Renew Forge → Cooling-off & checkout. Tick Cancel and refund to show a “Cancel and refund” button in My account while a cooling-off period is open (ss. 264–265):
- the initial period: 14 days beginning with the day after the contract — for goods, after the first delivery arrives (s. 265(1));
- a renewal period: 14 days after a renewal that follows a free trial or discount (or a free or reduced synchronised first period), or one that comes twelve months or more before the next payment (s. 265(2)–(3)).
Days are the store’s local days, and a period closes at the midnight that ends its fourteenth day: a subscription bought on 20 September has its initial period from 21 September to 4 October, closed from the first moment of 5 October. WooCommerce does not record when a customer receives an order, so for goods the period starts the day the first order is marked Completed, plus the days you set — mark orders Completed when the customer has received everything. An order never marked Completed closes its period the number of days you set after the order.
When a customer presses Cancel and refund, the subscription ends at once and only that subscription’s share of each payment in the period is refunded — never other subscriptions or one-off products from the same order:
- services and digital content, by default: the part of each payment for the time after the cancellation, to the second, rounded up to the penny (sign-up fees and shipping included in that share); or the whole payment, if you choose;
- goods, by default: the whole payment including standard delivery, refunded by you when the goods come back; or “by time”, straight away;
- never more than the order has left after earlier refunds.
Example, from the demo data the product computes: a £18.00 monthly online course bought on 20 September 2026 and cancelled on 29 September at 11:37 — nine days into the period — refunds £12.57 and keeps £5.43.
The refund goes back through the payment gateway when the gateway supports refunds. Otherwise — or when the gateway answers with an error, or for goods — it appears under Renew Forge → Refunds with what to do and by when, and the shop is emailed. After a gateway error, check your payment provider first: the refund may have gone through. Mark it as refunded when done; that records it on the order and in the journal. Overdue tasks are highlighted and the shop is emailed again.
The customer receives the end-of-contract confirmation (free plugin), the refund email (Cooling-off cancellation and refund) and WooCommerce’s own “Refunded order” email for each gateway refund. At the start of each renewal cooling-off period Pro sends the Cooling-off notice (s. 266). If WooCommerce Subscriptions will not end the subscription, the cancellation still stands (s. 264(5)): the shop is asked to end it and refund by hand, the customer’s button gives way to “Your cancellation is recorded”, and the subscription’s reminders are withdrawn.
| Setting | Default | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Cooling-off period (days) | 14 | The Act as passed (s. 265); fewer means less than the Act requires |
| Renewal period after gaps of (months) | 12 | The Act as passed (s. 265(3)(b)) |
| Refund (services, digital content) | By time | The unused share of each payment, or the whole payment |
| Refund for goods | Whole payment when the goods come back | A task on the Refunds screen; or “by time”, straight away |
| Goods received (days after Completed) | 0 | Added to the Completed date to stand for delivery |
| Never Completed: period ends after (days) | 30 | So a period is never open-ended |
| Refunds by hand due within (days) | 14 | Not in the Act: the government’s stated intention is 14 days; the date is on the task and in the customer’s email |
| How to return goods | — | Your instructions, shown in the cooling-off notice and the confirmation |
How much comes back is for the regulations to decide (s. 264(6)(b), s. 267(3)–(4)); refunding by time is a default setting, not a formula from the Act. Not built, because they wait for the regulations: extending a cooling-off period when the customer was not told about it, and a waiver of the initial period for digital content.