HEIMA Reviews 221

Reply from HEIMA

Jan 5, 2026

Hi Mark,

Thanks for taking the time to leave such a detailed review, I’m saddened that this experience left you feeling disappointed.

About the tool itself:
Just to clarify, the item returned, the Niwaki Hori Hori, is not a combat item, but a well-established and widely used gardening tool. Often described as a soil knife or weeding knife, the hori hori originates from Japan and is used for digging, weeding, planting bulbs, cutting roots, and general garden work. It’s used by professional gardeners and home gardeners worldwide, and is our most popular garden tool because of its versatility and effectiveness.

Returns & the Christmas policy:
The hori hori was ordered on 2 December. Our standard online returns policy, which is linked at the bottom of every page on the website, allows 15 days to notify us of an unwanted item, followed by a further 15 days to return it for a full refund.

At the beginning of December we added Christmas Returns section to that policy, which clarifies that we do not offer extended refunds, but do allow items bought for Christmas to be returned for store credit if customers notify us by 7 January and return items by 21 January.

As we didn’t hear from you until early January, the return was already outside our standard policy, and the credit note issued was in line with our Christmas policy - already more generous than what our standard policy provides.

As a very small independent business, we simply can’t operate like large national retailers where Christmas gifts can be bought speculatively and returned weeks later for a full refund. Credit notes are valid for 6 months allow us to stay viable while still offering flexibility, and they’re valid for a long period for exactly that reason.

As stated above, our credit notes have always been valid for 6 months, so I was surprised to see yours valid until May. I have looked into this and found that when we had a new till system installed in summer it we didn’t update the credit note validity from the default on the new system (which was set to 120 days). Thanks for drawing this to our attention – I’ve updated this and I’ve also applied this to your own credit note, which gives you until 6th July. You were issued the credit note for the York shop because it was returned to store, but if you wish I can cancel that and issue another for use on our online shop - just send me an email to shop@heima.uk.

Reviews on our website:
I’d also like to clarify that your review was not removed by us. Our website’s product review system provided by Judge.me is intended for product reviews rather than service feedback, and any review rated two stars or below is automatically held in a pending state until we’ve had a chance to respond and check that it is relevant to the product. That’s a platform rule, not a decision made by us, and the review was not deleted.

Moving forward:
We understand that returns can be frustrating, particularly around Christmas, and while we always try to be fair and transparent, we also need to operate within policies that allow a very small independent business to remain sustainable.

- Maff, HEIMA