Your returns policy is the one setting where being generous usually makes you money and being strict usually costs you sales. It is also the one most often set wrong on the first day and never looked at again.
Where it lives
Seller settings → Store policies, described as Returns, cancellations and gift wrap.
The three choices
Returns policy offers:
No returns—Sales are final unless the item is not as described7-day returns—Buyers can request a return within 7 days of delivery14-day returns—Buyers can request a return within 14 days of delivery
That is the whole choice. There is no 30-day option and no custom number.
The two rules nothing can switch off
This is the part worth reading twice, because sellers choose No returns believing it means no returns.
1. A faulty, damaged, wrong or misdescribed item is always returnable for 7 days, whatever your returns policy. The screen says so: Items that arrive damaged or not as described can always be disputed, whatever your returns policy.
So No returns does not mean what it sounds like. It means no change-of-mind returns. Everything else still comes back.
2. A made-to-order item never takes a change-of-mind return, because it was made for the person who ordered it. You do not have to set that; it is already true.
What the setting actually decides
Only the change-of-mind case. A buyer picking "Changed my mind" is the single situation your policy governs. The other five reasons — not as described, arrived damaged, wrong item sent, parts missing, doesn't work — are seller-fault reasons and come back regardless.
Four levels, most specific first
Returns used to be one setting for a whole shop. Now four things answer the question, and the most specific wins:
- The listing — its own returns policy, or
final sale, or marked a hygiene item - Its category — some categories have a sensible default of their own
- Your store setting — the one above
- No returns — if nothing else said anything
So your store setting is the floor, not the ceiling. You can mark one item final sale without changing your whole shop, and that is the better way to handle the one thing you genuinely cannot take back.
Return conditions
Appears once you choose 7 or 14 days. Free text, up to 500 characters — the hint suggests e.g. unused, in original packaging; buyer pays return shipping.
Write it plainly and write it short. "Unused, with tags, in the original box. Buyer pays return postage unless the item is faulty." Three sentences a buyer reads beats a paragraph they don't.
This is also where you say who pays return shipping, because that is the question every return starts with.
Cancellation policy
Separate free-text field, up to 300 characters. What you will do if a buyer asks to cancel before dispatch. Saying "before I post it, just ask" costs you nothing and prevents the cancellation that arrives as a dispute instead.
The clock on your side
Once a buyer opens a return, you have 48 hours to answer before they can ask Metzee to step in. A return you answer in two hours is usually a conversation. One you leave for three days is a dispute with a decision made without you.
Questions people ask
If I choose No returns, can a buyer still return something?
Yes — if it is faulty, damaged, the wrong item, missing parts or not as described. No returns only stops change-of-mind returns.
Does 14 days lose me money?
It costs you some returns and wins you more sales, and the buyers who filter on it are the ones buying without having held the thing. For most stores it is the better trade. Run 7 days if your items are hard to resell once opened.
Can I set it per item?
Yes, and that is the right tool for the exception. The item's own setting beats your store's.
Who pays return postage?
Whatever you wrote in Return conditions — except on a seller-fault return, where it is you. Say it there, in one sentence, so nobody has to ask.
What about hygiene items?
Marked on the listing, and then a change-of-mind return is refused with Hygiene items can’t be returned once they’ve shipped.
More: how returns work, how refunds work, disputes from the seller side.