Zavvi stopped trading on 12 October 2026, the day Chris Skey and Kerry Bailey of BDO were appointed joint administrators of ZavviGroup Ltd. The notice on its website is plain: outstanding orders and pre-orders will not be fulfilled, returns will not be accepted, and anyone who paid for goods they have not received should go to their bank, card issuer or payment provider. If you were waiting on a statue, a steelbook or a Funko pre-order, this is how each route works, and which to try first.
What has actually happened?
Administration is a formal insolvency process in which an insolvency firm takes over the company to recover what it can for its creditors. Some businesses keep trading in administration while a buyer is sought. Zavvi has not: it ceased trading with immediate effect. The administrators have set up an inbox, Zavvigroupltd@bdo.co.uk, which replies automatically with a set of frequently asked questions and details of how to submit a claim, and they have said they will not usually answer individually anything the FAQ already covers.
A claim in the administration is the slowest route and rarely the best one. Customers rank behind secured lenders, the administrators' own costs and staff, and MoneySavingExpert's experience is that unsecured creditors often recover a few pence in the pound. Start instead with how you paid.
I paid by credit card. What can I claim?
If the item cost more than £100 and no more than £30,000, Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes your card issuer jointly liable with the retailer, and that includes a retailer that has gone out of business. You do not need to have put the whole price on the card: a deposit, or any part of the payment, can be enough. The £100 test applies to each item, though, so an order of several cheaper pieces that only adds up to more than £100 will not usually qualify; a set sold as a single item can.
Write to your card provider, say you are claiming under Section 75, and include the order confirmation and a copy of the administrators' notice. UK Finance says a claim can be made within six years, measured for non-delivery from when you were due to receive the goods, so this is not a race. There is still no reason to wait.
What if I paid by debit card, or the item was £100 or less?
Use chargeback. It is a card-scheme rule rather than a law, it covers Visa and Mastercard debit cards for any amount and credit card purchases where Section 75 does not apply, and a retailer failing to deliver because it has gone under is exactly the situation it exists for. The timing is what catches people out. UK Finance says your card provider usually needs to start the process within 120 days of the payment or of when you were due to receive the goods, and MoneySavingExpert's advice is to claim within 120 days of realising something was wrong.
For a pre-order dated months ahead, the safe reading is that the clock started on 12 October, when Zavvi said it could not fulfil. The card schemes also cap claims at around 540 days from the original payment, so a pre-order you paid for more than a year ago is the one to ring your bank about today.
PayPal, buy now pay later, gift cards and bank transfers
PayPal's Buyer Protection accepts item-not-received disputes opened within 180 days of the payment. If yours is older than that, PayPal's own terms say a card used behind the payment may carry chargeback rights of its own, so ask that card's provider instead. If you paid with a buy-now-pay-later service, report the order as not received through the provider's app straight away. Gift cards and store credit are harder: MoneySavingExpert suggests trying chargeback where the card was bought from the retailer itself and, failing that, registering as a creditor. Bank transfers and cash carry no card protection at all, so the claim in the administration is the only route left.
None of these routes costs anything to use. There is no need to pay a claims firm, and anyone offering to recover a Zavvi order for a fee should be treated with suspicion.
Can I still get the piece?
A refund does not put the statue on your shelf. Losing the order does not always mean losing the piece, though: many of the licensed statues and figures Zavvi listed were sold by other UK retailers too, and some of those editions are still open. Make your claim first. If you would then like to reserve the same piece elsewhere, we have set out how reservations work at Halidom for Zavvi customers on lost a Zavvi pre-order, including what we cannot promise.
What should anyone pre-ordering take from this?
Two things. Put at least part of any pre-order over £100 on a credit card, because Section 75 is the protection that survives a retailer failing, and keep the confirmation email until the piece is in your hands. And ask any shop holding your money for a year exactly where it goes in the meantime. Our own answer, including what it would not protect you from if we failed, is on why you can trust us with a deposit, and the detail of both card routes is on how your deposit is protected.
This is a plain-English summary of the routes available as of 14 October 2026, not legal or financial advice. The administrators' FAQ and your card provider have the final word on your own claim.
Sources
- Administration notice — Zavvi — the joint administrators' statement of 12 October 2026, the customer inbox and the claims process.
- Administration and your rights — MoneySavingExpert — how creditors rank, Section 75, chargeback and gift vouchers when a company fails.
- Chargeback and Section 75 — UK Finance — the 120-day chargeback window and the six-year Section 75 limit.
- Consumer Credit Act 1974, section 75 — legislation.gov.uk — the text of the law.
- Buyer Protection Program — PayPal — the 180-day window for item-not-received disputes, and card-issuer rights behind a PayPal payment.