There may be instances where you need to issue a partial or full refund to a customer. This guide provides an overview of refunding and cancelling your subscription orders.

Before you start

• For merchants that migrated to the Shopify Checkout Integration with existing subscribers, new subscriptions that were purchased after your store's migration (via the Shopify Checkout), can be refunded using the instructions in this guide. To refund your subscriptions that were purchased prior to your store's migration, refer to Issuing a refund in Recharge. See Understanding customer management with the migrated Shopify Checkout Integration to learn more.
• Shopify Payments will not refund credit card transaction fees. See Creating returns and refunds from Shopify's Help Center.
• Customers can typically expect to receive their refund within 3-5 business days, however, it can take longer depending on the customer's credit card company. 

Issue a full or partial refund 

Issue a refund in Shopify

You can issue a full or partial refund from your Shopify Admin.

1. Click Orders in your Shopify Admin.
2. Click on the Order ID # of the order you want to refund.
3. Click Refund.
4. You can refund individual items with the dropdown next to each product name, or choose a specific total amount to refund in the Refund Amount field.
5. Refund the shipping cost in the Refund shipping field. Shopify will display the type of shipping and cost for the order.
6. Optional – Add a note in Reason for refund, for your own record keeping. 
7. Click Refund to finalize the refund.

Issue a refund in Recharge

You can also initiate the refund process in your merchant portal:

1. Click Customers in the merchant portal and select Customers from the dropdown.
2. Locate the customer from the Customer list who you are refunding.
3. Click on the order ID in the Recent orders expand for charge you want to refund.
4. Select Refund in Shopify. This opens the Shopify charge in a new tab, where you can complete the refund for the customer.

The refunded transaction is reflected in both your Shopify Admin and merchant portal Dashboard.

Cancel a subscription 

Refunding an order in Shopify will cancel the order in Recharge, but does not cancel the subscription. The customer will get charged again based on the subscription frequency.

If the customer is looking to cancel the subscription altogether, after you refund the transaction in Shopify, you must cancel the subscription within Recharge.

FAQ

How do I cancel a refund?

Refunds cannot be cancelled. Once the order is refunded, the payment is sent to the customer through the payment processor. There is no way to reclaim funds once they have been refunded.

Can I refund the customer using store credit?

No, at this time refunding to store credit is not possible as Shopify gift cards and Shopify POS are not compatible with subscription. 

Can a new payment method be added and the refund deposited to the new account?

No, as per Shopify, refunds can only be sent to the original payment method. 

If the customer no longer has access to that payment method, they will need to contact their bank or agency for the original payment method to claim the funds once the refund is processed.