Return Policy

We want you to be happy with your lighter. Every piece is serviced, photographed and described in detail before it leaves us, and if something is still not right when it arrives, this page explains what happens next.

1. Right of withdrawal for EU consumers

If you are a consumer based in the European Union, you may withdraw from your purchase within 14 days of receiving it, without giving a reason. This right follows EU Directive 2011/83/EU and Dutch law (BW 6:230o). It applies to consumer purchases only and not to business-to-business orders.

To exercise it, email contact@thelighterhouse.com within 14 days of receiving your order and tell us you wish to withdraw. You then have a further 14 days to send the lighter back to us.

2. How to start a return

Please contact us before sending anything back, and wait for our instructions.

We arrange the return ourselves through our own shipping account and send you a label. A label we create costs a fraction of what a courier counter charges, and it means the parcel is properly declared, tracked and insured on the way back to us.

If you book and pay for a return shipment yourself without agreeing it with us first, we may decline the return, because it puts unnecessary cost on us and leaves the parcel outside our insurance. One email first avoids all of it.

3. Condition of returned items

We do not offer a trial period. These are vintage pieces, serviced and documented, not items to try out and send back.

You are welcome to handle the lighter as you would in a shop, enough to establish what it is and that it works. If it comes back showing use beyond that, with marks, wear, missing parts or damage that were not there when it left us, we will deduct an amount from your refund reflecting the loss in value. We will tell you what that amount is and why before we process it.

Please return the lighter with its box, papers and any accessories it came with.

4. Return shipping costs

If you are returning a lighter because you changed your mind, the cost of the return shipment is yours. We will deduct it from your refund or invoice it separately, and we will tell you the figure in advance.

If the lighter arrived faulty, damaged in transit, or is not the piece described, the return is at our cost and we will make that clear when you contact us.

5. Refunds

Once the lighter is back with us and inspected, we refund to the payment method you used.

For EU consumers, the refund covers the price of the lighter and our standard delivery cost, which is already included in the listing price. Where you chose an upgraded service such as express shipping, that premium is not refunded. It is a supplementary cost you opted into rather than part of the sale, and it has already been spent by the time the lighter reaches you.

We process refunds without undue delay and in any case within 14 days of being told you wish to withdraw, though we may wait until the lighter has reached us or you have shown proof that it was sent. Your bank or PayPal may take a few days more to show the money in your account.

6. Buyers outside the European Union

If you are buying from outside the EU, the statutory right of withdrawal above does not apply to you. We will still take a return, within the same 14 day window, but on different terms, and it is worth reading this section before you order.

On a change of mind, the return shipment is at your cost and the original shipping is not refunded. We refund the price of the lighter itself. Sending a piece across a customs border in both directions costs real money, and we cannot absorb it twice on an order we have already fulfilled correctly.

Any import duty or tax you paid on arrival is reclaimed by you, from your own customs or tax authority, by showing that the goods were returned. We cannot do that on your behalf and we cannot refund charges we never received. We will send you a return label and the paperwork you need.

If the lighter arrived faulty, damaged or not as described, none of the above applies. That is our problem to solve and we solve it at our cost, wherever you are.

7. Exchanges

We do not run a formal exchange programme, because every lighter here is a single piece rather than stock in sizes.

In practice, if you would rather have a different lighter from our current collection, write to us and we will usually arrange it and settle the difference either way. Where a lighter arrived faulty or damaged, we will replace it with a comparable piece if we have one, or refund you if we do not.

8. What cannot be returned

A lighter that has been engraved, personalised or otherwise permanently altered after delivery. We do not offer engraving ourselves, and once a piece carries a name or a message it cannot be sold on. At that point it is worth only what a parts lighter is worth, which is a fraction of what you paid.

A lighter that has been serviced, repaired or opened by anyone other than us after delivery.

9. If something arrives damaged or incorrect

Tell us within a few days of delivery, with photographs of the lighter and the packaging. Every parcel we send is insured and tracked, and we will sort it out from our side. Please keep the packaging until the matter is settled, since the carrier may want to see it.

10. Amendments

This Return Policy may be amended from time to time. The version published at this address at the time your order is placed is the version that applies to that order.

11. Contact

For anything to do with a return, write to contact@thelighterhouse.com and we will come back to you quickly.

Last updated: 16 September 2026