Refunds in Chat for WooCommerce
Yes. AeroChat handles WooCommerce refunds in the chat, from the request to the status check. It checks the order against your refund policy, creates the refund in WooCommerce through its REST API up to the amount you allow, and refunds through your payment gateway where it supports refunds from WooCommerce. When the shopper asks later, it reads the refund from the order and tells them what was refunded and when.
This recipe answers “can I get a refund?” and “where is my refund?” without anyone on your team opening WooCommerce. Part of connecting WooCommerce to WhatsApp and AI chat.
What happens today
Refund messages come in two kinds. The first asks for one: an item arrived damaged, part of the order is missing, the shopper changed their mind. The second asks where a refund is, often more than once. Both mean opening the order, checking the policy, working out the amount and replying. A shopper who waits days for an answer about their money tends to ask on every channel at once.
The flow that works
- The shopper asks for a refund, or asks about one.
- AeroChat finds the order in WooCommerce and checks the email or phone on the order matches the shopper.
- For a new request, it asks what happened and which items, and asks for a photo if your policy needs one.
- It checks your policy: the time since the order was completed, which items can be refunded and the reasons you accept.
- If the request fits your policy and is under your limit, it creates the refund in WooCommerce for those items with the reason, through your payment gateway where the gateway supports it. If it is over your limit, it passes the case to your team with the order, items, reason and photo.
- For a status question, it reads the refunds on the order and replies with the amount, the date and when it usually reaches the shopper, from your policy.
What it looks like on WhatsApp
Customer: One of the two glasses in order 60381 arrived broken. (example)
AeroChat: I’m sorry about that. Can you confirm the email you ordered with, and send a photo of the broken glass?
Customer: nina@example.com [photo]
AeroChat: Thanks Nina. I’ve refunded $18 for the broken glass to the card you paid with. Banks usually take 5 to 10 working days to show it. You don’t need to send the glass back.
In WooCommerce: a refund of $18 (example) for one glass is recorded on order 60381 with the reason “Arrived broken, photo in chat”, processed through your payment gateway.
The recipe
Copy this into AeroChat
When a customer asks for a refund, or asks about a refund, follow these steps.
- Ask for their order number. Find the order in WooCommerce and check the email or phone on it matches the customer.
- If they are asking about a refund already made, read the refunds on the order. Tell them the amount, the date and how long it usually takes to arrive, from our refund policy.
- If it is a new request, ask what happened and which items. If an item arrived damaged or wrong, ask for a photo.
- Check our refund policy in our knowledge base: the number of days since the order was completed, the items that can be refunded and the reasons we accept.
- If the request fits the policy and the refund is $50 (example) or less, create the refund in WooCommerce for those items with the reason, using the payment gateway’s refund. Confirm the amount to the customer.
- If it is over $50 (example), outside the policy or the gateway refund fails, tell the customer our team will reply here, and pass the order, items, reason and photo to the team.
Never refund more than the order total. Never share another customer’s order. Reply in the customer’s language.
Change the refund limit, and add whether you offer store credit first, before you paste it.
What to connect
- WooCommerce orders. In WooCommerce, go to Settings, Advanced, REST API, and add a key with read and write access. Copy the consumer key and consumer secret, and paste them in when AeroChat asks. Refunds are created and read through the order refund endpoints documented at woocommerce.github.io/woocommerce-rest-api-docs. When the gateway supports it, the refund goes through the gateway, and WooCommerce records whether it did.
- Your knowledge base. Your refund policy, synced from your WordPress pages by the AeroChat plugin, so AeroChat applies your own rules and timings.
Want refund status straight from your gateway? See refund status for WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway, WooCommerce PayPal Payments, Razorpay for WooCommerce and Mollie Payments for WooCommerce.
After you paste the recipe, AeroChat builds the workflow as a draft and shows a checklist: connect WooCommerce, add your knowledge base if the recipe uses one, then switch it on. If it built the connection from WooCommerce’s public documentation, the checklist asks you to check it once against the current docs.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
What you still decide
- The amount AeroChat can refund on its own, and what goes to your team.
- Which reasons need a photo, and whether the item must come back first.
- Whether you offer store credit instead of a refund.
The result to expect
Refunds that fit your policy are done in the chat, the same day the shopper asks. “Where is my refund?” gets an exact answer from the order. Your team only sees the cases above your limit.
Measure it with your own numbers: refunds completed in chat, refund status questions answered without handover, and chargebacks, for a month before and after.
Next: see the refund workflow across every channel and how to handle refund requests and refund status. For items that come back first, see returns and exchanges for WooCommerce.
Works on every chat channel
This workflow runs the same way on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, the chat on your website and email, with the same WooCommerce connection behind it. See what each channel does on the WooCommerce integration page.
Channel versions: WhatsApp and Instagram returns and refunds.
Handle your first refund in chat
Paste the recipe, add your WooCommerce keys, and ask your own number for a small refund on a test order.
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