Orders and support

Shipping delays

The delay is the latest stage you can point to in a record, not a date you invent. Separate an accepted order, a ready-to-pack or in-progress note, a handoff to a carrier, a carrier transit or delivery status, and a gap where no record exists. On WooCommerce, Processing means payment was received, stock was reduced, and the order is awaiting fulfillment. Completed means the order was marked fulfilled. Neither status is a carrier scan. On hold still needs payment confirmation. On Shopify, payment status and fulfillment status are different fields. Paid is not Fulfilled. In progress is the preparation status. A fulfillment on hold cannot be fulfilled until the hold is released. When a tracking number is present, Shopify says the delivery status comes from the carrier. Tell the buyer the stage you can show and the time of the next factual update. Do not invent a transit time. The party responsible for fulfillment must confirm the shipment status. Describe the work you need. Prism will confirm scope, responsibilities, fees, and terms before work begins.

For: An owner or authorized representative of a research-use-only peptide business answering a buyer about an order that has not moved as expected.

Updated 2026-09-21

Answer from the latest record, not from the calendar

Read the order before you write to the buyer. The question is which stage the records have reached, and which later stage has no record. A published shipping statement on your own site is the commitment you already made. If that page states a number of days, quote that page. If it does not, the commitment is unstated. Do not supply a number the page does not contain.

This page does not set a delivery benchmark, describe how goods should be packed, or require a refund. A delay and a refund request are different conversations. A carrier scan that says delivered while the buyer reports the opposite is also a different investigation.

WooCommerce statuses are store records

Pending payment means the order was received and no payment has been made. That order is not an accepted paid order. On hold means payment confirmation is still outstanding. Stock may already be reduced. Offline methods and some delayed notifications use this status, and a gateway that separates authorization from capture can use it too. Do not describe an on-hold order as handed to a carrier.

Processing means payment has been received and stock has been reduced. The order is awaiting fulfillment, and WooCommerce describes it as the cue for the store to ship and then manually mark the order Completed. Completed means the order has been fulfilled and is complete. It does not contain a carrier location. If you have no shipment note, tracking field, or fulfillment plugin entry, the carrier stage is absent even though the store status says completed.

Failed means the payment failed or was declined and no payment has been made. That is not a shipping delay. Leave it out of the transit explanation.

Shopify separates payment, preparation, and the carrier

Shopify keeps a payment status and a fulfillment status. Payment pending means the provider has started and payment is not yet complete; inventory can be reserved. Authorized means the provider validated the payment and, when you capture manually, is the cue to capture before the authorization expires. Paid means the payment was captured or the order was marked paid. None of those words is a fulfillment status.

A new order is Unfulfilled unless automatic fulfillment is on. In progress is available when you mark the order in progress, including while picking and packing. On hold means you or an app is holding fulfillment. Inventory can be reserved, and you cannot fulfill the order until the hold is released. Fulfilled means the items were fulfilled and shipped. Partially fulfilled means only some items were fulfilled. A third-party fulfillment service controls the status of an order assigned to it. You cannot manually mark that order fulfilled or in progress.

Shopify's fulfillment document says you can mark an order delivered only when the fulfillment has no tracking number. When a tracking number is present, the delivery status comes from the carrier. A store status of Fulfilled plus no tracking number is not an in-transit scan. If the store is not Shopify, do not borrow these labels.

What you may say next

You may tell the buyer the stage the record supports, and the date you will next look at that same record. You may say the stage is unknown when the sheet has a gap. You may not convert Processing, Paid, or Fulfilled into a delivery date the carrier has not supplied. You may not promise a refund on this page. The refund decision belongs to your written policy and, if money must move through a provider, to that provider's refund process.

If the same gap appears on many orders, the missing handoff is an operations question you can describe in a Prism consultation, along with any processing question that belongs with it. Scope, fees, and terms are discussed before work. Confirm who owns the fulfillment follow-up. A consultation request does not submit a processing application.

Order-stage checklist

Use one real order. Write no record when that stage has no document. Do not type a delivery date the carrier record does not contain. Worksheet entries are not submitted by this worksheet or saved by this site. Use only non-sensitive summaries; do not enter credentials, government identifiers, card or bank-account numbers, private receipt links, or customer details.

Worksheet entries are not submitted by Prism’s worksheet and are not saved by the site. Use record types, availability, anonymized observations, or match/mismatch results. Do not enter government identifiers, customer names or addresses, customer messages, receipt-access links, card or bank details, passwords, or keys. Send sensitive documents only through the provider’s verified secure channel.

Order-stage checklist. The last column is for temporary notes.
Stage	Record that would show it	What you may tell the buyer	This order
Accepted	WooCommerce Processing, or Shopify Paid. Exclude Pending payment, On hold, Payment pending, and Authorized.	Payment is recorded and fulfillment has not been shown. Do not give a ship date from this row alone.	Accepted: This order
Ready to pack	Your own pack note, or Shopify In progress. WooCommerce core has no ready-to-pack status.	The order is in preparation only if that note or status exists. Otherwise this stage is absent.	Ready to pack: This order
Held	WooCommerce On hold for payment confirmation, or Shopify fulfillment On hold.	Say it is held and name the hold. Do not say it has shipped.	Held: This order
Handed to a carrier	A fulfillment reference or tracking number you actually stored. WooCommerce Completed is the store's fulfilled mark, not a carrier scan.	You may say a handoff exists only when the reference exists. You may not invent the carrier.	Handed to a carrier: This order
In transit or delivered	The carrier status when a tracking number exists. Shopify says that status comes from the carrier.	Quote the carrier status and its time. If there is no tracking number, this stage is unknown.	In transit or delivered: This order
Unresolved	The first stage above that has no record.	Say which stage is missing and when you will check the same records again.	Unresolved: This order
Published commitment	The shipping statement already on the store. Quote it or write that it states no time.	Do not add days, handling rules, or a refund that the statement does not contain.	Published commitment: This order

These are temporary notes. Leaving or reloading this page may clear them. The consultation form does not include these entries.

Limits

A Prism consultation can help you organize the facts and discuss the website or processing question. The payment provider decides eligibility, pricing, reserves, and whether an account is opened or closed.
Do not invent a transit time, a packing rule, or a refund requirement.
A store status is not a carrier scan. A carrier status is not a store payment status.

Related guides

Sources checked 2026-09-21

WooCommerce order statuses — checked 2026-09-21. Processing means payment was received, stock was reduced, and the order awaits fulfillment. Completed means it was marked fulfilled. On hold still needs payment confirmation. Failed means no successful payment.
Shopify order statuses — checked 2026-09-21. Payment status and fulfillment status are separate. Paid, Authorized, and Payment pending are not fulfillment statuses. Unfulfilled, In progress, On hold, and Fulfilled mean different fulfillment stages.
Shopify individual fulfillment — checked 2026-09-21. A fulfillment on hold cannot be marked fulfilled until the hold is released. With a tracking number, delivery status comes from the carrier. A third-party fulfillment service controls status for orders assigned to it.
Prism solutions — checked 2026-09-21. Public support is a storefront review, card-processing preparation, or help with a provider's website questions.
Prism contact — checked 2026-09-21. Scope, fees, and terms are discussed before work. The request does not purchase a service or submit a processing application.

Request a consultation

Describe the business and this specific question. Prism follows up by email to discuss fit and scope. An inquiry is not a processing application or an approval.

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