Handle a withdrawal request
At a glance
- What you get
- Decide on each request in a few clicks, with the customer notified automatically.
- Time
- 5 minutes
- Plan
- All plans
Before you start
You need at least one request. If you don’t have one yet, make a test request as explained in What the customer sees.
Request statuses
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| In progress | A new request. It’s your turn to decide. |
| Approved | You accepted the withdrawal for all items and the full amount. |
| Partially approved | You accepted the withdrawal only for some items, smaller quantities or a reduced amount. |
| Refunded | The full refund has been issued. |
| Partial refund | Only part of the amount has been refunded. |
| Rejected | You rejected the request. The customer has received the reason. |
You don’t pick the status by hand: the app works it out from what you do with items, quantities and amount.
Find a request
-
Go to Apps › IFG Returns › Returns.
What you’ll see: three numbers at the top, Open, Closed and Total. Below, the Search filters and the table with the columns Order, Status, Date Received, Customer, Reference and Actions.
- To search, type the order number, email or customer name in Search order, email or name.
- To see only one kind of request, pick a status in Processing status, for example “In progress”.
- If needed, open More filters to change Sort by (“Newest first” or “Oldest first”) and Items per page.
The latest five requests are also on the Overview, in the Latest withdrawals section.
Open the case details
-
In the request row, click View (or click the row).
What you’ll see: the “Case Details” window opens.
In the window you find, from top to bottom:
- Customer Details: name, email, phone, address, request date, order number and case reference.
- Return Terms: the delivery date, the “Return deadline” and a green badge “Within the 14-day term” (or the number of days you set) or a red one, “Overdue”. Below is also the minimum legal 14-day deadline, for reference.
- Items Involved: what the customer wants to return, with quantity, price and reason, plus their notes.
- Select items to refund: the checkboxes and quantities that decide what you approve.
- Order Correspondence: the “Order verified” badge, the View Order ↗ button that opens the order in Shopify and, on the Grow and Unlimited plans, Download PDF receipt ↗.
- Refund Disposition & Actions: the status, the amount and the decision buttons.
- Internal Notes and Activity, the history of everything that happened to the case.
If shipment tracking has been stuck for days, instead of the dates you see a warning with the Actual delivery date field. If you know the real delivery date, enter it and click Confirm: the withdrawal period is then counted from that date.
Approve a request
- In Select items to refund, keep ticked the items you accept. Untick the ones you don’t accept, or lower the quantity.
- Check the Amount to refund field. The app calculates it from the ticked items; you can change it by hand.
- If you like, write a comment in Add optional comments.
-
Click Approve Return.
What you’ll see: the status becomes “Approved” or “Partially approved”, and Activity shows the line for the approval email sent to the customer.
Warning: when you approve, the customer gets an email right away. If you filled in the return address in Settings, the email tells them where to send the goods. Check the address before approving your first request.
Approval does not trigger the refund. You usually refund once the goods are back and you have checked them: see Refund the customer.
Reject a request
From the case details:
- Click Reject Return.
- Write the reason in the “Rejection reason…” field.
-
Click Confirm Rejection. Cancel takes you back without changing anything.
What you’ll see: the status becomes “Rejected” and the customer receives the rejection email with your reason.
From the Returns list, for a request “In progress”, you can also click More actions › Reject: the “Reject withdrawal request” window opens, you write the reason in “Reason for rejection (will be sent to the customer and saved in notes)” and click Confirm and Send Notification.
Warning: the EU 14-day right of withdrawal applies by law. Only reject with a valid reason — for example goods returned damaged or out of time — and write it clearly: the customer reads it.
To see the reason for a rejection later, click More actions › Reason in the list.
Add an internal note
- In the case details, in the Internal Notes section, type in the “Add note…” field.
- Click Add note.
Only you see internal notes: the customer doesn’t receive them.
Automatic approval (Grow and Unlimited plans)
If you turn on Automatic action and approval on unfulfilled orders in Settings, requests on orders that are paid but not yet shipped arrive directly as “Approved”. See All settings.
Troubleshooting
The Approve Return button is grey. The case is already in the status that matches the ticked items. Change a tick, a quantity or the amount and the button becomes active.
The details show “Order not found”. The app can’t link the request to a Shopify order. Search for the order number on Shopify’s Orders page. If the order exists, write to support with the case reference.
The case is overdue but the customer says the parcel arrived late. Enter the actual delivery date if the stuck-tracking warning is visible, or judge the case yourself: the app doesn’t decide for you.