Refund the customer

Before you start

The request must be Approved or Partially approved: see Handle a withdrawal request. The refund always goes to the customer’s original payment method: the app offers no vouchers or exchanges.

Note: EU rules require the refund within 14 days of the withdrawal. You may wait until you receive the returned goods, or proof that the customer has sent them, before refunding.

On the Free plan: refund from Shopify

1. Go to Apps › IFG Returns › Returns and find the approved request.

2. In its row, click More actions › Refund.

   What you’ll see: the refund page for that order opens in Shopify, in a new tab.

3. In Shopify, choose items and amount and confirm the refund as you normally would.

4. Go back to the app and reload the Returns page.

   What you’ll see: the case moves on its own to “Refunded” or “Partial refund”, and the customer receives the refund email.

Warning: a refund made in Shopify is final and gives money back to the customer. Check items and amount before confirming.

On the Grow and Unlimited plans: refund from the app

1. Confirm that you received the goods

1. Open the approved case with View.

2. In Refund Disposition & Actions you see the badge “Awaiting goods receipt”. When the parcel arrives and you have checked it, click Confirm Goods Received.

   What you’ll see: the badge disappears, the Refund Items button appears and Activity shows “Goods receipt confirmed”. If customer emails are switched on, the customer receives the goods-received email.

Tip: to refund without waiting for the parcel — for example on an order that was never shipped — click Approve Return and right after that Confirm Goods Received.

2. Issue the refund

1. In the same window, click Refund Items.

   What you’ll see: the “Confirm Refund” window opens with the items, the line “Items (after discounts)”, the line “Shipping” and the “Total to refund”.

2. Check shipping. If the customer returns the whole order, the app also refunds the shipping they paid. If they return only part of it, shipping is not refunded.
3. Check the stock box: it tells you whether the goods will become available for sale again.

4. Click Refund Items to confirm, or Cancel to go back.

   What you’ll see: the message “Refund of … completed successfully. The Shopify order has been updated.”, the status “Refunded” or “Partial refund” and the line “Refund processed” in Activity.

Warning: the refund is final: Shopify returns the money to the customer’s payment method straight away. Shopify works out the exact amount from the payment (discounts, taxes and currency included); the amount shown beforehand is an estimate.

After the refund the case can no longer be approved or rejected.

From the Returns list you can also click More actions › Refund on an approved case: the same “Confirm Refund” window opens. You must still have confirmed receipt of the goods first.

Put the goods back in stock (Grow and Unlimited plans)

By default a refund doesn’t change stock levels in Shopify. To put returned goods back on sale:

1. Go to Apps › IFG Returns › Settings, section Refunds and stock.
2. Tick Restock returned goods when refunding.

3. If “To use this option, allow access to your locations” appears, click Allow access to locations and confirm in the Shopify window.

   What you’ll see: the message “Access to locations allowed” and the Fallback location menu.

4. In Fallback location, choose where to restock the goods when the shipping location is no longer active, or keep Shipping location only.
5. Click Save at the top.

Goods go back to the location the order was shipped from. Items returned with the reason “Item was defective” are not restocked. If you don’t allow access, refunds still work, just without restocking.

Troubleshooting

I don’t see the Refund Items button. You are on the Free plan (use Shopify, as explained above), or you haven’t clicked Confirm Goods Received yet.

I see “Confirm receipt of the goods before issuing the refund.” Open the case with View, click Confirm Goods Received, then try again.

I see “A refund is in progress for this case: try again in a few seconds.” Wait a few seconds and reopen the case.

I see “A refund for this case may already be in progress or already created in Shopify…”. To be safe, the app did not refund again. Open the order in Shopify with View Order ↗ and check whether the refund is already there before retrying.

I refunded in Shopify but the case didn’t change. Reload the page after a few seconds. If the partial refund in Shopify covers items other than those in the case, the status stays as it is. Record the refund in the case’s Internal Notes.

Next step

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