When a customer asks to cancel an item that has not shipped, Tacey shows the request in your Orders list so you can answer it there. This page covers where requests appear, what each card says, what Approve and refund does to the order and the money, what you see after you press it, how to decline or close a request, what happens when you remove the item yourself in Shopify, the two switches that let Tacey answer for you, and every reason Tacey shows no Approve button.

Almost everything here was driven on a test store, and the cancellation request card (including its EU wording) was also read on a live store. Two things were not run on a real store and are marked in the text: Tacey answering by itself after sitting idle for more than an hour, and the Approve switch with refunds turned on. For how a request gets sent in the first place, see How do I let customers ask to cancel an item, and why is the Cancel requests tab empty?. For the messages your customer receives, see What does Shopify email, and what does Tacey email, when a customer asks to cancel?. The new Home line ("See what each customer asked for and answer it here in Tacey.") comes from the code and is UNPROVEN on a live store until RONIN's live drive of this change is filed.

A request that has been answered, by you in Tacey or in Shopify's admin, leaves the tab and the count. A request Tacey could not read still counts as waiting, and its card says so (see the last table on this page).

The tab is a table, one row per request, so a store with hundreds of requests stays easy to work through. The number beside the tab name is how many requests are waiting for you, for example Cancel requests (4). It is the same number as on Home and in the bell.

Ten requests show per page. Use Previous and Next, and read "Showing 1 to 10 of 34" under the table. Sort switches between Oldest first (the default, so the longest wait is on top) and Newest first. On a phone the table becomes a list.

If nothing is waiting the tab says "No customer is waiting for an answer. When one asks to cancel an item, that order shows up here." Before any request has ever arrived it also shows a note about a Shopify setting (see How do I let customers ask to cancel an item, and why is the Cancel requests tab empty?).

What the Status phrase means

A card names the customer, the item and how long it has waited:

> Alex Morgan asked to cancel 1 × Everyday Hoodie (S / Black). Waiting 3 hours.

If the customer's name is not available the card says "Your customer". The wait is shown in minutes, hours or days. If your store delivers to the EU the card also says how many days are left of the 14 days Shopify's guidance mentions (see What does Tacey cover when an EU customer asks to cancel, and what does it not?).

When Tacey can work out the refund the card adds these lines:

> If you approve, Tacey removes the item and refunds $38.00 to store credit. Shipping is not refunded. > Approving removes the item and refunds right away, even if automatic refunds are off.

The amount is Shopify's own figure for that removal. Tacey checks it again at the moment you press the button. If it moved, nothing is removed and the card tells you the new figure.

Pressing the button twice, or opening the same order in two tabs, removes the item once and refunds once.

If the order has two requests, each has its own Approve button, and approving one leaves the other waiting.

When the customer asked for more than is left. If a request is for more units than the order still has, the card says "3 asked, 2 left on the order." and the button reads Remove the 2 that are left and refund $76.00. Nothing is removed until you press it.

When part of a line has already shipped. Only the units that have not shipped can be removed. Tacey removes exactly the number you approve from the unshipped units and no more, and the order total goes down by the refund you were shown.

Approve is your own decision, so it works even after your edit window has closed. The time you allow customers to change an order, and your editing rules, are for your customers' own changes. When you press Approve and refund, Tacey does not hold your own decision to them. A request that arrived inside the window can still be approved after the window has closed, and Approve still works if the tool that lets customers change quantity is switched off, if an editing rule would stop a customer from making the same change, or if the removal would leave fewer items than your keep at least number. What Approve never gets around is an order that can never be edited. Tacey still refuses an order that is not paid yet, was placed through another app, is a Shop Pay Installments order, is a local delivery order or is from before 2019. On those you see the reason instead of a button (see "When there is no Approve button"), and you can still Decline or Close without changes. The other reasons in that list (the item has shipped, it is protected, the request is for every item, Tacey cannot show the refund first) also stay. Approve changes none of the money rules: the amount is still on the button, Tacey still refunds nothing you were not shown, and the edit is still written to Order changes with you as the person who asked.

Use Decline when you will not remove the item, for example because it is already being packed. Nothing on the order changes and no money moves.

Who emails the customer. Shopify does, and only Shopify. Its decline email carries the message you wrote, and your customer also sees it in their account. Tacey sends no second email.

What is recorded. One entry in Order changes, marked Customer request, with your message. It shows no money moved. The request leaves the Cancel requests tab and the count right away.

Pressing Decline request twice sends one email and records one entry.

Use Close without changes when the request should simply be marked complete: no item is removed, no refund is paid and no email is sent at all. Your customer's account shows the request as closed.

One entry is written to Order changes, marked Customer request, with no money. If Tacey cannot close it, the card says Tacey could not close this for you. Do it in Shopify: with an Open in Shopify link, and nothing is recorded.

Pressing any of the three buttons turns the card into one sentence until Tacey is done: Tacey is approving this request now., Tacey is declining this request now. or Tacey is closing this request now. followed by "This card updates when it is done." Another press on the same request, from another tab or from a colleague, does nothing while one is running.

You can answer a request in Shopify's own order editor with Remove items. Shopify then removes the item and closes the request, but it sends no refund, so your customer is owed money and nothing is refunding it. Tacey notices and tells you, so this does not go unseen:

If you refund the customer by hand in Shopify instead, the amount is no longer owed and the button goes away. Tacey never refunds an amount you were not shown, and never twice.

No button is offered on a cancelled order. This was driven on test orders at 1440 px and in German at 390 px.

Two protections sit behind these. If Tacey removes the item but the order afterwards does not show that line's quantity going down, Tacey sends no refund and records the edit without one, because a refund for an item that is still there would be wrong. And if Tacey's own record of an edit is interrupted partway (for example a connection drops after the item was removed), a check that runs every 15 minutes re-reads the order from Shopify and writes the missing entry to Order changes from what Shopify shows, so the history is not left blank. If you refunded such an order by hand in Shopify, the entry reads "A refund of $902.45 was made in Shopify, not by Tacey; nothing is owed." Neither of these was seen on a live store except by testing on purpose.

Tacey shows the reason instead of a button, and nothing has changed on the order. For these cases you can still Decline the request or Close without changes in Tacey, or answer it in Shopify.

Open Tools, then Global settings, and find Order holds. The switch Hold fulfillment while the edit window is open or a cancellation request waits is off until you turn it on. With it on, when a customer asks to cancel an item, Tacey puts the order's fulfillment on hold ("Held while a cancellation request waits") so it does not ship while you decide. The hold is lifted when the request is answered, whether you approve, decline or close it in Tacey or answer it in Shopify. If an order has two requests the hold stays until the last one is answered. A hold you placed by hand in Shopify is never lifted by Tacey. A safety timer also lifts the hold if a request somehow never closes.

The hold stops Shopify's own fulfillment request. A warehouse or shipping app that reads your orders directly from Shopify's data, without waiting for Shopify's fulfillment request, can still see the order, so check how yours works.

Open Tools, then Change product options, and look under When a shopper removes an item. There are two switches. Both are off when you install Tacey, and nothing here moves money by itself.

When a customer asks to cancel an item and the request passes every rule their own removals pass (Change quantity is on, the edit window is open, no editing rule blocks it, the order is one Tacey can edit, they are not asking for more than is left, the order keeps at least the number of items you set, and the order is under your edit limit), Tacey removes the item for you. The refund still follows Refund customers automatically: with that off, the item comes off and the refund waits for you on the order. Your customer gets the same one email as when you press Approve.

Automatic answers always follow your edit window and your rules. That is the difference from pressing Approve yourself: your press can go past them, Tacey's automatic answer never does. A request that does not pass waits for you, and the card says why, for example Not approved automatically. The time you allow for changing this order has passed. Tacey also leaves it for you when Shopify's second check of the amount is unavailable, because nobody is there to confirm a figure Shopify could not double-check.

Not run on a real store: this switch with automatic refunds turned on.

When a customer asks to cancel an item that can no longer be cancelled, Tacey declines the request for you and Shopify emails your customer. You choose which cases it may decline:

Both are ticked when you turn the switch on; untick one to keep that case for yourself. If a customer asks to cancel several items and only some of them have shipped, Tacey leaves the whole request for you, because the others can still be cancelled. Tacey never declines for anything else: not for your own settings (Change quantity off, an editing rule, the keep-at-least number, the edit limit), not for an order Tacey cannot edit (you may still be able to handle it in Shopify), and never a request it would have approved.

What your customer reads. Shopify sends the decline email and puts a note in it. Write your own in Note to the customer (up to 500 characters). Leave it empty and Tacey sends one short sentence for the case, in your customer's language: "Sorry, we can't cancel this item because the time to change an order has passed." or "Sorry, we can't cancel this item because it has already shipped or is no longer on an active order." Tacey sends no email of its own for a decline.

What you see afterwards. The bell says Tacey answered the request automatically. On the request, the card reads Declined automatically on {date}. Shopify emailed your customer. One entry is written to Order changes, marked Customer request, with who asked shown as the system and no money. Nothing is removed and nothing is refunded.

When Tacey will wait for you instead. The page shows it next to the switch: if Change quantity's reduce mode is off, or you untick both cases, it says every request will wait for you. Tacey looks at each request once, when it arrives (or when its 15-minute check finds one it missed), so a request that was open when the window was still open is not declined later when the window closes. If Shopify refuses the decline or cannot be reached after three tries, the request stays for you.

Not run on a real store: Tacey declining by itself after sitting idle for more than an hour, a decline when the edit window has closed, and the decline email as your customer reads it.