Penalty tiers — how strikes work and how to recover
The 5 penalty tiers, what triggers each, what they do to your shop, and how to get back to clean status.
What's a penalty tier?
Every shop on KampalaSnap has a penalty tier. It's a status that reflects how cleanly you've been operating, especially around disputes and buyer complaints. It's recomputed every night based on your last 90 days of strikes.
There are five tiers. The first one (None) is where everyone starts and where you want to stay.
| Tier | What it means | Visible to buyers? |
|---|---|---|
| None | Clean. No real issues. | No |
| Warn | You've had a few flagged events. Warning push only. | No |
| Slow | Your earnings release window stretches to 168h (7 days). | No |
| Hidden | Your shop is removed from search + feed. | Yes (your visibility cratered) |
| Suspended | Selling is fully disabled. Withdrawals paused. | Yes |
The system is designed to give you many chances to course-correct before anything serious happens. Most sellers never see anything past Warn.
What earns you a strike
A strike is added when one of these happens:
- An admin resolves a dispute against you (you lost a dispute about a real problem you caused).
- A policy violation is confirmed (fake brand, prohibited item, scam, harassment).
- A chargeback comes through Pesapal (rare — only happens for card buyers).
- A buyer report about your account is upheld by admin.
A single complaint that's dismissed doesn't add a strike. Strikes require admin confirmation that something real went wrong.
What doesn't earn you a strike
To be clear about what doesn't count:
- Late deliveries (unless they spiral into a real dispute).
- Bad reviews (negative reviews aren't strikes — they're just feedback).
- Cancellations that the buyer agreed to.
- Cancellations for legitimate out-of-stock reasons.
- A buyer's dispute that you won (their evidence didn't hold up in admin review).
- One-off complaints that admin reviewed and dismissed.
How strikes age out
Strikes count for 90 days from when they were issued, then they drop off. The penalty tier is computed from your strikes in the last 90 days.
So a clean stretch of 90 days resets everything. If you had 2 strikes in March, they don't affect your tier in July.
This is the recovery mechanism — get clean, stay clean, the system forgets.
The tiers in detail
None — the starting state
You're operating cleanly. No penalty.
Most sellers stay in None most of the time. There's nothing to do — just keep delivering what you promise.
Warn — heads up
Triggered by: 1-2 strikes in the last 90 days.
What changes:
- You get a push notification: "You've had a recent dispute issue, here's the case ID."
- The notification suggests reading the dispute and learning from it.
- Nothing else changes. Your earnings, withdrawals, visibility — all normal.
The Warn tier exists to catch your attention early. Most sellers who hit Warn read the offending dispute, see what went wrong, and don't let it happen again. They're back to None within weeks.
Slow — the dispute window stretches
Triggered by: 3-4 strikes in the last 90 days.
What changes:
- Your earnings release window stretches from 48 hours to 168 hours (7 days). Earnings sit in pending for a week before becoming withdrawable.
- Buyer's get more time to spot any problem before money leaves the platform.
Why this matters: cash flow tightens. A shop earning UGX 100,000/day that used to see earnings available within 2 days now waits a week. If you've been counting on quick payouts to buy stock, this can become an operational problem.
How to recover: deliver clean orders. After 90 days of no new strikes (the existing ones aging out), you're back to Warn or None.
Hidden — invisible to discovery
Triggered by: 5-7 strikes in the last 90 days OR a single severe violation (fake brands, repeat scam reports).
What changes:
- Your shop is removed from search results.
- Your videos are demoted hard in the feed (essentially zero new-buyer reach).
- Your followers can still find you directly.
- Your existing orders continue normally.
This is serious. Your discovery dies overnight. The Hidden tier is the last warning before suspension.
How to recover:
- Stop the bleeding. Whatever's causing the strikes (fake brand listings, slow dispatches, unfulfilled orders) must stop today.
- Email support@kampalasnap.com. Explain what went wrong and what you're doing to fix it. Admin can sometimes shorten the path back if your evidence is strong.
- Wait it out. As strikes age past 90 days, the tier recomputes nightly. You may step back to Slow within a few weeks, then Warn, then None.
Suspended — selling disabled
Triggered by: 8+ strikes, severe policy violations (child safety, organized fraud), or admin manual action.
What changes:
- Selling is disabled. Buyers can't checkout from your shop.
- Withdrawals are paused.
- Existing orders that are in flight continue to completion.
- Your shop page shows a "Suspended" badge.
How to recover:
Suspended status requires manual admin review to lift. You can't wait it out the way you can with lower tiers.
- Email support@kampalasnap.com from your registered email.
- Explain the situation, what went wrong, and what changes you've made.
- Wait for admin response (typically 5-7 days).
- If reinstated, you come back at the Slow tier (not None) and build from there.
Repeated suspensions usually lead to permanent account closure.
How to read your current tier
Seller Hub → Edit → Account status. Shows:
- Current tier.
- Strikes count in the last 90 days.
- Date of each strike with a one-line summary.
- Date the next strike ages out.
If your tier is anything other than None, this is the page to live on for a while.
What admin sees when reviewing a strike candidate
When a buyer dispute lands and admin has to decide if it's a strike:
- They read the original order.
- They read the dispute thread.
- They look at the evidence both sides attached.
- They check your shop's history (other recent disputes, reviews, reports).
- They decide based on whether the dispute reveals a real failure on your part.
It's not automated. Admin is genuinely trying to be fair. Strikes are issued for clear cases, not borderline ones.
How to avoid strikes
The easiest way: deliver what you promise.
The slightly less easy ways:
1. Don't list what you can't deliver
If you don't have stock, don't list it. The fastest path to strikes is a fake listing the buyer pays for and you can't fulfill.
2. Reply fast to disputes
You have 48 hours to respond to a dispute. Use it. A reply with evidence cuts the chance of an admin ruling against you by half.
3. Don't argue, fix
If a buyer complaint is even half-valid, offer a fix (refund, replacement). Admin sees the dispute thread and notes when you offered something reasonable.
4. Document what you ship
Take a quick photo of each parcel before handing it to the rider. You don't have to do anything with the photo unless a dispute opens — but if one does, "here's the parcel as it left my hands" is gold evidence.
5. Be careful with brand items
Authentic brand items are fine. Fake brand items (counterfeits) are the fastest path to suspension. If you can't prove an item is genuine, don't list it as a branded item.
Common questions
One bad buyer left me with a strike. How do I appeal?
Open the dispute thread → reply with new evidence (photos, chat screenshots) → admin re-reviews. New evidence is the only thing that gets a decision changed.
If you can't add new evidence, the strike stands. Focus on operating cleanly for the next 90 days.
Can multiple strikes age out at the same time?
Yes — strikes from the same week age out the same week 90 days later. If you had 3 strikes in late March, they all drop off in late June.
My penalty tier seems wrong. Who do I talk to?
Email support@kampalasnap.com with your shop name and what tier you think you should be on. We'll re-check the strike calculation.
If we made a math error, we fix it immediately. If you disagree with admin's call on a specific strike, we can look at the case again with fresh eyes.
Does verification protect me from penalty tiers?
No. Verification adds features; it doesn't shield from accountability. A verified shop can be Suspended just like an unverified one.
Can I still post videos while Hidden?
Yes — but the algorithm gives them essentially zero reach. Posting during Hidden tier doesn't hurt you (no new strikes from posting), but it also doesn't help.
Use the Hidden window to clean up your shop, restock, and prepare for the recovery. Heavy posting during Hidden mostly burns content you could have used later.
What about positive history — does it offset strikes?
Indirectly. Admin reviewing a borderline strike candidate considers your overall track record — long, clean history of good deliveries weighs in your favor. But there's no formal "good behavior credit" that cancels strikes.
The system is about showing a pattern of fair operation. Mistakes happen; chronic problems get penalized.
What's next
- Handling disputes well — the single biggest lever for staying clean.
- Subscription mechanics — what happens to verification during Hidden / Suspended.