Receipts, not vibes
How the regret tax is calculated.
We read the brand's own current policy, normalize only explicit terms, and put the likely deduction beside the purchase price. Unknown freight stays unknown.
What counts
The calculator adds a published percentage deduction to any published fixed label, freight, or restocking amount for the selected condition. A range is shown when the brand publishes a model-dependent or discretionary range.
What does not count
We do not estimate packing labor, bank timing, resale loss, tax treatment, damage deductions, lost promotions, or an unpriced carrier bill. Those stay in the caveat instead of becoming false precision.
How the Refund Audit compares a seller quote
The Refund Audit subtracts the same published percentage and fixed deductions from the entered bike price, then compares an optional seller quote on that same price basis. If the quote is below the known-dollar range while freight remains unpriced, the result asks for an itemization instead of calling the gap an error. If the ordinary return path is closed, eligibility still outranks the quote arithmetic.
Eligibility beats arithmetic
If a policy says ridden or opened bikes are not ordinarily returnable, the result says “not ordinarily return-eligible.” We do not pretend a zero published fee means a zero-cost exit.
How cancellation costs are normalized
Cancellation is separate from an ordinary return. Skinflint records a before-fulfillment and after-fulfillment stage for each seller, then calculates only an explicitly published percentage or fixed amount. An unpublished shipping bill remains unknown rather than becoming zero. If the source says the order cannot be cancelled at that stage, the calculator does not invent a refund estimate; any published refused-shipment charge is labeled as fallback exposure.
The refused-delivery checker always uses the after-fulfillment stage. It does not recommend refusal or treat a returned shipment as a successful cancellation. It exposes the published fallback charge or uncertainty, links the exact source used for that stage, and tells the buyer to obtain seller and carrier instructions in writing.
How the Return Clock counts
Each record preserves the event named by the seller: purchase, delivery, receipt, or possession. The Return Clock asks for that date and counts it as day one, producing a conservative contact-by date one calendar day earlier than a day-zero interpretation. It also exposes the alternative outside edge. Neither date is a legal conclusion or a promise of return eligibility.
Sources and freshness
Every row links to the first-party page and carries a checked date. The public policy-change ledger separates the launch baseline from later manually verified differences and exposes RSS and JSON feeds. The free Regret Lens bookmarklet carries supported-store context and structured price into this same dataset without transmitting the retailer page or price in the HTTP request. Brand pages can change without notice. Send a correction with the newer primary source.
Money cannot edit the result
Retailer acceptance, affiliate commission, sponsorship, or outreach response cannot change a policy field, the arithmetic, or the ordering of organic comparisons. Active affiliate links will be marked and disclosed.