Our Box Shop delivers to your door, but its pages don't give a delivery time, a delivery charge or a returns policy, so if you're working to a moving date, call us on 0800 2545585 before you order and check the delivery cost at checkout. On returns, if you buy online as a private individual, the law generally lets you cancel within 14 days of the goods reaching you, without giving a reason. Moving house? Start with the next section. Buying for a business, buying for someone else, or already storing with us? Each has its own section below.
How quickly will my order arrive?
The shop's own words are: "Discover high-quality packaging supplies for moving and storage, with fast delivery direct to your door." That's the whole of what the shop publishes about delivery. There's no stated number of days, no dispatch cut-off and no delivery charge on the shop or product pages, so ask us when you call. Our pages don't give the phone line's hours either, so if you're ordering out of hours, call first thing or check with us before relying on a date.
If a delivery date is agreed when you order, that date applies. If no date is agreed and you're buying as a consumer, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (section 28) says the trader must deliver "without undue delay" and "in any event, not more than 30 days after the day on which the contract is entered into".
Thirty days is a legal backstop, not a delivery estimate. It's there so you know where you stand if an order goes quiet.
If your moving day is fixed, get a delivery date agreed before you pay, and tell us it is essential. If you're buying as a consumer, section 28(6) says that if "the consumer told the trader before the contract was entered into that delivery in accordance with subsection (3), or at the agreed time or within the agreed period, was essential" and the goods don't arrive in time, "the consumer may treat the contract as at an end" and get a refund. Keep a note of the date agreed and when you told us. Give yourself a margin too: our guide to how many boxes you'll need helps you order once, not twice.
On price: the shop pages don't say whether prices include VAT, so check the checkout total before you pay.
Can I collect from a site instead?
Our shop pages don't offer collection from a site for online orders, but some of our sites sell packaging in person: see buying boxes at a Wigwam site, and ring your site to check what it has and when.
Don't send an order to your storage unit unless you'll be there to meet it. Our business storage guide says "we do not sign for or receive deliveries on your behalf. If a supplier or courier is dropping stock, someone from your side needs to be there to take it in."
Can I return unused boxes? Cancelling and refunds
The Box Shop doesn't publish a returns policy, so call us on 0800 2545585 before sending anything back. That's also the quickest way to find out who pays for the return and whether unused boxes can be handed in at a site.
What the law says generally, for a private individual buying online, comes from the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013:
| Step | What the regulations say |
|---|---|
| Your right | You "may cancel a distance or off-premises contract at any time in the cancellation period without giving any reason" (regulation 29) |
| How long | 14 days after the day the goods "come into the physical possession of" you, or a person you named to receive them. If one order arrives on different days, the 14 days run from the last delivery (regulation 30). If the trader didn't give you the required information on the right to cancel, the period is extended by up to 12 months: it "ends at the end of 12 months after the day on which it would have ended under regulation 30" (regulation 31) |
| How to cancel | Use the model cancellation form or "make any other clear statement setting out the decision to cancel the contract" (regulation 32). An email saying you're cancelling is a clear statement. We don't publish a returns email or address, so ask us where to send your cancellation and the goods; keep a copy |
| Sending it back | Within 14 days of telling the trader (regulation 35(4)). You "must bear the direct cost of returning goods" unless the trader agreed to pay or didn't tell you that you would (regulation 35(5)) |
| Your refund | Everything you paid, including delivery up to the cheapest standard option, "not later than" 14 days after the trader gets the goods back or, if earlier, the day you show evidence of sending them (where the trader hasn't offered to collect), by the same payment method and with no fee (regulation 34), less any deduction for handling (see below) |
The part that matters for boxes is handling. Under regulation 34(9), if the value of the goods drops because they were handled "beyond what is necessary to establish the nature, characteristics and functioning of the goods", the trader can deduct that amount. Regulation 34(12) sets the test as "the sort of handling that might reasonably be allowed in a shop". In plain words, a box you've taped, written on or packed is likely to have been handled more than a shop would allow, and its value may have dropped. Keep anything you might return flat, dry and unmarked, and in its original bundle.
If you've used part of a kit or multipack, the position is narrower than it sounds. The 14-day right is a right to cancel the contract. A kit is listed on the shop as one product, and the regulations don't set out a right to return part of a single item. So cancelling means returning the kit, and if some of it has been used, the trader "may recover" any drop in value from handling beyond what was necessary, "up to the contract price", and that amount "may be deducted from the amount to be reimbursed" (regulation 34(9) and (10)). That deduction "does not apply if the trader has failed to provide the consumer with the information on the right to cancel" (regulation 34(11)), the same information whose absence extends the cancellation period under regulation 31. So whether you were given that information decides both how long you have and whether a deduction can be made. Taking back only the unused boxes, or anything after the cancellation period, would be our decision, so ask us before you send anything.
Buying for a business
The 14-day right and the section 28 delivery rules above are for consumers. Section 3(1) of the Consumer Rights Act "applies to a contract for a trader to supply goods to a consumer", and regulation 4 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations defines a consumer as "an individual acting for purposes which are wholly or mainly outside that individual's trade, business, craft or profession". If you're buying packaging for your business or for stock you keep in a unit, those rights don't apply by law, so agree the delivery date, delivery charge, VAT invoice and any returns with us, in writing, before you order.
Buying for someone else
If you're ordering a kit for a student or for a relative who's moving, if checkout lets you give a different delivery address, you can have it sent to them; if not, ask us when you call. The 14 days then run from the day it reaches the person you named to receive it (regulation 30(3)(b)), and you, as the buyer, are the one who cancels. They can't cancel in their own right, and any refund goes back to the payment method you used: regulation 34(7) requires reimbursement "using the same means of payment as the consumer used for the initial transaction".
Already storing with us?
The 14-day cooling-off in clause 40 of our storage terms applies when you book storage without visiting the site ("without physically coming into the Facility"), and covers your storage agreement, not shop orders: see your cancellation rights if you book storage online.
Ordering with a date in mind
Ring us on 0800 2545585 with your moving date and we'll tell you how delivery works and what happens to anything you don't use. Then order from the Box Shop.
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