Your rights when shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the UK

Yes: under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, you can cancel an online, phone or mail order for goods without giving any reason, from the moment you place it until 14 days after the day the goods are delivered to you.

If one order arrives in several deliveries, the 14 days run from the day the last item is delivered.

To cancel, tell the shop: the Regulations accept the model cancellation form or any other clear statement of your decision, and a message sent before the 14 days run out counts as cancelling in time.

If the shop didn’t give you the information about your right to cancel that it has to provide, the cancellation period is extended by up to 12 months; Citizens Advice puts the total at a year and 14 days.

The right to cancel doesn’t apply to goods made to your specifications or clearly personalised, goods that deteriorate or expire quickly, such as food or flowers, or newspapers and magazines outside a subscription. It ends for sealed hygiene items, and for sealed CDs, DVDs and software, once you unseal them after delivery.

Fourteen days is the minimum: Citizens Advice notes that many sellers give you longer, so check the shop’s terms and conditions. Buying from a private individual, for example on a social media marketplace, doesn’t come with a cooling-off period.

• Tell the shop you’re cancelling within 14 days of delivery, by email or letter if you can, and keep a copy.
• If you cancel by phone, note who you spoke to and what was agreed, then follow up in writing.
• Send the goods back within 14 days of telling the shop, with proof of postage.

Sources: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 29: Right to cancel (legislation.gov.uk), Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 30: Normal cancellation period (legislation.gov.uk), Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 32: Exercise of the right to withdraw or cancel (legislation.gov.uk), Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 31: Cancellation period extended for breach of information requirement (legislation.gov.uk), Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 28: Limits of application: circumstances excluding cancellation (legislation.gov.uk), Accepting returns and giving refunds: the law (GOV.UK), Changing your mind about something you’ve bought (Citizens Advice) and Shop smart, bag a bargain – a consumer expert’s guide to online shopping (Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)), checked 26 Oct 2026.

After you tell the shop you’re cancelling, the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 give you 14 days to send the goods back or hand them over, unless the shop has offered to collect them.

The shop must refund you within 14 days of getting the goods back or, if earlier, of receiving evidence that you sent them, using the same payment method you used unless you agree otherwise, and without charging a fee.

The refund includes what you paid for delivery, up to the cost of the least expensive standard delivery the shop offered: if you chose a more expensive delivery option, you pay the difference.

You pay the direct cost of sending the goods back, unless the shop agreed to pay it or didn’t tell you before you bought that you would have to. With a prepaid returns label, you don’t pay postage.

You can handle the goods as you would in a shop, for example trying them on or taking them out of the box; if you handle them more than that and their value falls, the shop can deduct the loss from your refund.

If you paid with a buy now, pay later plan such as Klarna, Clearpay or PayPal Pay in 3, Citizens Advice says to tell the provider you’re returning the item, so it can stop further payments.

• Pack the item so it isn’t damaged on the way back: the shop can ask you to pay if it arrives damaged because it wasn’t packed properly.
• Get proof of postage, so you can show the shop that you sent the item back.
• Check that the refund includes what you paid for standard delivery.

Sources: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 35: Return of goods in the event of cancellation (legislation.gov.uk), Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 34: Reimbursement by trader in the event of withdrawal or cancellation (legislation.gov.uk), Accepting returns and giving refunds: the law (GOV.UK) and Changing your mind about something you’ve bought (Citizens Advice), checked 26 Oct 2026.

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, goods you buy from a business must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described, and items bought in a Black Friday sale have exactly the same rights to refunds as items bought at full price.

You have 30 days to reject faulty goods for a full refund. The 30 days start the day after you own the goods, they have been delivered and, if the shop has to install them, it has told you that it has; for goods expected to perish sooner, the period is shorter.

The shop must refund you within 14 days of agreeing that you’re entitled to it, using the same payment method unless you agree otherwise, and without charging a fee. It also has to pay reasonable costs of returning rejected goods, except when you take them back in person to where you got them.

You can ask for a repair or replacement instead, and if you do within the 30 days, the clock stops until you get the goods back. The shop must carry out the repair or replacement within a reasonable time, without significant inconvenience to you and at its own cost, including postage.

If one repair or replacement doesn’t fix the problem, neither is possible, or the shop doesn’t carry it out within a reasonable time, you can ask for a price reduction or reject the goods for a refund. In the first 6 months, the shop generally can’t reduce that refund for the use you’ve had of the goods; motor vehicles are an exception.

A fault that shows up within 6 months of delivery is taken to have been there from the start, unless the shop shows otherwise. After 6 months, the shop can ask you to prove that the item was faulty when you bought it.

These rights don’t cover damage from wear and tear, an accident or misuse, or a fault you knew about before buying, such as one the shop pointed out to you. A warranty doesn’t change them: GOV.UK says customers have the same right to free repairs or a replacement whether or not they have one.

Sources: Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 9: Goods to be of satisfactory quality (legislation.gov.uk), Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 22: Time limit for short-term right to reject (legislation.gov.uk), Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 20: Right to reject (legislation.gov.uk), Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 23: Right to repair or replacement (legislation.gov.uk), Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 24: Right to price reduction or final right to reject (legislation.gov.uk), Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 19: Consumer's rights to enforce terms about goods (legislation.gov.uk), Accepting returns and giving refunds: the law (GOV.UK) and Return faulty goods (Citizens Advice), checked 26 Oct 2026.

Unless you agreed a delivery date or period with the shop, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 says it must deliver without undue delay and no later than 30 days after the day the contract is made.

The goods stay at the shop’s risk until they reach you or someone you nominated, so a parcel lost by a courier the shop chose is for the shop to sort out, not you.

If the shop refuses to deliver, or misses a delivery date that was essential, for example because you told the shop so before buying, you can treat the contract as at an end, and the shop must refund everything you paid without undue delay.

If the shop is late in other cases, you can set a new deadline that’s reasonable for what you ordered; if it misses that too, you can end the contract and get your money back.

A text or email asking you to pay to receive or reschedule a parcel is usually a scam, Citizens Advice warns: don’t click the links, because delivery companies won’t ask you to pay through a link in an email or text.

• Check the delivery address you gave, then contact the shop, not the courier.
• Mention any essential delivery date you agreed when you write to the shop.
• If no essential date was agreed, give the shop a new, reasonable deadline in writing.

Sources: Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 28: Delivery of goods (legislation.gov.uk), Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 29: Passing of risk (legislation.gov.uk), If something you ordered hasn’t arrived (Citizens Advice) and Shop smart, bag a bargain – a consumer expert’s guide to online shopping (Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)), checked 26 Oct 2026.

Yes: under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, your credit card provider is jointly responsible with the shop if the shop breaks the contract or misrepresents what it sells, for any single item with a cash price over £100 and up to £30,000.

The limits apply to each item, not the whole order: in a Citizens Advice example, an £80 phone, £20 headphones and £5 delivery come to £105, but no single item cost more than £100, so Section 75 doesn’t apply.

You only need to pay part of the price by credit card: in another Citizens Advice example, a buyer who paid a £50 deposit on a £250 oven by credit card and £200 in cash can claim the full £250.

Section 75 doesn’t usually apply if you bought through a third party, such as a marketplace like Amazon or eBay or a wallet like PayPal; in that case, or if you paid by debit card, ask your card provider for a chargeback.

Chargeback is a voluntary scheme, not a legal right, and the CMA notes that it usually doesn’t cover app payments like PayPal or Klarna, which have their own limited protection schemes.

If you paid with a buy now, pay later plan or from your PayPal balance, Citizens Advice says to start by opening a dispute on the provider’s website; with PayPal, you have 180 days from paying. Citizens Advice also says Section 75 can be used for buy now, pay later purchases within the same limits.

If your card provider turns down a Section 75 claim, you can ask the Financial Ombudsman Service to look at your case.

• Contact the shop first, by email or letter, and keep a copy.
• Then tell your card provider, in writing, that you want to make a Section 75 claim or a chargeback.
• Ask for the full amount you paid, or the cost of repairing a faulty item.
• If the claim fails, contact the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Sources: Consumer Credit Act 1974, section 75: Liability of creditor for breaches by supplier (legislation.gov.uk), Getting your money back if you paid by card or PayPal (Citizens Advice), Shop smart, bag a bargain – a consumer expert’s guide to online shopping (Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)) and Shopping and paying safely online (National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)), checked 26 Oct 2026.

Not by law: Citizens Advice says you don’t have an automatic right to your money back if you just change your mind and there’s nothing wrong with the item, so for things you bought in a shop it depends on the shop’s returns policy.

Many shops still let you return unused items within 14 or sometimes 30 days, but Citizens Advice notes that shops often allow less time for items bought in a sale; faulty items are always covered.

Buying online is different: an item you buy without seeing it in person comes with the 14-day cooling-off period, unless it’s bespoke or made to measure.

A shop can’t take away your legal rights: GOV.UK says it’s illegal for a business to restrict them or to mislead you about them, for example with a sign saying it doesn’t accept returns or give refunds.

Keep the receipt for Black Friday gifts: GOV.UK’s guidance for businesses says a shop only has to accept returns from the person who bought the item, and can ask for proof of purchase such as a receipt or bank statement.

Sources: Changing your mind about something you’ve bought (Citizens Advice) and Accepting returns and giving refunds: the law (GOV.UK), checked 26 Oct 2026.

Start with the shop: Citizens Advice suggests following its complaints procedure, writing by email or letter, and keeping a copy of everything you send.

Penny o' Pocket UK is not a shop: cancellations, returns and refunds have to be requested from the shop where you bought the item.

For free advice, call the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 0808 223 1133 (Welsh language: 0808 223 1144) in England and Wales, Advice Direct Scotland on 0808 164 6000, or Consumerline on 0300 123 6262 in Northern Ireland.

These helplines can refer your complaint to local Trading Standards officers, who may investigate, and share it with enforcers including the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

If you’ve been scammed, tell your bank and report it to Report Fraud in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, online or on 0300 123 2040, or to Police Scotland in Scotland.

If your card provider rejects a Section 75 claim, or won’t appeal a chargeback to the shop’s bank, you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

For problems buying from a business in an EU country, GOV.UK points to the UK International Consumer Centre.

• Contact the shop and follow its complaints procedure.
• Call your consumer helpline: Citizens Advice, Advice Direct Scotland or Consumerline.
• Ask your card provider about Section 75 or a chargeback.
• Report scams to Report Fraud or, in Scotland, to Police Scotland.

Sources: Consumer rights (GOV.UK), Getting your money back if you paid by card or PayPal (Citizens Advice), Shop smart, bag a bargain – a consumer expert’s guide to online shopping (Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)) and Shopping and paying safely online (National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)), checked 26 Oct 2026.