Refunds owed by hand (cash on delivery)

Some orders are paid with a manual payment method, such as cash on delivery or a bank deposit, or are marked as paid in Shopify admin. There is no card or online payment to send money back to. When ZenReturn refunds such an order, Shopify records the refund against the payment, but no money goes to the customer. ZenReturn therefore keeps the refund as owed by hand, on every plan.

This applies to an automatic refund, a Keep item (Donate) refund, and the refund of an exchange price difference to the original payment.

What ZenReturn does

1. It adds a note to the history of the return with the amount that Shopify recorded and the amount for you to pay.
2. For a refund, it emails the customer "Refund approved". The email says that your store will arrange the transfer and contact them about it.
3. It emails you "Refund to Pay by Hand" at the Notification email in Settings → General.
4. The return page shows a Refund owed by hand card, marked Payment owed, with the amount to pay and the customer to pay it to.

Pay the customer and mark it paid

1. Pay the customer the amount shown, in the way you normally pay.
2. If you want, enter a Payment reference on the card, for example a bank transfer reference.
3. Select Mark as paid.

The card then shows Paid with the date and your reference. ZenReturn emails the customer "Refund sent". A refund moves the return to Refunded. For an exchange price difference, the return keeps its status.

ZenReturn never holds or sends the money. Agents can also select Mark as paid, and the Audit log records who did it.

Gift cards and analytics

If the customer paid part of the order with a gift card, Shopify puts that share back on the gift card. The card on the return says how much went to the gift card, and you pay only the rest.

Total refunded on the Analytics page counts the amount owed by hand only after you select Mark as paid.