Accept or decline a buyer's cancellation request

Buyers can request to cancel an order up to 24 hours after purchase, as long as you haven't shipped the package. If a buyer submits a cancellation request, you’ll be notified. 

As the seller, you’ll have 48 hours to respond by either accepting or declining the request. 

If the buyer tries to cancel before you’ve created a label, and you still want to ship, you’ll need to decline the request before generating the label.

On this page: 

• Your choice as a seller
• Exceptions to final sale
• What happens when you accept cancellation
• How to respond to a cancellation request
• Frequently asked questions

Your choice as a seller 

All bids on Whatnot are binding, as outlined in our Community Guidelines. 

That means, in most cases, it’s up to you as the seller to accept or deny a cancellation request:

• If you accept, the buyer is refunded in full and the sale is canceled.
• If you decline or don’t respond within 48 hours, the sale is final and you can ship the order. 

Note: Accepting buyer cancellation requests won’t affect your account standing.

Exceptions to final sale

In a few cases, Whatnot may step in and approve a cancellation request directly:

• Bidding error (auctions only): If there was a technical issue during bidding, buyers can contact Whatnot Support within 2 hours of the error.
• One-time exception: For eligible buyers, Whatnot may approve a single cancellation if the shipping label hasn’t been created yet. This doesn’t apply to Card Breaks or items that can be used or consumed on-screen.
• EU or UK buyers: Some buyers may have a legal right to cancel under local consumer laws. See our Buyer Protection Policy to learn more about the EU/UK Right of Withdrawal. 

What happens when you accept cancellation 

• The buyer is automatically notified and refunded
• Any pending earnings for the sale are canceled
• If payout has already started, the sale amount is deducted from your account balance
• Shipping costs are refunded to whoever paid
• If the item was part of a bundle, the rest of the items remain unless they’re canceled too

How to respond to a cancellation request 

You can view and manage cancellation requests from your Orders page in Seller Hub. 

Once you accept or decline a cancellation request, it can’t be undone.

Respond to a cancel request on whatnot.com

1. Go to whatnot.com
2. Click your account icon in the top right
3. From the Selling tab, click Seller Hub
4. Open the Orders page from the left menu
5. Look for orders with the status Pending Cancellation (it may help to filter by Cancellations)
6. Select the order to view details, including the buyer’s note if one was added
7. Choose to Accept or Reject the request

💡 Tip: If you're on the Shipments page, look for a ! icon. Click the ! icon to open the Orders page and respond to the the cancellation request before you generate labels. 

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to honor every cancellation request?

No. As the seller, it’s your choice whether to accept or decline cancellation requests you receive.  

What if the buyer is asking to cancel after I already shipped the order? 

The order can’t be canceled once shipped. Let the buyer know their order is on the way.

A buyer overbid on an item during my show. What should I do?

Don’t generate the shipping label for this order. Ask the buyer to request a cancellation from their order details page, then you can accept it and relist the item if needed. 

What if I accepted a cancellation by mistake?

Cancellation can’t be undone. You can message the buyer to ask if they’d like to repurchase the item.