The notice as received
With the date and time it arrived and the form it came in, whether that was the model form or any other statement.
Where the count starts
For a contract for goods, the cancellation period ends at the end of fourteen days after the day on which the goods come into the physical possession of the consumer, or of a person identified by the consumer to receive them. The day of receipt itself is day nought: day one is the following day.
Where one order arrives in parts, the count runs from possession of the last of the goods, not the first — which is why the planner asks whether the order was one delivery or several, and why the date entered has to be the day the final part arrived.
Notice given early moves the second deadline earlier by the same number of days, because the second fourteen are counted from the notice and never from the delivery. That is the whole of the difference between the two bars.
Enter a day of receipt. The planner prints each period, the addition behind it and the day count from receipt.
Giving notice
Notice may be given at any point up to the end of the fourteenth day. It may be given on the model form the regulations set out or in any other clear statement of the decision to cancel; no particular wording is required, and the burden of showing that notice was given rests with the person who gave it. The second period then begins: the goods must be sent back within fourteen days of the day notice was given.
The refund leg
The regulations require reimbursement within fourteen days of the day the goods are received back, or of the day the consumer supplies evidence of having sent them, whichever happens first. Goods arriving back sooner therefore shorten that date; evidence of posting shortens it without the goods having arrived at all. The deduction the regulations permit where goods have been handled beyond what was necessary is a separate question, settled by the grade written on the sheet.
Where the right does not run. The regulations list contracts the cancellation right does not apply to. Among those relevant to goods sold at a distance: items made to the consumer’s specification or clearly personalised; goods liable to deteriorate or expire rapidly; sealed audio, video or software unsealed after delivery; and sealed goods not suitable for return for health-protection or hygiene reasons once unsealed. Whether an item falls into one of these is settled on the sheet before a listing is written, not after a notice arrives.
The evidence kept
Five documents, all filed against the line reference, so that the clock for any one order can be reconstructed from paper rather than from recollection. Retention periods are in what is kept.
The snapshot of the listing
As it stood on the day of the contract, which is what fixes the cancellation information actually given.
The carrier record for the outward delivery
The day the goods came into the consumer’s physical possession, or that of a person named to receive them.
The return record
And any evidence of posting supplied by the consumer, which may arrive before the goods themselves do.
The condition note and grade
Filed in the margin of the sheet the item left on, with the remeasured figures beside the originals.