Refund & Returns Policy

Refunds of charges

A refund returns money you paid us for a service. It is separate from any claim relating to the goods themselves, which is covered in section 3.

Duty and tax are a special case

Where we have paid duty or tax to a customs authority on your behalf, that money is with the government rather than with us, and we cannot refund it. It may still be recoverable — through a duty drawback, a reclaim, or a correction to the entry — but that goes through the authority and takes considerably longer than a refund from us would. We will tell you which route applies and help you make the application.

How refunds are paid

Refunds are made to the original payment method or credited to your account, depending on how the charge was raised. How quickly it appears afterwards depends on your bank or card issuer rather than on us.

Cancellations

What a cancellation costs depends almost entirely on how far along the shipment already is, because our costs are incurred in stages rather than all at the end.

Before anything has been done

If you cancel before a collection is arranged, space is booked or a customs entry is prepared, there is generally nothing to charge for and nothing to refund, because nothing has been spent.

After work has started

Once a vehicle has been dispatched, space has been reserved with a carrier, or an entry has been prepared, those costs exist whether or not the shipment proceeds. Cancelling at that point means paying for what has already been committed. We will tell you what that is before you confirm the cancellation, not afterwards.

Once cargo is in transit

A shipment already moving cannot simply be cancelled. It can sometimes be recalled, redirected or held, and each of those has its own cost. Contact us rather than assuming which is possible — on some routings the answer is different depending on where the consignment currently sits.

Claims for loss or damage

If the goods themselves are lost, damaged or short-delivered, that is a claim rather than a refund. The two are handled separately, and confusing them costs time you may not have.

Tell us immediately. Notification deadlines under the international transport conventions are short and start running from delivery, not from when the box was opened. If damage is visible on arrival, note it on the delivery record before signing. Keep the packaging — all of it — because packing adequacy is the first thing any insurer examines.

A successful claim is paid against the value of the goods under the applicable liability rules or the cargo insurance arranged for that shipment, not as a refund of the freight charge. Whether the freight charge is also refunded depends on the circumstances of the loss.

Full details of what to do, what evidence to keep and who to contact are on our FAQ page, and the desk will walk you through it: +1 858-428-7703, at any hour.

Shipments that cannot be delivered

A consignment may come back to you because nobody was available to receive it after the agreed attempts, because the recipient refused it, because the address was wrong or incomplete, or because it could not be cleared into the destination country.

What happens first

We do not simply send things back. The recipient is notified and offered the options open to them — a redelivery on a day they choose, delivery to a neighbour, or collection from a nominated point. Where we hold contact details for you as the sender, you are told too, so you can resolve it directly with your customer before anything moves.

If it still cannot be delivered

The shipment is returned to the sender. A return is a second movement — it uses a vehicle, a route and, on international consignments, a further customs process. Return carriage is therefore charged, and where duty or tax was paid on import it may not be recoverable automatically.

Undeliverable and unreturnable

Occasionally a shipment can neither be delivered nor returned — there is no valid return address, the goods are prohibited in both directions, or they are perishable and no longer fit to move. Where that happens we will contact you before taking any step that cannot be undone.