Returns, Warranties and Repairs Under Control

24.08.2026

How Refox Cuts Manual Work in Everyday Online Retail

As an online store grows, managing returns, complaints, warranty cases and repairs becomes laborious with manual methods. That is when you need tools that make the whole picture easier to manage and bring the information needed for handling into one system. Refox's returns, warranty and repair tools connect the handling of these cases to the rest of your commerce data.

As sales grow, so does the number of returns, warranty cases and repairs. At the same time more people are involved in handling them, and the details of a single case can end up scattered across many places. Working time goes into searching for information and jumping between systems, and it is not always clear how far an individual case has progressed or what should happen to it next.

In Refox, the handling of returns, warranties and repairs connects to the customer, order, product and inventory data held in the same system. Employees do not have to remember where to find the information they need; the system helps guide the process forward.

The benefit shows above all in smoother day-to-day work: there is less information to hunt down, handling is more consistent, and the progress of a case is easier to see even when the person handling it changes.

"The most important job of all these tools is to bring the information into the same system, in one central place, available to everyone. The processes built around them add certainty to the work, reduce errors and improve traceability," says Anton Saarenpää, Product Owner at Refox.

Anton Saarenpää, Product Owner at Refox.

Refox has its own tools for returns, warranty cases and repairs. Their processes are different, but they share one essential thing: they run in the same system as the rest of your commerce data.

• A returns tool for handling product returns, exchanges, complaints and refunds.
• A tool for handling warranty cases, for example warranty processes between retailers, importers and repair shops.
• A repair tool for managing the receipt of a product to be serviced, the different stages and status of the repair, and where needed the scheduling of repair work.

The returns tool makes handling returns easier

On a small scale, handling online store returns works on manual processes, but if a store handles for example dozens of returns a day, the situation changes.

In Refox's returns tool, a return can be started directly from the online store. Before sending the return, the end customer states what they want to return or exchange, and why.

A company can define, for example:

• what return reasons the customer can choose from
• what is done with the product once it arrives
• whether the product is returned to stock
• whether the product is exchanged for another one
• whether the customer is refunded.

This way an employee does not have to look up information and work out the flow of the process for every single return. Once a return has been handled and the company has a compatible payment solution in place, the refund to the customer can also be made through Refox.

"It creates structure in the work. And above all it cuts down on jumping between systems. The work can be done in one place instead of switching between email, scraps of paper and other systems," Anton Saarenpää says.

Sometimes a parcel arrives at the online store's warehouse containing, at worst, nothing but the product. It is left to an employee to work out who sent it and which order the return relates to. Refox aims to make this situation easier too.

An employee can search recent orders using details found in the return parcel, such as the order number or the customer's details. Once the right order is found, handling of the return can be started in Refox.

A warranty process has to connect the product, the sale and the warranty period

In a warranty case you have to be able to establish which product is involved, when it was sold and whether it is still covered by the warranty. This becomes complicated especially in B2B commerce, where a product may travel from an importer or wholesaler to a retailer and from there to a consumer. The warranty request may finally arrive for handling through an entirely different company, such as a local repair shop.

If the information is scattered across emails, spreadsheets and different systems, working out the right case and the related product details takes time. Jumping between systems also increases the chance of errors.

When a warranty request comes in, Refox can be used to check whether the product in question has been sold to a retailer and whether its onward sale has been confirmed. This information can be used to help establish whether the product is covered by the warranty.

"If warranty-related entries are kept in a separate spreadsheet, for example, a year later it can be hard to go back and check which row it was and which product it related to," Anton Saarenpää describes.

The benefit of Refox in warranty handling is precisely that a case does not have to be resolved in isolation from the rest of the information in the system. The person handling the warranty can draw on the product's sales data in the very system where the warranty request is being handled.

The repair tool tells you what stage a repair is at

A repair process means managing both a physical product and the work related to it.

When a product to be serviced arrives at the company, it has to be visible in the system, but it must not get mixed up with the stock balance of products for sale. At the same time you need to know what stage the repair is at. One product may be finished the same day, another may wait weeks for a spare part.

If there are a lot of repairs, simply knowing that a product is being serviced is no longer enough. You also have to be able to manage what happens to the product next and whose job it is.

In Refox, a repair can be given a process that suits the company's own way of working, for example:

Repair request received → product received → in repair → waiting for a spare part → ready → sent to the customer

Every product being serviced has its own work card showing its up-to-date status. At the same time, products under repair can be kept separate from normal sellable stock.

Refox can also be used to direct repair work. Repair jobs can, for example, be scheduled into employee-specific calendars. Solutions like these are usually implemented as customer-specific customisations.

An external repair partner can be brought into the process too

Repairs are not always carried out in-house. A product can be received at one company and sent on to an external partner for the actual repair work.

In Refox, an external repair partner can be given their own user account with access rights limited to just the part of the repair process they need. The partner can make their own entries there and update the status of the repair.

This keeps information about the repair's progress flowing through the same system, even when the physical product is in the hands of an external partner. The repair status can also be surfaced to the end customer in the online store.

Electronic order cancellation straight from the online store

In June 2026, an amendment to the Finnish Consumer Protection Act came into force, introducing a new obligation for online stores. Consumers must be offered an electronic withdrawal function when a contract is made online and the consumer has a statutory right of withdrawal.

Refox brought a cancellation function into use for its customers ahead of the new obligation taking effect.

"In practice our customers can add a link in their online store to a view where the end customer makes the cancellation. The cancellation notice comes straight into Refox, where it can be handled onwards," Saarenpää describes.