A hold is a flag that keeps an order out of the warehouse queue. While a hold is on an order, Mountainy won't pick, pack, or ship it. Holds are the fastest way to stop an order, and they're also the most common reason an order sits in Not Ready to Ship. This article covers the six hold types, where they come from, and how each one is cleared.
Hold | Who or what places it | Typical cause | How it's cleared |
|---|---|---|---|
Address Hold | Automatic, on import | The shipping address couldn't be validated | Fix the address (in the portal OR in your store), then |
Payment Hold | Automatic, on import (or via status mapping) | The order isn't paid in full in your store | Usually clears itself when the order is paid in your store; can be removed |
Fraud Hold | Automatic, from your store's risk analysis | Your store flagged the order as potentially fraudulent | You review the order and remove the hold, or cancel |
Operator Hold | Mountainy's warehouse team, or an automation rule | Something needs attention before shipping (a packaging question, a damaged item, a special instruction) | Removed once the issue is resolved; check with Mountainy before |
Hold Until Date | You (per order, in bulk, or via automation rule) | You want the order to ship on or after a specific date and time | Releases automatically at the date/time; can be removed early |
Client Hold | You, and only you, or through automation rules we established for you | You need to stop the order for any reason | Only you can remove it; Mountainy cannot |
On import, the portal checks the shipping address against postal records (USPS for US addresses; validation also runs for Canada and Australia). If the address can't be verified and there's no obvious
correction, an Address Hold is applied automatically so the package
doesn't go out to an undeliverable address.
Validation can't tell whether a missing apartment or suite number is required, so an address can pass validation and still be incomplete. It's worth a quick look at the full address on any order where the customer lives in a multi-unit building.
To clear an Address Hold, confirm the correct address with the
customer, update it on the order page, or update it in your store too (so
the two stay in sync), and remove the hold. Mountainy will do its best to automatically update addresses with issues and send you daily reports of what we can't correct on our own.
Orders that aren't paid in full when they import receive a Payment Hold. For Shopify stores this is the default behavior for unpaid orders. When the order is marked paid in Shopify, the hold is removed automatically (assuming the store's sync settings are configured that way). For other platforms, payment holds can be mapped from the platform's order statuses.
If a customer paid by a method your store doesn't recognize as captured (a money order, for example), mark the order as paid in your store or remove the hold manually.
If your store platform's fraud analysis recommends investigating or canceling an order, the portal imports it with a Fraud Hold. Shopify supports this natively; BigCommerce and WooCommerce support it through status mapping. Review the order in your store. If it's legitimate, remove the hold in the portal. If not, cancel it.
An Operator Hold is a general-purpose hold. Mountainy's warehouse team uses it when they've found something that needs a decision before the order can ship: an item that arrived damaged, an instruction that's unclear, a packaging question. Automation rules can also apply Operator Holds (for example, to pause all orders from a particular channel for review).
If you see an Operator Hold on an order and there's no note explaining it, ask in Slack before removing it. Removing a hold the warehouse placed can send an order out before the underlying issue is resolved.
A Hold Until Date keeps an order from shipping until a specific date
(and optionally a time). The portal checks every 30 minutes and releases
the order automatically once the time has passed. It's the right tool
for product launches, subscription boxes, and pre-orders where you want the order queued but not shipped.
Two things to know: a Hold Until Date does not stop inventory from being allocated to the order, so the stock is reserved for that order while it waits; and if you need it to ship sooner, simply remove the hold.
The Client Hold exists specifically for 3PL clients. Only you can place it, and only you can remove it. Mountainy's team can't set or clear a Client Hold, either manually or with an automation rule, so it's your guaranteed way to stop an order.
Use it when a customer asks you to pause or change an order, when
you're checking on something before you want it shipped, or any time you want to make sure an order doesn't go out until you say so. Client Holds are applied on the order page, or automatically through an automation rule on your account (for example, "if the order is tagged HOLD, set Client Hold").
On a single order: open the order from the Orders page. The hold controls are at the top right of the order page. Choose the hold type to add it, or use Remove Hold to clear it. The order shows a hold label once it's applied.
On several orders at once: on the Orders page, use the checkboxes to select orders, then use the bulk actions to add or remove a hold type.
A hold on an order that's already being processed: once the warehouse has started picking an order, adding a hold from the portal won't reliably stop it. If you need to stop an order that shows the warehouse is currently processing it, message Mountainy in Slack immediately with the order number.
In your notification settings you can turn on an email alert whenever
an order is placed on hold, and add more than one address so your
customer service team hears about it too.
You can also monitor your slack for your daily holds report!
Identify Holds and Orders Not Ready To Ship in Your 3PL Portal
Order Statuses Explained: Ready, Not Ready, and Shipped
What are Automation Rules and How Do They Help?
How to Edit an Order and What Locks Once Processing Starts