Part three · reference
Storage, returns and exchanges
Four clocks start the day your goods are shelved. Two of them are short, one of them has three different official lengths, and all of them are easy to miss.
Four storage clocks, printed in four places
How long goods can sit in the warehouse for free is the single most contradicted fact on tomebuy.com. The home page promises sixty days of free storage, and the Tutorial and the after-sales page agree. The dedicated storage policy page says ninety days from the stored status, with a reminder email at day sixty. The help centre, answering the same question, says one hundred and eighty days with a reminder at day one hundred and fifty.
A fourth clock is separate and consistent: parcels that arrive without a matching order run sixty days from being signed for, and because nobody can be notified, they are simply destroyed at the end of it.
Plan around sixty days. If the real figure is longer you have lost nothing by shipping early; if the shortest one is the one the warehouse applies, planning around the longest costs you the goods. The storage page is explicit that expired goods are destroyed and that no further notice is given.
Extending, and what storage does not cover
Storage can be extended as a paid service, bought before the free period ends rather than after. The help centre describes it in blocks and asks for the product reference in the order notes, confirming the new expiry by message.
Two limits are written into the policy. Tomebuy takes responsibility for storing the goods, but not for their shelf life, and it gives perishable items as the example. And goods are repacked by default: original boxes are removed and contents bagged, unless the item is fragile, oversized or otherwise needs its packaging. If the box is part of what you are buying, say so in the notes before it arrives.
The return window: five days
Tomebuy runs what it calls a five-day return guarantee, sitting inside the seller's own seven-day aftersales period. The five days run from the day the goods are shelved. That is the window in which a return request can be raised at all.
To qualify, the goods must be in resalable condition, unused and unaltered, with the original tags, packaging and accessories intact. The excluded categories are the familiar ones: custom-made or personalised goods, anything opened or damaged at your request, intimate apparel, food, and second-hand items.
Where there is no fault, the cost falls on you: postage back to the seller, postage out again if the item is being replaced, and a service fee of 0.75 USD. Refunds land in your Tomebuy balance rather than returning to your card, usually seven to fifteen days after the seller confirms, and any shipping cost incurred is deducted first.
Exchanges, cancellations and the point of no return
The help centre sets the exchange window at fourteen days from the warehouse status, longer than the five-day return window. It also warns that an exchange is slow: the item goes back to the seller and a replacement comes out again, typically seven to twenty days depending on the seller, with postage on you if the fault is not theirs.
Before the goods reach the warehouse, the question is simply how far the order has gone:
| Status | What can still be done |
|---|---|
| Paid | Ask support to cancel; the money returns to your balance |
| Processing, seller has not shipped | Cancellation still usually possible |
| Mailed by the seller | Depends on the seller agreeing; return postage may be advanced and deducted |
| In the warehouse, within 5 days | Return request, subject to the seller |
| In the warehouse, within 14 days | Exchange request, subject to the seller |
| Past those windows | Tomebuy says it will still ask the seller, but the answer is usually no |
Everything on that table runs through the original seller. The agent is asking on your behalf, which is why answers take days rather than minutes.
Turn your storage date into deadlinesDecide from the photosWhy three storage figures exist