How to Change Error Messages for Refunds, Shipping, Privacy and Terms on my CheckOut Page

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

A Shopify store owner faces issues with policy links on their checkout page. Their custom policies differ significantly from Shopify’s defaults, leading them to disable standard refund policies.

The Problem:

  • When customers click policy links (Refund, Shipping, Privacy, Terms) at checkout, they receive error messages like “xxx.myshopify.com refused to connect”
  • The owner wants these links to direct to their custom policy pages instead of showing errors
  • They’re unsure how to modify these error messages in the theme.liquid or checkout.liquid files

Proposed Solution:
A community member (theycallmemakka) suggests:

  • Manually editing policy content directly in Settings > Policies rather than creating separate policy pages
  • This approach should integrate custom policies properly with checkout links
  • Screenshots were shared showing the Settings > Policies interface

Current Status:
The original poster is considering whether to re-enable Shopify’s standard policies and edit them with custom content, rather than keeping them disabled. They’re concerned this might mislead customers but acknowledge it could resolve the broken links issue. The discussion remains open as they evaluate this approach.

Summarized with AI on November 14. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Hello,

Background: My store and products are custom made and we have very specific and detailed policies. Our policies for order cancellation (Refunds), Shipping, Privacy and Terms are well documented and loaded into the Policies section of Admin separately, per those forms. They show up/activate nicely from page footer links, etc.

The problem is that our policies are so different from Shopify’s, that we’re forced to turn Shopify’s standard refund policies OFF.

The result is that at the bottom of our CART/CHECKOUT page, when someone clicks the links “Refund Policy,” “Shipping Policy,” “Privacy Policy,” or “Terms,” they receive a particularly ugly error message: “xxx(slug).myshopify.com refused to connect”

The question is: How/where do I change these error messages? (theme.liquid? after what/before what?)

I would like to change each of them to contain a LINK the correct policy, ie: “See this “xxxxxx (linked)” page for details.”

I would love to have a different link/page for each condition (Refund, Shipping, Privacy, Terms) just like the footers on normal pages.

TRUE gratefulness to someone that can help with this.

2

can you send me the link to the policy page that you want to update?

3

Hi Makkaomakka,

I see that I need to update the checkout.liquid file with the correct policy page links.

I’m not 100% sure of your question (ie what links you’re asking for) as I’m not looking to update a policy page. Make sense?

Sorry for slow reply…we’re in quite different timezones.

thx

r

4

Hi @rosalindmarinou ,

It looks like your concern is with the default polecy messages. If i am correct, Its not recomended to create a seperate policy page. We can manully change the policy mesagae by editing it from Settings > Policies.

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By asking, ‘What links are you referring to?’ I wanted to confirm whether you had created custom policy pages or not.

If you find this information useful, a Like would be greatly appreciated. And if this solves the problem, please Mark it as Solution!

Best Regards,
Makka

1 Like
5

Thank you Makkaomakka. For some reason, what’sapp is not authenticating on my phone/devices. (I’m getting a “can’t send SMS” error)?

In fact our policies are custom written and in the policies section as you have indicated.

Perhaps my problem is that I turned the “standard” Shopify policies OFF in a concern they would mislead customers. Maybe I should just turn it on and see if our written policies are presented?

If you have another convenient way of reaching you, I will most certainly use that - send screenshots - and give you 2 thumbs up. Thank you!