Customer Returns, Refunds & Replacement Policy

Customer Returns, Refunds & Replacement Policy

1. Purpose

Define the controlled principles for customer returns, replacements and credits/refunds without confusing a service decision with the downstream commercial transaction.

2. Scope

Applies to customer-support situations requiring return authorization, replacement, credit/refund recommendation or other approved remedy.

3. Policy

Support must record the reason for the requested remedy and link it to available sales, shipment, receipt, product or warranty evidence. A support approval is an authorization for the applicable downstream process; it is not itself an ERP shipment, credit note or payment. Returned material is identified and dispositioned through the appropriate return process. Short shipment, damage, warranty failure and other scenarios must retain their actual recorded reason rather than being normalized into one generic return cause.

4. Responsibilities

Support owns the customer case and remedy recommendation; Logistics/ERP execute return or replacement flows; Finance executes credits/refunds through controlled accounting processes.

5. Exceptions and escalation

Where evidence conflicts, hold the remedy decision for review. Replacement orders, credits and refunds must be created through the authorized business process so that approval, audit and accounting records remain consistent.

6. Records and evidence

Case, RMA/return data, replacement/credit references, shipment evidence and ERP commercial records are retained.

7. Related controlled information

Applicable warranty policy and Support Case Handling & SLA Procedure.

Responsibilities and ownership

Business functions covered by this policy are responsible for applying the current published version, recording required approvals and preserving the evidence that supports a decision. Managers are responsible for ensuring that exceptions are visible and do not become informal standing practice. Where another controlled policy or transaction record is more specific, that record remains authoritative for the particular case.

Control and records

Records created under this policy must be maintained in the system that owns the underlying business activity. A policy document explains the rule; it does not replace an order, case, claim, invoice, approval, receipt or other operational record. Supporting evidence should be sufficient for a later reviewer to understand what was requested, what was decided and why.

Exceptions and interpretation

Where the policy cannot be applied because required evidence is missing or the facts are ambiguous, the matter should be escalated through the responsible function rather than resolved by assumption. Any approved exception should be recorded with its business context and approver. Silence in this policy must not be treated as permission to bypass another applicable control.

Review and revision

This policy remains in force until superseded or withdrawn through the controlled-document process. Material changes are reviewed and approved before publication, and the effective date of the new version determines when it governs future business activity.