Refund policy

Changed your mind

You have 14 days from the day your parcel arrives to tell us you want to return it, and 14 more days to send it back. You do not have to give a reason.

Email symisponges@gmail.com before you post anything, so we know it is coming.

To be refunded, an item must come back unused and in its original packaging.

What we cannot take back

Two things, and both are for the same reason: hygiene.

A sponge that has been used. A natural sponge is a body product. Once it has been in water against someone's skin it cannot be sold to anyone else. Wetting a sponge to see how it feels counts as using it.

A cream that has been opened. Once the seal is broken we cannot resell it.

This is the standard exception for sealed goods that cannot be returned for health or hygiene reasons once unsealed. It applies in the EU and in the UK alike.

If a sponge is still dry and a jar is still sealed, they come back like anything else.

If it comes back worth less than it went out

You can handle a sponge the way you would across the counter: look at it, feel its weight, turn it over. That is what the law allows and we are not going to argue about it.

Beyond that is different. If something comes back worth less than it was because it was handled further than that, we refund less, by what it lost. A sponge squashed out of shape, a jar with the label peeled, a box torn open and taped shut again.

This is not a penalty we invented. A buyer is liable for the diminished value of goods handled beyond what was needed to establish their nature and how they work, and that is written into the same law that gives you the fourteen days.

What is not a fault

Every sponge is an animal that grew on the sea floor. **No two are the same shape, the same colour or the same weight.** The one that arrives will not be the one in the photograph, because there is no such thing as the one in the photograph.

Sizes are the diameter at the widest point, and a sponge is not a circle, so treat them as close rather than exact.

None of this is a defect, and none of it is a reason for a refund. It is what you are buying.

What is a fault

A sponge that tears in normal use, a jar that arrives leaking or broken, the wrong item in the box.

Send us a photograph and we will replace it or refund it in full, postage included. You have two years for a fault that was there when it arrived. That is your legal right, not our policy, and nothing here reduces it.

Postage on returns

If you changed your mind, you pay to send it back. If it was our mistake or the item was faulty, we pay. Send us the receipt.

Getting your money back

We refund to the card or account you paid with, within 14 days of the parcel reaching us. Original postage is included on a full order return, at the standard rate.

Who we are

Panormitis Sponge Shop
Yialos, Symi Island, Dodecanese, Greece 85600
symisponges@gmail.com · (+30) 694 552 8965