Consumer Rights Act delivery refund rights

The key practical point is simple: if an online order does not reach you, the retailer is usually the first business to resolve it.

The Consumer Rights Act is not a magic phrase, but it helps frame the issue correctly: delivery risk usually remains with the trader until proper delivery.

Section 28 deals with when delivery should happen, and Section 29 deals with when the risk in the goods passes to the consumer. Section 29 says the goods remain at the trader's risk until they come into the physical possession of the consumer or a person identified by the consumer to take possession. The Act itself does not separately set out who has to prove what; how a complaint or claim is decided depends on the evidence, the retailer's process, and any later step (small claims, or — if a card issuer is involved — a card-scheme review by your bank or card issuer; if you are unhappy with the card issuer's final response, you have six months from the date of that final response to refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman, and if the issuer does not reply within the time limit set by the relevant complaint-handling rules (broadly eight weeks for most consumer-credit complaints such as Section 75; payment-services complaints such as debit-card chargeback handling are governed by shorter timelines — check FOS time limits for your specific complaint type) you can take it to FOS at that point). Citizens Advice and Trading Standards are advice and reporting routes, not bodies that decide individual refund claims.

Section 29 ties risk to physical possession by the consumer, or by a person the consumer has identified to take possession (for example, a named neighbour or a relative you told the retailer to deliver to).

A courier 'delivered' scan, a GPS ping, or a photo of a parcel on a doorstep is evidence about what the courier did. None of those are the same thing as you (or a person you nominated) physically having the goods.

If the parcel was left somewhere it could be taken before you got to it — a doorstep, a porch, a communal area, an unrelated neighbour — that is a separate factual question from whether you took possession. Be specific in writing about which person, if any, you actually nominated, because nominating a place is not the same as nominating a person under Section 29.

Use plain wording. Say the goods have not been delivered to you, attach evidence, and ask for a refund or replacement.

Avoid overstating the law or claiming guaranteed compensation. Your evidence, payment method, retailer process and facts still matter.

Keep a paper trail. Email or written-message complaints work better than phone calls because the retailer's reply becomes evidence if you later escalate to chargeback, Section 75, or the small-claims track. (The Financial Ombudsman is for complaints about a financial business — for example after a card issuer mishandles a Section 75 or chargeback decision — not a direct route to escalate the retailer's refusal.)

Retailers sometimes try to bounce you to Royal Mail, Evri, DPD, or whichever courier they used. Your contract for the goods is with the retailer, not the courier.

Reply in writing that under Section 29 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 risk in the goods remained with the retailer until the goods came into your physical possession (or that of a person you identified), and ask them to refund or replace. The retailer can chase the courier separately on their own account.

Day 0: Order placed and confirmed. Day 7-14: Expected delivery date passes or a 'delivered' scan appears with no parcel. Day 14: First written complaint to the retailer citing Section 29.

Day 14-28: Retailer typically asks for confirmation, time to investigate, or runs a courier claim. Day 28: If no resolution, escalate. Send a deadline letter giving 14 more days before you escalate further.

Day 42 onwards: which escalation route exists depends on how you paid. If you paid by credit card, you may be able to raise a Section 75 claim with the card issuer. If you paid by debit card or credit card, your card scheme's chargeback rules may apply (Visa and Mastercard chargeback windows for non-receipt typically run from the expected delivery date — check the current scheme rules). If you paid through PayPal or a marketplace balance, the escalation route is that platform's own buyer-protection process. If you paid using a Buy Now Pay Later provider (Klarna, Clearpay, etc.), the dispute route depends on which BNPL product you used. Some BNPL products (typically longer-term fixed-term loans) are already FCA-regulated consumer credit and an unresolved complaint to the lender can already be referred to the Financial Ombudsman. The shorter pay-in-3 / pay-in-4 'Deferred Payment Credit' (DPC) products are unregulated and have no FOS route: you can complain to the BNPL provider and pursue the underlying retailer claim, but FOS cannot adjudicate. From 15 July 2026 the FCA will start regulating DPC, but only for agreements entered into on or after that date; agreements taken out before 15 July 2026 stay outside the new framework, so for those there is no FOS route even if the dispute itself runs into late 2026 or beyond. If you paid by direct bank transfer there is usually no platform protection at all: your recourse is against the retailer (small claims if needed), and you should only contact your bank where you have been the victim of an authorised push payment scam, in which case mandatory reimbursement rules may apply. Section 75 claims should be raised as soon as possible — they are still subject to general limitation periods (commonly six years in England and Wales under the Limitation Act 1980, five years in Scotland).

Section 75, chargeback, PayPal and marketplace buyer protection are escalation routes. They do not replace the first retailer complaint, but they can be useful when the retailer refuses or ignores you.

Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 attaches to credit-card (and certain other regulated credit) purchases where the cash price of the goods or services being claimed for is more than £100 and not more than £30,000. The threshold is the cash price of the item or service in dispute — not the total amount you put on the card — so a basket of several sub-£100 items that totals over £100 does not by itself bring Section 75 into play. Chargeback works for debit cards and for amounts outside the Section 75 range, but it is a card-scheme rule, not a legal right.