Soft Decline

overview soft decline is a mechanism used in instant refunds where a return is declined and funds are recouped from the customer, without closing the return on the merchant dashboard this allows refundid to recover the refunded funds while still keeping the return open for operational processing, should the customer later complete the return how soft decline works when a soft decline occurs the return is declined from a financial perspective refundid recoups the refunded funds from the customer the return remains open in the merchant dashboard the merchant is notified via the event log although funds have been recovered, the return is intentionally kept open to allow for late or unexpected item returns please note that soft declines will not make any adjustments to the order within shopify the only way to tell a soft decline has happened is via the event log why the return remains open the return stays open to account for scenarios where the customer still sends the item back the return label remains valid the item arrives after the expected return window by keeping the return open, the retailer can still receive and process the item as they normally would what happens if the item is returned if the customer does end up returning the item and the retailer approves the return refundid will pay the funds back to the customer any previously charged reversal or decline fees will also be returned the return proceeds as a normal approved return this ensures customers are not penalised if they ultimately complete the return transition to full decline if the return remains uncompleted after a set period of time the soft decline transitions into a full decline this indicates the customer no longer intends to return the item the return is then closed and cannot be processed further the timeframe for this transition is predefined to balance operational flexibility with finality you do not need to do anything to change it to a full decline refundid will automatically make this transition for you the adjustment to a full decline will not affect or notify the customer in any way, it's solely there to close out the return and record it on shopify