Order Exchanges

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Colin

• March 23, 2016 19:34

We've been dealing with a complex scenario here around order returns/exchanges and I am thinking the community might be able to help.

When a customer order is placed and returned for an exchange of equal value we process it as returned with no refund. Then create a customer service order at zero dollars to ship out the exchange. Then if the customer returns the second item against the order for zero dollars, we cannot issue a refund on the first order to communicate that refund back to the sales channel. 

What methods are other companies using to issues exchanges of equal value in order to ensure that the customer can be refunded on the second or third exchange?

Also what about processing a partial refund without a return within RO?

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  Jason

  • March 24, 2016 05:38
  • Edited

  There are some significant shortcomings to the whole "order payment" virtual terminal functionality currently. I can give you a suggestion on the first half of your question, but the second and third items are a little more obscure and I would appreciate hearing how other people deal with it.

  • Exchanges: In an exchange scenario, there are two options that will depend on your business policies:

  1. Exchange with delayed shipment: In this scenario you hold the replacement item until you receive the return for the original item from the customer. You can either create the new order to reserve stock right away, or wait until you receive the return to create the new order so that you do not have stock allocated on an order that may not be fulfilled (if the customer never follows through with the initial return).
     
     Either way, on the RMA for the original order, set the refund type to store credit, which can then be used to pay for the replacement item in the new order.
     
     There are some nuances here in terms of whether or not the returned item can be put back in stock and sold again or not, but this is a better option than a $0 order from a reporting standpoint.
     
     
  2. Exchange with an immediate replacement shipment: This is really more of a return than an exchange, but basically you issue an RMA for the original order, and place a new separate order with a new payment authorization for the replacement item. This allows you to cross-ship the replacement item to the customer immediately, which is better for them, but they will have two charges on their payment method for a period of time.
     
     In this scenario you would setup the RMA with a refund rather than a store credit so that once the return is received everything is square with the customer.

  • Returns: This is pretty straight forward, so probably doesn't need any explanation as far as how we handle it, but if you have questions let me know.

  The complication with either of the above exchange options is when a return is then made against the second order. This is (one of the times) when the limitations of the order payment module present themselves.

  What we need to be able to do is accept the return on the second order, apply a refund as store credit, then apply that store credit to the original order, which creates a refund due to the customer that can be processed through the original payment method. I know this was a question, and I don't have a good answer for you on this one. I'll be curious to hear what other merchants do.

  The final issue with regards to processing a partial refund against an order that has been completely fulfilled is a feature request that we have submitted, but maybe I should post it here too to get other's feedback. We need to be able to modify the discount %, shipping charge, etc. on an order AFTER it has gone through fulfillment. Things happen, and there are always situations where you need to offer the customer a discount on their order, or comp them the shipping charge because a carrier didn't meet their obligation.

  Today there is a work-around for that, which is issuing a return WITHOUT restocking the item. That allows you to use that return to offer the discount. The issue is with this "hack" is that you can then no longer offer the customer an actual return for that item, because it has already been returned once. So that's not really a solution, but is at least an option to utilize.

  There are a multitude of further advancements that need to be made in this realm to make the Customer Service tool really powerful and flexible enough to cover all of the needs of a merchant, but hopefully this helps get you around the issues you're dealing with.

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