When customers change their minds about a product or aren't completely satisfied with their purchases, the items they've purchased can be returned and refunded or exchanged according to your return policy.
Users with Perform returns and exchanges permissions can:
- Return a sale from any outlet in Retail POS: If the the customer originally purchased the product from your online store or another outlet, they can return it to their nearest store location.
- Process returns on fully paid sales: You can't process a return on an open sale or existing return transaction, only on fully paid sales (includes On account and layaway sales).
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Start a new return or resume a parked return: If a return was started but not completed, Retail POS will park the return. When Return item is clicked again, the user will be prompted to resume the existing parked return or discard and start a new return.
An item can only be returned once.
Processing a return and refund
To process a return and refund from the Sales history:
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Navigate to Sell > Sales history > Process return tab.
- Locate the sale and click to expand the row.
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Click Return items.
- If prompted, add a customer to the return by entering their name > Add customer to sale. Adding a customer is required to issue store credit.
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On the Sell screen, the items in the sale will be listed with negative quantities and values, indicating they will be returned. The prices of return items can't be adjusted. Remove products the customer isn't returning by clicking the trash (Delete) icon next to the item.
- Click Refund and select a payment type to process the refund. To refund as store credit, click Store credit.
- Click Complete sale and issue the customer an updated receipt.
If you're returning a Worldpay, Tyro, or PayPal POS (formerly Zettle) sale, select the correct payment type and follow the instructions in Retail POS and on your payment terminal screen to complete the return.
Refunding to a gift card
- Follow the steps above to process a return.
- Before clicking Refund, add a gift card to the sale.
- Enter the gift card number or scan the unique code on the gift card and verify the number on the screen.
- Click Find Gift Card.
- The Add new gift card to sale window will display the gift card number with an Inactive badge and the expiry date, if applicable. Enter the refund total as the amount to add to the gift card.
- Click Add to sale.
- Click Exchange to process the refund.
The refunded amount will be added to the gift card's balance.
Processing a return and exchange
To process a return and exchange an item in a sale for a different product:
- Navigate to Sell > Sales history > Process return tab.
- Locate the sale and click to expand the row.
- Click Return items.
- If prompted, add a customer to the return by entering their name > Add customer to sale.
- On the Sell screen, the items in the sale will be listed with negative quantities and values, indicating they will be returned. The prices of return items can't be adjusted. Remove products the customer isn't returning by clicking the trash (Delete) icon next to the item.
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Search for the item your customer wants in exchange for the return item and add it to the sale. These items will have a positive quantity and value.
- Click Exchange. If the value of the new item is higher, the button will appear blue and you can process the exchange as you would a regular sale on the Sell screen. If you owe the customer the difference in value, the button will appear red and you can process the refund.
- Click Complete exchange and issue the customer an updated receipt.
Processing a return for unfulfilled items
Processing a return for unfulfilled items will:
- Make the returned items unavailable for fulfillment.
- Remove returned items from purchase order recommendations.
- Make reserved inventory available to sell.
- Close the original sale automatically if there are no items left to fulfill.
Voiding a return containing an unfulfilled item will:
- Re-open the original sale and make it available for fulfillment.
- Recreate the fulfillment order with the unfulfilled items from the voided return.
- Reverse the inventory movement for all items in the return.
To process a return for unfulfilled items:
- Navigate to Inventory > Fulfillments.
- Click the sale to expand it.
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Click View sale.
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Click Return items.
- Click Refund.
- Process the refund.
Processing a refund with Lightspeed Payments
If you have Lightspeed Payments, you can refund transactions directly through the Financial services tab in Retail POS for transactions made in standalone mode (online and offline), payment links, and transactions that are not visible in the Sales history.
Learn more in Processing a refund with Lightspeed Payments.
Refunds made through Financial services are not reflected on any reports outside of Financial services and should be used only when required. Refunds should be processed using the original linked sale in the Sales history whenever possible.
Refunding a sale made with Lightspeed Payments and another payment type
If the original sale payment was split between Lightspeed Payments and another payment type and you try to refund the entire sale with Lightspeed Payments, a pop-up will appear stating the refund amount is higher than the original amount paid using Lightspeed Payments.
You can choose to:
- Refund Full Amount, which will refund the purchase onto whichever card the customer has present.
- Refund Original Amount, which will refund the original Lightspeed Payments balance to the original card. You can then refund the rest of the balance using another payment type.
Processing an unreferenced refund
To refund a sale with no receipt or sales reference, you must have unreferenced refunds enabled on your account. Contact Retail Support to inquire about eligibility.
- Navigate to Sell and add the product to be returned.
- Click the arrow next to the product to expand.
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Change the Quantity to a negative value equal to the number of products being returned. You can also adjust the price of the item, if needed.
- (Optional) Add a customer to the sale.
- Click Refund.
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Select the payment type you'll use to refund the customer.
(Canada only) If you're using Lightspeed Payments and the original purchase was made with an Interac card, the same card must be present for the refund. If the customer has the card, select Continue. Otherwise, select Choose Another Refund Type.
- If prompted, follow the instructions on the payment terminal. If the card used for the original purchase was a credit, debit, or non-Interac (Canada only) card type, the refund will process automatically without a card needing to be presented.
- Click Complete sale and issue the customer an updated receipt.
Processing a partial refund
If unreferenced refunds are enabled on your account, you can process a partial refund:
- Navigate to the Sell screen and add the product to be returned.
- Click the arrow next to the product to expand.
- Update the Price to the amount you're going to refund to the customer.
- Click Refund.
- Process the refund.
What's next?
Processing a refund with Lightspeed Payments
Process refunds through the Financial services page.