Root-Cause a Refund Failure Affecting a Small Group of Shopee Buyers

A small number of buyers on Shopee's online marketplace say they are unable to get a refund, while refunds for other buyers appear to work. You are a product manager at Shopee. Explain how you would investigate the problem and determine its real cause. ```hint Find where the refund breaks A refund passes through several hand-offs between the buyer, the seller, the platform and a payment provider. Work out at which of those steps the affected buyers get stuck, and what they have in common, before you start listing possible reasons. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - What exactly fails for these buyers: they cannot find or submit a refund request, the request is rejected or never answered, or it is approved but the money never reaches them? - Roughly how many buyers are affected, how did the reports reach us (support contacts, app reviews, social media, a dashboard), and when did they start? - Do the affected buyers share an obvious trait, such as a country, a payment method (card, in-app wallet, bank transfer, cash on delivery), an app platform or version, a type of seller, or a product category? - Has anything changed recently in the refund flow, the return and refund policy, the fraud rules or the payment partners? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A precise definition of the failure and its size, including why a small number of failed refunds still matters for buyer trust on a marketplace. - An end-to-end map of the refund journey (eligibility, request, seller response, platform decision, return shipment, payout, notification) used to pinpoint the failing step. - A comparison of affected and unaffected buyers across the dimensions most likely to explain a refund failure, such as payment method, country, app version and order type. - Internal and external hypotheses tested in a sensible order, each with the data or test that would confirm or rule it out. - How the root cause is confirmed, and what happens for the buyers already affected once it is known. ### Follow-up Questions - The failures turn out to be concentrated among orders paid by cash on delivery. What would you investigate next, and how would those buyers receive their money? - You find that a fraud-prevention rule is deliberately blocking these refunds. How would you decide whether to loosen it? - How would you set up monitoring so that a failure like this is caught before buyers have to complain?