★★★★★
"WSUK had us live in 36 hours and absorbed our Q4 peak without a blip. The rate card was exactly what we paid — no surprise charges at month-end."
Most returns are not damaged — they are just unprocessed. We receive, inspect and grade them, put the sellable units straight back into your available stock, and tell you honestly what the rest cost you.
WSUK runs returns management from a Golden Triangle warehouse: parcels received and booked against the original order, opened and inspected, then graded A/B/C. Grade A goes straight back into sellable stock, B is repacked from £0.45, C is quarantined and itemised. Handling from £1.25 per return, with photo evidence on anything written off and a monthly report by SKU. Typical turnaround 48 hours from receipt. No setup fee, monthly rolling, live in 7–10 working days.
Every day a return sits unprocessed it loses value. The whole job is speed of inspection and honesty about grade.
Returns booked in against the original order the day they land, so your customer service team can see status without ringing the warehouse.
Every unit opened and assessed to an agreed standard — A back to stock, B for repack, C quarantined — so your available quantity means something.
Sellable units rejoin stock immediately, and you get a monthly report by SKU showing what came back and why.
Returns handling is the part of fulfilment most 3PLs do last and badly. We resource it properly because for high-return categories it is worth more than shaving pennies off the pick rate.
From the parcel landing to the unit being sellable again.
Your customers return to our address or through your carrier portal. Everything is booked in against the original order on the day it lands.
Each unit is opened, checked against the agreed criteria and graded, with photographs taken on anything being downgraded.
Grade A rejoins available stock the same day, grade B is repacked, and grade C is quarantined and reported so you can claim or dispose.
Two tiers, as with every WSUK service. Short-term rate card for monthly rolling accounts — pay per return, no commitment. Long-term contract rates tier down once monthly return volumes are predictable.
Pay-per-use published rates with no commitment.
Locked-in rates on multi-year SLAs.
Receive, reconcile, open, inspect and grade.
Fresh packaging, relabelling and light refurb on grade B.
Grade C held, itemised and disposed or returned to you.
Indicative ranges based on standard requirements. Bespoke / hazardous / temperature-controlled goods are quoted separately. Get an exact quote for your volumes →
We sit on the M1 / M6 corridor, so returns from anywhere in the UK reach us on a next-day service and start earning again the following morning.
Returns management — reverse logistics — is everything that happens to a product after a customer sends it back: receiving it, matching it to the original order, opening and inspecting it, deciding what condition it is in, and then either returning it to sellable stock, repacking it, or writing it off. It sounds administrative, and that is exactly why it is so often the weakest part of a fulfilment operation. The cost is invisible: a pallet of unprocessed returns does not show up as a loss, it shows up as stock you think you have and cannot sell. For fashion, footwear, beauty and consumer electronics, where return rates routinely run well into double figures, the speed and honesty of that grading decision has more effect on margin than the pick rate does. WSUK runs returns as a resourced operation with agreed grade criteria, photo evidence and a monthly report by SKU — so the recovered units go back on sale quickly and the genuine losses are visible early enough to do something about.
From first contact to live operation, our typical onboarding takes less than a week.
Volumes, SKUs, peak season, integrations. One 10-minute call is enough.
Transparent line-item pricing on a single page — no hidden fees, no jargon.
Walk the floor with our ops team. Bring your operations lead, not just procurement.
Stock in, scanning live, integrations active. Daily standups for the first two weeks.
Everything you need to know about returns management at WSUK.
Receipt and booking against the original order, opening and inspection, grading to criteria agreed with you, same-day return of sellable units to available stock, repacking of grade B, and quarantine plus itemised reporting of grade C. You also get return reason codes captured per SKU.
Typically within 48 hours of arrival. That matters more than it sounds — seasonal and fashion stock loses value fast, so two days versus two weeks is often the difference between reselling at full price and discounting.
Against grade criteria we agree with you in writing before we start, not a judgement call on the day. Grade A is resellable as-is, grade B needs repacking or light refurb, grade C is not sellable. Anything downgraded is photographed.
From £1.25 per return for receipt, inspection and grading. Repacking is from £0.45 per unit. Quarantine and disposal is from £75 per pallet. No setup fee, no minimum, monthly rolling.
Yes — and we staff for it in advance rather than reacting to it. Tell us your expected volumes in November and the labour is booked against those dates, so the wave is cleared in days rather than still being processed in February.
Yes. Reason codes are recorded per SKU and summarised monthly. That is usually the most valuable output of the whole service — it is how you find the listing photo, size guide or packaging issue that is generating the returns in the first place.
Yes. Returns can come to our address directly, or through your existing carrier returns portal — we work with the label and process you already have rather than asking your customers to do something new.
They are quarantined, photographed and itemised in your monthly write-off report, and held through any supplier claim window. After that we either dispose of them responsibly or return them to you or your supplier, whichever you prefer.
Yes. Returns management can run as a standalone service even if your outbound fulfilment sits elsewhere, though most clients find it simpler to have the returns land where the sellable stock already is.
Yes — held under Goods-in-Trust cover in a CCTV-monitored, alarmed warehouse on the same terms as your main inventory.
| What you get | WSUK | Generic 3PL / DIY |
|---|---|---|
| Live within 24–72 hours | Yes | Rarely |
| Returns graded to agreed written criteria | Yes | Rarely |
| 48-hour processing turnaround | Yes | Rarely |
| No setup fee & no minimum | Yes | Rarely |
| Photo evidence on every write-off | Yes | Rarely |
| Return reasons reported by SKU | Yes | Rarely |
We provide returns management across the UK’s Golden Triangle and beyond. Click your area for local information.
Tell us your monthly return volume and categories — we will come back with a line-item quote inside two hours.