Allow items without shipment status

Applies to: returns and exchanges · Location: Account settings · Who can change it: store admins · Default: on for new stores

Some couriers never write a shipment status back onto the fulfillment. Without it, EcoReturns cannot confirm delivery — and blocks the item. Allow items without shipment status tells EcoReturns to let those items through instead.

What this setting does

Before EcoReturns shows a return or exchange option for an item, it checks whether that item was actually delivered. It reads the delivery signal from the order's fulfillment record in your store platform — specifically the fulfillment's shipment_status field, which the courier updates as the parcel moves.

When that field is empty, EcoReturns has no proof of delivery. By default it plays safe and blocks the item, and the shopper sees:

“This item has not been delivered yet. Returns and exchanges cannot be initiated until delivery is confirmed.”

Allow items without shipment status changes only that empty case. Items the courier has explicitly marked as still moving stay blocked, exactly as before.

Why the gap exists

The shipment status on a fulfillment is not written by EcoReturns or by your store platform — it comes from the courier, flowing back through tracking updates. In practice that chain breaks often:

• The courier's tracking integration is not wired to your store, so no status is ever pushed back.
• Orders are fulfilled manually, or imported from an OMS or 3PL, with a tracking number but no carrier scan events.
• The courier updates its own portal but stops short of pushing a delivered event to the store.
• Regional or hyperlocal carriers that do not publish machine-readable tracking at all.

The parcel arrives; the record just never says so. From EcoReturns' side an undelivered parcel and an unreported one look identical — both are simply blank. So a delivery check that insists on a positive delivered value ends up blocking genuine, delivered items, and your support team fields the tickets.

How each item is judged

The check runs per line item, using the fulfillment that item belongs to. An order can therefore have one item eligible and another blocked.

Fulfillment shipment status	Setting OFF	Setting ON
delivered	Eligible	Eligible
null / empty	Blocked	Eligible
in_transit	Blocked	Blocked
out_for_delivery	Blocked	Blocked
failure / attempted_delivery	Blocked	Blocked
No fulfillment on the order at all	Blocked	Blocked

The setting is deliberately narrow: it is a fix for missing information, not a way to open returns on parcels that are still out for delivery. If you want returns allowed regardless of delivery state, that is a different setting — Skip delivery check, described at the end of this article.

How to turn it on

1. Open your profile menu. In the EcoReturns merchant panel, click the profile icon in the top-right corner.
2. Go to Account settings. Choose Account settings from the menu. Only users with the admin role can save changes here.
3. Tick “Allow items without shipment status”. It sits in the configuration list, just below Skip delivery check.
4. Save. The change applies immediately to eligibility checks made from that point on — nothing needs to be re-synced. A shopper who was blocked a minute ago can refresh the return portal and continue.

Already on? Stores created recently have this enabled by default. Stores that existed before the default changed keep whatever the checkbox currently shows — check the box state rather than assuming. 

What changes once it is on

Items with no shipment status become eligible, but EcoReturns still does not know when they were delivered — and it will not invent a date. That has one consequence worth planning for.

Return windows counted from delivery. For these items only, policy conditions based on the delivery date cannot be evaluated, so a “within 15 days of delivery” style rule will not hold them back. Conditions that do not depend on delivery — order date, product tags, SKU, price, discount codes, reason — apply as normal. If a hard time limit matters to you, base that policy on the order date, which is always known.

Everything downstream is unchanged. The request is created, priced, and picked up exactly like any other; QC, refunds, and exchange orders behave the same way.

Related settings

• Skip delivery check — much broader. Allows returns and exchanges even when the courier says the item has not been delivered. Use it only if delivery state should never gate a request.
• Allow items without shipment status — narrow. Only unblocks the “no information” case, and leaves every explicit courier status respected.

Frequently asked questions

Does this let shoppers return something that never arrived?

It is possible in principle — with no status, EcoReturns cannot distinguish a delivered parcel from a lost one. In practice the exposure is small, because a shopper has to actively raise a request for an item they do not have, and your QC step at the warehouse still gates the refund. If you are on a carrier with reliable tracking, you likely do not need this setting at all.

Will it change orders that were already blocked?

Yes. Eligibility is evaluated live each time the return portal loads an order, so previously blocked items become available straight away — no backfill or re-sync.

Some items in one order are allowed and others are not. Is that a bug?

No. An order can be split across several fulfillments, and each carries its own shipment status. An item on a fulfillment marked in_transit stays blocked while an item on a fulfillment with no status is allowed.

Does it affect exchanges as well as returns?

Yes — the delivery check runs once and gates both, so both open up together for the affected items.

Can I fix the underlying tracking instead?

That is the better long-term answer. Connect the courier to your store platform so delivery events flow back onto the fulfillment, and the field stops being empty. This setting exists for the carriers and manual-fulfillment flows where that is not possible.

Still stuck? Contact EcoReturns support with an order number and we will check what the courier reported for that fulfillment.