Product Terms & Warranty

This policy covers the physical products we manufacture and sell — our precision-cut corrugated pods, inserts, and shipping boxes ("products"). It describes what our products are designed to do, the manufacturing tolerances that are normal for corrugated packaging, our limited warranty, and the limit of our liability. Please read it before you rely on our packaging in production.

Custom printed goods are additionally covered by our Custom Printing Policy. Damage to a shipment on its way to you is covered by our Shipping Policy.

What Our Products Are — and What They Are Not

• Our pods are protective packaging components: die-cut corrugated inserts and boxes designed to separate and cushion bottles inside a shipping carton.
• They are designed for secondary packaging — they surround containers that are already sealed. They are not food-contact packaging, and they are not intended to touch, contain, or preserve any food product directly.
• They are not a guarantee against breakage. Corrugated packaging reduces the risk of damage in transit; no packaging eliminates it.

Test Before You Rely On It

Shipping outcomes depend on many things we do not control — your bottle type, glass thickness, weight and fill level, closure and seal quality, how the pod is assembled, void fill, the outer carton you choose, how you tape and label it, the carrier you use, and how that carrier handles the parcel on a given day.

You are responsible for testing our packaging with your own product and your own shipping method before relying on it in production. We offer inexpensive sample packs of every in-stock configuration precisely so you can do this. We strongly recommend shipping a test parcel to yourself before committing to a large run or a peak-season order.

Manufacturing Tolerances

Corrugated board is a natural, fiber-based material produced on high-speed equipment. The following are normal characteristics of the process, not defects:

• Minor variation in board caliper, stiffness, and fold resistance between production runs, and seasonal variation in board moisture content, which affects how the board feels and folds.
• Minor variation in scoring depth and in the force required to fold a panel.
• Minor variation in kraft color and surface texture between runs. Kraft is unbleached and its shade shifts from lot to lot.
• Small variation in cut and crease position, and slight burrs or fiber tear at the die-cut edge.
• Slight bowing or curl in boxes shipped flat, which relaxes once assembled.

Dimensions published on our product pages are nominal. Our products are made to fit specific bottle formats, and fit is validated against the bottles we list on the product page — bottles from a different supplier, or a different mold of the same nominal size, may fit differently.

Assembly

Our pods ship flat and are assembled by hand. Assembly follows a specific fold sequence, documented at hotsaucepod.com/how-to-assemble. Folding out of sequence puts load on panels that are not scored to take it and is the most common cause of tearing at a fold line.

If boxes are tearing or folding hard, please contact us with photographs before assembling the rest of the order — we will look at whether it is a scoring issue on that specific run, in which case we will replace them, and we would rather fix it than have you work through a bad batch.

Limited Warranty

We warrant that our products will be free from manufacturing defects and will substantially conform to the specifications published on the product page, for 30 days from delivery.

To make a claim, email support@hotsaucepod.com within that period with your order number, the approximate number of units affected, and photographs showing the problem. Our remedy, at our option, is replacement of the affected product or a refund of the price you paid for it. We cover shipping both ways on a valid warranty claim.

This warranty does not cover: normal manufacturing variation described above; damage caused by improper assembly, storage in damp or unconditioned space, overloading, or reuse; products that have been modified, printed on, or cut; or the performance of the packaging in your own outbound shipments.

Except as expressly stated in this section, our products are provided "as is," and we disclaim all other warranties, express or implied, including the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Limitation of Liability

Our maximum aggregate liability for any claim arising from or relating to a product purchased from us is limited to the amount you paid for that product.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, punitive, or consequential damages of any kind, including without limitation:

• the value of any product of yours that is damaged, broken, or leaked in transit;
• the cost of replacing or re-shipping your product to your customer;
• lost sales, lost profits, lost customers, or reputational harm;
• refunds, credits, chargebacks, or claims made against you by your own customers; or
• missed deadlines, events, or seasonal windows.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages; in those jurisdictions our liability is limited to the maximum extent permitted by law. This section survives termination and applies regardless of the legal theory on which a claim is based.

Resale & Your End Customers

Most of our customers are businesses who use our packaging to ship their own products. If you resell our products, or ship your products in them, you are responsible for determining that the packaging is suitable for your product, your customers, and your shipping method, and for any representation you make about it to your own customers. We make no representation that our products meet any particular regulatory, food-safety, carrier, or industry certification requirement, and we do not warrant compliance with any standard we have not expressly stated in writing.

Product Availability & Changes

Our catalog is produced in scheduled runs and evolves. We may add, change, re-tool, or discontinue any configuration at any time, and we may adjust specifications and pricing. Placing an order does not guarantee that the same product will be available for reorder, and we cannot guarantee indefinite availability of any configuration. If a product you rely on is important to your business, tell us — we schedule production against real demand, and we would rather plan a run for you than discontinue something you need. Where we can, we will give notice before discontinuing a product that has active repeat customers.

Samples

Samples are provided so you can evaluate fit, board quality, and assembly before ordering at volume. Samples are drawn from current stock and are representative, but they are subject to the same run-to-run variation described above, and a sample is not a warranty of an exact match to a future production run.

Questions

If anything here is unclear, or you want help choosing a configuration or testing one against your bottle, email us at support@hotsaucepod.com before you order. We would much rather talk it through first.