Shopify calculates every refund, not Tacey. When a customer's change makes their order cheaper, Tacey asks Shopify what the customer is owed, including the right share of tax, shipping and duties, and never refunds more than they paid. What differs by tool is when the refund is sent.
Shopify does the math
Tax, duties and shipping are easy to get wrong, and a wrong refund turns into an angry customer or a wrong figure on your books. So Tacey never works out a refund itself. Every figure you or your customer sees comes straight from Shopify, in the currency the customer paid in.
When each refund is sent
What the customer did | When the refund goes out |
Removed an item or lowered a quantity (Change product options) | As soon as they confirm. They see the refund message before confirming. |
Cancelled the order (Cancel order) | As part of the cancellation, as soon as they confirm. |
Applied a discount (Apply a discount), card refund | Waits for your approval by default. With Refund customers automatically on, it goes out 15 to 30 minutes after their last change. |
Swapped to a cheaper product (Replace product) | Same as a discount: waits for your approval by default, or goes out automatically 15 to 30 minutes later if you turned that on. |
Moved the address somewhere with lower tax | Nothing is sent. The ledger shows Refund owed, and you issue it from the order in Shopify. |
The short wait on discounts and cheaper swaps is deliberate. If a customer makes several changes in a row, they get one correct refund for the final result rather than several partial ones.
Where the refund goes
By default, back to the card or wallet the customer paid with. Some tools let you choose store credit instead, on the tool's own settings page:
Cancel order: Where the refund goes, either the original payment method or Let the customer choose.
Change product options: Where the refund goes when a customer removes an item.
Apply a discount: How the customer gets the discount back.
The safety checks on every refund
Never more than the customer paid. Before sending, Tacey reads the most Shopify will allow for that order and refuses anything above it.
Never on an unreadable figure. If Shopify's answer cannot be read, Tacey sends nothing and records The refund did not go through so a person can look.
Never twice. Every refund carries a fixed reference, so a retry, a double click or two overlapping checks produce one refund.
Checked again at the last moment. For held and delayed refunds, Tacey asks Shopify what is owed right before sending. If you already refunded by hand, nothing more is sent.
Stock is separate from money
Removing an item can put it back into your stock straight away, if that tool is set to Return the item to inventory. That happens when the order changes, which can be a moment before the refund lands. Seeing the stock back before the refund is normal.
Items with import duties
An item that was charged import duties can only be removed completely, not reduced, so the duties refund cleanly with it. A customer who tries to reduce it is told so.
If a refund fails
The customer is told: "Your order was updated, but your refund couldn't be sent automatically. We've been notified and will follow up with you." The ledger shows The refund did not go through, with Shopify's reason, and the order appears under Action needed. Refund them by hand in Shopify. Tacey does not retry a refused refund on its own, so it can never send one twice.
What this does NOT do
It does not estimate or round. If your tax or shipping settings change the figure, the refund follows Shopify.
It does not hold an order's shipping because a refund is owed. Money flowing back to the customer never delays their parcel.
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