What are replacement orders?

A replacement order is Simple Chat's structured path from "my item arrived damaged" to a staff-approved resolution. The assistant gathers the case, checks stock, and submits a proposal; your team decides. It never approves a replacement by itself.

What qualifies

• Damaged: the product arrived in unusable condition.
• Missing: part of the order never arrived.
• Wrong item: the customer received a different product than they ordered.
• Returned to sender: tracking shows return-to-sender, even while the parcel is still moving along the return path. Once the customer confirms or provides a complete shipping address, the assistant can submit a proposal without waiting out the in-transit deemed-lost window. If a replacement won't work for that customer and your policy offers store credit instead, the assistant can settle it that way; see "Can the AI issue store credit?".

From report to proposal

The customer describes the problem, and the assistant collects what the case needs: order details, email, photos when relevant, and shipping confirmation.

Then the stock check. Before submitting, every replacement line is verified against the live Shopify variant. Tracked inventory needs enough on-hand quantity; backorders and oversell don't count as in stock. Items that don't track inventory, digital products for example, pass when Shopify lists them as available for sale.

If any line fails the check, no proposal containing that line gets created. The assistant stops, tells the customer which item can't be replaced right now, and offers the remaining in-stock originals, a different in-stock product, or a refund or store-credit request for staff review. After the customer chooses, it submits a proposal for the remaining original items and any agreed substitute, or hands your team a structured refund request. It never refunds a shipped order to the original payment method itself.

Signature on the replacement shipment

With ShipHero connected, each proposal includes a Require signature in ShipHero switch that staff can set before approving. If the customer asks for signature confirmation on an eligible replacement, the assistant submits with the switch already on; if they ask while a proposal is pending, it updates that proposal rather than creating a second one. Staff can also flip the switch in the dashboard.

This is separate from store policies about refusing to replace an original order that already shipped signature-required. Those rules live in your order-status signature policy and don't block requesting a signature on a new replacement of an unsigned original. One caveat: the switch marks the ShipHero order as signature required, but it can't guarantee the carrier captures a signed delivery scan.

Until staff act, it's a proposal

Your team reviews each submission in context and approves, adjusts, or declines based on your policies and inventory. The customer isn't left assuming a replacement shipped before anyone decided it should. Automation stops at documentation and the proposal; fulfillment authority stays with people.