Requirements governing returns, refunds, exchanges, damaged products and cancellations.
At ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE, we want our customers to have a positive experience while maintaining strict product-quality, safety, and inventory-control standards.
Because ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE products are consumable dietary supplements, we have specific requirements governing returns, refunds, exchanges, damaged products, and customer-initiated cancellations.
This Return & Refund Policy applies to purchases made directly through the ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE website unless a different written policy expressly applies.
Nothing in this policy is intended to limit or exclude any consumer rights or remedies that cannot legally be limited or excluded.
Unless otherwise required by applicable law, eligible returns must satisfy all applicable requirements below:
ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE reserves the right to inspect returned products before issuing a refund.
A return that does not satisfy these requirements may be refused or may qualify for a reduced or no refund, to the extent permitted by applicable law.
ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE sells dietary supplements intended for human consumption.
For health, safety, quality-control, and product-integrity reasons, opened, used, partially consumed, or unsealed dietary supplements generally are not eligible for return or refund. This restriction does not apply where applicable law provides a non-waivable right or where ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE determines that a refund or replacement is appropriate because the product was defective, damaged, incorrectly shipped, or otherwise attributable to ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE.
Customers should not return an opened or potentially contaminated product unless ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE specifically instructs them to do so.
If ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE is responsible for the problem with an order, we will work with the customer to provide an appropriate remedy.
Examples include:
Where appropriate, ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE may provide:
When a return is required because of an error attributable to ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE, we will not charge the customer for reasonable standard return shipping or replacement shipping associated with correcting that error.
A return that is not caused by an error, defect, damage, or other issue attributable to ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE is considered a customer-initiated return.
Examples include:
For eligible customer-initiated returns, the customer is responsible for applicable costs associated with the original order and return, to the extent permitted by applicable law.
For an eligible customer-initiated return, the refund may be reduced by actual, reasonable, documented, and legally permissible costs incurred by ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE in connection with the original order, return, inspection, processing, and refund.
Depending on the circumstances, these costs may include:
SUBSTANCE;
ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE will not deduct costs that are prohibited by applicable law.
ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE may offer free standard shipping as a promotional benefit.
Free shipping means that ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE may choose to pay the shipping charge on behalf of the customer at the time the order is shipped. It does not mean that ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE incurs no shipping expense. If a customer initiates an otherwise eligible return for a reason unrelated to an error or defect attributable to ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE, the actual cost of the original outbound shipping may be deducted from the refund where permitted by applicable law.
This applies even when the customer originally received free shipping.
ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE may modify, restrict, suspend, or discontinue free-shipping promotions at any time.
For a customer-initiated return, the refund will generally be calculated as follows:
The amount refunded will never exceed the amount actually paid for the eligible returned product and applicable refundable charges.
Where required by applicable law, different refund rules may apply.
For illustration only, assume a customer pays $49.99 for a product and receives free shipping.
ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE incurs an actual outbound shipping cost of $8.00.
The customer later requests an eligible return because they changed their mind.
If the customer is responsible for return shipping and ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE incurs additional reasonable costs associated with processing the return, the refund may be reduced by those applicable costs.
Accordingly, the customer should not assume that an order advertised with "free shipping" automatically qualifies for a full refund of the original purchase price upon a customer-initiated return.
The actual refund will depend on the circumstances of the return and applicable law.
If an order contains multiple products and only some products are returned, ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE may allocate applicable shipping, promotional, handling, and other permitted costs to the returned portion of the order.
If a promotion, discount, bundle, or free-shipping qualification depended on purchasing a certain quantity or combination of products, returning part of the order may cause the original promotional pricing or benefit to no longer apply.
Where permitted by law, ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE may adjust the refund to account for the loss of the applicable promotional benefit.
Orders may occasionally include:
If a return causes the original order to no longer qualify for a promotion, ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE may recalculate the applicable discount or promotional benefit when determining the refund, to the extent permitted by applicable law.
If a free promotional product was provided as part of an order and the customer returns the qualifying product, ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE may require the promotional item to be returned or may deduct its applicable value from the refund where permitted by law.
If your product arrives damaged, contact ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE as soon as reasonably possible.
We may request photographs or other information to document the condition of the shipment.
Please retain:
until we provide further instructions. Where the damage is attributable to ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE or the carrier and a remedy is appropriate, ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE may provide a replacement, refund, or other appropriate resolution.
If ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE sends the wrong product or incorrect quantity, contact ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE promptly.
After verification, we may provide an appropriate replacement or refund.
If a return is required, ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE will generally provide reasonable standard return instructions and cover reasonable standard return shipping associated with correcting our fulfillment error.
If you believe a product is defective, contact ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE and provide the order information and a description of the issue.
We may request photographs, lot information, expiration information, packaging information, or other reasonable information necessary to investigate the issue.
Depending on the circumstances, we may provide a replacement, refund, or other appropriate remedy.
Customers are responsible for providing a complete and accurate delivery address at checkout.
If an order cannot be delivered or must be returned because the customer:
the customer may be responsible for applicable shipping, return-to-sender, handling, and reshipping costs.
If a refund is available, applicable actual, reasonable, documented, and legally permissible costs may be deducted from the refund.
If a package is refused by the customer or returned to ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE as undeliverable for a reason attributable to the customer, ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE may treat the situation as a customer-initiated return.
Any refund may be reduced by applicable costs, including:
For customer-initiated returns, the customer is generally responsible for return shipping unless ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE expressly agrees otherwise or applicable law requires otherwise.
ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE may provide a return shipping label and deduct the applicable cost from the customer's refund where permitted by law.
Customers should use the return method specified by ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE when a return authorization is required.
Eligible customer-initiated returns may be subject to reasonable restocking and handling deductions reflecting the actual costs incurred by ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE in receiving, inspecting, processing, repackaging, and returning eligible inventory to saleable condition.
Any restocking or handling deduction will be limited to amounts permitted by applicable law and will not be applied where prohibited.
When a customer places an order, ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE may incur payment-processing, marketplace, fraud-prevention, transaction, fulfillment, or other third-party charges.
Where such costs are non-refundable to ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE and applicable law permits their deduction, they may be deducted from a customer-initiated refund.
ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE will not charge customers for costs that applicable law prohibits us from passing through.
ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE may refuse a return or refund when:
Nothing in this section limits rights that cannot legally be excluded.
ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE reserves the right to investigate suspected return abuse or fraudulent activity.
Examples may include:
Where permitted by law, ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE may limit future purchases, refuse discretionary returns, cancel orders, or take other appropriate action.
Customers should contact ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE before initiating a payment dispute when the issue can reasonably be resolved through customer service.
Nothing in this section prevents a customer from exercising rights provided by applicable law or payment-network rules.
If a customer initiates a chargeback or payment dispute, ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE may provide the payment processor with relevant transaction, order, shipping, tracking, communication, and return information necessary to respond to the dispute.
Once an approved return has been received and inspected, ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE will process an applicable refund within a reasonable period.
Refunds are generally issued to the original payment method.
The time required for the refund to appear in the customer's account depends on the payment processor, bank, card issuer, or other financial institution.
ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE does not control the processing time of third-party financial institutions.
ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE may, at its discretion, offer store credit or a replacement instead of a monetary refund where permitted by applicable law.
If applicable law requires a monetary refund, ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE will comply with that requirement.
Customers should not send products to an address other than the return address or location specifically provided by ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE.
An unauthorized return does not automatically create an entitlement to a refund.
ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE may require additional information before processing an unauthorized return.
For international orders, customers may be responsible for customs duties, taxes, brokerage fees, import charges, return-to-origin charges, and other government or carrier charges.
These costs may be deducted from any refund where permitted by applicable law.
Some products may not be eligible for shipment to certain countries or jurisdictions.
This Return & Refund Policy is intended to provide clear and reasonable return procedures while protecting product quality and business costs.
Nothing in this policy is intended to waive, restrict, or exclude any right, remedy, warranty, refund requirement, or consumer protection that cannot legally be waived, restricted, or excluded under applicable federal, state, or local law.
Where applicable law provides greater consumer rights than this policy, the applicable law will control.
ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE may update this Return & Refund Policy from time to time.
The updated version will be posted on this page with a revised "Last Updated" date.
Unless otherwise required by law, the policy applicable to an order will generally be the policy displayed at the time the order was placed.
For return and refund requests:
Email: support@essentialsubstance.com
Please include your:
Do not ship a return until you have received return instructions when authorization is required.
Our goal is to provide a fair customer experience while protecting the quality, safety, and integrity of our products and accounting for the real costs associated with processing returns.
Customer-initiated returns are subject to applicable deductions described in this policy, while issues caused by ESSENTIAL SUBSTANCE will be handled appropriately without improperly passing those costs to the customer.
