Returns & Disputes Policy

1. Overview and your statutory rights

This policy applies uniformly to every seller on Bitroad. Sellers cannot set their own return terms; the terms below are platform-wide.

Nothing in this policy affects your statutory rights. Where the law gives you a stronger right than a window described here, the law prevails. The windows and timers below are operational — they exist to make returns fast and predictable — and they can only ever add to your legal rights, never reduce them. This safety net applies to every clause that follows and is repeated at the end for emphasis.

2. Definitions

2.1 "Delivery"

Time-based windows in this policy run from "Delivery", which we treat as the earliest of: (a) delivery confirmed by the carrier; (b) delivery confirmed by you, the buyer; or (c) 21 days after the item was dispatched. This deeming is only ever applied in the buyer's favour and is never used to shorten a statutory window. Where automatic delivery detection is unavailable, we use a manual delivery-confirmation fallback so the clock still starts fairly.

3. Change-of-mind returns

You may return most items within 30 days of Delivery for a full refund, for any reason, with no restocking fee. The seller funds the return: a prepaid return label is provided at no cost to you, for the whole 30-day window. These uniform terms deliberately exceed the statutory minimum (for UK consumer distance sales, a 14-day cooling-off right); they never undercut it.

A small number of items may be excluded from change-of-mind returns where the law permits (for example sealed items unsealed after delivery that are not suitable for return for health or hygiene reasons, or bespoke/personalised goods). Any such exclusion is shown on the listing and never limits your rights for a faulty or misdescribed item.

4. How a return works

1. You request a return from your order.
2. The seller approves the return and uploads a prepaid return label within 2 business days.
3. You have 21 days to ship the item back. This 21-day return-shipping clock starts when the label is issued (not when the return is approved). If you contact us near the deadline, the timer is automatically extended once. This is an operational timer only and does not affect your statutory refund right.
4. The seller refunds you on receipt, within the timing in section 6.

4.1 If the seller doesn't send a label

If the seller fails to upload a prepaid return label in time, you are refunded automatically and we recover the amount from the seller. In that case you are under no obligation to return the item unless the seller arranges collection at its own cost within 14 days.

5. Faulty or misdescribed items

If an item is faulty, not as described, or not fit for purpose, you have consumer rights that apply in addition to the 30-day change-of-mind window above and that can run for much longer. For UK consumers under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 these include:

• a 30-day short-term right to reject the item for a full refund;
• after that, the right to ask for a repair or replacement; if one attempt at repair or replacement fails, the right to a price reduction or final rejection;
• for the first six months, a fault is presumed to have been present at delivery unless the seller proves otherwise; and
• an overall limitation period of up to six years (five years in Scotland) to bring a claim for a latent defect.

A restocking fee is never applied to a faulty item or to a statutory return. To exercise these rights, open a return or contact [email protected]; if unresolved, use the dispute process in section 7.

Where information you were legally owed at the time of your order was not properly provided, your cancellation window can be extended by law by up to 12 months (the "reg 31 tail" under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013). We honour any such extended window.

6. Refund timing

Approved refunds are issued within 5 business days of approval (for a change-of-mind return, within 5 business days of the seller receiving the item back). Your bank or card provider may take a further 5 to 10 business days to show the money in your account. Refunds are made to your original payment method via Stripe.

7. Disputes

If something goes wrong with an order that a return does not resolve, you can open a dispute. In outline:

• The seller has 72 hours to respond to a dispute.
• Some clear-cut cases (for example an item never shipped, or shipped but still undelivered 21 days after dispatch) may be resolved automatically in the buyer's favour. Fraud, duplicate-charge, high-value, and service-quality disputes are always reviewed by a person.
• High-value disputes — those with a face value of £500 or $500 (50,000 minor units, taken at face value with no currency conversion) or more — are always reviewed by a human.

7.1 The 90-day process window

You should raise a dispute through Bitroad within 90 days of the order. This deadline applies to the Bitroad process only. It does not limit your underlying legal rights or your right to raise a chargeback with your bank or card provider, which may run for longer — a legal claim can be brought well beyond 90 days.

8. A note on delivery tracking

Carrier tracking integrations are not yet live for every seller, so delivery-anchored windows may be confirmed manually rather than automatically. This does not change the windows above or your rights; it only affects how Delivery is recorded. We do not rely on live carrier tracking to cut any window short.

9. Your statutory rights (repeated)

This policy does not affect your statutory rights. The change-of-mind window, the return timers, and the dispute process are all offered on top of the protections the law gives you and can never reduce them. If you are a consumer, your legal rights — including cancellation rights, faulty-goods remedies, and refund rights — remain fully available however this policy is operated.

10. Contact

Returns and refunds: [email protected]. Complaints: [email protected]. See also the Marketplace Terms of Service and the Seller Agreement.