Fresh supermarket customer service - the online-order substitution and refund SOP: what reps may decide alone, what needs the customer, what gets refunded outright

You are writing an online-order customer-service SOP for a fresh-food
supermarket. We fulfill orders from our own mini-app and from delivery
platforms. During picking we constantly hit: out-of-stock, spec
mismatch (size / live-vs-chilled), and underweight on weighed items.
Write an archivable SOP a brand-new rep can follow on day one.

Scope first: this SOP covers exactly two situations - "issue found
while picking, before handoff" and "customer complains after
delivery." Platform liability and compensation rules are NOT restated
here (they change); wherever they apply, write "per the platform's
current rules."

SOP body, organized by case:

1. Out-of-stock substitution (three authority levels, each with the
   money line and the decision-rights line)
- Same-price substitution: same category, price equal or within a
   negligible delta (I'll give you the threshold; use a
   [same-price tolerance] placeholder in the SOP). Picker or rep
   substitutes on their own authority and notifies with the order
- Cross-price substitution: delta beyond the tolerance, or across
   categories (ordered live fish, only chilled left): must contact
   the customer first. Two contact attempts within a total
   [confirmation window] of minutes; no answer by then means refund
   the item and note it on the order - never "substitute first,
   explain later"
- No substitution: customer note says "refund if out, do not
   substitute" - refund directly, no contact needed

2. Weighed items
- Listed vs. actual weight: overweight is never surcharged;
   underweight always refunds the difference, with a photo of the
   scale readout attached to the order. Hard rule, zero discretion
- Live seafood dead at pickup: substituting chilled requires
   explicit customer confirmation first; otherwise refund

3. Refund execution
- Item refunds complete before handoff; refund amount = what was
   actually paid for that item, including how the item's share of
   any cart discount is computed - state the formula (pro-rata)
- Refunds go back by the original payment path; the rep script
   states timing as "per the payment channel" - never a promised
   number of hours

4. After-delivery disputes
- Customer says "I never agreed to a substitute": how to verify
   (chat log / call log), then three possible findings and their
   outcomes - never reached, yet substituted = full refund;
   reached but no clear record = refund the difference;
   confirmation on record = explain and attach the record

Output format:
- The four sections above, every step stating: who acts, the time
  limit, the authority line
- One ready-to-send message per section (spoken register,
  [placeholder] variables)
- A closing section "common fights and the standard answer":
  3 high-frequency disputes with the official response
- A quick-reference authority table: situation x who decides x
  time limit

Do not:
- Write "customer satisfaction is our north star" or any sentence
  that fails to direct an action - every line of the SOP must
  instruct
- Hard-code platform rule clauses - they rot; point to the
  platform's current rules instead
- Leave any money question with two possible answers: discount
  allocation, refund timing - one formula, one wording, no
  "depends on the situation"

Why it is written this way

Fresh-grocery online orders differ from dry-grocery in one decisive way: the goods are not fungible. The last bunch of spinach on the shelf is the last bunch - there is no backroom to pull from. Stockout handling is therefore 80% of this job, and the SOP's center of gravity is the authority ladder. The rep's real pain isn't knowing that substitution exists - it's not knowing whether they may substitute, and up to what delta. Draw the line, and a case drops from ten minutes of hesitation to one minute of action.

"Substitute first, explain later" is banned outright because it is the rule this SOP exists to break. The rep's instinct says the substitution saves the basket and the customer will probably accept it - true in most orders, but the customers who don't accept write the reviews, and one review outweighs a basket. Refund the missing item; never decide for the customer.

The scale-photo rule is written as hard, non-discretionary, because weight differences are the single most-complained-about point in fresh delivery - and the most self-provable. One photo of the scale ends ninety percent of the argument. Taken before handoff it costs nothing; after delivery there is no second chance to take it.

The discount-allocation formula is required in writing because it is a one-answer money question: on a "8 off 40" cart, refunding a 15 item must produce the same number from every rep. Two reps computing two numbers is tomorrow's dispute. A document that leaves money questions open isn't an SOP yet.