How do online sellers prove an item's condition before shipping?
Photograph or film the item, its serial number or label, and the packing, in one continuous shot if you can, and keep the original files. Then prove those files the same day, before the parcel leaves: a fingerprint of each file, time stamped by independent witnesses, which shows the photos and video existed, unchanged, by dispatch. If a buyer later claims the item was damaged, different or missing, you can show the evidence was made before it shipped, not put together after the complaint. Keep the originals; a video sent again through a chat app, or exported again, is a different file and will not match its proof.
Why the date decides it
When a return is disputed, the seller's photos are only as strong as the claim that they were taken before dispatch. A phone's date can be changed, and a video recorded today looks the same as one recorded last week. A proof made on the day by independent time services settles that part: these exact files existed by then.
What good packing evidence looks like
One continuous video beats many photos: the item working, its serial number, the order number or label, the item going into the box and the box being sealed. Good light, no cuts. Keep the file as it came off the phone.
At the packing table
- 01
Film the item, the serial and the label
One continuous video, then the box being sealed.
- 02
Copy the originals to your computer
Straight from the phone, not through a chat app.
- 03
Prove the day's folder before pickup
One proof can cover every order packed that day.
- 04
Keep file and proof by order number
So the right evidence is easy to find when a claim arrives.
Rashnova Proof does the proving free on a Windows computer: drop in the day's folder of packing videos and photos and get one proof, witnessed by four independent services, with a certificate you can attach to a dispute. Nothing is uploaded, and anyone can check the proof in any browser. It shows when the files existed and that they are unchanged; it does not show what happened to the parcel after it left.