When a customer cancels a special order
What the Retail pack does when a customer cancels a special order after a deposit: the cancelled record, your signed terms, refunds and store credit.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Retail businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
A customer orders a sofa in a colour you do not stock, or a pair of hiking boots in a size the supplier holds only in its central warehouse. You take a deposit, sign them up to your special-order terms and place the order. A week later they phone: they have found one elsewhere, or changed their mind, or lost their job. They want their deposit back.
How you answer depends on three things: what your signed terms said, how far the order had gone, and how the deposit was taken. The Retail & e-commerce pack in Achekam's Industry CRM keeps the record of all three on the customer order. This article walks through a cancellation from the first phone call to the refund or credit.
Cancelled with a reason, never deleted
In the Retail pack, special orders are kept as Customer orders. Each one moves through stages: Requested, Quoted, Ordered from supplier, Ready for the customer and Handed over. At any point it can instead be Cancelled, and a cancellation needs a reason.
The order is not deleted. It stays on the customer's record with its quotation, its deposit, the stage it reached and why it ended. That matters for three reasons:
- If the customer later disputes what they were refunded, the record shows what was agreed and when.
- If the supplier still delivers the item, someone can see at once that the customer no longer wants it.
- If cancellations cluster on one product or one supplier, the reasons tell you why.
Make the reason specific. "Customer changed mind" is less useful than "Customer found the item cheaper elsewhere, called before supplier order placed".
What the signed special-order terms said about deposits
The pack's customer-order workflow checks price and availability with the supplier, sends a quotation, and can take a deposit together with signed special-order terms before it places the order. Those terms are what you rely on when the customer cancels.
Like every agreement in Achekam's industry packs, the special-order terms are starter wording that you must review before use. Do not send them as they come. They should say, at least:
- How much deposit you take, and that it secures an item ordered specially for the customer.
- What happens to the deposit if the customer cancels before you order from the supplier.
- What happens if they cancel after the supplier order is placed, and what charge you may keep.
- Whether the item can be returned to the supplier, and at whose cost.
- How long the customer has to collect once the item arrives.
In South Africa, section 17 of the Consumer Protection Act, available on Acts Online, covers when a supplier may take a reasonable deposit for an order and what cancellation charge it may keep if the customer cancels. Have your terms checked against it. Nigerian and Kenyan shops should check their own consumer protection rules with an adviser before deciding what to keep.
Before or after the supplier order was placed
The stage the order reached is the most important fact in a cancellation, and the record shows it.
Still at Requested or Quoted. Nothing has been ordered and nothing has cost you money. In most cases the fair answer is a full refund of any deposit, and it is usually the one your terms should promise.
At Ordered from supplier. Now you may have a cost. Find out from the supplier whether the order can be cancelled and at what charge. If it can be cancelled at no cost, keeping the customer's deposit is hard to justify. If you are left with an item you cannot return, your terms and the law decide how much of the deposit you may keep as a reasonable charge.
At Ready for the customer. The item is in your shop. You may be able to sell it to someone else, which reduces your loss and therefore what you should keep. Record what you did with the item on the order.
Whatever you decide, write it on the order before you refund, so the next person who opens it understands the outcome.
Refunding at the till or crediting the invoice
The Retail pack never rings up a sale. Till sales stay with the till, and a refund or exchange is done at the till or by credit note. How you refund a deposit depends on how it was taken.
If the deposit went through the till. A supervisor or manager refunds all or part of the till sale, with a reason. The refund is its own document, linked to the original sale, so the trail from deposit to refund is complete.
If the deposit was invoiced. Issue a credit note from that invoice, in full or for the lines concerned. A credit note is always issued from the invoice it corrects; it is posted to the ledger and can be downloaded as a PDF or e-mailed to the customer. Any credit left over is held for the customer.
If you keep part of the deposit as a cancellation charge, refund or credit only the balance, and say in the reason exactly what was kept and why.
Store credit as an alternative
Some customers would rather keep the value with you, especially if they plan to order something else. A till refund can be given as store credit, issued as a voucher.
Offer it, never impose it. A customer who is entitled to their money back should get money unless they choose credit. When they do choose it, the voucher records the value and the customer leaves with something concrete. How vouchers and refunds work at the till is covered in refunds, voids and store credit.
Recording the conversation on the order
Cancellations are emotional, and the person who took the deposit is often not the person who handles the call. Note on the customer order:
- the date and the channel of the cancellation request;
- what the customer was told about the deposit;
- what the supplier said about cancelling the supplier order;
- what was refunded, credited or kept, and by whom.
When a cancelled special order turns into a dispute about a faulty item instead, the returns side of the pack applies; see returns, warranties and the CPA.
Before you take your next special-order deposit, read your special-order terms aloud as the customer would hear them, and make sure they answer the question the customer will ask on the day they cancel.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
