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Customer service and returns
Return and refund checklist for a UK online shop: from the request to the money back
23 steps for one return, from the customer's first message to the refund: which law applies, the three 14-day clocks, postage, deductions and carrier claims.
A return is two or three emails, a parcel and a refund, and the law puts a clock on most of it. This list follows one return from the customer's first message to the money going back. It is written for a UK online shop selling goods to consumers. Start with the first group, which settles which law the customer is relying on, then use the group that fits: changed their mind, or faulty. Tick each step as you go and clear the ticks for the next return. Sales to business customers are outside both sets of rules and follow your own terms.
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Return and refund checklist
Tick each step as it is done. The ticks are kept in this browser only, so you can come back to the list; nothing is sent anywhere.
A working list, not a certificate and not advice: the rule behind each step, with its source, is set out below.
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When the request arrives
Write down the delivery date, the date the customer told you and the reason they gave. Every deadline is counted from one of these. The right to cancel ends 14 days after the day the goods came into the customer's possession, and the short-term right to reject faulty goods runs for 30 days from delivery. Source: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 30; Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 22. The working is in Returns rights checker.
Decide which law applies: a change of mind, or goods that are faulty, damaged or not as described. One law gives a consumer 14 days to cancel a distance sale for any reason. The other gives remedies for faulty goods, and claims can be brought for up to six years. Answering a fault with the 14-day policy sends the customer to their card issuer. Source: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013; Consumer Rights Act 2015. The working is in Returns rights checker.
Treat any clear message that the customer wants to cancel as a cancellation, form or no form. An email counts as a cancellation when it arrives, even on day 14 at 11pm. The form at the foot of your policy is one way to cancel, not the only way. Source: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013; our returns policy template. The working is in Returns policy template for a UK online shop.
Reply within a day, naming the law, what the customer will get and the date. A customer who cannot reach anyone is one of the three common causes of a chargeback, and on Stripe in the UK a dispute costs £20 when it arrives, whatever the outcome. Source: Stripe UK pricing, as read for our chargebacks guide on 1 October 2026. The working is in Chargebacks for a small online shop.
Changed their mind
Check the item is not excluded: personalised, perishable, unsealed hygiene goods or media, started downloads. Regulation 28 takes these out of the 14-day right, so there is no statutory right to cancel them. If your own policy promises more than the law, keep the promise. Source: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 28. The working is in Returns rights checker.
Check the cancellation information was on your site before this order was placed. If the information was never given, the 14 days is extended by 12 months, so a request that looks months late may still be in time. That is how a shop ends up refunding a year-old order. Source: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 31. The working is in Returns policy template for a UK online shop.
Tell the customer they have 14 days from the day they told you to send the goods back. The 14 days to post the goods runs from the cancellation, not from delivery. A policy that says only 'returns within 14 days' is wrong and will be read against you. Source: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 35(4). The working is in Returns rights checker.
Check your policy said the customer pays return postage; if it was silent, pay it yourself. Return postage on a change of mind is the customer's cost only if you told them so before they ordered. A policy that is silent on it makes the postage your cost. Source: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 35(5). The working is in Returns policy template for a UK online shop.
Ask the customer to keep proof of posting and recommend a tracked service. The refund deadline starts when the customer supplies evidence of having sent the goods back, if that comes before the goods do. Proof of posting starts the clock whether or not the parcel arrives. Source: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 34(5). The working is in Lost parcel claims for a small online shop.
Faulty, damaged or not as described
Within 30 days of delivery: give a full refund if the customer rejects the goods. For 30 days from delivery the customer has the short-term right to reject faulty goods for a full refund. Your 14-day exclusions do not apply here: a faulty personalised item still has to be taken back. Source: Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 22. The working is in Returns rights checker.
After 30 days: repair or replace at your cost, postage included, within a reasonable time. For six months a fault is presumed to have been there at delivery unless you can show otherwise. After six months the customer must show the fault was present at delivery. Source: Consumer Rights Act 2015, sections 19(14) and 23. The working is in Returns rights checker.
If the repair or replacement fails: refund, with no deduction for use in the first six months. A failed repair or replacement gives the customer the final right to reject. In the first six months no deduction for the use they have had is allowed. Source: Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 24. The working is in Returns rights checker.
Send a prepaid return label; do not ask the customer to pay and claim it back. Return postage for faulty goods is always the shop's cost. Asking the customer to pay first and reclaim it produces two more emails and a worse review. Source: Consumer Rights Act 2015; our returns policy template, clause 5. The working is in Returns policy template for a UK online shop.
Parcel arrived damaged: put it right with the customer first, then claim from the carrier. Goods stay at the trader's risk until the customer has them, and the contract is with you, not the courier. A parcel that arrived crushed is yours to solve with the customer today and your claim against the carrier tomorrow. Source: Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 29. The working is in Returns rights checker.
The refund
Diary the refund deadline: 14 days from the goods arriving, or from proof of posting if earlier. On a change of mind you have 14 days to refund from the day you receive the goods or, if earlier, the day the customer supplies evidence of sending them. The date does not wait for your own checks. Source: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 34(5). The working is in Returns rights checker.
Refund the price plus the standard delivery charge, not a dearer option the customer chose. The refund on a cancelled order includes the outbound delivery at the standard rate. On a £42 order with £3.95 delivery the refund is £45.95. Source: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 34. The working is in Returns rights checker.
Deduct only for handling beyond what a shop would allow, and tell the customer why. You may deduct for handling beyond what was needed to check the goods. A customer may try a jumper on as they would in a shop; they may not wear it to a wedding. Source: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 34(9). The working is in Returns rights checker.
If something goes wrong on the way back
Return parcel missing: refund on the proof of posting, then claim if you supplied the label. The claim against the carrier belongs to whoever bought the return label. If you supplied a prepaid label it is yours, and Royal Mail's business page gives 30 days from the posting date for a Tracked Returns item. Source: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 34(5); Royal Mail Business Account Claims Centre. The working is in Lost parcel claims for a small online shop.
Customer opens a chargeback instead: email them with the refund or replacement before you fight it. A customer who gets a refund or replacement may withdraw the dispute. Countering costs a further £20 on Stripe in the UK, returned only if you win, and the response window is 7 to 21 days by card network. Source: Stripe UK pricing and disputes documentation, as read for our chargebacks guide on 1 October 2026. The working is in Chargebacks for a small online shop.
Parcel came back undelivered: confirm the full address before resending, or refund with delivery. A returned-to-sender parcel is usually an address problem or a missed delivery. If the customer takes a refund instead, it is a cancellation, so the delivery charge is refunded as well. Source: Consumer Rights Act 2015, sections 28 and 29; our where-is-my-order guide. The working is in "Where is my order?" reply template.
Afterwards
File the request, the dates, the proof of posting, any photographs and the refund date together. If a dispute follows you get one submission to the card issuer, and it does not open links. The correspondence and the returns policy as shown at checkout have to be in the file. Source: Stripe documentation, Respond to disputes, as read for our chargebacks guide. The working is in Chargebacks for a small online shop.
Send this order the same review request as every other order. The CMA's guidance lists arbitrarily stopping and starting review invitations among the ways of suppressing negative reviews, so orders with a complaint, a refund or a return are not left out. Source: CMA208, Fake reviews guidance, 4 April 2025. The working is in How to ask for a customer review without breaking the fake reviews ban.
Add the return to the product's return rate and rerun its margin. On the example in our margin guide a returned order that can be resold still costs £5.16 in outbound postage, packaging and fees, and a 5% return rate takes the average profit from £7.34 to £6.72 an order. Source: Our worked example in the product margin guide. The working is in Product margin calculator for UK online shops.
How to use the list
Keep the finished list with the order, dated, beside the customer's messages and the proof of posting. If a step did not apply, tick it anyway; the point is that somebody decided. When the same step keeps costing you money, such as a policy that is silent on return postage, change the policy and not only the next reply. If the customer later goes to their card issuer, the dated list and the documents behind it show what was offered and when.
A ticked list is a record that the steps were done, not proof that each was done properly. The list covers the points our guides and the official pages named above set out; it is not every duty a firm has. This page is general information, not legal advice.
Overlyft sets up AI assistants for online shops: they prepare drafts for a person to approve. They do not tick off any of these steps for you, and you can do every one without them.
Short answers from this page
Who has to prove an item was faulty when it was delivered, my shop or the customer?
For the first six months, the shop. GOV.UK says you must repair or replace an item returned within 6 months unless you can prove it was not faulty when the customer bought it. After 6 months you can ask the customer to prove it was. Customers have up to 6 years to make a claim, or 5 years in Scotland.
Source: GOV.UK, Accepting returns and giving refunds: the law, read 1 October 2026; Consumer Rights Act 2015, sections 19 and 23
Where this comes from: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 30; Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 22; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013; Consumer Rights Act 2015; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013; our returns policy template; Stripe UK pricing, as read for our chargebacks guide on 1 October 2026; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 28; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 31; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 35(4); Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 35(5); Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 34(5); Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 22; Consumer Rights Act 2015, sections 19(14) and 23; Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 24; Consumer Rights Act 2015; our returns policy template, clause 5; Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 29; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 34; Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 34(9); Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 34(5); Royal Mail Business Account Claims Centre; Stripe UK pricing and disputes documentation, as read for our chargebacks guide on 1 October 2026; Consumer Rights Act 2015, sections 28 and 29; our where-is-my-order guide; Stripe documentation, Respond to disputes, as read for our chargebacks guide; CMA208, Fake reviews guidance, 4 April 2025; Our worked example in the product margin guide; each step names its source, and the linked guide shows the working.
AEO Lookup editorial team
We write practical guides for people who run small UK firms, and we check every fact against its source on the date shown. Read how we review, or tell us if something has changed.
