How to NOT notify gift-giver if gift recipient returns or exchanges items

[IdealBham]

There must be a way to do this but I can't seem to find. We are new to Shopify POS and recently had a good customer buy a gift for a friend. The friend then came in to exchange for something else. I found the order because I happened to remember this sale a few weeks ago. So I looked up the order by the purchaser's name and found it. (Not sure how I would have found this transaction if I didn't know her and remember the transaction?)

Problem is, the gift giver is notified by email that the person exchanged her gift. Not everyone wants a gift giver to know they made an exchange. Is there a way to disable this email notification that goes out to the gift giver and instead give the person making the exchange a receipt?

Also, the gift recipient had less than $5 balance we owed her after the exchange. I drew up a physical, paper gift card to give her with the balance and somehow the system also emailed the original gift-giver an electronic gift card with this same balance. Not sure how to make sure the customer exchanging the gift always gets the gift card (be that physical or electronic) NOT the person who originally bought the gift. any experience with this is much appreciated!

[BuddiesToys]

Did you get any response on this?  I'm also having the same problem and it is so embarrassing for customers when it notifies the original purchaser!!  I hate this!  Would love to hear if you solved your problem.

[IdealBham]

I have heard nothing ☹️

[BuddiesToys]

Thanks for the response, I can't really think of a good solution.  I guess I could just issue customer doing the exchange a gift card for the same amount as the exchange and leave the original order untouched??? Is that what you are doing?

[IdealBham]

I haven't had to deal with it again! But I will soon, I am sure.

I was thinking maybe during the exchange/return is there a place to disable
sending an email notification? It happened so fast for me and I was
flustered and embarrassed with customer standing right there.

[BuddiesToys]

For the record, I've been on two chats with them today and their solution was issuing a gift card that isn't attached to the original sale, but unfortunately that is a really poor bookkeeping option that doesn't connect the gift card to any money taken in.  Best of luck on figuring out a fix!!

[IdealBham]

Argh! Not helpful at all! If I figure anything out I'll let you know.
Thanks!

[jyc800]

I would also like to know if there is a solution for this, we have had this happen on multiple occasions and it makes for a very bad customer experience.  Today a customer (original gift giver) came in saying she received a gift card by email.  We looked up her order and informed her that the person she gifted the items to, had returned it for a gift card.   She was very confused and it was hard for her to understand what happened after we explained the situation.  She still left the store scratching her head.  The worst part is , there are now two gift cards out there, one that belongs to the person returning the gift items and one  that was emailed to the original customer of the gift.  It just seems like a recipe for disaster because it creates so much confusion and a negative customer experience.   If there was a way to disable the email gift card going to the original gift giving customer, that would be a decent alternative solution, but as of right now there does not seem to be an option for this.

Very frustrating to say the least!

[HKJ]

You can temporarily change the email address of the original customer before submitting the exchange.

[BuddiesToys]

I think asking my staff on a busy weekend to do that is unnecessarily confusing
It needs to be easier

[HKJ]

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@BuddiesToys wrote:
I think asking my staff on a busy weekend to do that is unnecessarily confusing
It needs to be easier

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Of course. There are a bunch of basic, essential features which Shopify hasn't implemented despite years of requests, and this is one of them.

[Roostcollection]

This has been my complaint for over a year now. Clover and others have a Manual return key on the home page. Easy, Select manual return, scan item(s) and the how to issue credit. Cash or Gift card. No email, no phone, no name and most importantly NO NOTIFICATION TO ORIGINAL PURCHASER

DID YOU READ THAT DEVELOPERS?

[jcoleshoes]

We look like complete idiots to the customer when this happens. It is so frustrating! Please get this fixed Shopify!!!!!! 

[BuddiesToys]

Just an update on my side.   We've done many of these exchanges over christmas and now we are running into this problem:

Original customer was issued a digital gift card at the same time I issued a physical gift card to the person doing an exchange in the store.  Guess what?  Original customer used the gift card thinking it was a gift from us and now I'm looking like an idiot to gift receiver who wanted to spend their gift card today and there is $0 on it.  I had to issue them another one.  So I'm now out money and look like an idiot.

FIX THIS SHOPIFY!!

[MockingbirdBOS]

Any chance anyone has any updates on this?  I have now had multiple gift exchanges where the original purchaser has used the gift card so we are out lots of money because of this silly setting.

[HKJ]

How do you lose money?

[MockingbirdBOS]

We run into awkward situations where the original purchaser is using the gift card before the person who returned the gift.  We don't want to tell our customers so we also honor the gift card value or the person who exchanged it.  

[BuddiesToys]

This has been solved in the last update but it is still complicated. If (and only if) you look up the original purchaser and click “view all orders” you can select the order that needs a return and then you can change the recipient. For some reason it only works this way, not if you scan the receipt or look up the order by number etc. only if you look it up by the original customer.  It’s still not ideal!  Would be best if it worked all the ways!  

[MockingbirdBOS]

Thanks so much!   Not great but better than nothing!

[HKJ]

That could happen without a return also...
The original purchaser gets an email with the code anyhow.

I would simply say, "sorry, card was used already, you may want to contact
the person who gave it to you."

[BuddiesToys]

I just can't imagine saying to a customer "hey sorry your gift card we issued you from returning a gift was already used by the gift giver, sorry its up to you to contact them" will go over very well!  It is shopify (and therefore our) fault that the gift giver received a copy of the gift card anyways.  That seems like putting the fault on someone who is just trying to do an exchange. 

[HKJ]

I don't agree. If someone buys a physical gift card as a gift, they have the code and can use it. 

It's the fault of the original purchaser for using a code they gave away as a gift, not yours or even Shopify 's.

[BuddiesToys]

You’ve misunderstood what we are discussing. We aren’t discussing when gift giver BUYS a gift card. We are discussing when a person is given an actual item from our store as a gift and they come and exchange it for a gift card.  The issue is then that the gift card gets sent by Shopify automatically to the original customer as well as prints out at the store for the customer who did the exchange.  So there are two gift cards out there and the original purchaser has no idea why they’ve been sent a gift card. It just texts or emails a code to them. Lots of our customers have assumed that this is just a thank you from us and used it by accident. There is no other communication from Shopify about what the gift card relates to so the original customer has no idea what it’s from. 

Read the original post to understand it please. 

[IdealBham]

Hi - no I haven't heard any updates on this. Sorry!