Handling exception cases

Types of exception cases

Exception cases happen for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to:

• Use of a partner that we do not have an integration with (i.e. Mirakl, Amazon)
• Initiating a return for an item that has been removed from the original order (i.e. deleted product variant)
• Initiating a return for an item that has already been included in a previous return case (i.e. returning an exchange order)
• Initiating a return that will be exchanged for a different SKU (i.e. full catalogue exchange)
• Return taking place outside of the merchant's return window

Why do exception cases happen?

Exception cases happen mostly due to product and integration limitations. While we are working to improve our product and integration capabilities, exception cases must be managed manually. For example:

• Returns for orders placed via marketplaces such as Mirakl or Amazon are considered exception cases due to a current inability to properly completely integrate with these partners
• Returns for product variants considered deleted in Shopify are considered exception cases due to product limitations with both Shopify and ReturnBear

ReturnBear is always working to improve our product limitations in order to minimize the frequency at which exception cases are encountered.

How should exception cases be handled?

Exception cases are a manual process. When handling an exception case, you may notice that it cannot be scanned into or processed using our normal procedures.

Determining if a return is an exception case

As mentioned above, any shipping label created for an exception case will not scan into our system as the label is not associated with a return case. That being said, the label should contain some identifying information to help you determine if it's an exception case:

• The shipping label will read C/O Exceptions
  • These are cases where the brand has reached out to ReturnBear ahead of time and the ReturnBear Support team has provided them with a manual label to facilitate the return
• The label appears to be hand-written
• The carrier is not Purolator, Canada Post, UPS, or USPS
• When attempting to initiate Verification in URSA, no matching return case results populate

Submitting a support request about an exception case

Once you know you are dealing with an exception case, please contact us so that our team can be notified and:

• Reach out to the brand
• Confirm the product that the hub received is correct
• Ensure that the product and product variant exist to complete processing

In most instances, items received as the result of exception cases must be processed using the Unknown Item Flow.