A cancellation request is created by Shopify, never by Tacey on its own. Tacey shows each request to you so you can answer it (see How do I see and answer a customer's request to cancel an item?). A request reaches Tacey in one of two ways, and if your Cancel requests tab is empty and you expected requests, check both.
Way | Who sends the request | Where you set it |
Shopify's own self-serve cancellation | The customer, from their order status page, with Shopify's own button. | In Shopify: Settings, then Customer accounts, row Self-serve returns and cancellations. |
Tacey's Ask me first | The customer, from Tacey's Change window on the order status page, when they remove an item. Tacey sends Shopify the request on their behalf. | In Tacey: Tools, then Change product options, When a shopper removes an item. |
Way 1: turn on Shopify's self-serve cancellations
In your Shopify admin, open Settings, then Customer accounts.
Find Self-serve returns and cancellations.
Make sure it includes cancellations. A setting that allows returns only does not let a customer ask to cancel an item. The options Shopify shows can change, so follow the labels on your screen.
Shopify describes the feature on its own page, Self-serve returns and cancellations: customers can cancel items that have not shipped from the order status page, you receive a notification, and you review the request in your Shopify admin and either remove the requested items through the standard refund flow or decline it.
Shopify's page prints no revision date, and it does not name the menu path above. The path and the row name were read in a store's admin on 16 October 2026. Check them again before you rely on them, because Shopify moves settings.
Not seen on a test store: Shopify's own cancel button on a customer's order status page. On the test stores we use, the order status page showed no such button, and the only requests we watched a customer send came from Way 2. If you rely on Way 1, place a test order, open its order status page and look for the button before you tell customers about it.
Way 2: let Tacey's "Ask me first" send the request
When a customer removes an item from their order in Tacey's Change window, one of two things happens, depending on the choice under When a shopper removes an item:
Choice | What happens when the customer confirms a removal |
Ask me first | Nothing is removed and nothing is refunded. Tacey sends Shopify a cancellation request and you answer it. |
Remove it right away | The item comes off the order straight away, and your refund settings decide when the money goes back. |
Which one you start on depends on when you installed Tacey. A store that installs Tacey now starts on Ask me first. A store that installed Tacey earlier keeps the choice it already has, which for a store that never changed it is Remove it right away. You can change it at any time.
The choice only matters once customers can use the Change window: Let customers edit their own order has to be on in Global settings, and Change product options has to be turned on. Until then your customers see neither choice.
To check the choice, or to switch to approving each removal yourself:
Open Tools, then Change product options.
Under When a shopper removes an item, choose Ask me first. Its description reads: "The customer's confirm sends you a cancellation request instead. Shopify emails them that it was received, and you see it in Shopify's banner and in Tacey."
Save.
From then on, when a customer confirms a removal, nothing is removed and nothing is refunded. Tacey creates one cancellation request in Shopify instead, and the customer sees Request sent: "The store will confirm. You will get an email when it is done. Nothing has been removed or refunded yet." Shopify emails them that the request was received. You answer it from the Cancel requests tab.
If you would rather have removals happen right away, choose Remove it right away in the same place and save. Ask me first applies only to a request that would have removed an item, and it is refused for the same orders Tacey does not edit at all (for example an order not placed through your store's regular checkout), so no request is created for them. The request still follows every rule on the answering page, so Approve shows its refund on the button before any money moves.
What the customer sees afterwards
On Shopify's order status page, at the top of Make changes to your order, the customer sees one plain line about their request, in their own language:
Request is | The customer reads |
Waiting for you | Cancellation requested, waiting for the store |
Closed (you approved it, or closed it without changes, or removed the item in Shopify) | Your cancellation request is closed |
Declined | The store declined your cancellation request |
Tacey's line never shows your decline message. Shopify emails it to the customer and shows it in their account.
What Tacey shows when the tab is empty
Tacey cannot turn Shopify's setting on for you, and it cannot read what it is set to: Shopify does not give apps that value. So Tacey never tells you the setting is on or off. It shows a reminder of where the setting lives in two places:
Where | What you see |
The Cancel requests tab on Orders, when the tab has no requests and Tacey read the list successfully | A note headed No requests yet: "Customers can only send a cancellation request when Self-serve returns and cancellations includes cancellations in Shopify. If you expected one, check yours under Settings, then Customer accounts." with a link, Open Customer accounts settings. |
The setup steps | The sentence "Customers can only ask to cancel an item when Self-serve returns and cancellations includes cancellations. Find it in Shopify under Settings, then Customer accounts." with the same link. |
The note on the tab appears only while the tab is empty. Once a request exists the note is gone, because a request is proof that customers can send them. A store with cancellations switched on and no requests yet sees the note too: it means "nothing has come in", not "the setting is off". If you use Ask me first the note's wording is about Shopify's setting only; it does not mean Ask me first is off.
What this does not do
Tacey does not change the Shopify setting and does not tell you its value.
Tacey does not create a request on its own. A request exists only after a customer sends one, by Shopify's button or by confirming a removal while Ask me first is on.
Tacey does not let a customer withdraw a request after sending it.
Ask me first does not apply to anything but removing an item. Address, contact details and notes are changed or declined as they always were.
Questions
I turned it on and nothing appeared. A request exists only after a customer sends one. Place a test order on your store, open its order status page and ask to cancel an item that has not shipped, or, with Ask me first on, remove an item in the Change window.
A customer asked and I see no Approve button. That is a different question. See How do I see and answer a customer's request to cancel an item?.