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Send a return to repair

When a return comes back broken, damaged, or needing attention, you don't have to receive it and then start a separate repair. Send to repair sits alongside the other return dispositions at the receive station: choosing it both receives the return and opens (or adds to) a repair, with the piece already in triage — on hand, ready to diagnose.

Before you begin​

  • You need the return-receiving permissions you'd normally use at the receive station, plus the Create repairs permission.
  • Know whether the piece belongs to the customer or to you — that decision changes what SKU.io does with it, so it's worth deciding before you receive.

1. Enter a quantity under "Send to repair"​

From the RMA list, open an RMA that's ready to receive and click Receive Items (or use the Receive Station) as usual. Alongside the New, Blemished, and Discarded quantity columns is a fourth: Send to repair (labeled Repair on a phone). Enter how many units of the line need repair there — it counts toward the line's total the same way the other three do. A panel opens underneath the line as soon as the quantity is above zero.

2. Fill in the intake panel​

  • Who owns this piece?

    • Customer's item — "Repair it and send it back. It's never counted as our stock."
    • Ours — "We've credited the customer. It goes into stock in the Repair bin (not sellable) until refurbished."

    If the RMA already carries a refund or credit and you pick Customer's item, a hint reminds you the piece is usually yours now. Pick Ours only once you've actually credited the customer — if there's no refund or credit yet, a hint says so.

  • Issue — the problem, from the same issue-type list used on a repair.

  • Technician — leave it on Auto-assign to let your repair settings pick one, or choose a specific technician.

  • Print repair tag — ticked by default, to print the piece's tag as soon as it's created. Clear it to print the tag later from the repair instead.

Where a brand-owned piece lands in stock​

A piece you own (Ours) is received like any other return — a new FIFO layer at the original sale's cost, with the usual inventory and cost-of-goods entry — but it lands in that warehouse's own Repair location: non-sellable and non-allocatable, created automatically the first time it's needed. A customer-owned piece never touches inventory at all. See Fit, harvest, or recycle parts for what happens next, once parts go into or come out of the piece.

3. Confirm​

Confirm the receipt as usual. The confirmation reads "Items received," then "Sent to repair:" followed by a chip for each repair created or added to — for example "Sent to repair RO-2026-00412" — linking straight to it. If you printed a tag, a Print tag(s) again button sits alongside the chips. A note underneath says the pieces weren't added to stock — that's true for a customer-owned piece; a brand-owned one is the exception described above, since it does post the usual inventory and cost entry into the Repair location.

When the piece arrives without any paperwork​

If a customer mails a piece back with nothing on file — no RMA, no repair — receiving it as Send to repair creates both together. There's no need to create either one first.

Partial deliveries of a multi-unit claim​

If fewer units arrive than a pending return line expects, SKU.io keeps the received quantity on that line and splits the rest into a new pending line on the same RMA — so the next shipment still matches it, instead of starting a second repair. Once a line is already resolved (for example, the original piece arrives after its replacement already shipped), any later receipt against it is simply logged rather than split again.

Changing or undoing a "Send to repair" receipt​

  • Re-dispositioning a receipt line out of Send to repair — say, the customer declined a paid quote — resolves its repair piece as scrapped or declined-by-customer, and moves ownership and custody to the brand.
  • Deleting the receipt line undoes the repair piece entirely (or cancels the whole repair, if it was the only piece on it).

Both are refused once the piece has posted costs or moved past triage, with a message naming the repair and why.

Disposition policies can route returns here automatically​

A return disposition policy can target Send to repair — for example, any return reasoned Defect/Warranty on a B- or C-grade unit — and pre-fills the intake panel's ownership and issue type for you. A policy that would route a product your tenant has excluded from repair is skipped in favor of the next matching policy.

Next steps​

Video transcript

From the RMA list, open an approved or in-transit RMA. On the RMA's page, click Receive Items in the top-right corner. A fourth column, Send to repair, sits beside New, Blemished, and Discarded. In the Send to repair column, type how many returned units need repair. A panel opens underneath the line as soon as the quantity is above zero. Say who owns this piece — the customer's, or yours. Pick an issue — start typing to search the list, then choose the closest match. Leave the technician on Auto-assign. To print the tag later from the repair, clear Print repair tag. Confirm the receipt with the Receive Items button at the bottom. SKU shows which repair the piece went to, linked and ready to open.

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