Cancel Orders

When you cancel an order in Pipe17, you will need to ensure it is also cancelled it at the 3PL if it has been sent there.

In this article

• Best practices
• Cancel an order in Pipe17

Best practices

Here are some good practices to follow when cancelling an order - this will help you avoid accidentally double-shipping an order, or shipping an already-cancelled order!

Order is not in Pipe17

Some marketplaces hold new orders open for a period of time during which the customer can cancel - for example, Amazon holds orders open for 30 mins. During this time, the customer can cancel the order on their end, and Pipe17 does not pick up the order for processing until the end of this window. Cancellations that occur in this window are not a problem, since Pipe17 has not ingested the orders and/or sent them for fulfillment.

Order is already in Pipe17

Once any hold window closes in your selling channel, Pipe17 pulls the order. At this point, typically the customer can't cancel their order themselves, but you as the merchant usually can. If you cancel the order, be aware that the order is still in Pipe17 and potentially already with the 3PL. In other words, it will still ship out unless you explicitly cancel it at the 3PL. It is also possible it will be too late to cancel at the 3PL, depending on their own policies.

The order may be in the following statuses in Pipe17:

• New / Auto Hold: This order is safe to cancel in Pipe17; it has not been sent anywhere.
• Ready for fulfillment: This order is most likely safe to cancel. If it already has a shipping request, double-check that the shipping request is also in "Ready for fulfillment" status. If it is, this order has not been sent to a 3PL and can be cancelled.
• Sent for fulfillment: This order is with the 3PL and will need to be cancelled in 3PL directly.
• Fulfilled: This order has already shipped and cannot be cancelled.

Our recommended best practices in this case are:

1. Contact your 3PL: When you want to cancel an order that is not in a "safe" cancellable status in Pipe17, you should cancel it in the 3PL first. That way you are sure it is actually cancelled and will not be shipped. If the 3PL has already shipped it, then you should tell the customer it is too late to cancel and they should instead return it for a refund.
   
2. Cancel the order in selling channel / Pipe17: Once you confirm the order is cancelled at the 3PL, cancel in the source system / marketplace (ie Shopify), and if necessary in Pipe17. For most integrations, Pipe17 will pick up the cancelled status from the source system, but this is integration-specific so it is best to check. If you need to cancel the order in Pipe17, follow the steps in Cancel an order in Pipe17.

This way, you will never ship a cancelled order unless you do it on purpose - you could, if you chose, cancel/refund the customer but still ship the package. If you want to do this, just cancel in the source system but let the order flow through to the 3PL.

Cancel an order in Pipe17

If you need to cancel an order in Pipe17 after confirming it is cancelled at the 3PL (or does not need to be cancelled at the 3PL), you can follow the steps below.

1. Navigate to Orders in Pipe17 and click into the order page for this order.
2. If the status is Sent to Fulfillment, Partial Fulfillment, or Fulfilled, the order is already with the 3PL. In this case, read the best practices above and make absolutely sure this order is truly safe to cancel and will not ship. 
3. If a shipping request exists, cancel it using the shipping request cancellation steps.
4. Cancel the entire order using the Cancel Order button in Pipe17.