Refunding an order

You refund an order from the Refund button on the order page. You can send back the whole amount or part of it. The button shows on a paid order, whether or not anything has shipped.

Considerations

• Orbit moves the money for card payments taken through Orbit Payments. For Bank Transfer, Cash on Delivery, Cheque / Money Order and Custom methods, the refund is recorded on the order and you send the money yourself.
• Max Refundable is the most you can send back on this order.
• A card refund does not change your stock. To take items back, use a return.
• You cannot cancel an order after you have part refunded it. Refunding and cancelling are alternatives, not a sequence.

Issue a refund

1. From your Orbit dashboard, go to Orders.
2. Open a paid order.
3. Click Refund. The Issue Refund window opens.
4. Check Order Total and Max Refundable at the top.
5. Set Qty against each line you are refunding. Every line starts at 0.
6. To send the postage back too, type it into Shipping refund (optional).
7. Refund amount adds up as you go. Type over it to refund a different figure, or click Set max for the whole order total.
8. Pick a Reason: Requested by customer, Fraudulent, Duplicate, Product not received, Not as described or Other.
9. Under Notes (optional), write what happened. The note is kept with the refund and stays inside your team.
10. Click Issue partial refund. The button reads Issue full refund when the amount covers the whole order.
11. Read the summary, then click Confirm refund.

Tip: A partial refund settles most complaints without losing the sale. Refund the damaged item, and the rest of the order stays paid and fulfilled.

Refunding a manual payment

Two extra controls appear when the order was paid by Bank Transfer, Cash on Delivery, Cheque / Money Order or a Custom method. A card refund does not show them.

• Restock returned items: puts the refunded items back into stock. Turn it off for anything you will not sell again. Once you set a quantity, a reason list appears below it: Restock, Customer return, Damaged or Other.
• Notify customer via email: sends the refund email. Leave it off to keep the refund to your books.

Warning: A manual refund is recorded and marked as succeeded straight away. Orbit does not move the money. You have to pay the customer yourself.

What happens after a refund

• Money: a card refund goes back to the card the customer paid with. How long it takes to show is up to their bank, usually a few working days.
• Stock: a card refund never changes stock. To put items back, start a return and choose Restock on Receive Items.
• The order: a full refund moves the order to refunded. After a part refund the payment badge still reads Paid and the Refund button stays, so you can refund more later.
• Your books: every refund is written to the order's activity timeline, and a refund comes off a later payout rather than pulling back one you have had.

Note: If the goods are coming back to you, start from Orders, then Returns. That way the item tracking is right, and you refund from there.

Related guides

• Cancelling an order
• Processing a return
• Checking transactions and payouts
• Understanding order statuses