Returns

1. Email the order number and the line

   Say which line is coming back, how many, and whether it is unwanted, wrong or faulty. Those three are handled differently once the parcel arrives.

2. A reference comes back

   The reply carries a return reference and the address to send it to, which is the registered office in Derby. The reference is the only thing goods-in needs to match the parcel to your order.

3. Write the reference on the outside

   On the outer, in pen, where it can be read without opening anything. A parcel without a reference is opened at the bay to find out whose it is, and that costs a day.

4. Goods-in books it against the reference

   The parcel is booked in on the day it arrives, before anything is unpacked, so the arrival date is recorded independently of the check.

5. The line is checked

   Quantity against the reference, condition against what the email said. The check happens at the same bench the parcel was originally packed on.

6. The outcome is recorded and emailed

   What was received, in what condition, and what follows from it. The reference closes at that point and the email is the record of the close.

Reference

On the outer, legible. Inside as well if there is room on the note.

The line itself

In its own retail carton or sleeve where it had one, with the carton intact rather than cut open.

Pieces

Complete, including anything that came with the line in the same pack.

An outer that will survive

A return travels through the same network as the outbound parcel, so it needs packing to the same standard.

Proof of posting

Keep whatever receipt or tracking number the carrier gives you until the reference has closed.

Consumer orders placed at a distance carry a statutory cancellation right under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. Where that right applies, the cancellation period runs for fourteen days from the day the goods are received, and the right exists whether or not anything on this site mentions it.

Who pays for the return journey depends on why the line is coming back, and it is stated in the reply that carries the reference rather than promised in advance here. A faulty or wrongly picked line is our error to put right; a line that is simply unwanted travels back at the sender's cost unless the reply says otherwise.

Trade orders placed by a business are a different matter and are handled against the account rather than under the consumer regulations. Sheet 10 covers how a repeat account is set up.

A line that arrived broken, or a count that arrived short, is not a return. It is a claim, and the evidence for it has to exist before the box is flattened: sheet 09.