Issuing Refunds for Multiple Shipping Address Orders

When an order ships to multiple addresses, Giftship splits it into a parent order and a child order for each address. The parent order is the only one that actually collects payment — child orders never hold a real transaction, they just carry the real line items for fulfillment. Because of that split, refunding and restocking take two separate steps, on two separate orders.

How to refund and restock

Step 1: Refund the parent order

1. Visit the parent order — this is where the real payment lives.
2. Click Refund.
3. Refund the order in full or in part. The line items here are placeholders, so checking Restock won’t affect your actual inventory.

Step 2: Restock the child order

1. Visit the child order for the address you’re restocking.
2. Click Refund.
3. Select the items to restock, check Restock, and uncheck the notification box — there’s no need to alert the customer about a zero-dollar refund.
4. Set the refund amount to $0.00. The child order never collected any payment, so there’s no money to refund — this step exists purely to return inventory.
5. Click the Refund $0.00 button.

FAQ

Why can’t I just refund the child order for the full amount? The child order never held a real transaction, so Shopify has no payment to reverse there. The actual money lives on the parent order — that’s where the real refund has to happen.

Will checking Restock on the parent order return my inventory? No. The parent order’s line items are placeholders. Real inventory only lives on the child orders, so restocking has to happen there.

Should I notify the customer about the $0.00 refund on the child order? No — leave that notification box unchecked. A “$0.00 refund” email would just confuse the customer. The parent order refund is the one they should actually be notified about.