Returns in Britain: 14 days online, none in the shop

Black Friday is less than two weeks away, and it is worth knowing what you actually have the right to return. The rules for a shop and for the internet differ fundamentally, and that is where most mistakes come from.

A discount changes nothing

First and most important: customers have exactly the same rights to refunds when they buy in a sale as at full price.

More than that — restricting those rights is illegal. A sign saying "no returns" or "no refunds" is contrary to the law, as is misleading a customer about their rights in any other way.

In a shop: changing your mind is not a reason

If you walked in and bought the item yourself, the shop is not obliged to refund you because it is the wrong size or you dislike the colour. Many shops do so as goodwill, but that is their policy, not your right.

Nor will you get a refund in two other cases: if you knew the item was faulty when you bought it, and if you damaged it by trying to repair it yourself or having someone else do it. A right to repair, replacement or partial refund may still remain.

One exception: if you bought the item without seeing it, the "changed your mind" rule does not apply.

Online: 14 days, then another 14

Here everything is different. Purchases online, by mail and by phone are distance selling, and they carry a right to cancel without giving a reason, even if nothing is wrong with the item.

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The scheme is three fourteen-day stretches:

14 days from receiving the item to tell the seller you are cancelling. Another 14 days to send it back. And 14 days for the seller to refund you from when they received it.

No fees may be deducted from the refund — the only exception is if the item has been used or damaged. You may handle the goods as you would in a shop: try it on, take it out of the box, look at it.

Separately: the seller must also refund the cost of standard delivery if you paid it. If you chose a more expensive option, only the standard rate comes back.

The rule almost nobody knows

The seller must tell you about the right to cancel. If they did not, you can cancel at any time during the next 12 months.

And if they realise and tell you during those twelve months, you then have 14 days from the moment they told you.

One more deadline: goods must be delivered within 30 days unless you agreed otherwise.

What cannot be returned unless faulty

Personalised or custom-made items — made-to-measure curtains, say. Perishables: food, flowers. Newspapers and magazines. Unwrapped CDs, DVDs and computer software. And sealed items that cannot be returned for health or hygiene reasons once opened, such as underwear.

Watch out: the £42 trap

GOV.UK's business guidance lists "goods and services worth £42 or less" among the exceptions to the distance selling rules. Read that, and it is easy to conclude a cheap online order cannot be cancelled.

We checked the source. Regulation 7(4) of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 is more precise: the exception applies to off-premises contracts — doorstep sales, made away from the trader's premises.

It does not apply to distance contracts — internet, phone, mail. An order of any value can be cancelled.

If the item breaks

If a fault appears later, the seller must repair or replace it. The key threshold is six months.

Return it within six months and the seller must repair or replace unless they can prove it was not faulty when bought. After six months it is the buyer who has to prove it.

The overall window for a claim is up to 6 years (5 in Scotland).

And an important point on guarantees: the right to a free repair or replacement does not depend on having a warranty or guarantee. Even when a guarantee has run out, the seller's obligation may remain.

Small things that decide cases

Proof of purchase need not be a receipt: a bank statement or the packaging will do.

And finally, a seller only has to accept returns from the person who bought the item. A gift has to go back through whoever paid for it.