Refund policy
Last updated: 28 September 2026.
This policy covers two separate things that people often confuse: your right to change your mind, and your rights when something is actually wrong with the product. They have different deadlines, different rules about who pays postage, and different outcomes, so they are dealt with separately below.
If you have changed your mind, go to section 2. If the item is faulty, damaged or not what was described, go to section 5. If your parcel never arrived, go to section 7. Whatever the reason, contact us before sending anything back — section 1 explains why.
This policy forms part of our Terms of Service and is referred to at section 7 of that document. Nothing in it reduces your statutory rights. Where a term here appears to conflict with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, the legislation wins.
Contents
- Start here
- Changing your mind: your 14-day cancellation right
- When the 14-day right does not apply
- Where to send a return
- Faulty, damaged, or not as described
- Wrong item received
- Parcel not delivered
- How refunds are paid
- Discounts and part-refunds
- If we cancel
- Model cancellation form
- If you are unhappy with the outcome
- What we may reasonably ask you for
- Repeated claims
1. Start here
Whatever the reason, we would ask you to email us at stackcouk@gmail.com before sending anything back, so we can give you a reference and check whether there is an easier route. That is a request, not a requirement — the return address is published in section 4 below and you may use it without asking us. Including a note with your order number inside the parcel does the same job, and without it a parcel is much harder to match to your order, which slows your refund down.
Include your order number, the email address you ordered with, and what you want to happen. For a fault, add a short description and photographs or a short video if you can. Section 3 of the Contact information page has the full list of what to include.
2. Changing your mind: your 14-day cancellation right
Because you bought at a distance, you have a legal right to cancel without giving any reason.
The deadline to cancel is 14 days from the day you, or someone you name, receive the goods. Not 14 days from ordering — 14 days from delivery. You may also cancel at any point between placing the order and receiving it.
If your order contains more than one item and they arrive on different days, the 14 days run from the day you receive the last one, not the first. The right covers the whole order.
How to cancel. Email us at stackcouk@gmail.com and say clearly that you are cancelling. Any clear statement is enough; you do not have to use a particular form of words, and you do not have to justify the decision. If you prefer a form, the model cancellation form in section 11 below is available, but using it is optional. Written notice posted to the address in section 1 of the Contact information page also works, and the cancellation takes effect on the day you send it, not the day it arrives.
Then return the goods within 14 days of telling us you are cancelling. If you do not, we may hold the refund back until the goods reach us or until you show us proof that you sent them, whichever comes first. That is a right to withhold, not a right to keep your money: your cancellation still stands, and the refund is still owed. We say it that way deliberately, because plenty of policies claim the refund obligation disappears altogether if you miss the 14 days, and that is not what regulation 34(5) of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 says.
Who pays return postage. You do, when you are cancelling because you changed your mind. We tell you this here because the law says that if a trader does not inform the consumer of this before they order, the trader has to bear the cost. Use a tracked service and keep proof of postage. That proof matters, and it matters in your favour: under regulation 34(5) of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 we may hold your refund only until the goods reach us or you give us evidence that you sent them, whichever happens first. So once you send us proof of postage, the refund becomes due and we pay it — even if the parcel is then lost in the post. A return that goes missing after you have posted it is not your loss to carry.
What we cannot do is refund against a return where there is nothing at all to show it was ever sent. That is why the proof is worth having, and it is the only reason.
What you get back. The price you paid for the goods. Delivery to you was free, as set out in section 2 of the Shipping Policy, so there is no outbound delivery charge to refund.
Handling and diminished value. You are entitled to handle the goods as you would in a shop — unpacking them, examining them, checking the length and finish, connecting them briefly to confirm they power on and light up. If you go beyond that and the value of the goods is reduced as a result, we may deduct the amount of that reduction from your refund.
For this product, going beyond it would mean: peeling the adhesive backing and mounting the strip, so that the adhesive is spent and the strip cannot be resold as new; cutting, shortening, splicing or otherwise modifying the strip; returning it without the controller, power supply, adapter, mounting clips, or any other component it arrived with; returning it with visible wear, residue, scratching or soiling from use; or extended use going well past what checking the product requires.
If we make a deduction we will tell you the amount, explain how we arrived at it, and refund the balance. You can challenge it, and if we cannot justify it we will refund it. The deduction reflects real lost value; it is not a restocking fee, and section 13 of the Terms of Service confirms we do not charge those.
When you are refunded. Within 14 days of us receiving the goods back, or within 14 days of you providing evidence that you sent them, whichever is earlier. We refund to the original payment method and do not charge a fee for doing so.
If you cancel before anything has been dispatched, there is nothing to send back, so we refund within 14 days of the day you tell us you are cancelling.
3. When the 14-day right does not apply
The cancellation right does not apply to goods made to your specification or clearly personalised, to sealed goods unsuitable for return on health or hygiene grounds once unsealed, or to goods that become inseparably mixed with other items after delivery.
For our current product, none of these apply as a matter of routine. A monitor light strip is not a hygiene product and is not made to order. If we ever sell an item where an exception genuinely applies, we will say so on that item's product page before you buy, because an exception sprung on you after purchase is not one you agreed to.
An item being opened, or the box being damaged, is not by itself a reason to refuse a cancellation. Nor is the absence of the original packaging, although returning the goods in it helps them survive the journey and reduces the chance of a deduction under section 2 above for damage in transit back to us.
4. Where to send a return
Returns go here:
STACK
16 Oliver Road
Falkirk
FK1 1SR
United Kingdom
That is the address, and you are entitled to use it. We are telling you before you buy rather than after, because the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 require the return address to be disclosed up front, and a return right you cannot act on without asking permission first is not much of a right.
It is still worth emailing us first. Because our stock ships from an overseas supplier, as explained in section 4 of the Shipping Policy, we can sometimes offer you a cheaper or closer alternative, and sometimes we will tell you not to bother sending it back at all and refund you anyway. Those are options we offer you, not conditions we impose on you. If you would rather just post it to the address above, that is fine and your refund is unaffected.
Where we tell you not to return an item and refund you anyway, that is a decision in your favour and does not set a precedent for other orders.
Use the address above, or an alternative we have confirmed to you in writing. An item posted somewhere else may never reach us. If that happens we will do what we reasonably can to help trace it, but we cannot take responsibility for a parcel sent to an address we never gave you.
5. Faulty, damaged, or not as described
This is separate from cancellation and the rules are different. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 the goods we supply must be of satisfactory quality, fit for their purpose, as described, and match any model or sample shown to you.
Within 30 days of delivery, if the goods do not meet that standard you have the short-term right to reject them: you can have a full refund, and you do not have to accept a repair or replacement instead.
Asking for a repair or a replacement does not use that right up. If you ask us to repair or replace during the 30 days, the clock stops while we do it. Once the repaired or replacement item reaches you, you get whatever was left of the 30 days, or 7 days, whichever is longer, to reject it if it is still not right. This matters on our supply chain in particular: a replacement coming from overseas can take weeks, and you should not lose your right to reject simply because you waited for it.
After the first 30 days, and for as long as you can still bring a claim, you are entitled to a repair or a replacement. If that fails, is impossible, or cannot be done within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to you, the law gives you a choice of two remedies and it is your choice, not ours:
- Keep the goods and get some money back. This is the price reduction under section 24(1) of the Consumer Rights Act 2015. The amount has to be appropriate, and if the fault makes the product substantially useless that can be all of what you paid. Useful where you would rather have an imperfect light than no light.
- Reject the goods and get a refund. This is the final right to reject.
And within those first six months we cannot dock your refund for the use you have had. Section 24(10) of the Act forbids a deduction for use where the final right to reject is exercised inside six months of delivery. The only exception in the whole Act is motor vehicles, and we do not sell motor vehicles. So if you reject a faulty light strip five months in, you get everything you paid, and the fact that it has been on your desk that whole time changes nothing.
After six months, a deduction for use becomes possible on a rejection. We would have to justify the figure, and section 2 above explains how we handle deductions generally.
In this six-month window, a fault is presumed to have been present at delivery unless we can show otherwise — the burden is on us, not you.
After six months and up to five years in Scotland, or six years in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, you can still claim, and the same remedies remain open to you: repair or replacement first, then a price reduction or a final rejection if that does not put it right. What changes at six months is the evidence, not the remedy. The presumption above falls away, and you may need to show the fault was present when the goods were delivered.
We pay return postage on a faulty item. We will either arrange collection, send you a prepaid label, or reimburse reasonable postage you have paid — tell us before you post and keep the receipt. We do not ask you to pay to return something that was wrong when it arrived. Reasonable means a standard tracked service appropriate to the size and value of the item; we do not undertake to reimburse next-day or courier rates chosen without asking us.
Damage in transit is treated as a fault, not as a change of mind, because the goods are at our risk until they reach you under section 8 of the Shipping Policy. Please tell us within 14 days of delivery and send photographs of the damage and the packaging if you can. That figure is there to be useful, not to catch you out: transit damage is usually obvious on opening, and telling us quickly is what lets us evidence it with the carrier. Missing it does not forfeit anything. Your 30-day right to reject under section 5 of this policy and your longer rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 are unaffected, and we will still deal with a later report — it just gets harder for both of us to prove what happened.
These rights sit alongside any manufacturer guarantee. A guarantee is an extra; it never replaces your rights against us as the seller, and we will not redirect you to a manufacturer instead of dealing with your claim.
Section 8 of the Terms of Service explains the limited situations — modification, misuse, or an incompatible power supply — where damage is not a fault. Where we say a fault is not a fault, we explain why, and within the first six months it is on us to show it, not on you to disprove it.
6. Wrong item received
If we send the wrong item or the wrong quantity, tell us and we will put it right at our cost. You will not pay postage either way, and you are not obliged to accept a substitute you did not order.
7. Parcel not delivered
If the delivery estimate at section 3 of the Shipping Policy has passed and nothing has arrived, contact us. Do not contact the carrier — the contract with the carrier is ours, not yours, and chasing it is our job.
We will investigate and either resend or refund. Because risk stays with us until the goods are in your hands, a parcel lost in transit is our loss, not yours.
If a carrier has recorded a delivery you did not receive, tell us. We investigate that properly rather than treating the tracking record as the end of the matter, and section 13 below sets out the limited information we may ask you to confirm while we do.
If the 30-day statutory delivery deadline at section 5 of the Shipping Policy has passed, the rights described there apply in addition to anything in this section.
8. How refunds are paid
Refunds go back to the original payment method. We cannot refund to a different card or account, because that is how the payment providers described in section 4 of the Privacy Policy operate.
Once we issue a refund, it may take a few working days to appear, depending on your bank or payment provider. That period is outside our control and is not part of the 14-day deadline in section 2 above, which is about when we must issue the refund rather than when it lands.
We do not offer credit notes or store credit in place of a refund you are legally entitled to. If we ever offer credit as an alternative, it will be genuinely optional and you can decline it.
9. Discounts and part-refunds
Where you bought at a discount, we refund what you actually paid, not the full list price.
10. If we cancel
If we decline or cancel an order under section 5 of the Terms of Service, we refund everything you paid in full. If we cannot supply an item after accepting the order, we will tell you promptly and refund in full; we will not substitute a different product without asking you first.
11. Model cancellation form
You do not have to use this. Any clear statement of cancellation is valid. It is reproduced because the regulations require us to make it available.
To STACK, Harnek Padda, 16 Oliver Road, Falkirk, FK1 1SR, United Kingdom, stackcouk@gmail.com:
I/We [*] hereby give notice that I/We [*] cancel my/our [*] contract of sale of the following goods [*]/for the supply of the following service [*],
Ordered on [*]/received on [*],
Name of consumer(s),
Address of consumer(s),
Signature of consumer(s) (only if this form is notified on paper),
Date
[*] Delete as appropriate.
12. If you are unhappy with the outcome
Use the complaints procedure at section 4 of the Contact information page. Section 5 of that page sets out our position on alternative dispute resolution and section 6 lists free, independent consumer advice services. Using our complaints procedure is optional and does not affect your legal rights or any time limit for taking action.
13. What we may reasonably ask you for
To deal with a claim we may ask for your order number, the date you received the item, a description of the problem, and photographs or a short video where the claim concerns a fault or damage. For a parcel recorded as delivered but not received, we may ask you to confirm that you have checked with others at the address and any safe place or neighbour noted by the carrier, and to tell us the date you noticed it was missing.
These are reasonable questions and they are how we establish what happened. Three limits apply. We will not ask you for a police report, a statutory declaration, a signed statement, or anything else disproportionate to the value of the order. We will not use a request for information to delay a refund we already know is due. And where you cannot provide something — you have no camera, you deleted the packaging — we deal with the claim on what you can tell us rather than refusing it. A photograph is helpful, not a precondition.
Where the value of what we hold is enough to decide the claim, we decide it and do not ask for more.
14. Repeated claims
Every claim is assessed on its own facts, and a previous claim does not make a later genuine one less valid. Faults happen, and parcels do go missing more than once to the same person.
Where a pattern of claims cannot reasonably be explained, section 12 of the Terms of Service sets out what we may do — which is to decline to trade with someone in future, or to ask for additional verification before accepting a further order. What we may not do, and do not claim the right to do, is refuse a valid cancellation or a valid faulty-goods claim on an order we have already accepted. Those rights are statutory and they do not depend on our opinion of you.