Skip to main content
A claim is the process by which a customer reports that their order arrived damaged, incomplete or wrong, and you settle it with a refund, a replacement, or both. You open the claim on the order, record how many units were affected and why, then resolve it or turn it down. What sets a claim apart is that nothing comes back. The goods stay with the customer, so a refund on a claim does not return anything to your stock, and a replacement is a new fulfillment on the order for you to send out. Use a return when the customer is sending goods back, and an exchange when they are swapping one item for another. Claims are worth recording even when you settle them on the spot, because the record is what answers a customer, or a carrier, who asks months later what happened to a parcel. To manage claims, navigate to Orders → Claims in the admin dashboard.

​
Reviewing Claims

The Claims list shows every claim across your orders, one row per claim. The Claims list before any claim exists Use the Status filter to see what still needs a decision (Open and Approved) apart from what is settled (Resolved and Denied). The search box finds a claim by its number, and Add filter narrows the list by number or by the date a claim was created or last updated.

​
How to Open a Claim

Claims are opened from the order, not from the Claims list. Open the order and find the Claims card.
The claim form lists only the units you have already sent, so mark the order as fulfilled before you open a claim.
Click New claim. The form has the following fields:
  • Quantity (one box per item sent) - How many units of that item went wrong. Each box starts at 0 and goes up to the number of units you sent.
  • Refund amount - Appears under an item once its quantity is above 0, filled in with the item’s price. It is your starting figure for the refund, and you can change it again when you resolve the claim.
  • Reason - What went wrong, picked from your list of claim reasons, such as an item that arrived damaged or never arrived.
  • Note - Anything your team should know, such as what the customer told you or what the photos show.
Click New claim at the bottom of the form. The claim appears on the order’s Claims card with the status Open, its CLM number and the items you claimed for. A new claim showing as Open on the order's Claims card A unit can be claimed again after a claim is denied or canceled. A second claim for a unit covered by an open, approved, or resolved claim is refused and nothing is created, so check the Claims card before you start. The reasons on the form come from Settings → Returns & reasons, under Claim reasons. A reason you add there appears in the Reason list the next time you open a claim. See Returns & Reasons.

​
How to Resolve a Claim

Every claim goes through a short set of steps, and the Actions menu (the three dots on the claim) offers only the steps that fit its current status.
  1. On the claim, open Actions and choose Approve. The status changes to Approved straight away.
  2. Open Actions again and choose Resolve. A box opens asking How to resolve.
  3. Choose how to settle it and fill in the fields that appear, described below.
  4. Click Resolve. The claim changes to Resolved and its Actions menu disappears.
The Resolve claim box with Refund and replacement chosen, showing both the refund fields and the replacement switch The How to resolve choice decides which fields you fill in:
  • Refund - Asks for a Refund amount, filled in from the claim, and Refund to, which is where the money goes: Store credit or Original payment.
  • Replacement - Asks which items to Send a replacement for, with a switch for each one.
  • Refund and replacement - Shows the refund fields and the replacement switches together.

​
Settling with a refund

Choose Refund, check the amount and pick where the money goes.
Refund to starts on Store credit. If the customer expects the money back on their card, change it to Original payment before you click Resolve.
With Original payment, the money goes back through the payment the customer used, and the order’s payment total drops by the refund. The order’s payment status then follows how much of it has been refunded: Partially refunded while some of the money is still with you, or Refunded once all of it has gone back. With Store credit, the amount is added to the customer’s store credit balance, which you can see on their customer page, and their card is not touched.
A refund on a claim is paid the moment you click Resolve in this box. Check the amount and the Refund to choice first.

​
Settling with a replacement

Choose Replacement and turn on the switch for each item you are sending again. The Resolve button stays greyed out until at least one switch is on. When you click Resolve, no money moves. Instead a new fulfillment for the replacement item appears on the same order, with a delivery charge of $0.00 and a Mark as fulfilled button, and the order’s fulfillment status changes to Partial. Sending out a fulfillment is covered in Processing Orders.

​
How to Deny a Claim

Deny a claim when you have looked into it and will not refund or replace anything. You can deny a claim while it is Open.
  1. On the claim, open Actions and choose Deny.
  2. A box asks you to confirm, warning that the customer will get neither a refund nor a replacement. Click Deny.
The claim changes to Denied, its Actions menu disappears and nothing on the order’s payments changes.

​
Further Reading

  • Returns - When the customer sends goods back to you
  • Exchanges - When the customer swaps an item for a different one
  • Processing Orders - Sending out the replacement fulfillment a claim creates
  • Returns & Reasons - Adding and editing the reasons offered on a claim
  • Customer Profiles - Your customers’ details, including their store credit