A complaint in an online store is standard. Every seller, no matter how carefully they pack orders or how good their products are, will sooner or later receive one. The question is not will it happen but do I have the legal basis to handle it on my own terms. That is where your terms and conditions come in. And that is where most stores' mistakes surface. Many WooCommerce terms contain incorrect complaint information – copied from old templates, non-compliant with current law or simply incomplete.
Contents
Complaint vs. cancellation – two different rights
- Right of withdrawal – 14 days from receiving the goods, without giving a reason. Applies to online purchases. The terms cannot exclude this right.
- Complaint under statutory warranty – 2 years from delivery, covers physical or legal defects. The consumer can request repair, replacement, price reduction or cancellation.
Both of these rights must be described in your terms and conditions. Separately and precisely.
What must your terms include on complaints?
- Basis for complaints – statutory warranty for physical and legal defects. The customer has 2 years to file a complaint.
- How to file a complaint – email address, form on the site, postal address.
- Response time – 14 days to respond. If you do not reply, the complaint is automatically considered valid under law.
- Possible resolutions – repair, replacement, price reduction, cancellation.
- Information about out-of-court dispute resolution – mediation or the EU ODR platform.
Most common errors in WooCommerce complaint procedures
- Requiring goods to be returned in original packaging as a condition for a complaint – an unfair clause.
- Shortening the warranty period below 2 years – unlawful in B2C relationships.
- No information about the complaint response deadline.
- No complaint procedure at all.
- Incorrect information about the basis for complaints.
How can WooCommerce help with complaint handling?
WooCommerce itself offers limited complaint management functionality. Plugins like Flexible Returns for WooCommerce allow you to configure a complaint submission form, manage claim statuses and communicate with the customer directly from the store dashboard.
With the Right to Repair update, three separate form types are available: return, complaint and repair. But the form is one layer. The legal documentation is another. Both must be consistent – the procedure in your terms and the technical implementation in your store.
Something is coming – stay tuned
We are building a tool that takes care of your store's legal documentation automatically – tailored to your business, always up to date with the law. Stay tuned.
