Your rights when you shop online
Your consumer rights when shopping online in the UK: the 14-day cooling-off period, refunds for faulty goods, and card protection, explained plainly.
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Online shoppers in the UK have a protection that most shoppers at the till do not: for many purchases, the right to change their mind after the goods arrive. The law recognised that buying without inspecting something in person requires a safety net, and built one with three layers. Each does a different job, and it helps to know which one applies.
The first layer covers changing your mind. Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations, most online purchases of goods from a business come with a cooling-off period: fourteen days, counted from the day after your order arrives, in which you can cancel for any reason or none. Tell the seller you are cancelling within that window. You then have a further fourteen days to send the goods back, and the seller must generally refund you within fourteen days of receiving them, or of receiving evidence that you sent them back, whichever happens first. A detail worth knowing: proof of postage can start the refund clock before the parcel reaches the retailer.
The refund includes the cost of the seller's standard delivery option. For a simple change of mind, you may have to pay the return postage if the seller told you so before purchase; faulty goods are a different matter. You may inspect an item much as you could in a shop. If you use it beyond that and reduce its value, the seller may be entitled to deduct the loss: trying on is one thing; a fortnight of wear is another. Exceptions include bespoke and clearly personalised goods, goods that deteriorate or expire rapidly, and sealed goods that are unsuitable for return for health-protection or hygiene reasons once unsealed. And if the seller failed to give you the required information about cancellation, the period may be extended by as much as twelve months.
The second layer covers things going wrong, and it has nothing to do with changing your mind. The Consumer Rights Act says what you buy must be of satisfactory quality, as described, and fit for its ordinary purpose, or for a particular purpose you made known to the seller. For most goods, the first thirty days bring a short-term right to reject them and claim a refund. After that, the usual first step is a repair or replacement. If the available remedy is impossible, does not resolve the problem, takes too long or causes significant inconvenience, a price reduction or final right to reject may follow. If the problem emerges within the first six months, it is generally presumed to have been present at delivery unless the seller can show otherwise. These rights do not end simply because the shop's voluntary returns window has closed. A returns policy can add to your statutory rights; it cannot cut them down.
The third layer is the card you paid with. For a qualifying item or service with a cash price of more than £100 and no more than £30,000, Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act can make the credit provider jointly responsible with the seller for breach of contract or misrepresentation, even where only part of the price was put on the credit card. That matters when a seller breaches the contract, misrepresents what was sold, disappears or becomes insolvent: you may also be able to claim against the credit-card provider. Debit-card payments, and credit-card purchases outside Section 75, may instead be covered by chargeback. It is a card-scheme process rather than a statutory right, so rules and time limits apply; ask the card provider promptly.
What ties the three layers together is evidence, which online shopping writes for you: the confirmation email, the receipt, the delivery record. Keep those records for any purchase you would mind losing. A clear first email covering what happened, which right you are relying on and what remedy you want often gives the seller everything needed to resolve it.
Writing the first message
A clear first email gives the seller the information needed to understand the problem and the remedy you are seeking. Four things do the work.
Say what you bought and when, with the order number. Say what is wrong in plain terms, describing the fault rather than diagnosing it. Say which right you are relying on, whether that is cancelling within the cooling-off period or reporting goods that are not of satisfactory quality, because the two lead to different outcomes. Then say what you want: a refund, a repair, a replacement.
Give a reasonable date for a reply, and keep everything in writing. If a conversation happens by phone, follow it with a short email recording what was agreed.
If it does not resolve
Escalate inside the retailer first, because a complaints route usually reaches someone with more discretion than the first responder. Ask whether the seller belongs to an alternative dispute resolution scheme and, if it does, consider using it. Many schemes are free to consumers.
You may also approach the card provider, particularly where the seller has stopped responding or the payment protection offers the clearer route. Keep the timeline tidy: dates, what was said, what was sent back and when.