Diagnosis
What did the signal hide?
- Product signal
- Refund issued
- Relied-upon promise
- The customer's money is actually moving back to an account they can use.
- Reliance
- The customer stops checking, stops preserving evidence, or makes financial plans around the refund.
- Carrier
- Retailer app, warehouse receipt, payment processor, bank posting.
- What must happen
- The refund promise must be protected across return receipt, approval, processor initiation, and bank posting.
- Missing proof
- Evidence that the refund reached the customer-facing financial state.
- Betrayal
- Internal completion is treated as customer repair before the money arrives.
- Pressure
- Multi-party handoffs, settlement timing, partial system visibility.