Fourteen days, and one wash rule.

The 14-day window

You have 14 calendar days from delivery to tell us a piece is coming back. The piece itself may arrive at our office later than that, as long as we have the return number issued inside the window and the parcel is on its way within 7 days of that. Write first, ship second. A carton that turns up unannounced sits unopened until we can identify it, and that delay is not a reason to refuse it.

Returns are inspected when they arrive, in daylight, against the photographs and the packing note. We confirm the outcome in writing: accepted, accepted with a deduction, or refused with a reason and photographs of what we saw.

What comes back, and what cannot

We accept a return for change of mind on cloth that is unused, unwashed, un-ironed and still in its tissue and wrap, with the care card. The piece must be folded as it arrived, free of odour, pet hair, smoke, food marks and starch, and it must not have been pressed by a laundry service. Sets are returned whole: a set of four napkins comes back as four, not three.

We cannot accept, for change of mind, linen that has been washed, soaked, tumble-dried or ironed, or that shows any use — a food or wine mark, a dye transfer, a pulled hem thread, a stretched selvedge, a candle-wax spot. Washed or ironed linen cannot be resold as new, and for table textiles a used cloth cannot be offered to another customer at all. This is a hygiene rule and a resale rule at once, and it applies whether the wash was yours or a laundry's. Cutting, hemming, embroidering or trimming a piece also ends the change-of-mind right, because the piece can no longer be sold as it was made.

Natural slubs, nubs, thicker threads, slight weave irregularity, a soft drift in the shade between two pieces of the same dye lot and the gentle surface bloom of a stonewash are properties of flax, not defects. They are not grounds for a return or a discount. Flax is a plant fibre: the slub is the fibre, and the small variations are what tell you the cloth is real rather than a printed imitation.

A genuine construction or colour failure is a different matter. If a hem or seam opens in normal use, if a mitre is stitched through so the corner cannot lie flat, if a blind hem has missed the cloth, or if a mill-dyed shade keeps releasing dye after three washes at 30 °C and stains the pieces washed with it, we remedy it by replacement or refund, including the return freight. We do not repair-and-return a hem failure on a piece you have not used: we replace it or we refund it, your choice.

The first-wash procedure

Every piece is pre-shrunk, and the first 30 °C wash should still move it a little. Before you judge the size, follow this exactly:

1. Unfold the piece and inspect it in daylight. Check the hem, the mitred corners and the size against the packing note before any water touches it. Tell us then if something is already wrong.
2. Measure it flat on the table, hem to hem, without stretching. Note the width and the length in centimetres, and keep the note.
3. Wash it alone, or with linen of the same shade, at 30 °C on a gentle cycle, 800 rpm maximum spin. No bleach, no fabric softener, no enzyme or oxygen booster, no soaking overnight. Softener coats the fibre and booster strips the shade.
4. Line dry it in the shade. Do not tumble-dry it warm; heat is the one thing that takes flax past its tolerance.
5. Let it rest bone dry for 24 hours, then measure it the same way as before, flat and unstretched.
6. Compare the two numbers. A residual move of 1.5 to 3 percent of the cut length is normal and expected; up to 4 percent can happen if the piece has been machine-dried. Beyond that, send us both measurements and a photograph of the tape on the cloth and we will treat it as a fault.

Colour has its own first-wash rule. Mill-dyed shades — Clay, Ink, Olive, Terracotta, Sand, Charcoal — can release a little loose dye in the first cold rinse. Wash those separately the first time, cold, and do not soak them. Colour-fastness is tested by the dye house to ISO 105-C06 at 40 °C with a minimum grey-scale rating of 4, which is why a second or third wash should run clear.

If it arrives stained or torn

Keep the carton, the packing material and the piece exactly as they arrived, and photograph all three — the outside of the carton showing the damage or the courier label, the inner packing, and the mark or tear on the cloth with a ruler or a coin in the frame for scale. Write to us within 3 days of delivery with those images and the order number. Do not wash, soak, spot-treat or iron the piece first: a mark that has been through a machine can no longer be attributed to transit, and we cannot claim it back from the carrier.

Transit damage is our problem, not yours. We raise the carrier claim, we pay the return freight, and you choose a replacement from the same lot or a full refund. If the lot has gone, we tell you at once and refund rather than holding your money against a mill date that may not come.

How to start a return

Email WELLAY1914@outlook.com with the order number, the SKU of each piece, the reason and photographs. We reply with a return number and the address. Put the return number on the outside of the carton and inside the parcel, and send it to RM 03, 24/F, HO KING COMMERCIAL CENTRE, 2-16 FA YUEN STREET, MONGKOK, HONG KONG.

Freight is simple. If the return is for change of mind, you pay the outward and return freight and the original shipping charge is not refunded. If the return is for a fault, a hem or seam failure, a colour-fastness failure or transit damage, we pay the return freight and refund the original shipping. Use a tracked service in both cases: a parcel that goes missing in transit without tracking cannot be refunded, because we cannot prove either side's story.

Refunds go back to the original payment method — the bank account or the card that paid the invoice — within 10 working days of the piece passing inspection. We refund in US dollars; any difference caused by your bank's exchange rate on the day is outside our control. If you would rather have an exchange, say so in the first email: a swap is usually faster than a refund, and if the replacement costs less we refund the difference, if it costs more we send a short invoice.

Cut-to-size, monogrammed and made-to-order

Cut-to-size cloths, monogrammed napkins and any piece woven or dyed to a specified shade are made to your instruction and cannot be returned for change of mind once the blade has cut the cloth or the needle has set the first stitch. That is the point at which the goods stop being ours. Before cutting, we send the length, the hem width and the corner treatment in writing, and for a monogram we send a stitch-out proof: the letters, the thread shade and the placement. Approve that proof in writing and the order proceeds; if we cut or stitch something different from the approved proof, it is our error and it is replaced or refunded in full.

Cooling-off, warranty and refused parcels

If you are a consumer in the European Union or the United Kingdom buying at a distance, you have a statutory 14-day right to withdraw from the purchase without giving a reason, starting the day the goods are delivered. The same conditions apply: the linen must be unused, unwashed and un-ironed, and cut-to-size or monogrammed pieces are excluded because they are made to your specification. Tell us in writing inside the 14 days and send the piece back within a further 14 days; we refund the price and the standard outward delivery cost, though not an upgraded or expedited shipping charge you chose.

A fault claim is not a cooling-off return and is not limited to 14 days. A hem or seam failure, a colour-fastness failure or a piece that does not match its stated size beyond the published tolerance is a warranty matter: tell us when it appears, with photographs, and we replace or refund. The distinction matters because ordinary wear, a slub, or a crease from use is not a fault, and the 14-day change-of-mind window is not a warranty period.

If a parcel is refused at customs or returned to us because duty was not paid or the address was wrong, we refund the goods value less the freight we have already paid and any charge the carrier adds for the return leg. We keep the piece for 30 days and will re-ship it once the outstanding charges are settled, if you want it. We cannot absorb import duty that was yours to pay under the terms of sale.