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    Methodology

    Vendor risk bands

    A live classification — Green, Amber, or Red — applied to every vendor on LemDeals, based on solvency and operating signals.

    What the bands mean

    • Green — actively shipping, responsive to buyers, no solvency red flags.
    • Amber — at least one warning signal: slowed shipping cadence, support response > 72h, ownership change, or pricing-page contraction.
    • Red — two or more warning signals, or one critical: vendor non-response > 14 days, payment-processor change with no notice, or roadmap silence > 90 days.

    Signals scored

    1. Shipping cadence — public changelog or release-notes activity in the last 90 days.
    2. Support responsiveness — median first-response time from buyer-reported tickets routed via LemDeals.
    3. Refund behavior — refund-approval rate and median time-to-refund.
    4. Roadmap signal — public roadmap, changelog, or founder-update activity.
    5. Domain and infra health — TLS validity, DNS stability, status-page availability, login-flow reachability.
    6. Vendor-attested update — most recent signed vendor attestation (see vendor attestation).

    How the band updates

    Bands recompute on every synthetic-probe run (hourly for Red, daily for Amber, weekly for Green) and on every buyer-reported ticket. A vendor cannot manually upgrade their own band — they can only respond to the underlying signals.

    Where the band shows up

    • On every vendor scorecard.
    • In editorial articles that reference vendor risk.
    • In the catalog filter ?risk=green.
    • In the LemDeals Deal Promise — Red-band vendors cannot list new deals until they return to Amber.