You open your inbox and read: “Order could not be submitted.”
Now you have a customer waiting. An order that needs attention. And an error message you’re not sure what to do with.
Your first instinct is to send it again and pray it goes through. Before you do, let’s check what happened. Sometimes there’s a small detail you can fix yourself. Other times, you’ll need your fulfillment partner to take a look.
Start by reading the full error, opening Order History, and checking whether your partner already has the order.
What does “order could not be submitted” mean?
It meas something went wrong while sending your order to your warehouse or print provider. The rest of the error message gives you a clue about what happened.
Often, your warehouse or print provider sends us the error, and we pass it on to you. The email comes from Order Desk, but you may need their help to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it.
Our Common Errors From Integrations guide explains several specific messages. If you’re unsure where to start, work through these steps:
1. Look for the reason in the error message
Read past “order could not be submitted” to see why it didn’t go through. The message might mention a missing product code or a shipping method your partner doesn’t support.
Check which order and partner it’s about, then copy the full error somewhere handy. If it doesn’t make sense yet, that’s okay. You can share it with Support without having to translate it first.
Let’s say you’re sending an order to Amazon MCF and get an “Invalid SKU” error. That could mean the product code is wrong, or Amazon has run out of that item. Same error, two different things to check.
Click Amazon MCF Preview to see more details. Does the product code on your order match Amazon’s? If it doesn’t, update it. If it matches but the item is out of stock, you’ll need to check with Amazon MCF.
Our Amazon MCF common errors guide can help you work out which it is. Working with a different warehouse or print provider? Check their integration guide for the error you’re seeing.
2. Open Order History to see what happened
Next, open the order and scroll down to Order History. You’ll find it near the bottom of the page.
This is a good place to see what happened before and after the error. If a rule ran, you’ll see it listed as Auto.
Look for the failed attempt and check:
- Where was the order being sent?
- What went wrong?
- Had it already been sent before?
- Did it go through on a later attempt?
That last one is easy to miss. You might be reading the failure email while a newer entry shows the order went through.
If the same error keeps showing up, mention that when you message one of our Support members. It gives us a better idea of what you’ve already tried.
3. Check whether your partner already has the order
If you see timeout, duplicate, or already submitted, don’t hit Send again just yet. First, check whether your warehouse or print provider already has the order.
You can look it up in their dashboard, or ask them: “Did this order come through, and is it being processed?”
Keep the order number as it is until you’ve checked whether you need to send a new order. Your partner might see a new number and make or pack everything twice. Probably not the two-for-one you had in mind.
If you can’t work out what happened, send us the error and what you can see in Order History. We’ll help you figure out what to do next.
4. Correct the detail the error points to
Once you know the order needs to be sent again, let’s fix what stopped it the first time.
Maybe a product code is missing, the address needs changing, or your partner can’t ship to that country. It could also be the shipping method or a missing print file. Our guide to sending orders for fulfillment can help you work out what to check.
Start with whatever the error mentions and check what your warehouse or printer needs. No need to spend the afternoon changing settings that were working perfectly fine.
When you’re ready, open the order and click your fulfillment partner’s submit button beneath the order details. Give it a few seconds, refresh the page, then check Order History to see whether it went through.
Same error again? Keep a copy of the message and ask for help before clicking that button again.
Still stuck?
If you’re wondering whether your warehouse or printer got the order, ask them first. They can check if it’s there, whether the product is in stock, and if anything needs changing in your account.
If you’ve tried everything and it’s still not working, or you’re staring at the error still totally confused, send us a message. We’ll happily take a look!
Be sure to send us:
- Your Order Desk store name and order number.
- Who you’re trying to send the order to.
- The full error and what you can see in Order History around the failed attempt.
- What you’ve tried so far.
- Whether your partner already has the order. If you don’t know, tell us that too.
- Whether this is happening with one order or several.
You don’t have to know what’s wrong before asking for help. Send us what you’ve got, and we’ll help you from there.
If you still have questions, share them in our Order Desk Insiders Community group. Someone there might’ve had the same error and can tell you what worked for them.
