The Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) request helps your business to coordinate the flow of returns to streamline work, eliminate ambiguity and minimize costly mistakes. You will know exactly what to receive in a return shipment and the reason for the return. Customer are kept up-to-date on the progress of the return resulting in less customer support calls. Your customers feel confident shopping at your site knowing when and under what conditions they can return a product. For example, you can configure different products to have a 30 days return policy. A well defined policy provides your business greater sales/inventory predictabilty.

You must first enable the Returns feature under the Configuration > General settings. Once enabled, you can configure your return policy under Configuration > Returns settings. A typical example is 30 days refund, 60 days exchange and 1 year repair. This means a customer may return the product within 30 days of purchase. After 30 days, the customer can return for an exchange. After 60 days, the customer can return for a repair service within 1 year time of purchase.

Make sure you have added the Manage Return module to a page somewhere on your site for customers to submit the RMA request. This page should be accessible to registered users only. Customers can begin a RMA request from his order history through the Manage Order module or pick products from the Manage Return module.

You can manage all requests that come in from the Sales > Returns page. When a new RMA is requested, it will have the status of "Submitted" along with all the details of the return (i.e. what product is involved, reason for the return, return address, etc.).

You want to review the RMA request for accuracy and take the opportunity to resolve the issue early (e.g. consider providing a software fix if the hardware is not damaged). If the RMA request is valid, you want to change the status to "Authorized" to indicate the RMA request has been approved. You want to email the customer with specific instructions on how to ship the products to you. (e.g. "Please pack the products tightly in a clean box with the #RMA Number clearly written on the box and ship to the following address..."). The RMA number is important and will help you reconcile the product(s) you receive from the shipping company with the submitted RMA request. On the other hand, if the RMA request is invalid, you can mark it as "Declined".

Assuming you receive the products safely by mail. You can now process the RMA return. A customer may submit multiple products in a single RMA return. Each product will have its own reason for return. You will want to verify and process each product. Once completed, depending on the outcome, you can mark the status as "Completed" if successful or "Cancelled" if you never received the products.