Your shopping delivery rights - all packaged up

As consumers we are more reliant than ever on online shops and package delivery firms to get us everything we need throughout the year. From buying gifts, getting our food orders or simply just to treat ourselves, we have been turning to our computers more and more.

There is still one commonly misunderstood fact if your package delivery is something you’ve bought from an online shop. Given a common complaint about delivery firms is how difficult is it to contact them, this is one golden rule that will save you time and frustration.

If your delivery issue is to do with an online shopping order you have placed, then your contract is with the retailer, not the delivery firm.

This means that in the majority of cases, any issue you may have is the responsibility of the retailer to sort out. You can of course complain to the delivery firm or courier if you believe it is at fault, but make sure you also contact the retailer as ultimately that is your route to get your issue sorted.

Our tool below will give you the details of your basic rights and what you can do next in your specific situation. If you want to understand your rights around package deliveries then our guide will give you the lowdown.

Find out what to do if you have a delivery issue with an online shop

There’s also our useful ‘calendar’ of key dates to remember:

14 days: You can cancel an online shopping order from the moment you’ve placed until up to 14 days after you’ve received it. The ’14 day’ rule also applies to how long you can expect a refund to come back to you – once the retailer has received your returned item, it must refund you within 14 days.
30 days: The period of time within which a retailer must have delivered an order to you. If it goes past this time – or if you’ve agreed a later date and this also hasn’t happened, you can cancel the order and ask for a refund.