Returns and RMA
Thirty days on stocked parts, an RMA number before anything travels, and an advance replacement when a line is down and you cannot wait for ours to arrive.
Last reviewed 13 August 2026
Get an RMA number first
Nothing comes back without one. It is not bureaucracy: an unannounced box arrives at a dock with no paperwork, nobody knows whose it is, and it sits there while you assume it has been credited. The number is what connects a parcel to your order the moment it lands.
Email us the order number and what is wrong. You get an RMA number and a shipping address the same business day, usually within the hour.
The window
- Items we hold
- 30 days from delivery. Unused, in the original packaging, with everything that came in the box.
- Items shipped direct from the supplier
- 30 days from the INVOICE date, not from delivery. The product page says which items these are before you buy. The difference is usually a few days and it is the supplier's clock, not ours - see the note under the fees.
- Special order and built-to-order
- Not returnable. These are ordered or assembled against your order specifically, and there is nobody to send them back to.
- Software and licences
- Not returnable once a key or an activation has been issued. We will always help with an activation problem instead.
- Faulty on arrival
- No window and no restocking fee, ever. See below - this is a warranty matter rather than a return.
Restocking, on what we hold
A returned part has to be inspected, repackaged and put back on a shelf, and some of them cannot be sold as new afterwards. The fee reflects what state it comes back in and nothing else.
- Unopened, factory sealed
- No fee.
- Opened, complete, undamaged packaging
- 15%
- Opened, packaging damaged or incomplete
- 25%. Missing manuals, mounting hardware and connectors all count - they are what make it sellable.
- Installed, marked or modified
- Assessed individually, and sometimes refused. Talk to us before you send it.
Restocking, on supplier-shipped items
Some items ship direct from the manufacturer's distributor rather than from our warehouse - the product page says so before you buy. Those go back to them, not to us, and their fees are what they are. We pass them through at cost rather than marking them up or quietly absorbing them into everybody else's prices.
- Sealed, within 30 days
- 15%
- Sealed, 31 to 60 days
- 25%. This is the one case where the window runs longer.
- Opened, within 30 days
- 30%
- Without the original packaging
- 50%. Keep the box until you are certain - on these items it is the most expensive thing you can throw away.
The clock runs from the invoice date rather than from delivery, so a part that took a week to arrive has a week less on it. Once we issue the RMA it has to be shipped within 14 business days or the authorisation lapses and the fee moves up a tier. Ask early rather than late.
When we waive it
We waive restocking entirely when the return is our mistake - wrong item picked, wrong item listed, wrong specification given by us. If we told you it would work and it does not, that is on us and it is free, on anything we sell, whoever it shipped from.
That is deliberately absolute. On a supplier-shipped item the fee is still charged to us and we absorb it, because a mistake of ours is not something to make you pay for on the grounds that it is awkward for us to fix.
Who pays the freight
You do, on a change of mind. We do, on anything faulty, mis-picked or mis-described - and we send a prepaid label rather than reimbursing you later, because being out of pocket while you wait for a credit is its own insult.
On a faulty supplier-shipped item within 6 months of the invoice the prepaid label is a matter of course. After that you still get one - it simply costs us rather than them at that point, which is our problem and not one you need to think about.
Advance replacement
When a failed part has a line stopped, waiting for yours to reach us and be inspected is not a plan. We will ship the replacement immediately and deal with the faulty one afterwards.
- We invoice the replacement at the normal price, or authorise it against a card without capturing it.
- The faulty part goes back within 14 days on our prepaid label.
- It arrives and the replacement invoice is credited in full, or the authorisation is released.
- It does not arrive within 14 days and the invoice stands, because at that point you have two parts.
Available on anything we hold in stock, to any account, without a credit application. Ask for it by name when you report the fault.
Credits
Inspected within two business days of arrival, credited the same day it passes. Card refunds land back on the original card and take whatever the bank takes, which is usually three to five days and is not something we can hurry. Account credits appear on the next statement.
Original shipping is refunded when the return is our fault and not when it is a change of mind - we paid the carrier either way, and on a free shipping order that cost was real even though it did not appear on your invoice.