Remeasuring first
Before a grade is written, the item is read again on the same axes as fields 04 and 05 and the figures are compared with the sheet. This comes first because it is the only step that can tell the difference between an item that has been used and an item that was never the item on the sheet. A discrepancy in a dimension or a mass is recorded as a discrepancy, with both figures, and it is settled before any grade is given.
The four grades
| Grade | Test applied | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| A | Seals intact; figures match fields 04 and 05 | Back to the condition the sheet describes, sheet unchanged |
| B | Opened and complete; handling no further than inspection | Re-recorded as opened against the same reference |
| C | Handled beyond what was needed to inspect it | Held with the basis for a deduction recorded |
| D | Incomplete, or not the item on the sheet | Held apart; sheet suspended pending a written description |
Inspection is grade B. Handling is grade C.
This is the only judgement in the sequence and the one that carries a consequence, so it is made against a stated test rather than an impression. The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 allow a deduction where the value of the goods has been diminished by handling beyond what was necessary to establish their nature, characteristics and functioning — the comparison the regulations draw is with the handling a person could reasonably have done before buying.
Handling that goes past establishing what the thing is and how it works is grade C, and the specific handling observed is written out in words, not summarised as a grade and left at that. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 governs the separate case of goods that were not as described when they were sent.
A grade is superseded, never corrected. If a grade turns out to be wrong, a second grade is written beneath the first with its own date, signature and reason, and the first is left legible. The margin is read as a sequence. A grade quietly replaced would leave the sheet asserting something nobody can now date, and the sequence is the part that makes the margin worth keeping at all.
What the margin carries
- The date the item came back and the carrier record it came back on.
- The remeasured figures, beside the originals from fields 04 and 05.
- The grade, in one letter, with the signature of whoever gave it.
- The written description, where the grade is C or D, of the handling or the shortfall actually observed.
- The destination, so the margin says where the item physically went.
Grade D
Grade D suspends the sheet. Nothing further is drawn from a suspended sheet — no copy, no amendment to fields 04 to 06 — until the written description is complete and the discrepancy is resolved, because a sheet that may not describe the item it claims to describe cannot support a statement about anything. The reference stays allocated throughout, and the amendment rule on the record page governs what changes afterwards. The clock that may still be running over the same item is the one on the cancellation page; grading does not stop it.