Customer care

Cancellation, Refund & Shipping Policy

Last updated September 2026.

Before your piece is dispatched

You can cancel any order for any reason up to the moment it is dispatched, and we will refund you in full. Write to contact@japanese-ceramics.com with your order number as soon as you can, because a piece that is ready to ship may leave the same day.

If we cancel, which happens most often when a unique piece is bought twice within moments, you get the whole amount back including any shipping you paid.

Returning a piece after it arrives

If a ready to ship piece is not right for you, tell us within 7 days of delivery and send it back. To be refunded it needs to reach us unused, undamaged, and in the packaging it arrived in: that packaging was built around the piece and is usually the only thing that will get it home safely.

Return postage and insurance are yours to arrange and pay for, and we recommend a tracked and insured service, because until the piece is back with us the risk of it breaking in transit is yours. Once it arrives and we have checked it, we refund the price of the piece. The original shipping cost is not refunded, and neither are any duties or taxes you paid on import, though your own customs authority may refund those to you directly on proof of export.

What cannot be returned

Age and honest wear are not grounds for a return. Every listing describes the condition and photographs the flaws, so what the piece is and how it has aged is settled before you buy. If it arrives in a condition we did not describe, that is different, and it is on us.

Where a whole category of pieces is excluded from returns, the piece's own page says so plainly before you buy, rather than only here.

None of this affects rights the consumer law of your own country gives you. If that law gives you a longer cancellation window than 7 days, for example the 14 day right of withdrawal for online purchases in the United Kingdom and the European Union, the longer window applies to you.

If it arrives damaged

Ceramics break, and no amount of packing makes a parcel invulnerable. Every piece is wrapped for transit and shipped insured.

If yours arrives damaged, tell us within 3 days of delivery, send photographs of the piece and of the box and packing material as they arrived, and keep all of it until we have finished with the claim: the carrier will not consider one without that evidence. We will then either refund you in full, including what you paid for shipping, or, where the piece was not unique and another is available, send a replacement. You will not be out of pocket for return postage on a damaged piece.

The same applies if a piece arrives that is not the one you ordered, or is materially different from its description.

How and when you get your money back

Refunds go back to the method you paid with, and we cannot send them anywhere else. A card refund is issued through our payment provider and usually shows on your statement within a few working days of us issuing it, though your bank sets that timing, not us. A bank transfer is refunded by transfer.

We issue refunds within 14 days of cancelling an order, or within 14 days of a returned piece reaching us and passing inspection.

Because we charge in US Dollar, we refund in US Dollar, for the exact amount charged. If your own currency has moved against it since you paid, or if your bank charges a fee on the refund, the figure in your account may differ slightly from what you originally paid. That difference is your bank's, not ours, and we cannot compensate for it.

Shipping

We ship worldwide from Japan.

Orders are packed and dispatched within 3 working days of payment clearing, excluding Japanese public holidays. Every piece is already in hand when it is listed, so nothing waits on being made.

The carriers available to your address, the cost and the expected transit time are all shown at checkout before you pay. Every parcel is tracked, and we email you the tracking number when it leaves. Transit times are the carrier's estimate rather than a promise, and customs inspection in your country can add days that neither we nor the carrier control.

Please check your address carefully. A parcel returned to us because the address was wrong, because nobody was there to receive it, or because duty was not paid, can be sent out again once you have covered the return and re-shipping costs. If you would rather have a refund at that point, we refund the price of the piece less the shipping we paid in both directions.

Import duty and tax are covered on the Terms & Conditions page: they are yours to pay, they are not included in what you pay us, and we cannot understate the value of a parcel or declare it as a gift.

Getting in touch

Every question on this page is answered fastest by writing to contact@japanese-ceramics.com with your order number.