A customer wrote on a Friday evening that they were cancelling the order, and the money only reached their account three weeks later. Between those two sentences sit two different deadlines: 14 days in which a consumer can change their mind without giving a reason, and 14 days in which you must give the money back — counted from a completely different moment. Mixing up these two deadlines is the most common way a small online store ends up late, usually finding out only from a complaint or a message from the consumer protection office.
This page separates the two deadlines, walks through the return process step by step without guessing, and explains where and how to show your return policy in Google — in Merchant Center and in structured data on the product page. At the end is a scenario for how the same process could run through automation instead of manually watching a calendar.
14 days to withdraw from the contract
Under the Polish consumer rights act, a consumer who entered into a distance contract may withdraw from it within 14 days without giving a reason and without bearing costs, with exceptions specified in the act (Polish consumer rights act, Art. 27(1)). This deadline runs from delivery of the goods and ends with the withdrawal statement — sending the parcel back on its own isn't yet that statement, though in practice the two often happen together.
When the deadline actually ends
What counts is the date the withdrawal statement was made, not the date the parcel physically arrives back at your warehouse. A customer who wrote about withdrawing on day 13 and only then started packing the parcel made the deadline — even if the shipment itself arrives a week later.
14 days to refund — counted from a different event
The second deadline — 14 days to refund the money — is counted from a completely different event than the first. Under the same act, a business must, without delay and no later than within 14 days from the day it receives the consumer's withdrawal statement, return all payments made by the consumer, including delivery costs (Polish consumer rights act, Art. 32(1)). That means the refund clock starts ticking on the day the statement reached you — by email, through a form or otherwise — not on the day you get the goods back. Further detail, including conditions for withholding the refund until the goods are returned, is set out in Art. 32–34 of the act — worth checking a specific case with a lawyer.
Withdrawal is not a complaint
These two processes often blend together in one inbox, even though they run on different deadlines and different rules. Withdrawal — described above — needs no reason and applies for 14 days from delivery. A complaint concerns goods that don't conform to the contract and follows a completely different timeline and a different deadline for the seller's response than withdrawal does. Telling the two labels apart already at intake — "this is a withdrawal" or "this is a complaint" — decides which clock starts running and what you can expect from the customer.
The return process, step by step
Whether the statement arrives by email, through a website form or in a messenger conversation, it's worth running it through the same path:
- 01Customer statement
- →02date of receipt logged
- →03refund deadline counted
- →04order status changed to refunded
- →05confirmation sent to the customer
The date the statement was received is the only number that determines whether you'll make the 14 days — so it, not the date the parcel comes back, should be the first thing logged. In WooCommerce this stage ends with a status change: Refunded means an admin or shop manager has fully refunded the order's value (WooCommerce documentation, order statuses).
What to log for every withdrawal request
Four things without which it's easy to lose track of a deadline or mix up an order:
- The date the withdrawal statement was received — not the date the parcel arrives.
- The order number and the payment method used (refunds go back the same way).
- How the goods are being returned — is the customer sending the parcel, or has it already arrived.
- The refund deadline, calculated automatically as the statement date plus 14 days.
3 / 20 = 0.15, or 15% of that month's returns falling outside the statutory deadline.The fraction itself is illustrative — yours depends on how many people track deadlines, and how.
Return policy in Merchant Center
If a store shows products in Google through free listings or Shopping ads, Merchant Center lets you set out your return and refund rules, including a return window in days. Google states directly that return policy is a key factor for people making a purchasing decision, and showing it on ads, listings and in Gmail may help performance (Merchant Center Help, return policy). That's Google's own stated position, not an independent study — treat it as a reason to actually fill in the policy, not as a guarantee of a specific sales increase.
A fixed number of days, or lifetime
Merchant Center configuration lets you choose the number of days a customer has to return a product, or set a lifetime window, and temporarily extend it for holidays or sales (Merchant Center Help, return policy). That same number of days should match what's actually written in your store's terms — a mismatch between Merchant Center and your terms is a straightforward path to a "the site said something different" complaint.
MerchantReturnPolicy structured data
Separately from Merchant Center, a product page can carry structured data describing the return policy: country, policy category, merchantReturnDays (the number of days), the return method and who covers its cost (Google Search Central, return policy structured data). This is a piece of code on the page, not a separate panel to fill in by hand — it's usually added by whoever builds the store or the developer implementing it.
Who usually adds this code
In practice, this piece of structured data lands on the page along with the rest of the product page template — added by a technical person during setup or an update, not by whoever handles day-to-day order processing. So changing the number of days in your terms won't update this code on its own — that has to be done separately.
Three places carry the same number, and they tend to drift apart once someone changes one without remembering the others:
| Where the policy is described | What to put there | Who usually updates it |
|---|---|---|
| Store terms | Full description of the deadline and return procedure | Owner or lawyer |
| Merchant Center | Return window in days, return method | Whoever runs the Merchant Center account |
| Structured data on the page | merchantReturnDays, country, category | Developer or the agency implementing the store |
Do it yourself: a returns log and a three-way check
Before anyone builds automation for you, the same process can be run by hand:
- Log the date each withdrawal statement was received separately from the date the parcel arrives.
- Keep a returns log with two deadlines: 14 days to withdraw counted from delivery, and 14 days to refund counted from the statement.
- Prepare one confirmation template you send the customer right after logging the statement.
- Once a quarter, check that the number of days in your terms, in Merchant Center and in the structured data on the page all match.
- Change the order status right after the refund actually happens, not before and not after.
The same habit of checking several places at once, only for invoices and KSeF, is covered in invoicing automation and KSeF.
When a system runs the returns process
The same process can run without manually watching a calendar:
- 01Customer statement
- →02logged with a date
- →03refund deadline calculated
- →04reminder before the deadline
- →05order status changed
- →06email sent to the customer
A system doesn't replace the legal judgement of whether a given request counts as a withdrawal, a complaint or something else — that's still a human decision, ideally backed by a lawyer in unclear cases. What the system does is keep track of dates and pass the task along before the deadline runs out.
At Aura, this process runs through Online Stores together with CRM and automations: the request lands in one place, tasks with a deadline and an assigned person (Tasks) keep watch on the 14-day window, and the confirmation to the customer goes out as one of the Automatic messages. When order data lives across several systems at once — store, payments, spreadsheet — keeping it consistent is a job for integrations between systems (Integrations). The same one-queue-instead-of-several-inboxes mechanism, for general inquiries, is covered in query handling automation. Where customer data physically ends up in a process like this is covered in automation and GDPR, and the limits of what can be handed to a system in process automation.
Frequently asked questions
When does the 14-day refund deadline start?
From the day the customer's withdrawal statement reached you — by email, through a form, or however else they contacted you. Not from the day you get the goods back.
Can I hold off the refund until I receive the goods back?
The consumer rights act sets out detailed rules on this in Art. 32–34 — the specific conditions and exceptions are best checked with a lawyer or whoever handles compliance for your store, since they depend on the circumstances of the transaction.
How is withdrawal different from a complaint?
Withdrawal needs no reason and applies for 14 days from delivery of the goods. A complaint concerns goods that don't conform to the contract and has a different deadline for the seller's response than withdrawal does.
What return window should I set in Merchant Center?
The number of days you actually offer customers in your store's terms — the same number that appears in the structured data on the product page. A mismatch between these two leads to disputes over which version applies.
What is MerchantReturnPolicy structured data?
It's a piece of code on the page that describes the return policy in a format search engines understand: country, policy category, the number of days to return (merchantReturnDays), the return method and who covers its cost.
Does a Refunded status in WooCommerce mean the money has already reached the customer?
Yes, a Refunded status means an admin or shop manager has fully refunded the order's value after payment — it's a record of a fact that should only appear once the refund has actually happened, not before.