Built by someone tired of missing return deadlines.

The receipt that started it

A few years ago I bought a pair of shoes that looked great in the store and felt wrong by day three. Toe rub, weird arch, I knew within a week they were going back. I left the receipt on the kitchen counter. Promised myself I'd return them "this weekend."

You know how this ends. The receipt got buried, the shoes got shoved in the closet, and when I finally remembered, I was a month past the store's 30 day return window. Over $70, gone. Not a tragedy. But it bothered me more than $70 should have, because I had genuinely meant to return them. The system just didn't help me remember.

I started paying attention after that. Every household I knew had the same drawer, receipts piled up, items in original packaging waiting to go back, deadlines quietly expiring. The math is brutal: the average American household lets $200 to $600 of returnable purchases expire every year not from indecision but from forgetting.

Retailers have every incentive to keep return windows short and confusing. The longer you wait, the more likely you keep the item. So I built the tool I wished existed, something that would take a photo of a receipt, figure out what each item is, look up the right return window for that store and that category, and just remind me before the deadline.

That's RefundHaul. It's not a marketplace, it's not selling your data, and it's not trying to do twelve things at once. It tracks return deadlines. That's it. If it stops me from leaving $70 on the kitchen counter once a year, it pays for itself.

What RefundHaul actually does

You can take a photo of a receipt, upload a receipt or order screenshot, or forward an online order confirmation email straight to your private RefundHaul inbox. RefundHaul reads it, identifies each item, looks up the right return window for that retailer and product category, and sends you reminder emails before each deadline.

The hard part isn't the photo. It's the policy logic. A receipt from Target with a t-shirt, an iPad, and a Cat & Jack onesie has three different return windows: 90 days, 15 days, and 365 days. Most reminder apps treat all of those as the same deadline. RefundHaul treats them separately because retailers do.

You can also add items manually if you don't have a paper receipt, useful for gifts or anything you forgot to capture at the time. Everything stays on your device unless you turn on cloud sync; we don't sell or share your purchase data, ever.

How we research return policies

The store policy guides on this site (Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and so on) aren't AI summaries scraped from a single source. Each one is built from a specific research process so the details are right.

• Primary source first. Every return window we publish comes from the retailer's own customer-service or returns page. We link to the canonical source and quote the exact policy language where useful.
• Cross-checked against secondary reporting. We compare the retailer's stated policy against recent coverage from outlets like Consumer World, GoBankingRates, and DealNews to catch policy changes the retailer hasn't reflected in their docs yet.
• Verified annually for currency. Each store page carries a "verified" date. When a policy changes (and they change often), we re-verify and update the date. Our internal cadence is at least once per quarter for the top-10 retailers.
• Edge cases called out, not buried. The "Apple products are 15 days, not 30" type details are where most shoppers get caught. We surface those exceptions in callout boxes rather than in the fine print.
• No paid placement. Retailers don't pay for inclusion, ranking, or favorable framing. We have no commercial relationship with any retailer covered on this site.

If you spot a detail that's wrong or out of date, email hello@refundhaul.com. We fix accuracy issues fast, usually same-day.

How we handle your data

Short version: your receipts and item data don't leave your device unless you choose to enable cloud sync. We don't sell purchase data to third parties. We don't share it with retailers. We don't use it to build advertising profiles.

The receipt-parsing AI runs through Anthropic's API, your receipt text is sent to Anthropic for parsing and is not retained for model training under their commercial terms. Reminder emails go through Resend's transactional email service. That's the full data flow.

The full Privacy Policy covers the specifics including what happens if you delete your account, what we log for security, and how to request your data.

Company information

RefundHaul is operated by an independent LLC registered in Nebraska. Below are the operational details, useful if you're a retailer, journalist, or potential partner trying to reach us.