Returns operations
Returns quality control: the evidence to keep.
A grade on a screen is only useful if someone can check it later. This is what the record should hold, and who decides.
General information, not legal advice. EU directives apply through national law, which can differ, so confirm your own duties with an adviser.
Evidence in returns quality control
A customer disputes a deduction. A supplier disputes a defect rate. Your own team asks why a jacket graded as new came back again. In each case someone opens the record and finds either something they can use or a single word typed three weeks ago by a person nobody can identify.
What the record has to prove
Before you design a form, decide what it is for. A returns record usually has three jobs.
- A stock decision: can this unit be sold again, and in what condition?
- A claim against someone else: a supplier defect, or damage in transit.
- The seller's own decision towards the consumer: what came back, when, and in what state, as input for a decision the seller takes.
Roles: who grades and who decides
Mixing these up causes many disputes. A warehouse can say what it found. It should not be deciding what that finding means for your customer.
| Task | Warehouse | Seller |
|---|---|---|
| Writing the grading scale | Says whether the wording can be applied at the bench | Owns it |
| Applying the scale to an item | Does it and records the result | Reviews samples and borderline cases |
| Photographs | Takes them as the procedure requires | Decides what the procedure requires |
| Refund, deduction, contact with the customer | Supplies the facts | Decides and communicates |
| What happens to the goods | Routes by the written rule, flags what it does not cover | Writes the rule, decides exceptions |
A returns grading scale you can check
This is an illustrative form, not a recommendation for your products. The scale is yours to define. What matters is that each grade names something visible, the evidence it needs and who owns the next step.
| Grade (example) | Visible criteria | Evidence | Stock status | Who decides next |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A: resaleable as new | Seal or tags intact, original packaging, complete | SKU confirmed and matched to the order or RMA | Available after the check | The procedure |
| B: open, as new | Complete, no marks of use, packaging disturbed | Condition note, photographs if required | Held until repacked | The procedure |
| C: marks of use or damage | Listed defects, missing parts | Photographs of defects, condition note | Quarantine | The seller |
| D: not what was shipped | Different item, wrong serial, empty box | Photographs, weight if taken, exception flag | Held apart from sale stock | The seller |
Photo protocol: what to shoot, and from where
A photograph that does not show which item it belongs to has little value. Write the shot list into the procedure so it stays the same across people and shifts, and ask for only as much as the item's value justifies.
- The outer carton before opening, when transport damage is visible.
- The label or reference that links the parcel to the return.
- The contents as found, before anything is moved.
- A close-up of each defect, with something for scale if size matters.
- The serial or lot number, if you track it.
Shipping labels show names and addresses. Keep them out of the frame where the shot does not need them, and restrict who can see the photographs. How long to keep them is a decision for your procedure: ask your adviser about the retention period.
Audit trail: the fields in each record
- SKU, and serial or lot number where tracked.
- Order or RMA reference, or a flag saying there is none.
- Date of receipt and date of inspection.
- Operator who made the assessment.
- Grade, and the version of the scale it was given under.
- Links to photographs.
- Location the item went to, and resulting stock status.
- Any later change: what changed, who changed it, when.
Evidence and diminished value: the legal layer
This is the point where a warehouse record meets consumer law. This summarises EU rules, which apply through national law. Treat it as a map, and confirm the details for your countries.
- Under Directive 2011/83/EU, the consumer is liable only for diminished value resulting from handling beyond what is necessary to establish the nature, characteristics and functioning of the goods (Article 14(2)).
- The consumer is in any event not liable for diminished value where the trader failed to give notice of the right of withdrawal under Article 6(1)(h) (Article 14(2)).
- Unless the trader offered to collect the goods, the trader may withhold the refund until the goods are received or the consumer supplies evidence of having sent them back, whichever comes first (Article 13(3)). A completed inspection is not listed there.
- Sealed goods not suitable for return for health protection or hygiene reasons, and unsealed after delivery, are among the exceptions to the right of withdrawal (Article 16(e)).
The wider split between consumer duties and the fate of the goods is covered in who decides what on a return.
Keeping grades consistent
- Reference photographs for borderline cases, next to the written criteria.
- Periodic rechecks of a sample by a second person.
- A route back to the seller when two people disagree, instead of a private compromise.
- A version number on the scale, so an old grade can be read against the rules of its day.
Common failures in returns evidence
- A grade with no photograph, where the procedure asked for one.
- A photograph not linked to an item, sitting in a shared folder.
- A status changed with no name against it.
- A slow inspection queue that runs past your refund deadlines.
- Grades that drift because the scale was explained once and never checked.
How ShipRevo handles this
Sources
Updated: 2026-11-01
Next step
Send us your scale, or tell us what it lacks.
Tell us what comes back and what you need your records to show. We will tell you what we can record at the returns desk.