Returns and refunds

Open an order from Orders to refund it or take items back. A return is for items coming back to you; a refund is the money going back. A return can end in a refund, and a refund does not need a return.

When a customer asks

If you let customers ask for a return (Settings › Customer accounts), their request shows on the order as Requested, your store’s owners get an email (each in their own admin language), and the order counts as having a return in progress. Nothing moves until you answer:

• Accept asks how it comes back (a return label link, the Carrier and Tracking number) and what the customer pays towards it (a Return shipping fee and a Restocking fee, starting from your return rules), then makes it a normal return and emails the customer the Return started email with the label.
• Decline asks for a reason, which the customer reads on the order’s page and in the Return declined email. They can ask again.

What a refund pays back

Refund (and Process return, and the refund of a withdrawal) asks What to refund, with four choices. The amount beside each is worked out by Storeloom from what the customer paid, and it is exactly what is refunded:

• Everything besides the delivery fee: the items as the customer paid for them, with their share of discounts and their VAT, without the original delivery. This is where a return and a withdrawal start.
• Full refund: the items and the original delivery.
• Partial: the items and quantities you choose. Restock starts ticked for an item still waiting to ship and unticked for one that shipped (a shipped item comes back with a return); change it if you need to.
• A custom amount: any amount up to what is left to refund.

When the customer added a tip at checkout (see Checkout), no choice includes it: you choose each time with Give the tip back, under the choices, which says what is left of the tip, and its VAT when it was taxed. It starts ticked on Full refund and unticked on the others; tick or untick it on any choice, for the order, a return or an EU withdrawal alike. Ticked, the whole tip goes back with the refund and the amount on the button includes it. With A custom amount, the amount you type is what goes back besides the tip, so you can also give back the tip alone by ticking it and typing nothing. A tip goes back once: after that the tick is no longer there. When you exchange items, the same tick lets the tip pay towards the new order. The Refund issued email lists a tip that went back, and says so when the refund left it out.

On the order itself (not a return), nothing is chosen at first, so the whole order is never refunded by one click; if the customer is owed money back, A custom amount starts with it. There, Everything besides the delivery fee is everything left of what was paid less the delivery, so it includes a cash on delivery fee. A refund is never more than was paid and not refunded yet, and the delivery part is never more than the customer paid for delivery (with its VAT when VAT is added on top, less a delivery discount) less what an earlier refund gave back. Under the choices, the form says the original delivery is not refunded unless you choose Full refund. If the order changed meanwhile (another refund, in another tab), the refund is refused and you see the new figure.

On an order a gift card paid, Back on the gift card follows the amount, the card’s share of it. Refund then asks first, with the amount and where the money goes, because a refund cannot be undone. Items not shipped yet come off what is left to ship, so nobody packs them, except those a fulfilment service has, which it may still ship: stop them with the service (cancelling the order asks it to stop the whole order). A refund for a return pays for the return’s items, and what it puts back in stock is recorded on the return. When a custom amount is everything paid, on an order paid in full, the items not shipped yet come off what is left to ship and go back in stock (the question says so), so nobody ships what was refunded in full; an order with nothing shipped then has nothing left to fulfil. What shipped stays out until a return brings it back.

Restock puts an item back in stock once. Items that went back already stay as they are: those of a cancelled order or box, those a return put back, and those an earlier refund put back. An item a fulfilment service still has is left to the service. On a cancelled order Restock starts unticked, because cancelling put its unshipped items back.

Storeloom checks the whole refund before any money moves: the amount, the items, the shipping and the return. If something is wrong you see why, and nothing has been refunded, also on an order paid through a payment provider.

Refund as store credit gives the customer the money as [store credit](/docs/customers/) instead of paying it back the way they paid. It shows for orders with a customer, and never for a test order.

An item refunded on its own can no longer go on a return. If it is coming back, start the return first and refund it there.

Returns

Start return at the top of the order opens the return’s own page, for items that have shipped. Type how many of each item, and choose a reason for each. Under How it comes back, choose With a return label to upload the label (PDF, PNG or JPG), or use a link instead, and add the Carrier and Tracking number; or choose No shipping needed, which takes no return shipping fee. Under Fees, a Return shipping fee and a Restocking fee come off the refund; they start from your return rules (Settings › Policies › Return rules) and you can change them. A fee or percentage the form cannot read is pointed out, and the return waits until it is corrected. A quantity above what can go back is lowered to the most, and the form says so. Summary shows what it comes to as you type, in your currency’s cents as the refund will be, with what the items weigh in your store’s weight unit, and says who pays for sending the items back: the customer by default, the return shipping fee when you charge one (it comes off the refund; set it to 0 to waive it), or the store when your return rules say returns are free. The original delivery is not part of the expected refund. Tick the box to email the customer the Return started email, with the label and tracking, and press Create return.

The order then shows a card for the return, numbered from the order, such as #1001-R1, and Return in progress beside its status. The card says who pays for sending the items back. Process return does the usual end in one step: it puts the items back in stock, refunds what you choose (Everything besides the delivery fee to start with: the returned items as paid, less the return shipping and restocking fees; see *What a refund pays back*) and closes the return, all together: if the refund is refused, nothing changes, the items stay out of stock and the return stays open, and the reason shows in the dialog. The return shipping fee comes off the return’s first refund only. Choose A custom amount of 0 to close it with no refund; an amount it cannot read keeps the button waiting. As in Refund, you can put part of it back on a gift card that paid or give it as store credit, and the dialog says where the money goes. For an order paid through a payment app, see Payments when the money cannot go back through the app. Without the Refund orders permission, Process return restocks and closes with no refund. The card’s … menu does each step on its own: Restock items, Close return, Open return to open a closed one again, Edit how it comes back to add or correct the label, carrier, tracking number and fees while the return is open, and Cancel return for one that came to nothing, so its items can go on another. Cancel return asks first, as a cancelled return cannot be opened again.

You can open a return again and process it once more, for example to give back a fee: the second refund is only the money, because the items were paid back the first time. Refunding a return never changes what is still waiting to ship of the same item. Items go back in stock once: if a return was restocked, then cancelled and started again, the new return shows them as back and adds nothing more.

What the customer reads

The customer’s return request on their order’s page says who pays for sending the items back (them, by default; nothing when your returns are free; or your flat fee, taken off the refund) and that the original delivery is not refunded. The Return started email says the same, and the Refund issued email says when the original delivery is not part of the refund and when the return shipping fee was taken off it.

Exchanges

To swap what came back for something else, open the return’s menu and choose Exchange. Search for the products, add them (Remove takes one added by mistake off again), and choose Create exchange. As you add them, the dialog shows Return worth, New items and who pays what: the customer pays the rest on the new order, or the rest stays on the return to refund. This makes a new order at today’s prices, to the same address, with its stock taken, free shipping and your store’s tax for that address. The customer is not emailed about it, so tell them yourself. Afterwards the new order opens.

What the return is worth pays towards the new order, up to what the first order still has paid and not refunded. An order that is not paid yet, such as cash on delivery the courier has not paid out, gives no credit, and neither does money you already refunded, for this return or for the same items from Refund. If the new items cost more, the new order shows what is still to pay. If they cost less, the rest stays on the return for you to refund. The first order shows the amount as refunded, though no money moved. Each return can be exchanged once, a cancelled return cannot be exchanged, and the return’s card links to the new order. The exchange for a test order is a test order too, and an order and its exchange stay as they were made (see *Test orders*).

The new order is an order like any other. It carries your store’s tax for the address. When the credit covers it, it is paid at once: it gets its VAT invoice if you issue them, a fulfilment service that ships its items is asked, and gift cards on it are sent. When something is still to pay, these follow once you mark it paid.