Hey Mark,
thanks for taking the time to write a review!
I understand that you are frustrated about having to pay the return shipping fee for your order. I’d love to explain the reasoning behind this policy.
When customers return products, it causes costs for our business such as inspecting, restocking, reworking, and in the worst case disposing of the return. As a small business, it is especially hard for us to absorb these costs. When the volume of returns becomes too high, it can lead to rising prices for future customers.
Over the past years lots of e-commerce companies have introduced return shipping fees again, as the amount of returns kept increasing to uneconomical levels.
Additionally, the environmental impact of returns is a major concern for us. Unnecessary returns can lead to an increase in shipping volume and waste. While we do not currently promote ourselves as an environmentally friendly company, we take it into consideration in all our business decisions.
By charging a small return fee, we hope to encourage more conscious buying decisions, reducing the number of unnecessary returns, and ultimately lowering costs for everyone (incl. cost on the environment).
We do have local warehouses for most countries we sell to, so a return in your case to our local UK warehouse should not have cost a lot. We're working on lowering return fees in the future by negotiating better rates with couriers. (Please refer to our shipping policy for up to date information)
That being said, in the unlikely event that your product has any kind of defect, technical issue or is not as described on the website when you receive it, we take care of return fees and will happily help exchange your product or offer alternative solutions. (Email us with pictures of your issue or defect at support@ascrono.com our team will help you out in 24 hours or less)
By UK law (distance selling regulations), online stores are required to allow 14 days for returns (we offer 30 days). It's not required for the merchant to cover return shipping fees when stated in the return policy.
Tobias, CEO Ascrono