Customer returns through a 3PL are messy in real life: some you authorise and label, some just turn up at the warehouse, some are couriers bouncing undeliverable parcels back. The connector models all three, keeps stock honest (including damaged goods), raises the credit note paperwork, and never books anything it cannot match to an order without a human saying so.

Returns require the Sync Returns capability and switch (see Settings reference). The Returns page lives at Operations > Returns; each return is an RMA document (RMA/00001, …) with full chatter.

The three ways a return starts

1. Initiated in Odoo (merchant-authorised). On a sales order whose 3PL order has been sent or despatched, Ops and Admins see Create 3PL Return. The wizard it opens:

• Lines - pre-filled with the order's delivered lines and quantities. Only products from the original order can be chosen, and you cannot return more than was delivered. Zero a line to exclude it; per-line Reason is optional and travels to the 3PL.
• Reason (required) - the overall return reason, passed to the 3PL and stamped on the RMA.
• Ask the 3PL for a Return Label (default on) - this is the question "do you want a label?". Ticked: the connector asks the 3PL to generate a carrier return label immediately (next section). Unticked: no label is requested - the RMA is created as Awaiting Arrival for a customer who ships it back themselves.
• Return Carrier (required when requesting a label) - which carrier service the label should be booked with. The list is deliberately restricted to services of the carrier the order originally shipped with: an order that went out Royal Mail can only come back on a Royal Mail service. If the outbound carrier had no mapping, the full carrier list of the instance is offered.

2. Arrived at the 3PL (warehouse-initiated). The scheduled returns poll pulls the 3PL's returns feed. A parcel the warehouse received - typically a customer using their own label - is matched to its Odoo order by the order reference the 3PL holds (set automatically at order push). Matched: an RMA is created/updated against the order and, once the warehouse has counted the goods, the receipt is booked automatically. If a label you issued earlier arrives, the poll attaches the arrival to the same RMA rather than creating a second one.

3. Undeliverable / return-to-sender. The same poll also surfaces outbound parcels that bounced back (address failure, refused, not collected). These carry a red Undeliverable / RTS ribbon on the RMA so customer service can distinguish "customer sent it back" from "it never arrived".

RMA states

Draft > Label Issued > Awaiting Arrival > Received at 3PL > Booked into Odoo (done), plus Cancelled. The Unmatched flag (orange ribbon) can apply to warehouse-initiated returns - see below.