Managing order errors
Understanding and managing order errors allows you to provide customers with a seamless shopping experience while ensuring you receive payment for processed orders.
This guide explains how to access the Order errors page in your Recharge merchant portal, manage order errors, and configure your store settings.
Accessing the Order error page
Use the Order errors page to understand customer errors and how they impact your store. The Order Errors page is located in your Recharge merchant portal:
- Click Customers in the merchant portal and select Orders from the dropdown.
- Select Order errors from the dropdown options.
The Order errors page groups and categorizes order errors, providing insights into the error, how it occurred, and resolution steps. Order errors are divided into the following categories:
View each tab in the Order errors page to learn more about a customer's order error, why it occurred, and how to resolve any errors.
Use the filters on each tab to locate specific orders by customer, or error type, or use the date filter to view order errors for a specific period.
Understanding the Order errors page
Understanding and managing order errors allows you to provide customers with a seamless shopping experience while ensuring you receive payment for processed orders.
Review the following sections to understand each tab in the Order errors page:
All active errors
Active errors are orders that failed to process but can still be recovered. Recharge retries some errors automatically, while other errors require you to investigate, update, and manually retry the order. See Error types to understand what order errors require manual intervention.
Missing variants
Recharge uses the variant ID assigned by your ecommerce platform to create customers' orders. Missing variant errors occur when the variant ID on at least one line item on the order no longer exists in your product catalog.
You can update the associated variant ID and manually retry the order to resolve the issue. See Troubleshooting variant not found errors for detailed instructions.
Inventory
Recharge checks the inventory levels for your products before attempting to process an order. Orders may result in an error depending on your inventory settings. Specifically, inventory error messages are shown if your settings are configured to create the order only if inventory is available.
You can update the inventory levels in your ecommerce platform to resolve this issue. These orders are automatically retried after the original order date. See Troubleshooting insufficient inventory errors for detailed instructions.
Store setup
Order errors can occur depending on your store settings. These issues are related to settings that the order relies on for processing, including:
- Payment integration
- Shipping setup
- Tax settings
Investigate each order and follow the specific resolution steps provided to resolve the issue. See Charge error messages for a list of specific errors, and the resolution steps required to fix the error.
Payments
Your linked payment gateway may return an order error message. These orders often fail because the customer's bank declined the transaction.
Some payment-related order errors are retried automatically, while others will always result in a failed attempt because the customer needs to update the payment method on file. It is important to investigate the individual error to understand the required resolution steps. See Charge error messages for a list of specific errors, and the resolution steps to fix the error.
Other
Errors categorized in the other category are rare and do not fit in any additional category.
Investigate each order and follow the specific resolution steps provided to resolve the issue. See Charge error messages for a list of specific errors, and the resolution steps required to fix the error.
Archived
The system retried these errors the maximum number of attempts before declaring them closed. Use the Archived tab to view declined and max retry orders.
Additional action is not required for these orders.
Error types
The following table outlines which errors are retried through the standard dunning process, versus errors retried through a Failed Payment Recovery Strategy. Errors that are not retried by either process must be manually retried.
Error Type |
Retried during the standard dunning process |
Retried by Failed Payment Recovery |
| ACCOUNT_CLOSED | ❌ | ✅ |
| AMOUNT_TOO_SMALL | ❌ | ❌ |
| AUTHENTICATION_ERROR | ❌ | ❌ |
| BANK_ACCOUNT_RESTRICTED | ❌ | ✅ |
| BILLING_ADDRESS_ERROR | ❌ | ✅ |
| BLOCKED_FROM_AUTOMATIC_PROCESSING | ❌ | ❌ |
| BUYER_CANCELED_PAYMENT_METHOD | ✅ | ✅ |
| CAPTURE_AMOUNT_EXCEEDS_AUTHORIZED | ❌ | ❌ |
| CAPTURE_FAILED | ❌ | ❌ |
| CAPTURE_PAYMENT_ERROR | ❌ | ❌ |
| CARDNUMBER_INCORRECT | ✅ | ✅ |
| CARD_DECLINED | ✅ | ✅ |
| CARD_ERROR_GENERAL | ✅ | ✅ |
| CARD_EXPIRED | ❌ | ✅ |
| CARD_UPDATED_NOW_PENDING_NEXT_ATTEMPT | ✅ | ✅ |
| CARD_ZIPCODE_FAILED_VALIDATION | ✅ | ✅ |
| CLOSED_MAX_RETRIES_REACHED | ❌ | ✅ |
| CONTRACT_NOT_AVAILABLE | ❌ | ❌ |
| CONTRACT_TERMINATED | ❌ | ❌ |
| CONTRACT_UNDER_REVIEW | ❌ | ❌ |
| COULD_NOT_PROCESS | ✅ | ✅ |
| CUSTOMER_INVALID | ❌ | ❌ |
| CUSTOMER_NEEDS_TO_UPDATE_CARD | ❌ | ✅ |
| CUSTOMER_NOT_FOUND | ❌ | ❌ |
| CUSTOMER_NO_TOKEN | ❌ | ❌ |
| DEBIT_AUTHORIZATION_REVOKED | ❌ | ✅ |
| DEBIT_NOT_AUTHORIZED | ❌ | ✅ |
| EMPTY_CHARGE_ENTRY | ❌ | ❌ |
| EXPIRED_PAYMENT_METHOD | ✅ | ✅ |
| GENERAL_FAILURE | ❌ | ❌ |
| INSUFFICIENT_CREDIT_BALANCE | ❌ | ❌ |
| INSUFFICIENT_FUNDS | ✅ | ✅ |
| INVALID | ❌ | ❌ |
| INVALID_ACCOUNT_NUMBER | ❌ | ✅ |
| INVALID_COUNTRY | ❌ | ❌ |
| INVALID_CUSTOMER_BILLING_AGREEMENT | ✅ | ✅ |
| INVALID_DISCOUNT | ❌ | ❌ |
| INVALID_DISCOUNT_AMOUNT | ❌ | ❌ |
| INVALID_LINE_ITEM_PROPERTY | ❌ | ❌ |
| INVALID_PAYMENT_METHOD | ✅ | ✅ |
| INVALID_PHONE_NUMBER | ❌ | ❌ |
| INVALID_PICK_UP_LOCATION | ❌ | ❌ |
| INVALID_ROUTING_NUMBER | ❌ | ✅ |
| INVALID_SHIPPING_ADDRESS | ❌ | ❌ |
| INVALID_SHIPPING_PROVINCE | ❌ | ❌ |
| INVALID_TOKEN | ❌ | ✅ |
| INVALID_ZIP_CODE | ❌ | ❌ |
| INVENTORY_ALLOCATIONS_NOT_FOUND | ❌ | ❌ |
| MIN_CHARGE_ERROR | ❌ | ❌ |
| NO_JSON_FOUND | ❌ | ❌ |
| PAYMENT_ALREADY_CAPTURED | ❌ | ❌ |
| PAYMENT_CAPTURE_ERROR | ❌ | ❌ |
| PAYMENT_INTENT_PAYMENT_ATTEMPT_FAILED | ✅ | ✅ |
| PAYMENT_METHOD_DECLINED | ✅ | ✅ |
| PAYMENT_METHOD_INCOMPATIBLE_WITH_GATEWAY_CONFIG | ❌ | ❌ |
| PAYMENT_METHOD_NOT_FOUND | ❌ | ❌ |
| PAYMENT_PROVIDER_IS_NOT_ENABLED | ❌ | ❌ |
| PAYPAL_ERROR_GENERAL | ✅ | ✅ |
| PENDING_SCA_AUTHENTICATION | ❌ | ❌ |
| PROCESSING_ERROR | ✅ | ✅ |
| PURCHASE_TYPE_NOT_SUPPORTED_BY_CARD | ✅ | ✅ |
| REFER_TO_CUSTOMER | ✅ | ✅ |
| SCA_CONFIRM_FAILED | ❌ | ❌ |
| SEPA_DEBIT_FAILURE | ✅ | ✅ |
| SHIPPING_RATE_ERROR | ❌ | ❌ |
| SHOPIFY_REJECTED | ✅ | ❌ |
| TAX_RATE_ERROR | ❌ | ❌ |
| TEST_MODE | ❌ | ❌ |
| TRANSACTION_SIZE_DECLINE | ✅ | ✅ |
| TRANSIENT_ERROR | ✅ | ✅ |
| UNEXPECTED_ERROR | ✅ | ✅ |
| UNEXPECTED_INVENTORY_LEVEL | ❌ | ❌ |
| UNEXPECTED_REGEN_ERROR | ❌ | ❌ |
| UNEXPECTED_VARIANT_ERROR_TYPE | ✅ | ❌ |
| UNKNOWN_ERROR | ✅ | ❌ |
| VARIANT_DOES_NOT_EXIST | ❌ | ❌ |
Understand the retry process
If a customer's charge fails to process, Recharge retries the charge the next day. Charge errors are automatically retried according to your automatic retry settings at 4 PM ET on the charge retry date.
The dunning process only counts payment-related errors as charge attempts. Customers receive the card declined email the first time the card declines and the order cannot be processed. However, the card declined notification is not sent after every retry attempt. Instead, it is sent after any attempt following seven days after the last notification was sent.
If the error relates to a payment error that must be manually retried, Recharge follows your store's dunning/retry configuration and only retries the charge on the configured schedule.
If your business needs additional charge retries outside of Recharge’s automatic dunning process, you can manually retry the charges or fill out the Failed Payment Recovery interest form.
Example
If you set your retry logic to retry a failed charge every five days, an initial card declined email will go out after the first decline on the day of the charge failure. The charge will then be retried again on the next day.
If the previous attempts fail, the next retry will occur on the sixth day. Recharge does not send the customer an email since a card decline notification went out within the last seven days. On the next retry attempt during the 11th day, a card decline notification will be sent to the customer.
Retry settings
Recharge retries the most common charge error types, but some charge errors must be manually retried either due to configuration issues or the customer needs to be involved. See Error types for a detailed list of charges that are automatically retried, and what charges are manually retried.
Expired cards are retried on Shopify charges as requested by Shopify. Recharge does not automatically retry expired cards for stores using Stripe, Braintree, or Authorize.net.
Adjust your retry intervals
You can adjust your default retry intervals within the merchant portal.
- Open the Settings page in your merchant portal and select Payment.
- Under Failed charges, select Recharge will retry failed charges.
- From the Retry charge interval dropdown, select the interval between each retry attempt.
- Under Maximum number of retries, select the number of retry attempts that should occur before the system stops retrying the charge.
- Click Save.
Set your maximum retry settings
Specify how Recharge will handle orders after the last retry attempt.
You cannot retry charges for subscriptions cancelled because they hit the number of max retries if you use the Shopify checkout and have the Recharge When maximum number of retires are reached setting configured to an option that is not Do Nothing. This also impacts stores using the Migrated Shopify Checkout Integration who process charges through Shopify Payments.
If you use a third-party dunning app, or process these types of charges manually, you can update the When maximum number of retires are reached setting to Do Nothing.
- In the merchant portal, click Settings and select Payment.
- Select your preferred option under When maximum number of retries are reached. See definitions for each option below.
- Click Save.
Max retry options and definitions
Max retry option |
Definition |
| Default | The subscription is cancelled, but the customer account remains active. |
| Do nothing | The subscription and customer account will remain active, but the order will be marked with an error and no longer retried. |
| Cancel, don't email |
Active subscriptions associated with the errored charge are cancelled. If a customer has other active subscriptions that are not associated with the errored charge, the customer and those subscriptions will continue to remain active. Customers will not receive a cancellation email. |
| Cancel and send email |
Active subscriptions associated with the errored charge are cancelled. If a customer has other active subscriptions not associated with the errored charge, the customer and those subscriptions will continue to remain active. Customers will receive a cancellation email.
Note: The Subscription cancellation notification must be enabled within your Recharge notification settings in order to send the email.
|
The Charge processing failed on Recharge Klaviyo metric is triggered if a max_retry error occurs.
Understand card declines
Cards may decline for numerous reasons that depend on the customer's bank or credit card. If a customer's card declines, they automatically receive an email requesting they update their payment information.
When a customer updates their card, the card decline error updates to error type: CARD_UPDATED_NOW_PENDING_NEXT_ATTEMPT. This error type sets the retry date to the next day and sets the number of retry attempts to one. Recharge automatically retries the charge if it is within the automatic recovery period window, as outlined in the Automatic recovery period (payment method updated) setting listed under your Payment settings.
Card declines are flagged by the cardholder's institution. Banks never share detailed information regarding these declines with Recharge. A typical cause is that the bank did not recognize the company and flagged the charge as a precaution, in hopes that the cardholder will contact them if this was not in error.
Have your customer contact their bank to confirm the reason for the decline. If a customer periodically gets card decline errors even after updating their card, the customer should contact their bank to determine the cause. There may be something specific to their account that is blocking transactions from happening.
Customize the Card declined notification
When a customer gets a card error, Recharge sends an email with a link to update their card. You can make adjustments to the content of this notification:
- Open the Settings page in your merchant portal and select Notifications.
- Under Customer Notifications, click on Card declined.
- Make adjustments to the notification in the textboxes. You can also use variables in your notifications.
- Click Save.
Updating payment methods for linked addresses or subscriptions
Recharge automatically schedules linked subscriptions to be retried at the next charge retry cycle when a customer updates or replaces one of their payment methods, and their payment method is used with one or more addresses/subscriptions.
Recharge retrieves all error charges associated with any linked addresses.
The number of times the charge was previously tried will get reset. The next try date is set to tomorrow and set the state of the charge to CARD_UPDATED_NOW_PENDING_NEXT_ATTEMPT. All subscriptions that were cancelled due to max retries reached will be identified and reactivated.
Download the charge errors export
Recharge provides a CSV report that lists all of your store's charge errors:
- In the merchant portal, click Tools & apps and select Exports.
- Click Create export and choose Orders - Errors as the export type.
- Set your date range and enter your email to receive the export.
- Click Create export.
Working with your payment processor
For more information on failed charges, declined charges, and fraud filters, reach out to your specific payment processor:
