Lunar and Earth

Information

Refunds and returns

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Read this before you publish. This is a working draft, written to reflect UK, EU and US consumer law as we understand it — not legal advice. Two things in particular need your decision: whether your made-to-order wreaths really are exempt from the cancellation right, and whether you are shipping outside the UK at all. Have a solicitor look at it before it goes live.

If something is not right, tell us. We are two people in Ferndown, not a call centre, and we would always rather sort it out than argue about it.

Your legal rights depend on where you are, so pick your region below. Whichever you pick, nothing here takes away rights the law gives you.

Changing your mind

Under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, you have 14 days from the day your order arrives to tell us you want to cancel. You do not need a reason.

Once you have told us, you have a further 14 days to send the goods back. We refund within 14 days of the goods reaching us, or of you showing us proof of postage, whichever comes first.

We refund the price you paid and the standard outbound delivery charge. If you chose a faster delivery than our standard one, we refund the standard cost, not the premium.

Sending it back

  • You pay the cost of return postage unless the item was faulty or we sent the wrong thing.
  • Pack it as well as we packed it. Crystals, shells and fossils chip.
  • Use a tracked service. Until it reaches us, it is your responsibility.
  • If the goods come back damaged because they were handled more than was needed to check them, we may reduce the refund.

Commissioned work — how it goes, and where the line is

The cancellation right does not apply to goods made to your specification or clearly personalised. A wreath built to your colours, your flowers, your size is yours — we cannot sell it to anybody else, so we cannot take it back.

So that nobody is surprised, a commission runs like this:

  1. You tell us what you want. We talk it through.
  2. We send you a design and a price to look at, with photographs or a sketch.
  3. You approve it in writing. Nothing is made and nothing is charged before you do.
  4. We make it. This is the point of no return.

Once you have approved the design, the order cannot be cancelled and is not refundable. We will have bought the materials and started the work. You still keep every right you have if the wreath turns up faulty, damaged, or not what you approved — those rights are not affected by anything here, and cannot be.

Up until the moment you approve, you can walk away and pay nothing.

One caution, for you, not the customer. This exemption only holds for work genuinely made to that customer’s specification. A wreath from a standard design, made after they order it, is “made to order” but is probably not personalised in law — and would still be cancellable. Keep the approval step real: an actual design, an actual choice, an actual written approval. That is what makes this stand up.

If something is faulty

Separately, under the Consumer Rights Act 2015:

  • Within 30 days — you can reject a faulty item and get a full refund.
  • Up to six months — we get one chance to repair or replace it. If that fails, you can have a refund.
  • Up to six years (five in Scotland) — you may still have a claim if the goods were not of satisfactory quality when sold.

Natural inclusions, veils, iron staining, growth marks and small surface nicks are not faults. They are what makes a stone a stone rather than a piece of glass. We photograph and describe pieces honestly, and we will always answer a question about a specific piece before you buy it.

Broken in the post

Tell us within 14 days of delivery and send a photograph of the item and the packaging. We will replace it, or refund it, and we deal with the courier ourselves. That is our problem, not yours.

How to start a return

Email lunarandearthwholesale@gmail.com with your order number and what you would like to happen. You can also write to us at the address at the bottom of this page. You are welcome to use the standard cancellation form, but you do not have to — a plain email is enough.

Ordering from outside the UK

We post worldwide. Your rights depend on where you are, so switch to the EU or US tab above. Wherever you are, one thing holds everywhere:

Import duty, sales tax and customs handling fees are not included in what you pay us, and they are yours to pay. Your parcel leaves the United Kingdom. Your own country decides what to charge on it, and the courier may add a fee of its own before it will hand the parcel over. We cannot tell you in advance what that will be — every country is different and the rules change.

If you refuse a parcel and it comes back to us, we will refund the goods but not the outbound postage, and not the charges the courier bills us for the return.

Your right to withdraw

Under the Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU), as implemented in your country, you have 14 days from the day your order arrives to withdraw from the contract, without giving a reason.

Tell us within those 14 days, then send the goods back within a further 14 days. We refund within 14 days of receiving them back, or of proof of postage, whichever comes first — the price plus the standard outbound delivery charge.

Sending it back

  • Return postage is at your cost unless the item was faulty or wrongly sent.
  • Pack it properly and use a tracked service.
  • Handling beyond what is needed to inspect the goods may reduce your refund.

What you cannot withdraw from

Goods made to your specification or clearly personalised are excluded, as they are across the EU. Our commissioned wreaths work by approval: we send you a design, you approve it in writing, and only then do we buy materials and begin. After you approve, the order cannot be cancelled and is not refundable. Before you approve, you can walk away and pay nothing. Your rights if the piece arrives faulty or is not what you approved are untouched.

If something is faulty

Under Directive (EU) 2019/771 you have a legal guarantee of at least two years from delivery. If goods are not in conformity with the contract, you are entitled to have them repaired or replaced, or to a price reduction or refund. Some member states give you longer — your national rules apply, and nothing here shortens them.

As with the UK: natural inclusions, veils, iron staining and growth marks are not faults.

Customs, duty and import VAT

We post from the United Kingdom, which is outside the EU customs union. That means:

  • Your parcel will be declared to customs on arrival.
  • You may be charged import VAT at your country’s rate, and possibly duty.
  • The courier may add a handling fee of its own, and will usually want paying before it delivers.
  • None of this is included in the price you paid us. It is not ours and we do not receive it.

We cannot tell you what it will come to. It depends on your country, the value of the parcel and the carrier. If you refuse the parcel rather than pay, it comes back to us: we will refund the goods, but not the outbound postage and not the return charges the courier bills us.

Worth doing, when you have the volume. Registering for IOSS lets you collect EU VAT at the checkout, so your customer is never ambushed on the doorstep. It is the single biggest cause of refused parcels and bad reviews for small UK shops selling into Europe. Until then, the paragraph above is doing the honest work of warning people.

How to withdraw

Email lunarandearthwholesale@gmail.com with your order number. A plain statement that you are withdrawing is enough.

There is no federal right of return

This surprises people. In the United States there is no general federal law giving you the right to return an online purchase because you changed your mind. The FTC’s “cooling-off rule” covers doorstep and off-premises sales — not websites.

So what follows is our policy, freely given, not a legal minimum. We think it should be roughly what a UK customer gets.

Our policy

  • 30 days from delivery to return an item you have changed your mind about, unused and in its original condition.
  • Return shipping is at your cost unless the item arrived faulty or we sent the wrong thing.
  • We refund the purchase price to your original payment method within 14 days of the item reaching us.
  • Outbound shipping is refunded only where the item was faulty or wrongly sent.

What we cannot take back

Commissioned or personalised work. We send you a design, you approve it in writing, and only then do we buy materials and begin. After you approve, the order cannot be cancelled and is not refundable. Before you approve, you can walk away and pay nothing. If the finished piece is faulty, damaged, or not what you approved, that is a different matter and we will put it right.

Faulty or damaged

Tell us within 14 days of delivery, with a photograph of the item and the packaging, and we will replace or refund it. Natural inclusions, veils and growth marks in a stone are not faults.

Duties, taxes and the honest warning

Your parcel is posted from the United Kingdom. US customs may charge import duty and fees on arrival, and the courier may add a handling charge. None of it is included in what you paid us, none of it comes to us, and all of it is payable by you before the parcel is released.

Be realistic about returns, too. Sending a £12 selenite tower back across the Atlantic can cost more than the tower. We are not trying to trap you — we are telling you now so that you buy with your eyes open.

For you to check. US import rules for low-value parcels have been changing. Once you sell enough into a particular state you can also pick up a sales-tax obligation there. Neither is something to guess at once orders start arriving.

State rights

Some states — California among them — require sellers to display their return policy clearly, and give the buyer extra rights if it is not displayed. This page is that display. Your state may give you more than our policy does, and if it does, it wins.

How to start a return

Email lunarandearthwholesale@gmail.com with your order number and what you would like to happen.

Trade orders

Consumer cancellation rights do not apply to business-to-business sales. If you buy on a trade account, returns are by agreement with us — talk to us and we will be reasonable, but the 14-day right above is not yours to rely on.