Our cancellation terms depend on one thing: whether a carrier has accepted your order yet.
Before a carrier accepts
Cancel at any time at no cost and with no cancellation fee. Nothing has been dispatched, so nothing is owed.
After a carrier accepts
Once a carrier has accepted the order, Rivalane's service has been delivered and a minimum cancellation fee of $199 applies. That covers cancellation for any reason, including a change of plans, a vehicle that is not ready, or a carrier that arrives at pickup and is turned away. If the carrier has already made the trip to your address, it may also charge a dry run fee, which is passed on to you.
How to cancel
Send an email to support@rivalane.com stating your name, order details and that you want to cancel. Cancellations by phone, text or chat are not accepted, because we need a written record with a timestamp to apply the right terms.
Refunds
You are entitled to a refund only for any part of the service that was not delivered. If you paid for an add-on such as a guaranteed pickup date or top load and it was not provided but the vehicle was delivered, the refund covers that add-on.
If your dates have changed rather than your plans, tell us before canceling. Moving the first available date is usually simpler and cheaper than canceling and rebooking.
Why acceptance is the line
Under Section 2b of our Terms and Conditions, Rivalane's service is complete when a carrier accepts your order, because by then the route has been priced, the carrier found and vetted, and the vehicle assigned. Section 10a follows from that: before acceptance nothing has been delivered, so cancellation is free; after acceptance the service has been rendered, so the minimum fee applies.
The carrier is affected too. Once it accepts, it has planned a slot on its trailer and a stop on its route around your car. A cancellation that reaches it after it has started driving toward you is what the dry run fee in Section 10a covers.
The three situations the fee covers
You change your plans after a carrier has accepted. Rivalane cancels because the order breached the Terms, for example a vehicle that was described as running and is not, or prohibited items found in it. The carrier arrives at pickup and is turned away for any reason, including nobody being present. In each case the minimum cancellation fee is $199, and a carrier that has already made the trip may add its own dry run fee, which is passed on.
What the Terms say: cancellation is free before a Carrier accepts the Order; after acceptance the customer pays a minimum of $199 in cancellation fees plus any dry run fee a Carrier imposes (Section 10a). Cancellations must be sent by email to support@rivalane.com; telephone, text and chat cancellations are not accepted (Section 10c).
Before you cancel, consider a date change
Most cancellations we see are really schedule changes: a closing that slipped, a flight that moved, a car that is not back from the shop. If a carrier has not yet accepted, moving your first available date costs nothing. If one has, tell us the new dates before canceling; the carrier may be able to collect on a later circuit, which is cheaper for you than canceling and rebooking.
What a cancellation email should contain
Your name, the order number from your confirmation, the vehicle, and a clear statement that you want to cancel. Send it from the email address on the order if you can, so we can match it without a call back. Keep our emailed reply; its timestamp is your record of when the cancellation took effect relative to carrier acceptance.
Refunds and what they cover
Section 10b limits refunds to the unfulfilled portion of the services. If you cancel before acceptance, there is nothing to refund because nothing was charged. If an additional service such as a guaranteed pickup date was paid for and not provided but the car was delivered, the refund is that add-on. Rivalane's fee after acceptance is not refundable, because the work it pays for has been done.
If Rivalane cancels
Section 2a reserves Rivalane's right to refuse or cancel an order. In practice that happens when an order cannot be matched with any carrier at a workable rate, when the vehicle or route turns out to be outside what we can arrange, or when the Terms have been breached. If we cancel before acceptance, you owe nothing. We tell you why, and where possible what would make the order workable.
Cancellations on auction, base and seasonal orders
An auction order canceled after acceptance still leaves the car in the yard accruing storage, so tell us immediately if a sale falls through; the auction page explains the release and storage clocks. A PCS order canceled because orders changed is common and is treated like any other cancellation under Section 10a, so cancel before a carrier accepts if you can; see the military page. A snowbird order is usually better moved than canceled, because the same corridor runs all season. If a dispute about a cancellation fee ever arises, the FMCSA's National Consumer Complaint Database is the regulator's channel, and the broker record-keeping rules in 49 CFR Part 371 mean the timeline of your order is documented on our side.
