Exchanges & Claims

Exchanges and claims handle situations that arise after an order has been delivered. Both involve returning the original item and — optionally — sending a replacement.

Exchange — Customer wants a different size, colour, or variant
Claim — Item arrived damaged, wrong, or defective (you initiate it)

Exchanges

Creating an exchange

Open a fulfilled order and click Actions → Register exchange.

Select items to return

Choose which items the customer is sending back. You can select the return shipping method and set any return shipping fee.

Select outbound items

Choose the replacement items to send. These can be different variants of the same product, or entirely different products.

Review the difference

Medusa calculates the cost difference. If the new items cost more, the customer owes the difference. If less, you issue a refund.

Confirm

The exchange is created. The return is tracked separately; the replacement generates a new fulfillment.

Payment handling

Situation	Action
Outbound items cost more	Request additional payment via link or mark manual
Outbound items cost less	Refund the difference to original payment method
Even swap	No payment action

Receiving the return

Once the customer returns the original item, go to the exchange, find the return, and click Mark as received. Optionally inspect the item and note any damage. Inventory is restocked when you mark the return received (unless you mark it as damaged).

Claims

Claims are initiated by you when something went wrong with the delivered order — damage in transit, wrong item shipped, item missing from multi-item package.

Creating a claim

Open a fulfilled order and click Actions → Register claim.

Claim types:

Type	Use when
Refund	You owe the customer money (item lost, badly damaged)
Replace	You will ship a replacement (wrong item, minor damage)

Select the affected items

Pick the specific items the claim relates to. For a partial shipment issue, you only select the affected items, not the whole order.

Set the claim type

Choose Refund or Replace. You cannot change this after saving.

Choose a reason

Options: Missing item, Wrong item, Production failure, Other. This is for your records and reporting.

For Replace: add outbound items

Select the replacement items to ship. They can differ from the originals if the exact item is out of stock.

Configure return (optional)

Decide whether to request the damaged item back. For low-value items you may waive the return to avoid the hassle.

Confirm

The claim is saved against the order timeline. Fulfillment and payment actions are queued for your action.

💡Tip

For Replace claims, create the replacement fulfillment immediately after confirming the claim. The customer is waiting for their corrected order — don't leave it in pending.

Tracking exchanges and claims

Both appear in the order's Timeline tab with a full audit trail: who created them, when, what items were involved, and the current status of any associated returns or fulfillments.

You can also filter the Orders list to show only orders with open claims.

Refunds & Returns

Standalone returns without an exchange

Fulfillment Flow

Processing the replacement fulfillment

Order Editing

Modify items before fulfilment