Return & Refund Policy

Whatever has gone wrong, the first step is the same. Email care@essentialmedicine.store with your order number and a short description of the problem, and include:

• photographs, if the parcel or the product arrived damaged — the outer packaging as well as the item;
• a photograph of what you received, if it is not what you ordered;
• the tracking reference, if you have one, for anything delivery-related.

Do not post anything back to us before we reply. A parcel sent back without agreed instructions can arrive somewhere it cannot be identified, and we may not be able to link it to your order or refund it.

We send an order confirmation as soon as an order is placed. The storefront does not collect online payment at checkout, so that confirmation records the order rather than a payment. When payment is independently verified and manually recorded, the order moves to preparation. When tracking is available, it is sent by email after dispatch, and a tracking link appears on the order in your account.

Typical delivery is estimated at 15–20 days after dispatch. This is an estimate, not a guarantee, and international shipping is genuinely variable. Customs inspection, local public holidays, courier capacity, weather, and address problems can each add time.

Tracking that has not updated for a while is not by itself evidence that a parcel is lost. Scans are added when a parcel passes a checkpoint, and there can be long gaps between checkpoints on an international route.

Tell us promptly, with the order number and any reasonable supporting information we ask for. Once we have reviewed the case we may offer a replacement, a reshipment, a refund, or another resolution that fits what happened.

For a delayed order, please allow at least 30 days from the order date before asking for a refund, unless we have already confirmed the parcel is lost. That window exists because parcels do turn up after long silences, and a refunded order that then arrives is awkward for both of us.

Contact us before sending anything back. A return may be considered only when it is permitted for that product and all of the following are true:

• the item is unused and unopened;
• it is still within its expiry date;
• it is in its original, unbroken, sealed packaging, with any batch and expiry markings intact; and
• it is returned in the way and to the address our support team gives you.

Once we have confirmed a return, send it promptly and keep proof of postage. A return that arrives with a broken seal, without its outer packaging, or without the reference we gave you may not be refundable.

These limits are about safety, not about making returns difficult. Once a medicine has left our control we cannot know how it has been stored, and we will not re-sell it to someone else.

• Any product whose seal or original packaging has been opened.
• Anything used, partly used, or dispensed from its container.
• Products damaged after delivery, including damage from heat, damp, or storage.
• Temperature-sensitive products, where the cold chain cannot be verified.
• Products at or past their expiry date, or with an expiry date too close for onward supply.
• Items returned without prior agreement, which we may be unable to identify.

If a product is not right for you, the safest thing is to ask a pharmacist or another qualified healthcare professional locally how to dispose of it. Please do not send unwanted medicines back to us uninvited.

Approved refunds are arranged through an available method agreed for the order. Because payment is taken outside the website, a refund is arranged rather than reversed automatically, and the time it takes depends on the offline payment channel used and the details needed to complete it. We will tell you what we need and confirm when the refund has been sent from our side.

A refund is issued in the currency the order was paid in. Where a bank or payment channel applies its own fee or exchange rate on the way back to you, that part is outside our control.

Reply to the same email thread and say why. A second person will look at the case, and we will explain the reasoning rather than repeat the first answer. Nothing in this policy affects the statutory rights you hold where you live.

Email care@essentialmedicine.store with your order number and a clear description of the issue, or use Contact & support. The more you can tell us at the start — photographs especially — the faster this goes.