E-Commerce & Product

Verified against ChatGPT · 2026-08-14

Rewrite a returns policy into a plain-language explainer that actually answers what customers search for before contacting support

Turns dense legal-sounding returns policy text into a plain-language customer-facing explainer, organized around the actual questions customers ask, to reduce support tickets for questions the policy already answers.

ChatGPT (GPT-5.1)4 fillable variables

The prompt

Ready to copy — highlighted parts are example details you can swap.

Rewrite this returns policy into a plain-language explainer page. The goal is reducing support contacts from people who couldn't find the answer in the existing policy text, not producing a shorter version of the same legal document.

CURRENT POLICY TEXT
"Items may be returned within thirty (30) calendar days of the delivery date provided they are unworn, unwashed, and in original condition with tags attached. Return shipping costs are the responsibility of the customer except where the return is due to a defect or fulfillment error, in which case a prepaid label will be issued. Refunds are processed to the original payment method within 5-10 business days of the returned item being received and inspected."

MOST COMMON SUPPORT QUESTIONS ABOUT RETURNS
"Do I have to pay for return shipping?", "How long do I have to return something?", "Can I return something I already wore once to try it?", "When will I get my money back?"

ACTUAL POLICY TERMS THAT MUST STAY ACCURATE
30-day window from delivery, unworn/unwashed/tags-attached condition, customer pays return shipping except defects/fulfillment errors, 5-10 business day refund processing after inspection.

EXCEPTIONS OR EDGE CASES
Final sale items (marked as such at purchase) cannot be returned at all; swimwear must have the hygiene liner still attached.

STRUCTURE
Organize the explainer around the actual common questions given, as a Q&A or short-section format, rather than the policy's original legal-document structure (definitions, then conditions, then process) — customers search for answers to specific questions, not for a document structure. Every factual claim in the rewrite (timeframes, condition requirements, who pays return shipping, refund method and timing) must match the actual policy terms given exactly — do not simplify a specific number or condition into a softer, vaguer version, since that creates a real gap between what the page says and what the policy actually allows, which is exactly the kind of mismatch that generates disputed support tickets. State each named exception clearly rather than folding it into a blanket "see terms for exceptions" — a customer whose situation is the exception needs to be able to find that out from this page directly.

TONE
Write it as if a helpful support agent were explaining the policy out loud, not as if a lawyer were stating conditions — but never at the cost of precision on the actual terms.

WHAT NOT TO DO
Do not add a legal disclaimer stating this explainer supersedes or is separate from the official policy unless one is specifically requested — that undermines the point of the page, which is to be the thing customers can actually rely on.

OUTPUT FORMAT
A short intro line, then the common questions each as its own short-answer section, then a clearly labeled exceptions section.

Customize

Optional — swap in your own details for the highlighted parts above.

Why this works

Organizing the rewrite around the actual common support questions, rather than the policy document's original legal structure, matters because a customer searching a help center is trying to answer one specific question ('do I pay for return shipping') and the original definitions-then-conditions structure buries that answer inside a paragraph written to be legally complete, not fast to scan — restructuring around real questions is the actual mechanism by which a self-service page reduces support volume, since it shortens the path between the question in someone's head and the sentence that answers it. The instruction requiring every factual claim to match the given terms exactly, with no softening of specific numbers or conditions, addresses a real risk in how GPT-5.1 handles 'make this more plain-language' requests: simplifying legal text for readability commonly drifts a hard boundary condition into a softer, friendlier-sounding approximation ('within about a month' for a hard 30-day cutoff, or 'lightly used is usually fine' for a strict unworn requirement), and that drift creates a genuine discrepancy between the customer-facing page and the actual enforceable policy — a discrepancy that produces exactly the disputed-return support tickets the rewrite was meant to prevent. Requiring each exception to get its own explicit callout, rather than a blanket 'see terms for exceptions' line, matters because the person most likely to read a returns FAQ carefully is someone in a genuinely ambiguous situation (a final-sale item, a worn-once swimsuit) — folding the one thing they actually need into a vague pointer back to the legal document defeats the purpose of writing a plain-language page for them in the first place.

What you get back

"Do I have to pay for return shipping? Yes, unless the item arrived defective or we shipped you the wrong thing — in either of those cases we'll send you a prepaid label. Can I return something I wore once to try it? Only if it's still unworn in the sense of being unwashed with tags attached — a quick try-on at home is fine, wearing it out isn't."

Verified against

ChatGPT GPT-5.1 · 2026-08-14

Changelog

  • 2026-08-14 Initial publish, verified against ChatGPT GPT-5.1.

Need this built into your business?

If a prompt isn't enough — Google Ads management, built and maintained for you — that's Scult's day job.

EXPLORE GOOGLE ADS MANAGEMENT
All E-Commerce & Product prompts

Check your AI visibility

One URL in, a 0–100 score and the exact fixes out.

RUN THE CHECK

Browse all the tools

15 tools across six categories
13 of them never send your data anywhere

Free · No signup · No trial clock

SEE THE DIRECTORY