Quick answer: if a parcel was refused or could not be delivered, keep tracking the original consignment number. The history continues as the parcel travels back to the sender. If you are returning something you received, that return is a new booking, so it gets a new consignment number, either from the seller who arranged the pickup or on the receipt when you book it yourself. The number from your original delivery will not show the item going back.

The two kinds of return

Tracking a refused or undeliverable parcel

Enter the original consignment number in the tracking box. After the last delivery attempt or the refusal, you should see a return status appear, followed by scans moving back toward the origin city. The labels vary, but the direction is the giveaway: facilities in the sender’s city rather than yours.

Who needs to act depends on which side you are on.

• If you refused a COD parcel, you paid nothing and you owe nothing to TCS. Message the seller the same day with the consignment number and a note that you refused it, so the parcel does not arrive back unexplained. Any advance or refund is between you and the seller.
• If you wanted the parcel but missed it, contact the seller straight away. Once a shipment is returning, the decision about what happens next belongs to the sender, not the recipient. If it is still at a branch near you, the options are covered in TCS delivery attempt failed.
• If you are the seller, watch returning parcels until they are scanned back to you, then match each one against your COD remittance so a parcel you never got back is not treated as returned stock.

A return is a real movement through the network, so it can stall like any other shipment. If a returning parcel stops moving for longer than a normal forward delivery on that route would take, call the helpline, +92 21 111 123 456, with the consignment number.

Tracking an item you are sending back

There are two usual ways a buyer’s return gets booked. Either way, the thing you need is the new consignment number.

1. The seller arranges a pickup. Sellers with a TCS e-commerce account can arrange return logistics through Envio, TCS’s online tool for business accounts. Ask the seller for the consignment number of the return booking, hand the parcel to the rider, and track that number.
2. You book it yourself at an Express Centre. Take the packed item to a counter, pay for the shipment, and keep the receipt. The consignment number printed on it is your return tracking number. Send it to the seller along with your original order number so they can match the two.

Some marketplaces run their own return process with their own drop-off points or couriers. If yours does, follow its instructions. The reference it gives you may belong to a different courier, in which case it will not track here.

Before you hand the parcel over

• Get the return address from the seller in writing. It is often a warehouse, not the address the parcel came from.
• Photograph the item and the packing before sealing it. If the seller later says it arrived damaged or empty, these are your evidence.
• Put a note with your order number inside the parcel.
• Keep the receipt until the seller confirms the return and any refund.

Who pays for the return

For a parcel that goes back undelivered, the shipper pays. TCS’s published FAQ says the shipper must request an RTO in writing and pays the RTO charges, along with any return or redirection duties and taxes on international shipments. That is why refused COD parcels are expensive for online sellers.

For an item you send back, the seller’s return policy decides. If the seller books the pickup, they normally carry the cost. If you book it yourself, you pay at the counter, and whether that money comes back to you depends on the policy and on why you are returning it. Ask before you book, not after.

For sellers: keeping returns under control

For a COD business, returns are mostly an RTO problem, and each one costs you the outbound leg, the return leg and the time the stock is out of circulation.

• Check returning shipments daily in your account rather than waiting for parcels to turn up.
• Ask your account representative, in writing, what a returned parcel costs you on each route.
• Confirm orders by phone before dispatch where you can. An unreachable phone number is the most common reason a COD attempt fails.
• Reconcile returned parcels against your remittance statements by consignment number, not by order number.

How cash on delivery settlement works from both sides is covered in the TCS COD guide.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• TCS delivery attempt failed
• TCS COD tracking for buyers and sellers
• What each TCS tracking status means
• Delivered but not received
• TCS helpline and complaints
• TCS warehouse locations and contacts