How to handle sending wrong items to an online store customer?

[KymLeibham]

An online store customer was mailed the wrong item. How do I:

1. Send a refund mailing label just for the one item being returned?

2. Create a new mailing label for the proper item I need to send out?

[Victor]

Hi @KymLeibham,

Thank you for getting in touch. First of all, how did this happen? Did you post the item yourself or did a supplier send the item out on your behalf? If it's the latter, you'll want to speak with the supplier about their returns process if you are not sure how they handle returns and refunds.

You can buy return labels directly via the Shopify admin if you are eligible via Shopify Shipping. I would recommend communicating with the customer first, informing them of the situation, and ensuring that they are happy to return the item before sending out the correct one. 

If you wish to generate a new shipping label for the correct item, you can create a draft order and create a label from there. You can mark the order as paid and then fulfill it by purchasing a label.

[KymLeibham]

Thank you for your quick reply. We are a small university campus shop and one of our staff members sent the wrong item to a buyer. Your solution to create a draft order is good. What I did was duplicate the order and remove the items which I was not sending and then mark it as paid then generate the label. I was just not sure if that was the most efficient way. I will have to actually count our inventory to see if it took another item out of inventory. Thanks

[Victor]

Hi @KymLeibham,

Yes, that's totally fine. As long as you're able to print a new label and then reconcile your inventory once the correct item was sent you should be good. Please let me know though if you've any other questions!

[sfpop]

Hello, I have also been using draft orders when I need to send a correct item, but I just noticed that Shopify is listing sales tax on those orders and I'm concerned that draft orders are altering my reports on gross/net sales, sales tax, etc. Do draft orders get counted in my reports for gross/net sales and sales tax? If so then my numbers are off.

[Victor]

Hi @sfpop,

I do not believe this to be the case, no. Your draft orders are stored separately from the rest of your orders and any sales tax calculated in a draft should not be included in any total you're seeing in a report. Once the order becomes a real order following payment, then the sales tax that is added will be included.

If you feel like your sales tax reporting is off or inaccurate, please contact our support team and we can take a closer look.