Returns and Exchanges

A vestment that does not fit is not a finished job, and we treat it that way. This page explains what you can send back, what we will do instead of a refund where a refund makes no sense, and exactly how to start.

Before you send anything

Write to support@theclergycouture.com with your order number first. Every return is issued a return authorisation and a shipping address. A garment posted without one has no paperwork attached to it, can take weeks to trace, and may be delayed or refused at customs.

Our registered office in Wyoming is not a returns address. Parcels are not accepted there.

Stock items you have changed your mind about

You have 30 days from the day the parcel is delivered to tell us you want to return a stock item. Once you have told us, you have a further 14 days to post it.

The garment must come back unworn, unwashed, unaltered, free of scent and marks, with any tags and packaging it arrived with. A vestment that has been worn at a service cannot be resold and cannot be accepted under this section — though if it is faulty, the section below applies instead and there is no time limit on that.

Return carriage on a change-of-mind return is paid by you. We refund the price of the goods. The original outbound shipping charge is refunded only where the whole order is returned and you are exercising a statutory cancellation right.

Made-to-measure and bespoke garments

A garment cut to your measurements cannot be resold to anyone else, so it is exempt from change-of-mind returns — that is the ordinary position in consumer law across the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, and it is our position too.

What we do instead is more useful to you than a refund would be:

• If it does not fit, we alter it. Send it back and we will adjust it to the measurements. There is no charge for this and no limit on how many times we will do it, provided the measurements you gave us have not changed.
• If altering it will not save it, we remake it. At our cost.
• If we cut it to the wrong specification, that is a fault, not a fitting issue, and the section below applies in full.

The one thing we cannot absorb is a change of mind about the specification itself — a different colour, a different orphrey, a different cut from the one confirmed in writing before we began. We will always quote to change it, and the quote will be fair.

Faulty, damaged or not what you ordered

If a garment arrives damaged, has a manufacturing fault, or does not match the specification we confirmed, tell us and we will repair, remake or refund it — your choice — and we pay the postage in both directions.

Please tell us within seven days of delivery for transit damage, with photographs of the outer packaging as well as the garment; carriers reject damage claims made later than that. For a manufacturing fault that appears later — a seam that opens, braid that lifts, a lining that fails — write to us whenever it appears. We do not put an arbitrary limit on our own workmanship.

Cancelling before dispatch

You can cancel any order that has not yet been dispatched, and any made-to-measure order that we have not yet begun cutting, for a full refund. Write to us as soon as you decide. Once cloth has been cut to your measurements we can no longer refund in full, and we will tell you honestly where the work stands when you ask.

How to start a return

1. Email support@theclergycouture.com with your order number, the garment, and what is wrong. Photographs help for anything faulty.
2. We reply with a return authorisation and the address to send it to, usually within one working day.
3. Pack the garment flat or rolled, in packaging that will survive the journey, and include the authorisation.
4. Send it tracked. Keep the receipt — until it reaches us it is your parcel, and an untracked international parcel that goes missing cannot be traced.
5. Mark the customs declaration “returned goods — no commercial value”. A returned garment declared as a new sale can attract import duty on our end, which delays everything.

Refunds

We inspect returns on arrival and process the refund within three working days of receiving the garment. Refunds go to the original payment method; how quickly they appear after that is your bank's business, not ours, and usually takes a further three to ten working days.

If we cannot accept a return — a stock garment that has been worn, for instance — we will tell you why, send photographs, and post it back to you at our cost rather than keeping it.

Exchanges

Straight exchanges for a different size or colour of a stock item are welcome within the same 30 days. Tell us what you want instead when you request the authorisation and we will reserve it. You pay carriage one way; we pay it back to you.

Alterations and repairs later on

Long after the return period has closed, we will still alter, re-hem, re-line, re-braid or repair a garment we made — and, where we can, garments we did not. That work is quoted, not free, but it is quoted honestly and it is usually far cheaper than replacing a set. See caring for vestments.

Your statutory rights

Nothing on this page limits rights you have under the law of your own country. In particular, consumers in the United Kingdom and the European Union have a statutory 14-day right to cancel most distance purchases, which runs alongside — and is shorter than — the 30 days we offer voluntarily on stock items. That statutory right does not apply to goods made to your specification, which is the position we have set out above.

Who to write to

Returns and exchanges are handled by:

support@theclergycouture.com · +1 (628) 272 4411