If you buy something in a British shop and simply change your mind, you have no legal right to return it: any refund is the shop's own offer, and the shop sets the terms. If the item is faulty, not as described or not fit for its purpose, the law gives you 30 days to reject it for a full refund, and no sign at the till can take that away.
Those are two separate systems that look the same at the counter. One is the law, mainly the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and it applies to every trader in England whether it is a department store, a market stall or a charity shop. The other is the shop's returns policy, which is a promise the shop chooses to make and can make as generous or as mean as it likes.
Our guide to complaining and consumer rights in Britain covers trains, hotels and services as well as goods. This page is only about the shop counter: what a returns policy really is, what changes when you have bought something you cannot bring back before your flight, and the questions to ask before you pay.
Shop returns at a glance
- Changed your mind, bought in person
- No legal right. The shop's own policy decides
- Faulty, not as described, not fit for purpose
- Full refund if you reject within 30 days
- After 30 days
- One repair or replacement first, then a refund or price reduction
- Bought online or by phone, including click and collect
- 14 days to cancel for any reason
- Sale goods
- Exactly the same legal rights as full price
- Refund deadline once agreed
- 14 days, to the same card or in the same way you paid, no fee
Three questions the law asks about anything you buy
The Consumer Rights Act treats every sales contract between a business and a private customer as containing three promises. The goods must be of satisfactory quality, meaning they work, are free of minor defects that a reasonable person would not accept, and last a reasonable time. They must be fit for any particular purpose you told the seller about. And they must match the description, the sample or the model you were shown.
If any of those fails, you have rights. If none fails, you do not: Citizens Advice says the price makes no difference, and it is down to the seller whether they offer anything when you have changed your mind. The rights cover second-hand goods too, judged as second-hand. They do not cover a fault you were told about before you paid, which is how "seconds" are lawfully sold cheap, or damage from wear, an accident or misuse.
A returns policy is a promise, not a right
Walk into most large stores on Oxford Street and you will find a returns policy printed on the receipt or on a card at the till. Citizens Advice says many shops allow returns within 14 days, and sometimes 30, for unused items. Because the shop is not required to offer anything, it can attach whatever conditions it wants: tags still attached, original packaging, receipt only, exchange or credit note rather than money, or nothing at all on sale stock.
That last point is the one people get wrong in both directions. A shop is entitled to refuse a change-of-mind return on reduced goods. It is not entitled to refuse a refund for a faulty item because it was in the sale. GOV.UK's guidance for traders says customers have exactly the same rights in a sale as at full price, and that it is illegal to mislead customers about their rights, giving as its example a sign saying returns are not accepted. So a notice reading "no refunds on sale items" is lawful only as a description of the goodwill policy; as a statement about your rights it is wrong. Our page on the Boxing Day and January sales sets out what that means for discounted stock.
Ask the change-of-mind question before the card goes in the machine. "How long do I have to return this if it doesn't fit, and is it a refund or a credit note?" takes ten seconds and gets you the only answer that matters, because the shop's policy is the whole of your entitlement. Ask whether the sale rail has a shorter window too: Citizens Advice notes that shops often cut the time on sale goods.
The 30-day clock, and the rules that sit behind it
When something is wrong, the strongest remedy is the short-term right to reject. Section 22 of the Act gives you 30 days, counted from the first day after you owned the item, had it delivered and, if the trader had to install it, were told that was done. For perishable goods, such as flowers or fresh food, the period is shorter: as long as the goods could reasonably be expected to last.
You exercise the right simply by making it clear that you are rejecting the goods. Section 20 says the indication can be something you say or do, as long as the trader can understand it. From that moment the shop owes you a refund, without undue delay and no later than 14 days after it accepts your claim, to the card or method you paid with unless you agree otherwise, and with no fee. A shop offering only a credit note or an exchange for a faulty item within 30 days is offering less than the law requires. You may accept it, but you do not have to.
Say yes to a repair or replacement instead and the clock stops while you wait, and if the replacement is also faulty you get at least seven more days to reject. After 30 days you must allow one repair or replacement first; our consumer rights guide linked above covers that second stage.
| Situation | What you can ask for | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Faulty, within 30 days | Reject it for a full refund | Consumer Rights Act 2015, sections 20 and 22 |
| Faulty, after 30 days | Repair or replacement, then a refund or price reduction if that fails | Consumer Rights Act 2015, sections 23 and 24 |
| Fine, but you changed your mind (in a shop) | Whatever the shop's own policy offers, possibly nothing | The shop's returns policy |
| Fine, but you changed your mind (online, phone, click and collect) | Cancel within 14 days of receiving it, return within a further 14 | Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 |
| Personalised, perishable, or an opened hygiene-sealed item | A remedy only if it is faulty | GOV.UK guidance for traders |
Click and collect counts as buying online
The 14-day cooling-off period belongs to distance contracts. The Consumer Contracts Regulations define those as contracts made without the trader and the customer being physically together, using only distance communication such as a website or a phone call. What decides it is where the contract was made, not where you picked the parcel up. An order placed on a shop's website and collected from the branch is a distance purchase, so you can cancel it within 14 days of collecting it without giving a reason.
The same item bought from the shelf ten metres away carries no such right. Unsure about a size, ordering online for collection buys you the cancellation right for the price of a short wait, and Citizens Advice notes you may be able to return an online order to a branch in person, with no postage.
Gift receipts, and who is allowed to return something
GOV.UK tells traders they need only take returns from the original customer. The legal rights belong to the buyer, because the buyer is the one with the contract. A gift receipt is the shop's way round that: a receipt without the price on it, issued at the till, which lets someone else bring the item back under the shop's policy.
Because it is policy, not law, a gift receipt commonly buys an exchange or a credit note rather than cash. That is our observation of practice in November 2026; each shop sets its own terms. Ask for one anyway when buying a present to take home: it costs nothing, and without it the recipient has no easy way to deal with the shop.
The visitor's problem: you will be on a plane before the window closes
Most shop policies and the legal 30 days assume you can walk back in. A visitor usually cannot. Two rules in the Act help more than people expect.
First, rejecting does not require you to bring the item back. Section 20 says that once you reject, your duty is to make the goods available for collection by the trader, unless you agreed to return them some other way. Second, the trader must bear any reasonable costs of returning rejected goods, except what it costs you to walk them back into the shop yourself. So a faulty item discovered at home in another country can still be rejected within 30 days, by email to the shop, and the shop cannot simply refuse because you are abroad. What happens next, collection, a prepaid label or a courier, is something to agree with the shop in writing. The Act does not spell out what counts as a reasonable cost for an international return, and we will not guess.
The change-of-mind side is far less forgiving. A 28-day policy is useless if returns are accepted in store only, as many are. If you are unsure about something on your last afternoon, do not buy it, or order it online for delivery at home and keep the cancellation right. Our departure-day guide covers fitting a last shop into the final morning.
Test electrical goods in your hotel, not in your home country. A charger, hairdryer or camera that fails on the first evening can be taken back to the counter the next morning with no argument about postage or collection. The same item tested a week later in another country means emails, a courier and possibly a wait for the refund. Check the voltage and plug before you pay, too: an item that does not suit your home supply is not faulty.
How the refund reaches you, and why the figure may differ
The Act entitles you to back the same amount of money you paid, and section 20 says it must go back by the same means of payment unless you agree otherwise. In practice that means the pounds go back to the card you used. If that card is issued abroad, your own bank converts the refund into your currency at its rate on the day it arrives, which will rarely match the rate on the day you paid. Any fee your bank charged for the original foreign transaction is between you and your bank, not the shop.
If you chose at the till to pay in your own currency rather than pounds, ask how a refund would be handled; our guide to card payments in Britain explains that choice. GOV.UK says a shop may accept a bank statement or packaging as proof of purchase, but weeks later and abroad, keep the paper receipt.
If a shop will not refund a faulty item, Citizens Advice describes Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, for a single item over £100 and up to £30,000 on a credit card, or a chargeback. Section 75 is British law for British-issued cards. With a card from abroad, a chargeback runs under your own bank's rules, so ask your bank.
Markets, charity shops, antiques and sample sales
The Act applies to traders, so a business on a market stall has the same duties as a department store. The practical problem is finding it again: get a receipt with a name and photograph the stall. On the stalls in our guide to London's antiques markets, the description matters most. If a seller says a piece is silver, Georgian or signed, ask for that on the receipt, because it is the description the goods must match.
A private seller is different: the Act's protections apply to traders, and Citizens Advice notes there is no cooling-off period when buying from an individual. Charity shops are traders, usually with their own exchange policies. Sample sales post "all sales final" notices; our page on London sample sales explains what such a sign can achieve.
Items that are hard to return even when the shop is generous
GOV.UK lists goods where traders only need to offer a refund if the item is faulty: anything made to measure or personalised, food, flowers and other perishables, newspapers, music, films or software once the wrapping is off, and hygiene-sealed goods such as underwear once the seal is broken.
For visitors the common cases are opened cosmetics, food from a hamper counter and engraved gifts from the shops in our souvenirs guide. None of this affects the right to reject something genuinely faulty.
VAT does not come back with a refund for a change of mind. It never left: the price on the tag includes VAT, there is no tax refund scheme for visitors' shopping in Great Britain, and a refund simply returns the price you paid. Our page on tax-free shopping in the UK explains what remains for goods sent abroad by the shop.
When the shop says no
Ask for a manager, name the right ("I am rejecting this as faulty within 30 days") and ask for any refusal in writing. Citizens Advice runs a consumer helpline for England on 0808 223 1133. From abroad, email the shop with the receipt, a photograph of the fault and the date you noticed it. Our guide to getting your shopping home covers the customs side of sending goods across a border.
Frequently asked questions
Do British shops have to give a refund if I change my mind?
No. If you bought it in person and it works as it should, any refund depends on the shop's own returns policy. Many large shops offer 14 to 30 days for unused items with a receipt, but they are not required to, and they may give a credit note or exchange instead of money.
Can a shop refuse to refund a faulty item bought in a sale?
No. GOV.UK says customers have exactly the same rights to refunds in a sale as at full price. A shop may refuse change-of-mind returns on sale goods, but if the item is faulty, not as described or not fit for purpose, the Consumer Rights Act applies in full.
How long do I have to return a faulty item in the UK?
For a full refund, 30 days from the first day after you took ownership and received it, or less for perishable goods. After that you can still claim, but you must allow one repair or replacement first, and only then ask for your money back or a price reduction.
Can I return something to a London shop after I have flown home?
For change of mind, only if the shop's policy allows returns by post, which many do not. For a faulty item, yes: you can reject it within 30 days by telling the shop, your duty is to make it available for collection, and the trader must bear reasonable return costs. Agree the arrangements in writing.
Does a gift receipt give the recipient legal rights?
Not in itself. GOV.UK says a shop only has to accept returns from the buyer. A gift receipt is the shop's own arrangement for letting someone else return the item under its policy, and it usually leads to an exchange or credit note rather than a cash refund.
Sources
- legislation.gov.uk - Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 20 (checked November 2026)
- legislation.gov.uk - Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 22 (checked November 2026)
- legislation.gov.uk - Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 24 (checked November 2026)
- legislation.gov.uk - Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, regulation 5 (checked November 2026)
- GOV.UK - Accepting returns and giving refunds: the law (checked November 2026)
- Citizens Advice - Changing your mind about something you've bought (checked November 2026)
- Citizens Advice - Return faulty goods (checked November 2026)
- Citizens Advice - Getting your money back if you paid by card or PayPal (checked November 2026)