How to Handle Refunds & Returns as a Reseller in Pakistan

When a customer asks for their money back, reply the same day, ask for a photo of the item and its packaging, then pick one of three outcomes: replace it, refund it, or politely explain why neither applies. Most returns end quietly when the first reply is fast and the rule you apply was written down before the parcel shipped.

The whole process, short:

• Answer within hours. Silence turns a return into a public complaint.
• Ask for evidence — a photo or a ten-second video.
• Replace anything wrong, broken or faulty. That cost is yours.
• Refund once the item is back, or as your platform's policy says.
• Decline change-of-mind returns on used items — if you said so before the sale.

Parcels refused at the door are a different problem: see reducing COD returns (RTO) and measuring your COD return rate.

Write the returns policy before you need it

Almost every ugly return argument happens because the seller made the rule up mid-argument. Decide once, in writing, and the hard conversations get short. A workable policy answers six questions and nothing more:

• How long does the buyer have? Count from delivery, not from order. Pick a window you can honestly service — small sellers usually land somewhere between three and seven days.
• What condition does the item have to be in? Unused, with the packaging and any tags still on it, is the normal line.
• What is excluded? Innerwear, cosmetics that have been opened, made-to-order and personalised items, perishable goods. Say it upfront, not afterwards.
• Who pays the return delivery? You, when the fault is yours. The buyer, when they simply changed their mind.
• Replacement or refund? State which one you offer first.
• How fast is the money back? Give a number of days you can actually hit, then beat it.

Example policy (a template to adapt, not a legal document): "Return or exchange within 5 days of delivery. Item must be unused with its packaging. If we sent the wrong or damaged item, we pay the return delivery and send a replacement. Change of mind: return delivery is on you. Refunds are transferred within 3 working days of the item reaching us. Innerwear and opened cosmetics cannot be returned."

Then do the part most sellers skip: paste those lines into the chat before you confirm the order, and keep them in your page bio or a pinned highlight. A policy the customer never saw is not a policy, it is an excuse you produce later. Stating it upfront also does the work described in building customer trust when selling online — buyers read a clear return rule as confidence, not as a warning.

The four returns you will actually get

Treat them differently. The mistake is having one response for all four.

• Damaged in transit. Glass cracked, bottle leaked, box crushed. Your fault in the buyer's eyes whatever the courier did. Replace it, pay both legs, and fix the packing that allowed it.
• Wrong item, size or colour. A picking mistake. Replace it and arrange the collection yourself — never make the buyer do the running for your error.
• Faulty or not working. Common in gadgets and electronics. Ask for a short video of the problem, then replace or refund. Do not send the same unit back out to somebody else.
• Change of mind. Wrong size ordered, looks different in real life, family said no. This is the one your written policy actually governs. Offer an exchange first, refund if the item comes back unused, decline if it has clearly been worn or used.

Sort every message into one of those four before you type a reply. The first three cost you money and you take that hit without argument. The fourth is the only one where the policy does the talking.

The first reply decides everything

The customer is already annoyed. You are not going to argue them out of it, and one defensive sentence turns a return into a review screenshot on somebody's WhatsApp status. Acknowledge, ask for the photo, then decide.

Message 1 — the acknowledgement (send this within the hour): "Bohat sorry — ye nahi hona chahiye tha. Item aur packing ki ek photo bhej dein, main abhi dekh kar aap ko batata hoon."

Message 2 — when the fault is yours: "Photo dekh li. Ye humari ghalti hai. Replacement aaj dispatch kar raha hoon, aur rider purana parcel aap se le lega — aap ko kuch extra nahi dena."

Message 3 — when it is change of mind, inside your window: "Exchange ho sakta hai — item unused aur packing ke saath wapas bhej dein. Return delivery charge aap ka hoga, jo order confirm karte waqt bataya tha. Ya doosra size bhej dun?"

Message 4 — when you have to say no: "Main madad karna chahta hoon, lekin item use ho chuka hai, aur used items par return policy allow nahi karti. Agar koi fault hai to video bhej dein, wo alag case hai aur main wo zaroor dekhunga."

Three things to never send: "policy is policy", a reply that arrives two days later, and a paragraph blaming the courier. The buyer bought from you, not from the courier.

How a refund works when the order was cash on delivery

This is where COD selling differs from card payments, and where new resellers get stuck. There is no "reverse the payment" button. The cash has already moved — from the buyer to the rider, then to you through the courier's remittance or your platform payout — so a refund is money going back out of your account.

The safe sequence:

• Get the item back first for anything of real value. Refunding on a promise is how sellers lose both the product and the money.
• Take the payout details in writing — the wallet or bank number and the account name, sent by the buyer in the chat.
• Check the name matches the person you delivered to before you send anything.
• Send the transfer, then send the screenshot into the same chat. It ends the "paise nahi aaye" round of messages.
• Write it in your log the same day: order number, amount, reason, date.

Decide in advance whether your refund includes the delivery charge. Sellers who own the mistake usually refund the full door amount; for a change-of-mind return, the delivery that has already been spent normally stays spent. Whichever you choose, it has to match what your policy says — and if you are still unsure who carries that cost in the first place, who pays delivery charges in dropshipping sets out the options.

If the order came through a platform, settle it inside the platform. Raise the return from the order screen so the record, the payout and the refund all match. Side deals arranged on WhatsApp are exactly the ones that go wrong two weeks later when nobody can prove what was agreed.

Offer the exchange before you offer the money

A refund ends the relationship. An exchange keeps the sale, keeps the customer and keeps your cash. Put it first in every reply where the buyer has not already demanded their money back.

• Same product, different size or colour — the easiest save, and usually what the buyer actually wants.
• A different product of the same value — works well when you carry a wide catalogue.
• Store credit for the next order — only worth offering if you genuinely have repeat buyers.

Say it once, gently, and drop it if they say no. Pushing an exchange on someone who has asked twice for a refund is how you earn the review you were trying to avoid. A buyer whose complaint was handled cleanly often orders again — that is the mechanism behind getting repeat customers when selling online.

When the fault is the supplier's, not yours

Handle the customer first, then go after the supplier. Never make the buyer wait for your supplier dispute to resolve — they do not know your supplier exists.

What makes a supplier claim stick:

• Photos of the item and the sealed parcel taken before dispatch, with the date visible in your gallery.
• The buyer's photos of what arrived.
• Your order number and the date it was received from the supplier.
• The claim raised inside the supplier's window, which is usually short.

How much of that loss lands on you depends on the model you sell under. If you bought a carton upfront, faulty units are your stock and your problem. If you order each unit after a customer buys it, there is no carton to be stuck with. That is the difference the Markaz dropshipping portal makes: no minimum order quantity, delivery and the COD collection handled for you, and returns handled inside the platform's return window and buyer protection rather than by you negotiating with a wholesaler you met on Facebook. The terms of that model are laid out in the Markaz reseller programme.

Imported stock deserves its own sentence in your policy. Products coming in from China take roughly 10–17 days to land, against 3–5 days for local delivery inside Pakistan, so a replacement for an imported item is not a same-week promise. If you sell from the Markaz China catalogue, tell the buyer that lead time honestly at the point of sale. Nobody minds waiting for what they were told they would wait for.

Proof: the five minutes that ends most disputes

Disputes are not decided by who is right. They are decided by who has a record.

• Photograph the item next to the packed parcel before it is sealed.
• Take a short video while sealing higher-value orders. Ten seconds is enough.
• Keep the chat. Confirmations in writing, not on calls — "aap ne phone par kaha tha" is unanswerable.
• Save the tracking and the delivery confirmation until the return window has closed.

This is what protects you against the two claims that cannot otherwise be settled: "the box was empty" and "you sent me a used one". It also tells you honestly whether the damage happened at your table or on the road, which decides whether the fix is better packing or a different courier. Packaging for small online sellers in Pakistan covers what a COD parcel has to survive.

Keep a returns log

One sheet, six columns, filled in the day it happens: date, order number, product, reason in the buyer's own words, outcome (replaced, refunded, declined), and what it cost you.

The reason column is the valuable one. Read it once a month and the pattern is usually embarrassingly clear: one supplier's item accounts for half the complaints, or one listing's photos flatter the product, or one size runs small and every buyer says so. Two or three fixes there remove more returns than any amount of arguing at the door. COD return rates in Pakistan explains how to turn that sheet into a rate you can actually track month to month.

What a return really costs you

Work it out for your own business rather than guessing — the number decides how much returns cushion your pricing needs. A single return can carry:

• the delivery charge out,
• the return delivery back,
• the packaging, which never survives the round trip,
• your time in the chat,
• the lost margin if the item comes back opened and has to go out cheaper,
• and the advertising money that won the sale in the first place.

Put your own courier's rates into those lines and you get a real per-return figure. It is usually larger than sellers assume — which is the argument for spending the effort on the listing and the confirmation call instead.

Six mistakes that turn a return into a lost customer

• Going quiet. The single most damaging thing you can do. Answer even when you do not have the answer yet.
• Arguing before you have seen the photo. Ask, look, then decide.
• Quoting a policy the buyer was never shown. If it was not in the chat before the sale, you cannot lean on it now.
• Refunding to an unverified number. Confirm the account name against the delivery name.
• Blaming the courier. True or not, it reads as an excuse.
• Keeping no record. No log, no pattern, and the same return arrives again next month.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to accept returns at all?

In practice you are held to two things: what you promised the buyer in writing, and the policy of the platform or marketplace you sell on. If you sell through a platform, its return window and buyer-protection rules decide the outcome, so read those terms rather than relying on what other sellers tell you. Selling with no stated policy at all is the worst position — you end up negotiating every case from scratch.

Who pays the return delivery charge?

The normal split, and the one buyers accept without argument: you pay when the item was wrong, damaged or faulty; the buyer pays when they changed their mind. Write that line into your policy so it is settled before anyone needs it.

Should I refund before the product comes back?

Generally no. Wait for the item, check it, then transfer. The exception is a low-value product where the return delivery would cost more than the item — there, refunding and letting the buyer keep it is often the cheaper and friendlier outcome.

What if the customer used the product and then asked to return it?

Used goods sit outside a change-of-mind return, and you can decline — politely, and only if your policy said so before the sale. A genuine fault is a separate case: ask for a video of the problem and treat it as faulty, not as change of mind.

How long should my return window be?

Long enough that the buyer trusts you, short enough that you are not accepting returns a month later. Counted from delivery rather than from order, so slow courier days do not eat the buyer's window. Consistency matters more than the exact number of days.

The customer refused the parcel at the door — is that a return?

No, that is return-to-origin, and it is a delivery problem rather than a refund problem. Nobody has paid, so nobody needs a refund; what you lost is both delivery legs. Reducing COD returns is where that one gets fixed, mostly at the confirmation call.

Will a clear returns policy make people return more?

It has not worked that way for most sellers. A visible policy pulls in buyers who were hesitating, and it removes the disputes that come from unstated expectations. What raises returns is an overpromising listing, not an honest policy.

How do returns work if I sell on Markaz?

Delivery and the cash-on-delivery collection sit with the platform, so a return follows the platform's return window and buyer-protection policy rather than you arranging a courier pickup yourself. Raise it from the order in the app so the record and the payout match. Your job stays the same: answer the buyer quickly, and keep the listing honest enough that the return never starts. The COD dropshipping guide covers how the order flow works end to end.