Returns and refunds

What can be returned

Only what has actually shipped, and only what has not already been returned. A line that shipped 3 and had 1 returned has 2 left, and asking for 3 is refused rather than silently accepted.

Reasons are: damaged, not as described, wrong item, changed mind, size, other.

The stages

A return you create yourself starts at open — you are looking at the customer and the item. One a customer requests starts at requested.

Restocking

When goods come back you decide, per item, whether they go back on the shelf. Damaged goods are received without restocking: you have them, and they are not sellable.

Restocking puts units back into on hand at the location you choose, with a ledger line saying they came from a return.

What the refund comes to

The refund is worked out from what was actually paid, not from the list price:

• The item's share of any discount is already reflected in what it cost.
• Tax comes back in proportion.
• Shipping is refunded only if you say so — returning one item of four does not usually mean refunding the postage.

Refunding one item of a discounted order gives back that item's actual share. This is why order discounts are spread across lines at checkout rather than held as a single number.

Where the money goes back to

A refund settles to one of two places, and you choose:

• The original payment method — the card is credited through Stripe.
• Store credit — a balance held against that customer's account at that shop, which they spend online or at the counter. No money moves through Stripe at all; an issue row is written to the customer's credit ledger instead.

Store credit is not a gift card. It belongs to one named customer at one shop and cannot be handed to anyone else, which is what keeps it clear of the rules gift cards sit under. Every issue, redemption and expiry is a ledger row, so what you owe reconciles to the cent — see Reports & settings → Store credit.

Credit is applied as a tender after tax and after every discount, so it reduces what the customer pays rather than what the order was worth. It can settle a sale on its own or sit alongside a card.

Refunding to credit is also how an exchange is done here. There is no single exchange flow — see what UniShopping does not do — so you refund the return to credit and the customer spends it on what they actually wanted.

Chargebacks

If a customer disputes a card payment with their bank, the dispute arrives under Sell → Disputes with the evidence deadline counting down. The clock is the bank's, not ours, and it does not stop because nobody looked.

Restocking fees

A restocking fee can be taken off a refund. It is recorded separately rather than by quietly reducing the amount, so both you and the customer can see what was deducted and why.

Refunds without a return

Money can be given back with no goods coming back — a goodwill gesture, a shipping problem, a price adjustment. This is recorded against the order with a reason, and it moves the payment status exactly as any other refund does.

A refund can never exceed what was captured. Attempting it is refused, including when two refunds are attempted at the same moment.

Customer requests

Customers can request a return from their own order page if you enable it, within a window you set. Outside the window the request is refused with the reason, and they are told to contact you rather than left with a dead button.

Where to find it

Sell → Returns. Card chargebacks land under Sell → Disputes, where the evidence deadline counts down. The return window and whether customers may request returns are set under Settings.