Returned Parcels, Reshipment & Refund Policy

1. The principle

The goods are purchased on your behalf and are yours from the moment they are bought. We are your buying agent, not a seller: the seller does not take goods back for a refund, and there is no “return for a refund” of goods that were purchased on your instruction. What we can do is cancel before the purchase, reship a returned parcel to you, or resell returned goods on your behalf and credit you the proceeds. This page follows clauses 4, 8 and 12 of the Buying Agency Terms.

2. Cancelling an order

  • Before you pay: you may cancel at any time at no cost. An order that remains unpaid 96 hours after it was placed is cancelled automatically (we send a reminder each day for three days).
  • After payment, before the goods are purchased: your instruction has already been issued to the fulfilment partner, so part of the service has been performed. We stop the purchase where we still can and refund everything you paid less the Procurement Initiation Charge of €10, the fixed price of the work already done; nothing else is deducted. The refund is made by the same payment method within 14 days. If you paid but your instruction has not yet been issued (for example while a payment through a payment provider is still being verified), you receive a full refund.
  • After the goods are purchased: the service has been performed and the order can no longer be cancelled. The goods are yours; sections 4 to 7 apply if the parcel comes back.

The time at which your instruction was issued and the time of purchase are recorded with your order.

3. Unavailable items and price differences

If an item cannot be purchased, we tell you and you may choose a replacement or a refund of everything paid for that item, including its share of our Buying Agency Service Fee. If the seller’s actual price is lower than the amount you authorised, the difference is credited to your account as store credit; if it is higher by more than the small margin we absorb, we ask for your consent before purchasing and you may cancel the affected item free of charge.

4. When a parcel is returned to the sender

A parcel may be returned to the sender because import charges were not paid, the parcel was refused by the recipient, the address you gave was incomplete, or the customs authority returned it. You are responsible for following the tracking of your parcel and for responding to your carrier and customs authority; where our systems detect a return we may also notify you, but this does not replace your own responsibility.

A returned parcel is received and held for you by our fulfilment partner in the origin country as your property. The seller does not take goods back for a refund. Within the period stated in our notice, which is at least 30 days, you choose reshipment (section 6) or resale on your behalf (section 7); if you do not choose, the goods are resold on your behalf (section 7).

5. Re-import charges in the origin country

The customs authority of the origin country may charge duties or taxes before releasing a returned parcel (for example, Japanese customs may charge tobacco tax on tobacco products re-entering Japan). The amount is set by the authority, not by us. When this happens we notify you with the customs assessment and you choose, within the period allowed by the customs authority (normally 7 days from our notice):

  • You pay the charges: we release the parcel on receipt of your payment and send you the customs assessment and our proof of payment; the goods are then held for reshipment or resale.
  • Abandonment: if you decline to pay, or do not respond within the period, the parcel is not collected and is abandoned to the customs authority of the origin country, which disposes of it. No credit arises and no amount is refunded. If you pay the re-import charges after the parcel has been abandoned, we release it only if the customs authority still holds it; if it has already been disposed of, we refund that payment to the account you paid from.

6. Reshipment

You may ask us to reship the goods to the same or another address. You pay the new postage, the Fulfilment Handling Fee for the new dispatch and any re-import charges (section 5) before dispatch. The goods are reshipped in the condition in which they were returned; where they have been damaged in transit, they are reshipped as they are, because they are your property. Cancelling a reshipment. Until the reshipped parcel is handed to the postal carrier you may cancel the reshipment. If you have paid for it, we refund the postage and the Fulfilment Handling Fee in full by the same payment method within 14 days; no Procurement Initiation Charge applies, because no goods are purchased. A reshipment that is not paid within 96 hours is cancelled automatically. In either case your returned goods stay held for you and you may choose again between reshipment and resale on your order page until the deadline for your choice; without a choice, the goods are resold on your behalf (section 7). Once the reshipped parcel has been dispatched, the reshipment can no longer be cancelled. We reship the goods of an order at most twice; if the second reshipped parcel is also returned, the goods are resold on your behalf unless you arrange collection by your own carrier (Buying Agency Terms, clauses 12.4 and 12.6).

7. Resale on your behalf: store credit or refund

By accepting the Buying Agency Terms you authorise us, without further request, to resell returned goods on your behalf to another customer who orders the same product. Where the seller of the goods is also our fulfilment partner (RS Store and MY Store), the resale is completed when that supplier takes the goods back into its stock at the Goods Procurement Cost; this is the form the resale takes, not a return for a refund. When such a resale is completed, you receive, as you choose, (a) store credit equal to the Goods Procurement Cost, or (b) a refund of the Goods Procurement Cost less a Refund Transfer Charge of €10, paid by the payment method you used where that provider supports refunds and otherwise by bank transfer, within 14 days of the resale. The Refund Transfer Charge is a fixed charge for processing a refund to your payment method, including the bank and payment-provider fees involved; it is the same for every refund and is not itemised per transaction. If you chose Shipping Protection, its premium is added to the store credit or the refund. If you have not chosen, store credit applies; you may ask for the refund instead until the store credit is used. Nothing is credited or refunded until a resale has actually taken place. Goods that cannot be resold because of their condition are not credited or refunded. Goods that remain unsold six months after their return may be disposed of; you will be told at least 14 days before disposal, and until then you may ask for reshipment if a reshipment is still available for your order.

8. What is not refunded

Our Buying Agency Service Fee, the original postage, the Fulfilment Handling Fee and any payment-provider or bank fees are not refunded on a returned parcel, because the service was performed. If you chose Shipping Protection, it stays with your goods: a reshipment to a country for which Shipping Protection is offered is covered by the same Shipping Protection without a new premium. If you ask for reshipment to a country for which Shipping Protection is not offered, the reshipment travels without it and the premium is credited to your account as store credit when the parcel is dispatched. On a resale the premium is added to your store credit or refund (clause 12.5).

9. Our error

If a return, a wrong item or a failed shipment results from our error (for example a wrong address entered by us, a wrong declaration, or shipment to a country we do not serve), we reship at our cost or refund everything you paid, at your choice.

10. Store credit

Store credit is issued to your account, may be used on any order and is valid for 12 months from the date it is issued.

11. Parcels seized by customs or lost

Goods seized or destroyed by the customs authority of the destination country are not returned, and a parcel lost in transit or in the destination country after dispatch is at your risk (Buying Agency Terms, clauses 10.4 and 13). A parcel is treated as undelivered on the date of a customs seizure notice or, if it is lost, when tracking has shown no movement for 30 consecutive days, or 60 days after dispatch if it has not arrived, unless the last tracking event is waiting for your action; we email you when this happens. Seizure and loss are covered only by Shipping Protection, if you added it at checkout. A parcel on its way back to the sender is not a lost parcel: sections 4 to 7 apply to it.

Questions: [email protected]. In case of any difference between this page and the Buying Agency Terms, the Terms prevail.