Buying online in the EU comes with one of the best consumer protections anywhere: 14 days to change your mind, no reason needed. We think it's a good rule. If something you ordered from us turns out not to be right for you, you can send it back, and you'll get your money back.
What almost nobody sees is what happens after the parcel leaves your door. So here's the other side of it, from a small family-run shop that packs and checks every order itself. What the 14 days are actually meant for, where the money goes on a typical return, and how to make sure you order the right thing the first time.
What the 14 days are meant for
The rule exists because you can't hold a product in an online shop. The EU directive behind it says you can handle the goods as far as you need to find out what they are, what they're like and whether they work. The usual way to read that: the same as you could in a physical store.
For sim racing gear, that looks roughly like this:
- Fine: unbox it, check everything is in the box, look at the finish, connect it, power it on, make sure your PC recognises it and it works.
- Beyond that: bolting it into your cockpit, drilling holes, fitting your own grips or stickers, racing with it for a few evenings, setting it up for your league season.
The second kind of handling doesn't take away your right to withdraw. But the law also says that if the product has lost value because it was handled beyond what's needed to check it, the customer is responsible for that loss. Very few people know this part, and it's worth knowing before you mount a brand new wheelbase on a rig for a weekend "just to see".
Where the money goes when a parcel comes back
Let's take a simple example. A direct drive wheelbase for 1,000 EUR, shipped free to another EU country, sent back after a few days in perfect condition. The customer pays the return postage, which is the standard rule. Everything else lands on the shop.
| What it costs the shop | Roughly |
|---|---|
| Advertising to bring you to the shop | 20-50 EUR |
| Shipping to you, already paid to the carrier | 25-70 EUR |
| Payment fee, kept by the provider | 15-50 EUR |
| Inspection, testing, repacking | 1-2 hours |
| Lost value, can't be sold as new | 150-250 EUR |
| Total | 220-430 EUR |
That's 22-43 % of the price. The first line surprises most people. One click on a Google Shopping ad typically costs 0.20-0.50 EUR, which sounds like nothing. But with expensive gear it usually takes around 100 clicks before one of them turns into an order. That's 20-50 EUR spent just to bring the customer in, and none of it comes back when the parcel does.
Shipping and payment fees vary the most: with DHL Express the outgoing shipment alone is often 60-70 EUR, and some payment methods cost the shop close to 5 % of the order, none of which comes back on a refund.
The receiving step isn't a quick glance either. Every returned product gets a full function test, a factory reset, photos and careful repacking.
That lines up with what larger retailers report: estimates for the full cost of handling one return usually land somewhere between 20 and 65 % of the item's price.
The biggest line is the last one, and it's there by choice. We never put a returned product back among new stock. It gets checked, marked as returned and sold separately for less. That's how it should be: when you pay for a new wheelbase, you should get one nobody else has unpacked. But the difference in price is a straight loss for the shop.
Why one return can cancel out several sales
Margins in hardware retail are much thinner than most people assume. Let's follow the same 1,000 EUR wheelbase.
Around 200 EUR of it is VAT, which goes straight to the state. The shop works with roughly 800 EUR. Out of that comes the manufacturer's price, shipping, the payment fee, advertising, packaging, software and storage. What's left at the end is typically somewhere around 3-5 % of those 800 EUR. That's usually 25-40 EUR in a good case, and often less.
And that money isn't free to spend yet. Premium sim racing hardware comes with a 2-5 year warranty, and a good shop takes care of it for you: support, handling the claim, and shipping the product to the manufacturer. A single warranty shipment across Europe costs 60-120 EUR, depending on the country, weight, size and insured value. One warranty case can easily use up the profit from two or three sales.
Now put a return next to that. One returned wheelbase costing 250 EUR wipes out the profit from six to ten other sales of the same base. Put another way: the shop sold ten wheelbases that month and earned nothing on any of them.
When returns turn into "try it at home"
A shop can absorb the occasional return, and it should, because things genuinely don't fit sometimes. The maths changes when returns become a habit. Ordering two wheels to keep one. Ordering a pedal set just to see it in person, with no real plan to buy. Each of those is legal. Each of them also costs the shop more than it earns on several normal orders.
When that happens across a whole market, shops have only a few ways to respond, and every one of them ends up on the customer's bill:
- Higher prices, because the cost of returns gets spread over every order.
- Less generous shipping, since free shipping is paid twice on every returned parcel.
- Fewer expensive products in stock, because those are the ones that lose the most value once opened.
- Less time for what actually helps you, like advice before you buy and handling warranty claims.
There's also the simple fact that a 15 kg parcel crossing Europe twice to end up as a discounted item isn't great for anyone.
How to get it right the first time
Most of the returns we see could have been avoided with a few minutes of checking. Before you order, go through this:
- Compatibility. Base, wheel, both halves of the quick release, pedals and platform (PC, Xbox, PlayStation) have to work together. Every product page has a Compatibility tab - read it. Our steering wheels buyer's guide explains which wheels fit which bases.
- Mounting. Front or bottom mount, the hole pattern on your wheel deck, the size of your pedal plate.
- Your rig. A stronger base needs a stiffer cockpit. If yours flexes today, more torque won't feel better. More on that in how to choose a direct drive wheelbase.
- Size and space. Rim diameter, the space around your desk or cockpit, and glove size if you're ordering gloves.
- Software. Does it support the games you drive and the tools you use, like SimHub?
- Seeing it in person. Manufacturer videos, in-depth reviews, a sim racing centre or a friend's rig will tell you more about how it feels than any unboxing at home.
And if you're not sure, write to us before you order. Tell us what you have and what you want to change, and we'll confirm exactly what you need. It's a few minutes for both of us, and you get the right thing on the first try.
A fair deal for both sides
The 14-day right stays, and it should. If something isn't right, send it back to our address by tracked parcel and we'll refund you within the legal deadline. Everything you need is on our warranty claims and returns page. All we ask is that the 14 days are used for what they're meant for: checking that the product is what you expected.
That's also how we can keep doing the things that make ordering from us worth it. We're an official reseller of Simucube, Simagic, Heusinkveld, Sim-Lab, Cube Controls, Ascher Racing, BavarianSimTec and Qubic System, we handle warranty claims for you including shipping to the service centre, and our customers rate us 4.9 on Trustpilot. Ask before you buy, and we'll help you get it right.
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