Merit · Al Fursan Apple Store · Proposal

Cashback, and the orders that never finish

The delivery plus 14 day rule answers every order whose outcome we know. This is about the ones we do not: still in transit, delivery never recorded, a return still open. Right now they have no ending at all.

For Rahul Dev Singh, Partnership · Wael Alhelal, Operations
From Brian Arfi Faridhi, Product
Decision needed by Friday 21 August 2026, the production sign-off date
Tracked as DEC-0173

01The gap

One sentence: without a delivery event the release condition never fires, so the cashback waits forever and nobody is watching it.

14

days after delivery. The release trigger now in effect, replacing payment plus 30, per DEC-0180.

14

days from delivery. Also the return window, so release now lands right on that boundary.

0

ways to reverse a credit. The Accenture Sales Accrual API is credit-only.

Release condition, as written today

Item delivered the only trigger + 14 days return window closes Cashback releases the only path, no alternate branch No delivery event nothing to count from No release, ever.

There is one condition now, not two. Without a delivery event it never fires, and there is no second branch left to fall back on.

Why this lands in the first weeks

02The four rules

Credit only a delivered, uncontested order. Watch the pending pile daily. Put someone in front of it.

1
A delivery event is required before anything is credited, at any age
An undelivered order can never be credited by the clock alone.
2
An open return, refund or customer service case freezes release until it closes
A return raised on day 28 and settled on day 33 cannot be credited mid-flight.
3
Two conditions put an order on the daily Operations list
An order with no delivery event 31 days after payment, and an item delivered more than 14 days ago with no miles credited. This is now the only mechanism that surfaces a stuck order. A slow shipment that is still moving appears on neither list.
4
The reconciliation report gains a pending bucket, with age
Saudia Finance sees the exposure as a number rather than as a series of complaints.
The shape of it

Every path ends in a full credit or no credit. Nothing partial, nothing reversed, because nothing can be reversed.

03How an order runs, in days

Three orders, same rule. Only the third one is new behaviour.

Day 0 onward, three order tracks

DAY 0 ONGOING → Normal delivered d4 credited, day 18 Slow shipment delivered d20 credited day 34, once the return window has closed Never delivered d31 exception list pending, no release, closes only with the refund

The first two tracks show the rule now in effect: delivery plus 14 days, nothing else. The third track never gets a delivery event, so it stays pending, watched by the daily exception list, until the standard non-delivery refund closes the order.

What changes for the member

Nothing in the message. It stays "Earn XX miles as cashback on this purchase", with no timing claim attached, so no product copy or commercial term moves.

The member also waits less. A normal Apple Store order delivers in 3 to 5 days, so the wait now runs about 17 to 19 days instead of 30.

One exception

If Saudia publishes a number in an FAQ or in the terms, it should read 14 days after delivery, provided the order is not returned. A flat number from purchase date no longer holds, because timing depends on when the item arrives.

04For Rahul: what Saudia needs to confirm

Two fewer things to confirm now. One thing left.

Two fewer asks

A delayed shipment needs no special rule now. Release keys off delivery, so a late shipment simply pushes its own 14-day clock forward. The day-45 ceiling needs no confirmation either, because it no longer exists.

AskHow to frame itIf Saudia says no
1. The terms wording, if a timing figure is published anywhere One clause, added once, stating 14 days after delivery A member with a delayed order can point at a published promise we did not meet
Worth saying up front

The commercial position is unchanged. This covers only the release mechanics, corrected to match delivery per DEC-0180, and does not reopen the earn rate or anything agreed on 20 July.

05For Wael: what Operations needs to run

Both of these exist whether or not this proposal is adopted.

01 · daily

The daily exception list. Two conditions, not one. First, an order with no delivery event 31 days after payment. Second, an item delivered more than 14 days ago with no miles credited. Each row carries the last known status and the age. Operations can pull this list by hand during soft launch. This is now the only mechanism that surfaces a stuck order.

A flat day-31 cutoff would raise a false alarm on every slow shipment that is still moving, because the release clock now starts at delivery rather than at payment.

02 · every order

The delivery event itself. Under manual fulfilment a person marks the order delivered, and cashback release keys off that mark.

06If nothing is decided

The choice does not go away. It just gets made by an implementation detail instead of by us.

Outcome A

A wrongly marked delivery credits an order that never actually arrived. Permanently, and without recourse, because the API cannot claw back.

Outcome B

The cashback silently never arrives. No delivery event ever gets recorded, release never fires, and nobody on our side has a queue to look in.

Both land inside the first month of a launch timed to the iPhone 18.

07Sources

Apple Store Cashback Scenario Flow (Phase 1)Google Doc
BRD v2.3, AlFursan Store Earn Model. Authoritative on commercial termsGoogle Doc
PRD v1.5, Store Earn Model (Cashback)Google Doc
Habeeb's Apple Store testing and launch plan, 16 AugustSlack
Apple Store go-live dependency trackerSheet
AlFursan Master Project PlanSheet
The two-pager this explainer accompaniesGoogle Doc

Prepared by Merit Product, 19 August 2026. Tracked internally as DEC-0173.