Returns and warranty software for appliances and white goods.
The cheapest appliance repair is the one where nothing moves.
ReturnMate is returns, warranty and repair management software for Shopify merchants selling appliances and white goods. It triages installation faults before a truck is booked, records in-home service jobs with their parts and labour on the same RMA, routes two-person freight and depot movements through carriers that offer them when a unit genuinely has to come back, and attributes recurring component failures to the supplier responsible.
Four things a generic returns app gets wrong here.
Returns tooling assumes the customer puts the item in a box. An 85kg washer plumbed into a laundry breaks that assumption completely — and every alternative has a four-figure cost attached.
The customer can't send it back
It's plumbed, wired, built in or simply too heavy to lift. A prepaid label is not an option that exists in this category.
Half the faults aren't faults
Not levelled, transit bolts left in, wrong tap pressure, breaker tripped. Sending a replacement solves nothing and costs twice.
Every movement is a booking
Two-person lift, tail-lift vehicle, access constraints, a time window the customer has to be home for. That's coordination, not a label.
Components fail by production run
Control boards, pumps and door seals fail in batches. Without fault data by SKU and batch you absorb a manufacturing defect as your own cost.
- Long warranty terms — sealed units and motors frequently carry five to ten years
- Australian Consumer Law obligations can outlast your stated warranty period
- Installation often performed by a third party, which complicates fault attribution
- Removal of the old unit and disposal are frequently part of the same conversation
Choosing between the Shopify returns apps for a freight-and-service operation is covered in our returns app comparison guide.
Decide before anything gets on a truck.
In this category the resolution path is the whole cost. The portal collects enough evidence up front — photos, model and serial, installation details, error codes — that a decision can be made without a site visit to establish the basics.
- Model and serial captured at submission, so the right part is identified before dispatch
- Error codes captured at submission alongside the structured fault selection and photos
- Installation and site photos requested where the fault pattern suggests a setup issue
- Install-related faults closed as such, reportable separately from the product's failure rate
One claim, two ways to resolve it.
The same fault — a failed control board on an in-warranty front loader — handled the way most operations handle it, and handled with triage. Nothing about the defect changes. Only the movements do.
Illustrative figures, and deliberately conservative on the left — the point is structural. Most of the cost in an appliance claim is movement and coordination, neither of which is the defect. Analytics reports the real split for your own catalogue.
The same claim, as a record.
Three questions have to resolve together: can it be fixed in place, who attends, and whose defect is it. Handled as one RMA, the third stops being unanswerable.
Does anything need to move?
Error code and site photos submitted through the portal separate a genuine board fault from a levelling or plumbing issue — before a vehicle is booked.
Resolution path chosen from evidence, with install faults closed as install faults.
Who attends, with what part?
The reported fault and model identify the likely component, so the technician arrives with it rather than diagnosing on a first visit and returning on a second.
Labour and parts logged against the job from the bench app on site.
Whose defect is this?
Seventh confirmed control-board failure from one production run. That's a supplier credit conversation, with evidence.
Fault, serial and batch clustered into an exportable claim pack.
Separate the product from the plumbing.
Technicians classify against a taxonomy built for this category, so installation-related faults never contaminate the product's failure rate — and a genuine component pattern surfaces while it's still fixable commercially.
- Installation faults tracked as their own category, reportable separately from product failure rates
- Customer-reported symptom kept separate from the technician-confirmed diagnosis
- Error codes recorded with the claim, so a recurring code pattern is visible
- Average repair cost and labour reported by product and fault type
- Failure rate measured against units sold, with a threshold you set per SKU
- Exportable evidence pack for a supplier or manufacturer claim
Reporting is on fault tracking; the repair workflow on warranty & repairs. Long warranty terms and how to run them are covered in our warranty management guide.
What the customer is allowed to choose.
When a unit genuinely has to come back, the method is decided from the product profile — never left to a customer selecting from options that don't physically apply.
Two-person freight collection
Routed to a freight carrier that offers two-person handling, with the booking details held on the RMA. The crew and window are arranged with the carrier.
Depot or store drop-off
For benchtop and small appliances the customer can deliver to a nominated site.
Prepaid parcel label
Never offered for major appliances. Suppressed by product profile rather than left to staff judgement.
- Freight booking details and delivery notes held against the RMA
- Disposal recorded as a disposition on the same RMA where the old unit is written off
- Per-stage SLA monitoring flags a stalled freight return before the customer escalates
- Multi-location retailers can route to whichever site holds the parts
Method selection and evidence capture are on the customer portal; hub-and-spoke movement on multi-store.
Appliance returns questions.
Can ReturnMate handle in-home appliance service calls?
Yes, as a resolution path worked by your own technicians — ReturnMate doesn't schedule carrier crews. The job carries the model, serial, reported fault and site photos, so the technician can attend with the likely part already identified, and labour, parts and findings are recorded on site through ReturnMate Tech against the same RMA. Where in-home service is performed by a carrier or contractor, availability depends on them — ReturnMate holds the booking details and the outcome on the record.
How do you stop a truck being booked for an installation problem?
By triaging on evidence before dispatch. The portal captures the model, serial, fault selection and site photos at submission, and installation-pattern faults — not levelled, transit bolts still fitted, water pressure, tripped breaker — resolve with guided steps and photo confirmation. Where that closes the job, nothing moves and no technician attends.
Are installation faults counted against the product's failure rate?
They don't have to be, and this matters more than it sounds. Installation can be configured as its own fault category, so a spike in setup problems reads as a documentation or installer issue rather than a manufacturing defect. Product failure rates are built on technician-confirmed diagnoses, which is what makes them usable in a supplier conversation.
Can customers be offered a parcel label for an appliance?
Not for major appliances — parcel services are suppressed by product profile and weight, leaving two-person freight collection through a carrier that offers it, or a depot or store drop-off for benchtop and small units. It's decided from the product rather than left to a customer choosing an option that can't physically apply.
Can we send the replacement before the old unit comes back?
Yes, that is what Replace in Transit is for. The replacement goes out while the original is still in transit, and the returned unit is handled on arrival rather than gating the customer's resolution.
Can ReturnMate track parts and labour on appliance repairs?
Yes. Labour is logged in minutes against your configured rate, parts are consumed at cost and drawn against stock, and each job carries a total cost to repair. That rolls into cost-to-repair by SKU and by fault subcategory — alongside freight costs, which in this category usually exceed the part itself.
Can I trace control board or pump failures to a production run?
Yes. Faults are stored as a three-level classification against the serial, and serials carry batch and supplier data — so seven control-board failures narrow to one production run rather than reading as bad luck. Supplier-attributable labour, parts and freight total into an exportable claim pack.
What about long warranty terms and consumer law obligations?
Warranty policies attach by product, SKU, tag or collection, so a two-year appliance term and a ten-year sealed-unit or motor term coexist in one store. Coverage is calculated from the Shopify purchase date or a supplied proof of purchase, and goodwill decisions outside the stated term are recorded as goodwill with the approver named — which is what you need when consumer law obligations outlast your own warranty.
How much does ReturnMate cost?
ReturnMate has a Free plan at $0/month including 5 RMAs. Starter is $49/month for up to 50 RMAs, with Growth, Ops, Scale and Enterprise plans available for larger operations. Full details are on the pricing page at returnmate.io/pricing.
Related capabilities.
Coverage, diagnosis, parts and paid repairs.
The service workflow behind every claim on this page, through to supplier recovery.
Read more →§ ANALYTICSWhat each resolution path actually costs.
Freight, attendance, labour and parts split out per claim — the real numbers behind § 03.
Read more →Stop freighting appliances that didn't need to move.
See triage, in-home service and supplier recovery running on your own catalogue. Billed through Shopify, cancel from inside Shopify.