Advisory

If I do not like the coffee, can I send it back after I have opened the bag?

ALS-COFFEE-1.1-RETURN-001

This question is worth asking but is not reducible to a check a page can settle. It is published as guidance, not as a test.

Assertion

opened_consumable_return_terms is_stated true

Applicability

applies when
the product is a consumable sold to a consumer at distance
signal
any purchasable coffee product

Accepted evidence

  • shipping_policy — an explicit statement of whether an opened bag may be returned, with the window, the mechanism and the remedy
  • product_faq — the same statement attached to this product

Explicitly insufficient evidence

What does not count, and why. Published because the omission is where a check quietly becomes a claim.

  • a thirty-day returns window with no statement about opened product
    For a durable good the window is the policy; for a consumable it is half the policy, and the missing half decides every real case — you cannot know you dislike coffee without opening it.
  • "satisfaction assured" or "not happy? let us know"
    Discretionary goodwill with no window, no mechanism, no remedy and no obligation.
  • "contact us within 30 days"
    A duty to ask is not a right to a refund.
  • store credit presented as a refund
    A credit is not a return of the price paid, and where a statutory cancellation right applies it does not discharge it.
  • structured returns data asserting a window while the linked policy excludes opened goods
    The machine-readable field and the prose disagree, and a check reading only the field passes a policy that is effectively void for this category.
  • "for food safety and hygiene reasons we cannot accept returns of opened products"
    It reads as a statement of law and, for sealed shelf-stable roasted coffee sold to an EU or UK consumer, is likely wrong on both available exceptions: the coffee does not deteriorate rapidly, and the hygiene exception addresses goods sealed for health protection with a seal the bag does not carry.

Conflict rules

  • When structured data and the policy prose disagree on the window — then record both and report the disagreement; the standard does not decide which governs precedence: shipping_policy > product_faq

Discrimination

Predicted fail rate: 70-95% (predicted, not yet measured)

Almost no policy addresses the opened-bag case explicitly, which is precisely why the question matters, so the assertion would fail for nearly everyone. Published as advisory because the substantive legal reading is contested and a standard should not assert a violation it cannot establish.

For a shopper

A returns window that says nothing about opened bags leaves out the only case that arises for coffee. Where a seller cites food safety as the reason, that is often their policy rather than the law, and for sealed shelf-stable coffee an EU or UK cancellation right may still apply.

For a merchant

State plainly whether an opened bag may be returned, with the window, the mechanism and whether the remedy is money or credit, rather than relying on a generic window.

Grounding

  • EU Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU, Articles 6, 16(d) and 16(e) (legal_instrument)
    that the trader must inform the consumer of the cancellation right before the contract, and that the exceptions relied on for food cover goods liable to deteriorate rapidly and goods sealed for health protection whose seal has been broken — neither of which plainly reaches sealed shelf-stable roasted coffee