Refunds, credits, exchanges and cancellations

Refunds, store credit, discounts, cancellations and order edits move money or change an order, so they follow a stricter path than informational requests. Your Charter decides whether an action is allowed. Only then does the AI decide who carries it out. Exchanges and returns run in your returns portal, as described below.

How a money request is decided

1. The AI collects the context. It identifies the order, checks the facts in Shopify and, when it helps, asks the customer for a photo. This happens before any decision, whether the case will be resolved or escalated.
2. The AI proposes an action. For example, a refund of a given amount, or a size change on an order that has not shipped.
3. The Policy Gate checks the action against your policy. It reloads the cell of your Charter for that case and for that customer's segment, and runs four checks.
4. The AI decides who carries it out. Only when the Gate allows an action that moves money does confidence come in: the AI acts on its own, or a Human Node confirms. Above the amount you let the AI handle on its own, a Human Node always confirms.

The four checks

The Policy Gate runs the same four checks every time:

• A policy exists for this case and this customer segment.
• The action is allowed in that policy cell.
• The amount is within the limit you set for that action.
• The eligibility conditions are met, such as your return window or the fulfillment status of the order.

The checks run in deterministic code, outside the AI model. The model proposes; the Gate decides. A customer's insistence, or a customer's agreement, never overrides it.

The three outcomes

The action is allowed

The action is carried out within your limit. An action that moves no money, such as an address change or an order edit at the same price, is carried out by the AI. For an action that moves money, the AI resolves the case on its own when the amount is within what you let it handle alone and it is confident. Above that amount, or if it is not yet confident, a Human Node reviews the prepared case and confirms, and the limits of the cell still apply. See When a Human Node steps in.

The action is not allowed

When your policy covers the case but the request falls outside it — a refund asked for after your return window, for example — the AI tells the customer clearly that it is not possible and offers the alternatives that do exist. The case is not escalated. See When a request is outside your policy.

The case goes to your team

The case comes to your helpdesk, with its full context, when:

• no policy covers it;
• the amount is above the limit you set for that action; or
• you chose to handle that kind of case yourself.

What your team receives with each case is described in What reaches your helpdesk.

Exchanges and returns

Exchanges, returns, return labels and return approvals happen in your returns portal. The AI guides the customer there, with directions or the link, and never approves a return, creates a label or processes an exchange itself. See Add your tracking and returns portals.

An order that has not shipped yet is different: the AI can change its size or color when the price stays the same, within your policy.

Irreversible actions

Before an irreversible action, such as a refund, the AI asks the customer to confirm. The confirmation goes through the Policy Gate again before anything is executed.

One problem at a time

A ticket with two requests — a late delivery and a damaged item, for example — is decided as two problems. Each goes through the Gate on its own, and allowing one never allows the other.