Module 6 · 6.5

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Orders, returns and refunds

Module 6: Management and security · Reading time: 11 minutes

Learning objective: After this lesson you can handle orders in WooCommerce every day, process a withdrawal or return from start to finish, refund on time via the payment provider or manually, and explain the difference between withdrawal and warranty.

Key concepts: order status, note (private and to the customer), returns process, withdrawal, legal guarantee (conformity), refunding via the payment provider, refunding manually, restocking, partial refund, credit note, 14-day period

A day in the orders screen

Under WooCommerce > Orders you see all orders with their status. The statuses were covered in lesson 4.5; in daily practice they mainly tell you whose move it is:

Status	Whose move is it
Pending payment	The customer or the payment provider; do not ship
On hold	Yours: wait for a bank transfer or check something
Processing	Yours: paid, now pack and ship
Completed	Nobody's, until a question or return comes in
Cancelled, Failed	Nobody's; stock has (usually) already been released
Refunded	Nobody's; fully refunded

A fixed routine helps: every morning, ship all Processing orders and set them to Completed (the customer then gets the "Completed order" email), go through the On hold orders, and check for spikes in Failed orders (card testing, lesson 6.3).

You can add notes to every order. A private note is only visible to you and your colleagues ("customer called, wants it before Friday"). A note to customer is sent to the customer as an email. WooCommerce and your payment provider also add notes themselves, for example "paid via iDEAL | Wero" or a refund. These notes are your log: if a customer later asks what happened, it is all there.

Withdrawal or warranty: two different things

A customer who sends a product back can be using two very different rights. The difference determines what you have to do.

Withdrawal (lesson 5.2): the customer cancels the purchase within 14 days without giving a reason. The product is fine. You refund everything, including the standard outbound shipping costs; the customer pays for the return shipping if you said so in advance.

Legal guarantee (conformity): the product is broken or is not what was promised. This is separate from the 14 days: throughout the EU, the law gives consumers the right to a product that does what they may reasonably expect, also after the cooling-off period. The customer is then primarily entitled to repair or replacement, and if that does not work, to a price reduction or a refund. The costs of returning and repairing are then not for the customer. Any warranty or "returns policy" of your own shop comes on top of this; it may not limit the statutory rights.

At Theehuis Example, two parcels come back. Parcel 1: a teapot, undamaged, the customer did not like the colour after all, reported on day 9. That is a withdrawal. Parcel 2: a teapot that leaks at the spout, reported after four months. That is a warranty case: Theehuis offers a replacement and pays for the return label.

Processing a withdrawal, step by step

The notification comes in. Via your withdrawal button (lesson 5.3), an email or the model withdrawal form. If you use the WooCommerce Order withdrawal function, the customer automatically gets an acknowledgement of receipt, you get an email, and a note is added to the order if it was found. The function does not change the status and does not refund anything. Your deadline runs from the day the withdrawal came in.
The customer sends the product back within 14 days. Send a return address or label, and say who pays the costs.
You may wait with the refund until the product is back or until the customer shows that it has been sent, whichever comes first (NL Article 6:230r(4) of the Dutch Civil Code (BW), DE § 357 Abs. 4 BGB). If you wait for the return, keep an eye on the date.
Check the product. If it has been used more than needed to assess it, you may deduct the loss in value (lesson 5.2). Record this with photos in a private note.
Refund within 14 days of the withdrawal, including the standard outbound shipping costs, using the same means of payment. That is the rule in the EU (Article 13 of Directive 2011/83/EU), in the Netherlands (Article 6:230r of the Dutch Civil Code) and in Germany (§ 357 BGB).
Restock the item, create a credit note (lesson 5.6) and add a note.

Refunding in WooCommerce

Open the order and click Refund. For each line you enter how many items and what amount you are refunding, and the shipping costs if applicable. Then you choose:

"Refund € ... via [payment method]": WooCommerce asks the payment provider, through its integration, to pay the money back. This only works if your payment plugin supports refunds. The provider confirms it and a note is added to the order. This is the best route: one action, and recorded.
"Refund € ... manually": WooCommerce only records that a refund has been made. The money does not go back automatically. You have to make the refund separately in your provider's dashboard or via your bank. If you forget, you will think the customer has their money while nothing has happened. Only use this button if you have already paid the money back some other way.

With Restock refunded items you tick whether the stock should go up. Only do this if the product can really be sold again; a broken teapot does not go back into stock.

A partial refund (one of two products, or only the shipping costs) leaves the order at its current status; with a full refund the status becomes Refunded and the customer gets the "Refunded order" email. The reason you enter is visible to the customer.

Watch your balance with the provider: a refund is usually deducted from your balance with the provider. If it is empty because everything has already been paid out, the refund may fail or happen later. Check how your provider handles this.

A returns policy that works

Write down for yourself (and for colleagues) how a return is handled, with names. Who reads the withdrawal emails, who checks the parcels, who makes the refund, and how do you keep track of the 14 days? A list in a shared calendar or a fixed day of the week works better than "when I remember". Also record what you do with products that cannot be returned (custom-made items, sealed products, lesson 5.2), so your customers all get the same explanation.

Summary

Statuses tell you whose move it is; notes are your log and a note to the customer is an email.
Withdrawal (within 14 days, without a reason) is not the same as the legal guarantee (a defect, also later).
Refund within 14 days of the withdrawal, including the standard outbound shipping costs; you may wait until the product is back or has been sent.
Refunding "via the payment method" really pays the money back; "manually" only records it and needs a separate payment.
Only restock if the product can be sold again, and create a credit note.

Quiz

Exercise

Exercise D6.5: Process a return. Work in your test shop or with the payment provider in test mode (lesson 4.5).

Steps and checklist:

a test order placed, paid and set to Completed;
a withdrawal submitted via your withdrawal button or form (lesson 5.3), as a guest;
the acknowledgement of receipt received (content, date and time);
the "return" received and checked (pretend, with a note);
refunded via the payment provider from WooCommerce, or manually and then really in the provider's dashboard as well;
stock restocked or not, with the reason;
a credit note created (or a note of how you would do it, lesson 5.6);
a note added to the order.

Answer:

How many days were there between the withdrawal and the refund, and what is the legal limit?
Which costs did you refund (product, outbound shipping), and which not?
What happened automatically and what did you have to do yourself?

A good answer mentions: refunding within 14 days of the withdrawal (waiting until the return has arrived or been sent is allowed); the standard outbound shipping costs refunded; the refund visible as a note from the provider; a credit note.

Exercise D6.5: Process a return

You do this exercise yourself; no one checks it. Tick off what you've done and mark the exercise as done.

Test order (test mode) completed
Withdrawal received via your button or form
Acknowledgement of receipt sent
Return received and checked
Refunded via the payment provider from within WooCommerce (or manually, and then separately in the provider's dashboard)
Stock restored
Credit note created
Note added to the order

How many days were there between the withdrawal and the refund, and what is the legal limit?

Which costs did you refund (product, outbound delivery costs)?

What happened automatically and what did you have to do yourself?

Your ticks and notes only stay in this browser; we don't send them anywhere. If you're signed in, we only save in My courses that you've done the exercise.

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