The situation
The article arrived damaged, the invoice is missing, one line item should go back. The customer writes from their mailbox, without a number, without a line item.
A query about an order
With queries about an order, most of the time goes on finding out which order is meant. In the customer account the form already knows.
The job
Where the built-in tools stop
A contact form does not know the order, and a field called "order number" is either filled in wrongly or left empty.
This is what the form looks like
The reason is only asked for when it is about a return.
What matters here
The number comes by itself
An order assignment puts the form into the order list and the order detail. The submission then carries the order number as its context - nobody has to type it in.
The reason only when needed
A condition on the topic shows reason and photo only to those who want to send something back. Whoever asks about the invoice sees neither.
A rule narrows it down
Order assignments have no selection of individual orders. Whoever wants to show the form only to certain customers or channels attaches a rule from the rule builder.
This is a form, not a returns process. It takes a request; it creates no return label, keeps no status and books nothing back into stock. Whoever needs that needs a returns extension. What a returns process does
Where it sits
Order assignment. In the customer account the form appears on every order in the list and in the detail, collapsed behind a link.
What comes back
Context "order" with the order number, plus topic, line item and reason as columns of their own. The photo sits in the media.