A customer placed a pre-order for an out-of-stock item, then requested cancellation to order an in-stock alternative instead. Customer service cancelled the original order and created a new one with a manual discount to account for the payment already made.
The Problem:
The cancelled pre-order still displays “refund owed” in the system
The order cannot be edited (already cancelled) or have the refund amount zeroed out
Concern exists about incurring credit card fees if processing the refund
Resolution Path:
A community member shared Shopify’s help documentation on managing pre-order cancellations and refunds
The original poster confirmed this resource clarified their process needs
The discussion remains focused on establishing proper procedures for customer service to handle similar situations in the future
The thread appears resolved with the poster acknowledging they need to adjust their internal process based on Shopify’s official guidance.
Summarized with AI on October 28.
AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
We have a customer who ordered a unit that was out of stock on Pre-order. He decided he didn’t want to wait, so he called in and CS cancelled the original order, created a new order for him (there was an issue with modifying the existing order) and gave him a manual discount, reflecting the money he’d already paid.
The issue is the original order still shows a “refund owed” and we can’t get rid of it. We can’t edit it because it’s been cancelled and we can’t just set the refund to zero. So, two things:
Is there a way to get rid of the order or at least remove the refund owed?
What should I tell our CS guys is the proper sequence to address the issue?
