Triage every new ShipHero return and route it to the right people

Whenever a new return is created in ShipHero, triage it and route it to the right people. Use a ShipHero poll trigger on the new return event so this runs as soon as a return appears, without anyone having to watch the returns list.

For each new return, gather the full picture before judging anything. Use Get return to pull the complete return record, including the returned line items, the reason code on each one, the condition the item came back in, and the return reference. Use Get order to fetch the original order behind it so I have the order number, the order date, the customer, and what they actually paid. Use Get product for each returned SKU so I have the product name and price alongside the bare SKU.

Before deciding how urgent this is, read back the recent history from my returns log in Google Sheets using Get Values, covering roughly the last 30 days of rows, and count how many times this same SKU has already come back and for what reason. That log is the only place this history lives, so read it first and write to it last. If the log is empty or brand new, fall back to List returns in ShipHero over the last 30 days to build the same count.

Then judge which of three buckets the return falls into. A routine return: wrong size, changed their mind, ordered the wrong thing. A possible product quality problem: damaged, defective, broken on arrival, or the same SKU coming back repeatedly for the same reason. Or a case that needs a human now: a high value order, or a customer who returns a lot. State which bucket you picked and why in one line.

Post a Slack message to my support channel using Send a Message. Keep it short and plain language, because support leads read it on their phone. Include what came back and from which order, the reason in everyday words rather than the raw reason code, the condition it arrived in, the value of the original order, and one recommended next step such as restock, inspect before restocking, refund and move on, or hold for a human to review. No jargon, no raw field names, no ID strings unless they help someone look the return up.

Append every return, without exception, as a row in my returns Google Sheet using Append Values. One row per returned item with the date, the order number, the SKU, the product name, the reason, the item condition, and the order value, so that over time I can see which products drive returns.

Escalate into a separate Slack channel, again with Send a Message, whenever the original order value is over 200 dollars or the same SKU has come back three or more times in the last 30 days. Treat both the dollar threshold and the repeat count as settings I can change in one place, not numbers buried in the logic. An escalation should say plainly why it was escalated, name the product and the customer, and be its own message rather than a thread reply, so it is impossible to miss.

A few things to be careful about. ShipHero money fields come back as decimal strings in the record's currency, so convert them before comparing against the threshold and do not assume cents. A single return can cover several line items, so handle multi-item returns rather than reading only the first one. If the original order or the product record cannot be found, still post the Slack summary and still log the row with whatever is known, and say what was missing rather than skipping the return silently. Never change anything in ShipHero; this workflow only reads and reports.