Offering a damage waiver
Last checked 4 November 2026.
An optional extra you can sell with a hire. The customer pays a small fee, and in return you agree to limit what you claim from them for accidental damage.
It is off until you turn it on. Installing Holdback does not create it, offer it or mention it to anyone.
What it is, and what it isn't
It is your promise to your customer, written down and enforced by Holdback. When someone has bought it, Holdback refuses a damage claim over the limit you set before anything reaches their order, and tells you why. (Damage is always a claim your customer approves and pays, never taken from their saved card: see Damage, loss and non-return.)
It is not insurance. Nobody reimburses you. If a customer damages an item and they have the waiver, you have agreed to absorb that cost, and the waiver fee is what you charged for agreeing. Say so in your hire terms, and don't call it insurance anywhere — that wording is regulated, and it isn't true here.
Limited by the waiver: a damage claim. Not limited: late return (a late fee), a claim for a missing part, and a claim for an item not returned at all. Those work as normal, up to the deposit.
Turning it on
- Holdback → Charges → Damage waiver (press Turn on or Change). Tick Offer a damage waiver.
- Waiver price is a percentage of the hire fee. 10% of a £40 hire is £4.00.
- Damage claims limited to is the most you may claim for damage once a customer has bought it. 0 means no damage claims at all.
- Save.
Holdback creates one product called Damage waiver, with a price band per hire fee you use — "Band 1", "Band 2" — never the price in the name. It is Unlisted, so nobody finds it by browsing your shop.
You must publish it yourself
This is the step people miss. Holdback doesn't publish products for you: its permission to change sales channels is only for its own deposit products, not for the waiver or anything else of yours. So the product exists but nobody can buy it until you publish it.
- Products → open Damage waiver
- Publishing (or Manage sales channels)
- Tick Online Store
- Save
Until you do, Holdback shows a warning at the top of Today, Charges and Settings with a link straight to the product, and your customers see no waiver offered at all — an offer nobody can accept is worse than no offer. The warning disappears once the product is published.
What your customer sees
Under the deposit explanation on the product page, an unticked box:
Add a damage waiver for £4.00. You then won't be asked to pay for accidental damage. Late returns, missing parts and items not returned aren't covered. This is a waiver from us, not insurance.
(If you set a limit above zero it reads "Any damage claim is then limited to £25.00" instead.)
Ticked, the waiver goes into the cart with the hire: one for each item hired, in the same step as Add to cart (or straight away, if the hire is already in the cart). If the hire is taken out of the cart, the waiver comes out with it, and if its quantity changes, the waiver's changes to match. Ticking it also hides your theme's Buy it now button, with a line explaining why:
To include the waiver, use Add to cart and check out from your cart.
Buy it now checks out that one product on its own and would leave the waiver behind — the customer would pay for cover they didn't get. In the cart and at checkout it appears as its own line, Damage waiver · Band 1 · £4.00. When a hire's price changes, the waiver's old price is kept on the product as "(earlier price)" rather than deleted, so a cart or order that still has it reads properly.
You can change the wording in the theme editor: Holdback deposit embed → Damage waiver offer.
How it changes what you can claim
The waiver limits damage. It does not touch the deposit itself, and it does not stop the other reasons.
| The item comes back… | With a waiver, limit £0 | Without a waiver |
|---|---|---|
| Scratched | No damage claim: Holdback refuses it | A claim, up to what's left of the deposit |
| A part missing | A claim as normal, up to the deposit | The same |
| Three days late | Late fee as normal, up to the deposit | The same |
| Not at all | A claim as normal, up to the deposit | The same |
- A damage claim (Send a damage claim → Damaged) is limited by the waiver. Over the limit, Holdback refuses and tells you why.
- A late fee, a claim for a missing part (Part missing) and a claim for an item not returned aren't limited.
- Keep a late fee is separate from recording a return. The waiver does not change the agreed late rate or an eligible non-return keep. Extension fees use a payment link. Shopify Flow only releases deposits.
You have to honour it
Holdback stops you claiming from a waived customer for damage through Holdback. It cannot stop you taking the money another way, and if you do, you will lose the dispute: your customer paid you for a promise, it is on their order and in their email, and a bank will read it the same way they do.
Turning it off again
Untick Offer a damage waiver and Save. The product is set back to a draft and no new customer is offered it.
Hires already taken with a waiver keep it. The limit was agreed when they bought, and Holdback goes on enforcing it on those deposits until they're finished. Switching the waiver off changes what you offer next, never what you already promised.
If someone buys only the waiver
If a waiver line turns up on an order with no hire on it, refund it from the order in Shopify. It is an ordinary product line and there is nothing for Holdback to enforce.