Asking the customer
Sometimes a claim cannot be settled without something only the customer can supply: a readable photograph, the serial number, or an account of what exactly happened. The Messages tab on a return holds that exchange.
The exchange
Section titled “The exchange”Stockly → Returns → select return → Messages tab shows the Exchange with the customer: the shop on one side, the customer on the other, oldest at the top, with the day separating them. Long threads load the last messages first; scroll up for earlier ones.
The composer sits at the foot of the card. It is there even when nothing has been said yet, because it is how a conversation starts; hiding it until the first message would hide the way in.
Under the composer are two switches:
- Photos may be attached — the customer gets an upload field;
- Photos are required — the customer cannot answer without one.
Requiring photographs turns attaching them on as well: asking for something the form does not allow would be a request nobody could satisfy.
What sending a question does
Section titled “What sending a question does”The claim moves to Awaiting customer and the badge on the card reads Awaiting answer.
The answer clock stops. For a complaint the shop has a deadline to respond, and time spent waiting on the customer is not time the shop is using. When the answer comes in, the deadline moves forward by exactly as long as the wait lasted.
The claim goes back to the state its counts describe, whether announced, partly received or received, the moment the customer replies. Nothing has to be moved back by hand.
Two things are deliberately not blocked while the shop waits:
- goods can still be received. A parcel arrives when it arrives, regardless of an open question.
- a second question can be asked. Both stay open, and the customer’s reply closes both at once. Photograph requirements add up: if the first question required a photograph, an answer without one is refused even when the second did not.
When the composer is closed
Section titled “When the composer is closed”A finished claim has nobody waiting on an answer, and the composer states this rather than accepting a message the claim cannot carry. The claim has to be reopened first; see Refunds for the status controls.
Photographs
Section titled “Photographs”Pictures the customer attaches to a reply appear under the message they came with. Pictures attached when the claim was raised appear in the Photos tab and in the Photos from the customer card.
The Photos tab only exists when there are photographs.
Customer photographs are private: they are not published anywhere and are only readable inside the admin by somebody allowed to read returns.