Colour is the least reliable thing a screen conveys, and everybody in this transaction knows it. The question is whether the difference is screen-sized or description-sized.
Why screens lie
Three things stack up:
- The seller's camera white-balances to whatever light is in the room. A bulb makes things yellow, a window makes them blue.
- The video compression of a live stream handles reds and deep blues worst of all.
- Your screen, at its own brightness and colour temperature, with its own idea of saturation.
A maroon saree can look brown on one phone and plum on another, from the same stream, at the same moment.
Where the line is
Screen-sized difference: a shade off. Warmer, cooler, slightly duller than it looked. That is the medium, and it is a change of mind rather than a misdescription — governed by the store's returns policy.
Description-sized difference: the item is a different colour. Described as navy and it is black. Described as cream and it is grey. Sold as "emerald green" and it is olive.
That second case is not as described, and it comes back for 7 days whatever the store's returns policy says.
The thing that decides it
What the listing said in words. Not what the video looked like.
A listing that says "deep red" and delivers a deep red that photographed orange is accurate. A listing that says "royal blue" and delivers teal is not — the words are the description, and the words are what a dispute reads.
So: re-read the written description before deciding which case you are in.
What to do
- Photograph it in daylight, next to something of a known colour if you can. Indoor light will reproduce exactly the problem you are complaining about.
- Quote the listing — "the description says navy, this is black".
- Message the seller before raising anything. Many will offer a partial refund or take it back, because they know colour is the hardest thing to photograph. Can I get a partial refund?
- If you cannot agree, raise it with the daylight photograph and the listing text. How to raise a problem
How to avoid it
Ask in the chat. "Is that more maroon or more brown in daylight?" is a question sellers answer honestly, because they would rather tell you than take a return.
For anything where colour is the point — a saree to match something, paint, thread, a wedding outfit — ask for a daylight photograph before bidding. A seller who will not provide one is telling you something.
For sellers reading this
Shoot by a window, never mix daylight with a bulb, and name the colour in words as well as showing it. "Deep maroon, looks brighter on camera than in person" is a sentence that prevents a return and costs you nothing. How to photograph an item
More: how to describe condition honestly, camera and light, how returns work.