When an order fails

An order ends one of three ways: placed, failed, or not yet known. Layout keeps the last two apart, because treating one as the other is how people end up with no food or paying twice.

How the money moves

When you confirm, Layout places a hold on your card for the total you agreed to. A hold is not a charge. What happens to it depends on how the order ends:

• Placed, with evidence: the hold becomes the charge. If the restaurant's own total came in lower, you are charged the lower amount.
• Failed: the hold is released and nothing is charged.
• Not yet known: the hold stays where it is until a person at Layout settles it.

A failed order

Failed means Layout has proof the order did not go through. It never reached the restaurant, so nothing was charged, and Layout never paid the restaurant either. Layout tells you what happened where you ordered, and by text if you were not there to see it. The receipt in your account says Not charged where the total would be.

Your bank may show the released hold as pending for a while. It is not a charge, and it drops off on its own.

Ask again whenever you are ready. Most failures are about that moment at that restaurant, such as a store that just closed or an item that sold out, and Layout says which.

When Layout cannot tell

Sometimes Layout submits an order and the restaurant's site never shows a confirmation. Then Layout does not know whether it went through, and it will not guess in either direction. It tells you exactly that, and asks you to check your email or call the store before ordering again, so you do not pay twice.

The order is flagged for a person at Layout to check. The hold stays on your card while they do, because releasing money for food that may be cooking is the same mistake as reordering it. When they find the order was placed, the hold becomes the charge. When it was not, the hold is released.

Getting help and refunds

If an order was placed but came out wrong, or the restaurant was closed, open its receipt in your account and press Get help with this order. Refund requests can be filed within 48 hours of the order. The help center has more on what to do: fix a wrong, late, or missing order. Refunds, and how long they take, are covered in how refunds work.

For anything else, including a charge you do not recognise, see getting help.