credit is money we owe you. It is held in US dollars, does not expire, is applied to your next order before any other payment method, and is paid back to you on request or when your account closes, to the payment method it came from or by bank transfer. Account credit is separate from tool credits (Terms of service, section 7.6), which are not money.

8.4 Failed charges

If we cannot collect payment for units we have already bought (the hold has lapsed, the charge is declined, or a bank payment is returned), we pause the order and do not ship it until it is paid. We ask you to pay another way, and may charge any other payment method saved on your account, which you authorise now. If the units remain unpaid 14 days after we ask, we may sell them elsewhere and credit you with what we receive, less our costs, or keep them against the debt; any shortfall remains owed. Ordering stays paused until the balance is settled.

8.5 Sales tax

Sales tax is charged where the law requires it. If your business gives us a valid resale certificate, accepted by us and on file, your orders are not charged sales tax. Otherwise, sales tax is calculated at checkout on the delivery address and added as its own line. We collect tax unless a valid certificate is on file; we cannot decide not to. You must keep your certificate current; we remind you before it expires, and an expired or rejected certificate means tax is charged until a valid one is accepted. You are responsible for your own taxes on the products you resell, and for any tax, interest or penalty claimed because a certificate you gave us was invalid.

8.6 Currency and card data

All prices and charges are in US dollars. Card and bank details are collected and held by our payment processor; we never see or store your full card or account number.

9. Title and risk of loss

Title. Ownership of the units passes to you when we charge your payment for them (for a bank payment, when we buy them with the cleared funds). From that moment they are your goods, bought for your Amazon inventory, and we hold and ship them for you. If a payment is later reversed, you still owe us the price, and we keep a security interest in the units and their proceeds until it is paid.

Risk of loss. We bear the risk of loss or damage to the units until Amazon accepts the shipment at its warehouse. If units are lost or damaged before then, at the supplier, in transit, at our prep partner or on the way to Amazon, we replace, refund or credit them under our Refund and return policy and pursue the supplier or carrier ourselves. From the moment Amazon accepts the shipment, loss or damage inside Amazon's network is governed by your agreement with Amazon, and you claim it from Amazon.

10. Invoices

We issue an invoice in Local Margin LLC's name for every charged order, for the units we bought. A refund produces a credit note linked to the original invoice. You can download invoices from the order page. If Amazon or a brand owner asks you for proof of where a product came from, tell us: we provide our invoice to you, and help with further proof where we can do so without disclosing our supplier. We cannot promise that Amazon or a brand owner will accept it.

11. Reselling on Amazon: your responsibility

Please read this section carefully.

• Being able to buy a product does not mean you can list it. Many brands and categories need Amazon's approval. Amazon decides, and it can change its decision at any time.
• You are the seller on Amazon. You are responsible for your listings, your prices, your Amazon account's health, and for following Amazon's policies, brand and trademark rules and the law.
• Brand owners may object to resale of their products, and Amazon may remove listings or restrict accounts after a complaint, even for genuine products. Where our systems know of a risk for a brand or category, the deal shows a warning. A missing warning does not mean there is no risk. We do not give legal advice about any brand.
• If Amazon suspends your seller account while we still hold your units (before the shipment to Amazon leaves our prep partner), we cancel what has not been bought and refund in full, automatically, every unit we have bought. Units Amazon has already received are your stock and are not refunded.
• If Amazon will not accept a shipment into your account for another reason after we have bought the units (for example, your account has lost approval for the brand, or has used up its Amazon storage allowance), the order stands, because we bought the units at your request and the state of your Amazon account is yours to manage. We tell you at once and hold the units at our prep partner for 30 days at no charge while you fix the cause. If it is not fixed by then, you choose, and tell us within 7 days: (a) we keep holding the units, at our prep partner's storage rate shown to you, for up to 60 more days; (b) we ship the units to your business address in the United States at your cost, and any tax exemption on the order is re-examined; or (c) we sell the units and credit your account with what we receive, less our costs. If you do not choose, we take option (c) after the 7 days. Nothing in this paragraph applies to a refusal caused by us, such as a labelling error, which we fix at our cost.
• After Amazon has received your shipment, we are not responsible for whether, how fast or at what price the products sell, or for later action by Amazon or a brand owner.

12. Cancelling an order

You can cancel any line that we have not yet bought, from the order page. The hold for it is released, or the amount becomes account credit for a bank payment. Once a line is bought, it cannot be cancelled: the units are yours. If something arrives damaged, wrong or short, use Report a problem (see our Refund and return policy).

We may refuse or cancel any order or line before we buy it, for any reason, including that the supplier cannot supply it, the price has risen, the product fails our checks, the order fails a review (section 13), or we suspect fraud or a risk of loss. We release the hold or credit the payment and tell you why, where the law allows us to.

13. Purchase limits and order reviews

To protect Members, suppliers and our own money, every account has a daily order limit: the most you can order in a day. The limit is lower while your account is new, until we get to know you, and rises over time. Your limit, and how to ask for more, are shown before you pay. We may raise a limit for an account on request, and may lower it where we see a risk.

An order that looks unusual to us (for example, a very large first order, several failed payment attempts, or details that do not match) waits for a check by a person on our team before we buy. We may approve it, decline it, or ask you to verify your business or your payment. While an order is under review, the 2-working-hour target does not apply. If we decline, the hold is released at once, or the bank payment becomes account credit that you can ask to be paid back.

14. Payment disputes and reversals

If you think a charge is wrong, contact us first at support@localmargin.com. We can usually fix it faster than your bank, and our Refund and return policy says what we refund.

You agree not to dispute with your bank or card issuer a charge for units we have bought or delivered, except where the charge was not authorised by your business or we have failed to honour this agreement. A dispute raised in breach of this section is a breach of these terms.

If a charge for an order we bought or delivered is disputed or reversed:

• we send your bank the evidence of the order: your acceptance of these terms, the order, our purchase, the inspection records and the Amazon shipment and check-in;
• we pause ordering on your account until the dispute is settled, and we may suspend the account;
• if the dispute is decided in your favour even though we bought or delivered the units, you still owe us the amount, and we may collect it by charging any other payment method saved on your account, by applying your account credit and any refunds due to you, or by invoicing you; the amount is due within 14 days of our invoice;
• you pay the fee the payment processor charges us for the dispute and our reasonable costs of collecting what you owe, including reasonable attorneys' fees, as far as the law allows.

Repeated disputes may lead us to close the account.

15. What we promise about the units

We promise that the units we deliver to Amazon for you are the product and pack size in your order, are new and genuine, and are in the quantity on your invoice. If they are not, our Refund and return policy explains what we do, and the remedies there (replacement, refund or credit, up to the amount you paid us for the affected units) are your only remedies for that failure. Products carry only the manufacturer's own warranty, if any. In every other respect the warranty disclaimer and the limitation of liability in our Terms of service (sections 13 and 14) apply to every order.