Returns, Refunds & Customer Conduct Policy

🔄 Returns, Refunds & Customer Conduct Policy

OnlineSikhStore Ltd – Trusted Sikh Store UK Since 2005

Last updated: 01 July 2026

🙏 At OnlineSikhStore Ltd, we have proudly served the Sangat since 2005 with fairness, honesty and responsibility.

We accept genuine returns in accordance with the conditions below. At the same time, we reserve the right to protect our business, staff and customers from misuse, abusive conduct, fraudulent returns, substituted products, deliberate damage or exploitation of our return arrangements.

As a small Sikh business operating on modest margins, we work hard to keep Sikh religious, cultural and everyday products affordable and accessible to the Sangat. Returns, exchanges, postage, customs charges, administration, inspection, quality control, repackaging and restocking all add to operating costs. We therefore ask customers to read product details, measurements, sizing guidance and this policy carefully before placing an order.

Please read this Returns, Refunds & Customer Conduct Policy before ordering.

📅 1. Our 30-Day Returns and RMA Process

30-Day Return Request Period

Eligible products may be returned for refund or size exchange within 30 calendar days after delivery, subject to the conditions, exclusions, product-condition requirements, return-postage responsibilities and restocking provisions in this policy.

A return is not automatically approved merely because it is sent within 30 days. Please contact us first, obtain a Return Merchandise Authorisation and follow the return instructions supplied.

Return Merchandise Authorisation

Before posting a return, please contact us for a Return Merchandise Authorisation (RMA) and return instructions. The office address should be used only for an authorised postal or courier return unless a separate appointment has been confirmed in writing.

Your RMA will normally be your order number beginning with #.

Failure to include sufficient order information can delay processing while we identify the purchase.

📸 2. Damaged, Incorrect, Missing or Faulty Items

Please inspect your order as soon as reasonably possible after delivery.

Contact us preferably within 48–72 hours of delivery if you notice:

• Transit damage

• A missing item

• An incorrect product

• An incorrect quantity

• A manufacturing defect

• A dispatch error

• A sizing error made by us

Where possible, please send clear photographs of:

• 📦 The outer and inner packaging

• 🏷️ The shipping label

• 📷 The product received

• ⚠️ The visible damage, defect or other issue

The 48–72-hour request helps us investigate courier, packing and dispatch issues promptly. Please still contact us after this initial period if a genuine fault, incorrect product or material misdescription becomes apparent.

📍 3. Office, Query-Handling and Authorised Return Address

Please send authorised returns to:

OnlineSikhStore Ltd
33 Cloisterham Road
Rochester
Kent
ME1 2BW
United Kingdom

This is our office, administration, customer-query and authorised return-processing address. It is not our stock storage unit, a public retail shop or an unarranged collection and exchange point.

Our stock is held at separate storage facilities. Depending on the product and order, goods are either collected by us from storage or delivered from storage to our office so that they can be checked, measured or tested where appropriate, prepared, packed and dispatched.

Authorised returns are received at this office so that they can be recorded, opened, inspected and processed. Where an accepted returned product remains suitable for resale, it must then be repacked, relabelled where required, entered back into inventory and transported or delivered from the office back to the relevant storage facility. This creates genuine stock-movement, transport, handling, staff-time and storage-administration work.

These operational arrangements explain why receiving, inspecting, processing and restocking a returned product can create genuine transport, handling, staff-time and administration costs.

🚫 Please do not visit, deliver a return by hand or attempt a collection or exchange without a confirmed appointment.

📝 4. What to Include With Your Return

Please include a note inside the parcel containing:

• Order number

• Full name

• Return address

• RMA/order number

• Reason for return

• Required replacement size, if requesting an exchange

Please also:

• ✔ Write your return address on the outer parcel

• ✔ Pack the item securely

• ✔ Keep proof of posting

• ✔ Use sufficient postage for the parcel’s dimensions, thickness and weight

• ✔ Use a tracked service for valuable items

✅ 5. Condition of Returned Items and Reasonable Inspection

Customers should inspect an eligible product only as far as reasonably necessary to decide whether it is suitable. Products should not be worn, used, altered, damaged or tested beyond normal inspection.

Handling beyond what is reasonably necessary to establish the product’s nature, characteristics and functioning may reduce its value. A refund can therefore be reduced to reflect the actual loss in value caused by excessive handling, use, alteration or customer damage.

For returns accepted under our additional voluntary return period, products must normally be:

• Unused

• Unworn

• Unwashed

• Unaltered

• In clean and resalable condition

• In the original packaging where reasonably possible

• With original tags, seals, accessories and components intact

• Free from perfume, smoke, sweat, food, pet smells or other contamination

• Free from stains, hair, scratches and customer-caused damage

Products returned in a condition that prevents resale as new may be refused under the voluntary policy or may receive an appropriately reduced refund.

🚫 6. Products With Special Return Conditions

Certain products may be excluded from change-of-mind returns or may have additional return conditions, including:

• Products made to an individual customer’s specification

• Engraved, printed or personalised products

• Sealed hygiene-sensitive products after the hygiene seal has been broken, where the relevant exception applies

• Sealed audio, video or software products after the seal has been broken, where the relevant exception applies

• Digital content supplied other than on a tangible medium after supply has begun with the customer’s required consent and acknowledgement

• Products physically altered at the customer’s request

Books, radios, Paranda, Kaintha, TF cards and similar products are not automatically excluded merely because of their product type. Their return position depends on the reason for return, their condition, whether a relevant exception applies and any clearly stated listing conditions.

A special return condition does not remove remedies for goods that were genuinely faulty, incorrect or materially misdescribed when supplied.

⭕ 7. Kara and Other Size Exchanges – UK

Every Kara is checked and measured before dispatch wherever practicable.

Kara sizes in our listings refer to the inner diameter. We strongly recommend measuring an existing well-fitting Kara using vernier callipers rather than estimating the required size.

If the Kara supplied matches the size ordered but another size is required, this is a customer-selected size change rather than a dispatch or sizing error by OnlineSikhStore Ltd.

🔁 For a Straightforward Size Exchange

Please return only the item being exchanged.

🎁 You may keep the complimentary gift when you are only exchanging the size.

The customer is normally responsible for:

• Sending the original item back to us

• The postage and packaging required to send the replacement item

✉️ Easiest UK Exchange Method

Please place a separate prepaid self-addressed envelope INSIDE the return parcel.

⚠️ This is not the envelope used to send the return to us. It must be an additional prepaid envelope addressed to you, placed inside the parcel, which we can use to send the replacement Kara.

Alternatively, contact us for payment details and pay £3.50 towards replacement postage and packaging.

If the wrong size was sent by us, or the product is genuinely faulty or misdescribed, please contact us before returning it so that the appropriate return arrangement can be made.

🎁 8. Complimentary Gifts – Exchange Versus Refund

We often include complimentary products as a gesture of goodwill. A free gift can sometimes have a substantial retail value or may be a Kara of similar value to the purchased item.

Size Exchange

For a straightforward size exchange:

• ✔ Return the item being exchanged

• ✔ Keep the complimentary gift

Refund of the Qualifying Purchase

For a refund of the qualifying purchase:

• ✔ Return the purchased item

• ✔ Return its original packaging where applicable

• ✔ Return all complimentary or free gifts supplied as part of the order

If a complimentary item is missing, the return may be treated as incomplete, or the refund may be adjusted by the reasonable value of the unreturned item under the applicable return route.

This prevents a situation in which a valuable complimentary product is retained while the qualifying purchase is returned for a full refund.

📮 9. Return Postage

For an unwanted product, customer-selected size change, colour swap or other change-of-mind return, the customer is normally responsible for the direct cost of returning the goods, provided this responsibility was communicated before purchase.

We do not routinely provide free return labels for:

• Change-of-mind returns

• Customer-selected size changes

• Colour swaps

• Voluntary goodwill returns

If we arrange a return label for a voluntary return, its actual cost may be taken into account when calculating the voluntary refund.

Where a product is genuinely faulty, incorrect or materially misdescribed, please contact us before posting it. We will provide or reimburse an appropriate reasonable return method according to the circumstances.

📌 Keep proof of posting until the return, exchange or refund is complete.

📦 10. Correct Return Postage

Please select postage based on:

• Parcel dimensions

• Thickness

• Weight

• Packaging type

• Value of the contents

⚠️ A padded envelope may require Large Letter or Parcel postage depending on its final thickness, dimensions and weight.

An underpaid parcel may be delayed, surcharged, refused or returned by the carrier. Any carrier underpayment charge caused by insufficient return postage may be taken into account when processing a voluntary return.

🌍 11. International Returns

International customers must contact us before sending a return.

Please clearly mark the customs declaration:

RETURNED GOODS / RETURN TO SELLER

Complete all customs information accurately and truthfully.

An incorrect or incomplete declaration can result in:

• Customs duty

• Import VAT

• Carrier handling charges

• Customs administration fees

• Brokerage charges

• Delays

• The parcel being returned or held

Charges caused by an incorrect return declaration may be taken into account when calculating a voluntary refund.

Please do not send a controlled animal-derived product, wildlife specimen or other restricted item across an international border without first obtaining our return instructions and checking any permit or customs requirements.

🇪🇺 12. EU Low-Value Customs Duty – From 1 July 2026

From 1 July 2026, the European Union applies a temporary €3 customs duty to qualifying low-value consignments with an intrinsic value of up to €150 imported from outside the EU.

The duty is applied according to the declared item or tariff-classification line rather than simply once per parcel. A parcel containing products under different tariff classifications can therefore attract more than one €3 duty amount.

For affected orders, fulfilment costs can include:

• 📮 Royal Mail or courier postage

• 💶 The temporary EU customs duty

• 📦 Carrier handling charges

• 🧾 Customs administration charges

• 💳 Marketplace, IOSS or customs-processing charges

Carrier handling fees are separate from the EU customs duty and can vary by carrier, service and destination.

These third-party charges are not income retained by OnlineSikhStore Ltd. Some charges may not be repaid to us after the shipment has entered the destination country’s customs system, even if the customer later returns the product.

💷 13. Why International Returns Can Be Expensive

A low-value international order can cost substantially more to fulfil than the product price alone suggests.

Example

• Product value: £4.99

• Shipping paid by customer: £9.99

• Total paid: £14.98

Possible actual costs may include:

• 📮 International postage: approximately £9.50

• 💶 Customs duty: €3, converted at the applicable exchange rate

• 📦 Carrier or customs handling charge

Almost the entire amount received may therefore already have been used for postage, customs processing and third-party charges.

This is one reason international voluntary returns can create significant losses for a small business.

💳 14. International Refund Calculations

An international order involving a genuinely faulty, incorrect or materially misdescribed product will be handled under the relevant sections of this policy.

For an international return accepted only under our additional voluntary return policy, the refund may exclude genuine third-party costs already incurred and not recovered by us, including:

• Outbound postage

• Customs tariffs or duties

• Carrier handling charges

• Customs administration fees

• Return-import charges caused by an incorrect declaration

• Other evidenced carrier, customs or marketplace charges

We do not apply arbitrary international-return charges. Any voluntary-policy deduction will be connected to an actual cost, an incomplete return or the condition and reduced value of the product.

💰 15. Refunds, Returns, Diminished Value and Voluntary Restocking Costs

Refund calculations depend on:

• The reason for the refund, return or exchange

• Whether the return concerns a fault, exchange, change of mind or another reason

• The condition of the returned goods

• Whether all packaging, accessories and gifts have been returned

• Any actual third-party costs relevant to a voluntary return

• Any reduction in the product’s resale value caused by customer handling or alteration

⚠️ Please Order and Pay Carefully

Please place an order and make payment only when you genuinely intend to complete the purchase.

Once payment is received, we may begin processing immediately. Because our office and storage facilities are separate, this can include reserving stock, arranging collection or delivery from storage, travelling to a storage facility, receiving goods at the office, picking and checking the item, measuring or testing it where appropriate, carrying out final quality control, preparing packaging, printing documents, purchasing postage and allocating stock across our selling platforms.

Some orders therefore involve a specific journey, collection or storage-to-office delivery before the parcel can be prepared and dispatched, particularly where prompt or urgent dispatch has been requested.

Before paying, please check:

• Product details

• Kara inner-diameter measurements

• Other product dimensions

• Quantity

• Colour or design

• Delivery requirements

• Price

• Promotional or discount codes

A promotion or alternative price found after purchase does not retrospectively change the agreed order price.

🚫 Strictly No Cancellations After Payment

Please purchase and make payment only for products that you genuinely intend to buy and complete payment for.

Payment is your firm instruction for us to release the order immediately into fulfilment and dispatch. For the purpose of cancellation requests, every paid order is treated as already released to dispatch from the moment payment is confirmed, even if the marketplace, tracking page or customer account has not yet displayed a dispatch update.

Our work can begin immediately and may include reserving stock, arranging collection or delivery from a separate storage facility, travelling to retrieve the product, receiving it at our office, checking or measuring it, completing final quality control, preparing protective packaging, printing documents, purchasing postage, creating a carrier manifest and handing the parcel to the carrier.

Cancellation requests are not accepted after payment. Sending a cancellation message does not automatically cancel the order, suspend processing or stop dispatch. The person prioritising, preparing and dispatching orders may already be working on the order and may not receive or see an email, marketplace message or cancellation request before the work has been completed.

Where eBay, Amazon or another marketplace provides a facility to request cancellation, submitting that request does not itself cancel the paid order or stop our fulfilment process. Where the marketplace gives the seller an accept-or-decline option, the request may be declined. Any exception remains dependent on the marketplace process and whether we are operationally able to stop the order before any work or cost has begun.

Please check the product, Kara size, measurements, quantity, delivery address, delivery option, price and any promotional or discount code before paying. A promotion, voucher, discount code, lower price, automated abandoned-basket email or other offer received or discovered after payment cannot be applied retrospectively and is not, by itself, a reason for us to cancel a completed paid order.

Some paid orders require substantial work before the customer sees a dispatch update. For example, a heavy Sanchia order weighing around 15kg may require collection or delivery from storage, careful checking, reinforced packing, carrier preparation and approximately two hours of staff handling and packing.

Once stock has been reserved, requested, collected or delivered from storage; checking or final quality control has begun; packaging has been prepared; postage has been purchased; a shipping label or manifest has been created; or the parcel has been collected by or handed to the carrier, the cancellation request will be declined and we will not recall or intercept the shipment.

If a cancellation request is seen before any processing, stock movement, checking, packing, postage purchase or other work or cost has begun, we may choose to cancel as a discretionary courtesy. Courtesy cancellation is not guaranteed, is assessed individually and does not create a contractual cancellation service or a precedent for another order.

Where an order cannot be stopped, the customer should accept delivery and follow the authorised 30-day returns process below.

This operational cancellation rule is subject to the Final Legal Priority Notice at the bottom of this document.

📦 30-Day Non-Fault Returns – Return Postage and Up to 25% Restocking

We do not deny authorised returns of eligible non-fault products merely because a cancellation request could not be accepted. Eligible products may be returned within 30 calendar days after delivery after the customer has contacted us, obtained a Return Merchandise Authorisation and followed all return conditions.

The customer is responsible for the cost of returning a non-fault product. Where an exchange is requested, the customer is also responsible for the replacement postage unless we expressly agree otherwise.

A non-fault return accepted under our additional voluntary 30-day returns arrangement may be subject to a restocking and administration deduction of up to 25% of the product value.

The 25% figure is the maximum rather than an automatic deduction. The amount, if any, will be assessed according to the individual return and may take account of:

• Receiving, identifying and recording the return at our office

• Opening the parcel under CCTV and inspecting the contents and condition

• Product measurement, final quality checks or technical testing where required

• Missing, opened, damaged or unusable packaging

• Missing tags, seals, accessories, components or complimentary gifts

• Cleaning, protective packing, repackaging and relabelling

• Payment, marketplace and multi-channel administration

• Inventory adjustment and stock-location updating

• The original storage-to-office collection or delivery and the additional movement created by the return

• Moving or delivering the accepted product from our office back to the relevant storage facility

• Storage intake and replacement on the correct shelf, bay or stock area

• Extra handling required for heavy, bulky, fragile or high-value products

• Transport, staff time and administration created by the return and additional stock movement

• Work needed to restore the product to a safe and saleable condition

• Missing contents or any reduction in the product’s resale value

Our authorised return address is our office, administration and customer-query handling address. It is not the stock storage facility. Products accepted for return must be received and inspected at the office and then transported or delivered back to the appropriate storage facility, creating an additional journey, handling process and cost.

We may reduce or waive a voluntary-policy deduction after considering the individual circumstances.

❌ Our Error or Faulty, Incorrect or Misdescribed Products

No restocking or administration deduction will be charged where the product was genuinely faulty, incorrect or materially misdescribed when supplied and the customer is entitled to an appropriate remedy.

⭕ Kara and Other Customer-Selected Size Returns

Where the supplied size correctly matches the size ordered but a different size is later required, the matter is treated as a customer-selected size change rather than our dispatch error.

Please contact us before ordering if you are unsure. We would much rather help you measure correctly than have you incur the inconvenience and expense of an exchange or return.

📦 Diminished Value, Use or Excessive Handling

A refund may be reduced to reflect the actual loss in value where an item has been:

• Worn or clearly used

• Scratched, dented, marked or damaged

• Burned, heated, filed, ground, drilled, cut or otherwise altered

• Returned with missing or damaged packaging, tags, seals, accessories or components

• Exposed to perfume, smoke, sweat, stains, hair, food or other contamination

• Bent, creased, polished or modified

• Returned after unnecessary removal of a protective film or seal

• Returned in a condition that prevents resale as new

• Subjected to unauthorised authenticity experiments or destructive testing

The assessment will be based on the returned product’s actual condition and reduction in value rather than an automatic fixed amount.

📮 Postage, Customs and Other Third-Party Costs

For voluntary returns, the refund may also take account of:

• A return-label cost paid by us

• Non-refundable customs tariffs or duties

• Carrier handling charges

• Customs administration fees

• Charges caused by an incorrect international-return declaration

• Other evidenced third-party costs connected with the voluntary return

💳 16. Refund Method

Refunds to the Original Payment Method

Where a monetary refund is approved, it will normally be returned to the original payment method unless the customer expressly agrees to another method.

Depending on the reason for the return and the applicable policy terms, the available outcome may be a monetary refund, exchange, replacement product or store credit.

Additional Voluntary or Goodwill Returns

For a return accepted solely under our additional voluntary 30-day policy, we may offer:

• Store credit

• A size exchange

• A replacement product

• A refund to the original payment method after any applicable voluntary-policy deduction

Store credit will be subject to the terms communicated when it is issued.

⏱️ 17. Processing Times

Once a return arrives, we aim to inspect and process a straightforward refund or exchange:

• ✅ On the same working day wherever possible

• ✅ Within 24–48 working hours during busy periods

Weekend and public-holiday returns may be processed on the next working day.

A return can take longer if:

• The order details are missing

• The parcel contents do not match the return request

• A technical inspection is required

• An item, accessory or complimentary gift is missing

• There is evidence of alteration, damage, substitution or misuse

• We need further information from the customer or carrier

🔨 18. Natural, Handmade and Hand-Finished Product Characteristics

Products including:

• Sarbloh Karas

• Pure iron items

• Handmade wooden products

• Hand-painted products

• Hand-finished religious and cultural products

• Natural-material jewellery and ornaments

may naturally show:

• Minor grind or joint marks

• Tooling marks

• Texture differences

• Surface variation

• Slight dimensional differences

• Handmade finishing characteristics

• Batch-to-batch differences

• Natural colour, grain or pattern variation

Where these characteristics have been accurately described and photographed, they are part of the handmade or natural nature of the product and are not automatically manufacturing defects.

📚 19. Books

Please handle books carefully if you may wish to return them.

A book’s value may be reduced if it is returned:

• Marked or written in

• Creased or folded

• Stained

• Torn

• With damaged binding

• With damaged or missing protective packaging

• Showing handling beyond reasonable inspection

Books must be packed securely so that their covers and bindings are not damaged in return transit.

📻 20. Gurbani Radios, TF Cards and Related Digital-Media Products

Every OnlineSikhStore Gurbani Radio, replacement TF/microSD card and related compatible digital-media product is checked and function-tested before dispatch as part of our final quality-control process.

These products must not be:

• Tampered with

• Reformatted

• Repartitioned

• Modified

• Physically opened or altered

• Used with unsupported repair or recovery software

• Returned with files added, deleted, renamed or reorganised

• Returned with substituted components or memory cards

All returned Gurbani Radios and TF/microSD cards are inspected and technically tested as part of our returns quality-control process. The inspection includes comparison of the returned product, card structure, file system, track access, physical condition, serial or identifying features and supplied accessories with the dispatched condition.

Damage or data corruption caused after delivery by reformatting, unsupported equipment, third-party software, physical alteration or customer modification is not treated as an original manufacturing fault.

Our warranty and quality-control procedures operate alongside the other remedies and protections set out in this policy.

💾 21. Replacement Gurbani TF Cards – Compatibility and Final Testing

Replacement Gurbani TF cards supplied by OnlineSikhStore Ltd are prepared for compatible 32GB OnlineSikhStore Gurbani Radios.

As part of our final quality-control process, every replacement card is tested before dispatch. The functional test includes access checks using selected tracks, including where applicable:

• Track 1

• Track 2

• Track 2571

• Track 2572

• Track 2573

• Track 2574

The check is intended to confirm that the card is recognised and that representative tracks at the beginning and end of the programmed content can be accessed on the supported radio.

Replacement cards are not designed or guaranteed for use in:

• 🚗 Car stereos

• 💻 Computers

• 📱 Phones or tablets

• 📷 Cameras

• 📻 Third-party Gurbani radios

• ⚠️ Other unsupported devices

An unsupported device, operating system, adapter, recovery utility or formatting prompt can corrupt, modify, repartition, rename or delete data.

Customers must not copy, modify, repair, reformat, repartition or reorganise the supplied card data.

Every returned replacement card is technically inspected and tested to establish its physical condition, file-system condition, compatibility and whether its data remains in the dispatched format.

🐗 22. Natural Animal-Derived Products, Authenticity and Independent Certification

This section applies to natural animal-derived products including, where listed:

• Jangli Soor Dand/Soor da Dandh (Wild Boar Tusk or Pig Tooth)

• Wild Boar tooth or tusk products

• Wolf tooth products

• Other genuine natural teeth, tusks, horn, bone or animal-derived ornaments

Our Authenticity and Sourcing Position

OnlineSikhStore Ltd sells these products as genuine and authentic natural-material items based on supplier declarations, sourcing history, provenance information, visual characteristics and our product checks.

We source from established, ethical and vetted suppliers and carry out reasonable supplier and product due diligence. We do not knowingly sell synthetic material as genuine animal material.

Unless a product listing expressly states that an individual laboratory report or certificate is included, the sale does not include a separate forensic laboratory certificate for that individual item.

Natural teeth and tusks are not factory-moulded products. Each piece can vary naturally in:

• Shape

• Curvature

• Length

• Width and thickness

• Weight

• Colour and tonal transition

• Grain and internal structure

• Surface lines and texture

• Spots, marks and natural imperfections

• Tip formation

• Hollow or solid areas

• Age-related or natural surface characteristics

These natural variations are not, by themselves, evidence that the item is synthetic or inauthentic.

Information Before Purchase

We provide product descriptions, photographs, measurements, dedicated information pages and FAQs to explain our natural-material products.

Customers with any concern about material, species identification, provenance, natural characteristics, legal restrictions or the type of evidence supplied should contact us before purchase. We will provide the relevant information available to us and clarify what is and is not included with the item.

Independent Species-Identification Testing

A customer requiring independent species identification may arrange an individual laboratory report or certificate at the customer’s own cost.

Species testing is item-specific. A test or report for one tooth or tusk does not automatically certify another individual item.

Customers may contact the Wildlife DNA Forensic Unit at Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA), Scotland, directly to enquire about arranging independent species-identification testing and an item-specific laboratory report or certificate. SASA must confirm whether it accepts the private instruction and what sample, documentation and chain-of-custody arrangements are required.

SASA or any other selected laboratory must confirm directly:

• Whether it accepts the proposed private instruction

• Whether the item or species can be tested

• The sample size and method required

• Whether testing will be destructive or non-destructive

• The current fee

• VAT

• Insured shipping or courier costs

• Turnaround time

• The format and evidential scope of any report or certificate

Specialist forensic testing can be expensive. An individual test may cost approximately £500 plus VAT and secure shipping for each item, but this is an indicative estimate only and is not a fixed quotation from OnlineSikhStore Ltd or SASA. The customer must obtain and accept the laboratory’s current written quotation before proceeding.

A customer who wants testing must contact us before purchase or before sending, sampling or altering an item. No sample should be removed and no item should be sent to a laboratory without prior written agreement if the customer wishes to preserve any voluntary return option.

Some animal-derived products and species may be subject to wildlife-trade, customs, import, export or commercial-use controls. Availability, international shipping and documentation may therefore vary by product, species and destination.

🔥 23. No Burning, Scratching, Filing or Homemade Authenticity Experiments

Customers must not rely on social-media videos or improvised home experiments to test authenticity.

Do not subject a natural tooth, tusk, horn, bone or other product to:

• Fire or a naked flame

• Burning or scorching

• A heated needle or hot-metal test

• Excessive heat

• Scratching or gouging

• Filing

• Grinding

• Sanding

• Drilling

• Cutting or sawing

• Chipping or snapping

• Chemical or solvent testing

• Acid, bleach or cleaning-fluid testing

• Polishing that removes material

• Removal of a sample, fragment or powder

• Any other destructive, invasive or irreversible experiment

These actions can permanently damage the product, remove identifying natural features, contaminate a sample and reduce or destroy its resale value.

An item subjected to any such test will not be accepted as an unused or change-of-mind return under our voluntary policy. Damage caused by a customer’s experiment is not a manufacturing defect.

Any refund or return outcome may take account of the actual diminished value caused by the experiment or alteration. Where the product has been consumed, materially altered or rendered incapable of being returned in its supplied condition, the loss in value may be substantial.

If you have doubts about authenticity, material or species, stop using the item and contact us before carrying out any test. We will explain the information available and the appropriate route for professional independent testing.

✍️ 24. Customised and Personalised Products

Products genuinely made or altered to an individual customer’s specification may not qualify for a change-of-mind return.

Examples include:

• Engraved products

• Personalised printing

• Individually altered products

• Customer-selected made-to-order specifications

• Products permanently resized or modified at the customer’s request

This does not remove remedies where a customised product was genuinely faulty, incorrect or materially misdescribed when supplied.

📦 25. Damage During Return Transit

Customers are responsible for packaging a return securely.

We recommend:

• ✔ Strong and appropriate protective packaging

• ✔ Separate protection for sharp, heavy or fragile components

• ✔ Tracked postage for valuable goods

• ✔ Adequate insurance for high-value goods

• ✔ Keeping proof of posting and photographs of the packed return

If a product is damaged because it was inadequately packed for return transit, the resulting reduction in value may affect the refund.

🎥 26. Return Inspection and CCTV

For fraud prevention, staff safety, security and dispute resolution, returned parcels are opened and inspected in a CCTV-covered area.

This helps establish:

• The parcel’s contents

• The product’s condition

• Missing gifts, accessories or components

• Substituted products

• Damage visible on opening

• Signs of wear, use, alteration or destructive testing

• Whether a radio or TF card has been modified

CCTV footage and personal data are handled under our applicable privacy and data-protection procedures.

🛡️ 27. Fraud Prevention and Deliberate Misuse

We reserve the right to investigate where there is reasonable evidence that:

• A different item has been returned

• Parts, gifts or accessories are missing

• A product has been deliberately damaged

• A complimentary product has been retained improperly

• Identifying features do not match the dispatched product

• Digital media has been reformatted, modified or substituted

• An animal-derived item has been subjected to destructive testing

• False or misleading information has been supplied

• A return is connected with repeated policy misuse

Where fraud or deliberate misuse is reasonably suspected, we may refuse a voluntary return, restrict future transactions, preserve relevant records and provide evidence to the marketplace, payment provider, carrier, insurer or relevant authority.

💳 28. Chargebacks and Payment Disputes

We encourage customers to contact us first so that we have an opportunity to investigate and resolve a genuine issue.

If a chargeback or payment dispute is raised, we may provide relevant evidence including:

• Proof of dispatch

• Proof of delivery

• Order details

• Product listing information

• Measurements and product photographs

• Customer communication

• Final quality-control records

• Return-inspection records

• Technical inspection results

• CCTV evidence

• Supplier or provenance information

• Serial, identifying or natural-feature comparisons

Unfounded claims may be contested.

💬 29. Communication and Customer Conduct

Customer Support Hours

Monday–Friday
9:00 AM–5:00 PM UK time

Weekend and public-holiday enquiries are normally answered on the next working day.

🙏 We treat customers politely and respectfully and ask customers to show the same courtesy to our staff.

Threatening, abusive, discriminatory, defamatory or persistently harassing communication will not be tolerated.

Where necessary, communication may be limited to written correspondence so that an accurate record can be maintained.

🚪 30. No Cold Calling – Appointment Only

Our Rochester address is an office, administration, customer-query and authorised return-processing address. Our stock is held separately, and we operate separate office, dispatch and storage arrangements.

We cannot accommodate:

• 🚫 Unscheduled visits

• 🚫 Doorstep returns

• 🚫 Cold calling

• 🚫 Unarranged collections

• 🚫 Unarranged exchanges

All appointments must be confirmed in advance.

📧 info@onlinesikhstore.com
📱 +44 7883 024604

💙 31. Why This Policy Matters

We operate on modest profit margins because our aim is to keep Sikh religious, cultural and everyday products affordable for the Sangat.

Every unnecessary return, repeated size exchange, incomplete return or altered product can create costs including:

• 📮 Postage

• 🌍 Customs duty and tariffs

• 📦 Packaging

• 🧾 Administration

• 🔍 Inspection and technical testing

• 🏷️ Repacking, restocking and relabelling

• ⏱️ Staff time

• 🚗 Collection or delivery of stock from storage to our office for fulfilment

• 🚚 Transport or delivery of accepted returned stock from our office back to storage

• 🗂️ Storage intake, stock-location and inventory updates

• 💳 Payment and marketplace processing

• 📉 Loss of product value

These costs eventually contribute to higher retail prices.

By choosing carefully, measuring correctly, contacting us before purchase when uncertain and following our return process, customers help us continue offering products at fair and affordable prices for individuals and families.

🙏 We sincerely appreciate your cooperation and support.

⚠️ Final Legal Priority Notice

This policy sets out OnlineSikhStore Ltd’s operational and additional voluntary arrangements for cancellations, returns, exchanges, refunds, return postage, inspection, restocking and customer conduct.

For eligible UK distance-sale transactions, mandatory cancellation and return rights apply according to current law, including the applicable cancellation period and any recognised exclusions. Marketplace-specific mandatory rules also continue to apply.

Nothing in this policy excludes or restricts statutory consumer rights that cannot legally be excluded. Where applicable law or a mandatory marketplace rule gives a customer greater protection, that protection takes priority. Any no-cancellation statement, condition, refusal, return-postage responsibility, cost allocation, restocking charge or deduction in this policy applies only where legally permitted. The up-to-25% restocking and administration deduction applies only to qualifying non-fault returns accepted under our voluntary arrangements and will not be used where mandatory law prohibits it.

Customers may consult current official consumer-law and marketplace guidance for further information relevant to their transaction.

🙏 Thank you for supporting OnlineSikhStore Ltd and helping us continue serving the Sangat.

Stay blessed!

OnlineSikhStore Ltd. Team