Martin Lewis: Can online retailers refuse returns? Your rights explained

You have no legal right to return goods bought physically in a shop – unless they're faulty

Martin: "A question I've been asked a lot recently is: 'Are shops allowed to ban returns on items that have been bought?'

"Much of this comes on the back of [fashion retailer] PrettyLittleThing, which has been news because some of its customers have been told 'well, you've done too many returns, you can't do any more; we're not going to have you as a customer.'

"So, I wanted to take a few moments to talk through the legalities of when you can return and when you can't return. Now, the first big split with this depends on whether you have bought stuff in a store or online. If you buy items in store, you have absolutely no right of return whatsoever. It's a common confusion. It does not exist. You have no legal right to return items unless they're faulty.

"So what we're talking here is change of mind. Can you change your mind, take something back and get the money back? Maybe you've seen it somewhere else cheaper? Legally, NOT allowed. You can't do it. The only exception to that, is if the store has a published returns policy that allows you to do so; then that would have become part of your contract when you bought so, then through contract law, you could.

"But the big consumer rights, your statutory rights, no. You can only take back shop bought goods IF they're faulty. I've talked before about what defines faulty. I have my little mnemonic for it, which is 'SAD FART' rights, items must be of...

"SAD FART. If not, they're faulty, take them back within a month and you will get a full refund. After a month, well it's repair, partial refund or replacement that you tend to be looking at. How you prove it's faulty is a trickier measure. 

"But anyway, we're not talking about faulty goods. Buy stuff in a shop, you can't return them. Now, that's the things bought in a physical store."

If you buy an item online, you (usually) have an absolute right to change your mind

Martin: "But the nub of all of this is about what happens to things bought online. So here are the big questions I've been getting... Number one: Can shops say no to online returns? No they cannot. Absolutely not.

"Under the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013, that overtook the Distance Selling Regulations, if you buy an item online, you have an absolute right to change your mind and to send it back unless it is personalised or perishable; so you know, short lived fruit or flowers, you can't send back. But the vast majority of things, you have an absolute right to send things back.

"You have up to 14 days to notify them you're sending things back and up to 14 days after you've notified them to actually send it back. So a maximum 28 days, although it isn't actually 28 days because let's say you notified them after two days, you only still have 14 days after that point in which to send it back – so think carefully when you notify them, and when you're actually going to send it back to make sure that you have enough time.

"But the clear rule; they cannot say no to allowing you to return items bought online."

Stores CAN make you pay for returns

Martin: "Next question, number two: Can they make the customer pay for returns? Yes, they can.

"So, what the law states, is when you buy an item online and you return it under the Consumer Contract Regulations – it is different if items are faulty, because then it becomes under the Consumer Rights Act for faulty goods and we're going to focus on non-faulty items here – then they have to give you back the money you paid for the item, obviously, they have to give you back the minimum cost of delivery.

"So just to explain that, let's say the delivery cost was £2, but you paid an extra £3 to get it more quickly. You would only get the £2 back because it's the minimum cost of delivery. So if it was free delivery that they were offering, but you paid extra to speed it up, you wouldn't get any cost of delivery to you back.

"But stores can say if you're buying online, you, the customer, has to pay to return the items. And this in a way is at the centre of the dispute that has been spoken about recently. Because newspapers, when they've been writing this up or I've seen on social media, they're using the shorthand 'banning returns', what they actually mean is stopping free returns.

"So some firms, when they've been getting annoyed at how many people are returning stuff, and often we know some people would buy it to try it on and send it back, other people (bit naughty) they buy it to wear it once and send it back.

"What they're actually doing, is saying: 'we're going to end a free service where you can return items to us for free, instead, we're going to make you pay the cost of returning items' – and that is absolutely legal for them to do so."

Retailers can also ban you for sending back too many returns

Martin: "Next question: can they ban customers for doing too many returns? Yes.

"As long as you are not discriminating against a protected characteristic; you know, you're not saying you're banned because you're black, you're gay, you're Jewish, whatever it is, then it is perfectly legitimate for a firm to say, we don't want to serve you as a customer.

"And if the reason that they're doing that is because you've done too many returns, then as far as I'm aware, and it's the consumer side I look at, I don't believe there is a rule that stops them banning you.

"Then again, the law is only the law until someone tests it. Someone may well take a test case and go to court, and a judge may decide the opposite. But as far as I'm aware at the moment, they can ban customers for doing too many returns."

If clothes are being returned as they're the wrong size, you MAY be able to argue they're faulty – though there are no guarantees

Martin: "And the final question I've been asked... If clothes are being returned as they're the wrong size, is that faulty? It's a very, very interesting question, this one.

"So look, I said earlier the SAD FART rules – Satisfactory quality, As Described, Fit for purpose, And last a Reasonable length of Time. So the crucial bit here is 'as described'.

"And I think where you get into a fine point is, let's imagine you buy an item of clothing that's described as size large. You get it home, it sort of is a size large, but it's not quite right for you. It's either a little bit too big or a little bit too small or it goes in too much at the waist, or it doesn't go into much at the waist – whatever it is, then I think, no, that would not count as faulty.

"Which is why when you buy stuff in store, where you don't have a right of return, you should always try it on or at least check their returns policy, because you may well be shocked that they don't allow you to put it back afterwards.

"However, if you were to buy an item that was labelled large and it's pretty clearly a medium or a small, and there's absolutely no way that would be a large item, or equally, it's an extra large or an XXL, then I think you would potentially have an argument that it wasn't as described.

"It would be a quite a tough one to prove because of course, what is a small, a medium and a large? There is no actual definite definition – it would be based on what we'd seen as traditional or custom or what was going on out there and of course it varies in different countries; if you were buying a large from Japan, it may not well be the same size as a large from the United States because people sizes are different. 

"But there is certainly a potential argument that if clothes are effectively mislabelled by size because they're saying large and they're really a small, or they're saying large and they're really a double extra large, in that case, you could argue it is faulty.

"It's a tough one. But if you are in that position, well, I'd probably get in touch with [charity] Citizens Advice's Consumer Helpline, which is the first place you'd go when you have a consumer rights dispute."