Cancel or Change an Order

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You remembered after checkout that Dad wears a 2XL, not an XL. Or that Grandpa served from 1966, not 1967. Or that your sister moved last month. This page explains how to cancel or change a Proud Vet Tee order, how much time you have before your item goes to print, what we can still adjust once production has started, and how quickly money comes back when an order is cancelled.

Cancellations and changes in short

  • Free changes or cancellation: within 12 hours of placing the order, as long as printing has not started.
  • After 12 hours: we still try, until the item is printed; address changes are possible until the parcel is with the carrier.
  • Already printed or shipped: the 60-day Returns & Exchanges Policy applies instead.
  • Refund for a cancelled order: everything you paid, back on your original payment method within 7 calendar days of our confirmation.

1. Why the window is 12 hours

Every item we sell is made to order. Shortly after your payment is confirmed, your order is queued for printing; once ink is on a shirt or thread is in a cap, that item exists only for you and cannot be un-made. A 12-hour window gives you time to catch mistakes, while still letting us print quickly enough to meet the 2–5 business day production estimate on our Shipping & Delivery page.

The window is measured from the time on your order confirmation email. If you order at 9 p.m. Eastern Time on a Thursday, you have until 9 a.m. Eastern on Friday to request a free change or cancellation. Orders placed on weekends are rarely printed before Monday, so in practice weekend orders often have longer, but we cannot promise that.

2. How to ask for a change or cancellation

  1. Email support@proudvettee.com or use Submit a Ticket, with the subject line "Cancel" or "Change" followed by your order number. A clear subject line lets us spot urgent requests first.
  2. Write from the email address used at checkout, or include it in the message, so we can verify that the order is yours.
  3. Describe exactly what you want: the item, the new size or colour, the corrected personalization text spelled out in full, or the complete new address.
  4. Wait for our written confirmation. A change or cancellation is only final once we email you to say it has been made. We reply within 1 business day, and requests that arrive inside the 12-hour window are handled first.

Please do not place a second order to "replace" the first one without telling us. Two orders mean two print jobs, and both may be printed before we notice.

3. What we can change before printing

  • The size, colour or garment style of an item, for example switching a tee to a hoodie in the same design.
  • Personalization text: names, years of service, dates and short lines. Please type the corrected text exactly as it should appear, including capital letters and punctuation.
  • Reducing quantities. To add more pieces, for example for family members who also want matching shirts, place a small second order and tell us both order numbers so we can print them together.
  • Removing an item from the order.
  • The shipping address, the recipient’s name and the delivery instructions.

If a change affects the price, for example a tee changed to a hoodie, we tell you the difference before making it. We only charge extra once you agree, by sending a secure payment request through our checkout, and we refund any lower amount within 7 calendar days. We never ask for card numbers by email.

4. After printing has started

Once an item has been printed or embroidered, it cannot be changed or cancelled. That does not leave you stuck. When it arrives, you can use our Returns & Exchanges Policy: within 60 days of delivery, any item can be returned or exchanged, and anything we got wrong is reprinted or refunded at our cost.

The one thing we can usually still change after printing is the address, up to the moment the parcel is handed to the carrier. After that, we can ask the carrier to redirect the parcel, but redirection is the carrier’s decision and is not always possible, especially for international parcels.

4a. Orders with several items

Larger orders, such as a set of reunion shirts in different sizes, are often printed item by item. That means part of an order can still be changed while another part is already printed. When you write to us, list every change you want in one message; we check each item separately and tell you exactly which changes were made and which items had already gone to print. Anything already printed can still be exchanged after delivery under the 60-day policy.

4b. Time zones, weekends and holidays

The 12-hour window is counted in real hours from the time stamp on your confirmation email, whatever time zone you live in, and it keeps running overnight and on weekends. Our replies come within 1 business day, counted Monday to Friday excluding US federal holidays, so a request sent late on a Friday may not receive its reply until Monday. That does not cost you anything: what counts is that your request reached us inside the window, and the time stamp on your email proves it. If printing started before we could act on a request that arrived in time, we treat the item as our error and reprint or refund it.

Customers in Australia and New Zealand are many hours ahead of the United States. Your morning may be our previous evening, so check the time on your confirmation email rather than counting from your own clock when you work out the window.

4c. Things we cannot change

  • The payment method used for an order. If you need to pay differently, we cancel the order (inside the window) and you place a new one.
  • Delivery to a country outside the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, because no shipping method exists for it.
  • A printed item’s design, text or colour after it has been printed. These can be handled only by an exchange or return after delivery.
  • The carrier chosen for your parcel. We select the carrier that serves your address; a specific carrier cannot be requested.

4d. Changes to orders shipping outside the US

Orders to Canada, Australia and New Zealand follow exactly the same 12-hour window and the same rules. The only difference is that address changes after handover are harder, because international parcels pass through customs and are handed between carriers. If you are not sure of the recipient’s address abroad, confirm it before checkout or contact us inside the window to correct it.

4e. If you are not sure whether a change is needed

Ask anyway. If you are unsure whether "Sgt." should be spelled out, whether a hoodie will be too warm for a Florida November, or whether Grandma’s apartment number is on the label, write to us inside the window and say so. We would much rather answer a question before printing than reprint a shirt afterwards, and asking a question does not commit you to a change.

5. Refunds for cancelled orders

When we confirm a cancellation, we refund everything you paid for the cancelled items, including shipping and any taxes, to your original payment method. The refund reaches you within 7 calendar days of our confirmation. If you cancel only part of an order, we refund the cancelled items and ship the rest as normal. The full rules are on our Refund Policy page.

6. When we have to cancel or change an order

We may cancel or hold an order in these situations, and we always email you first:

  • a garment colour or size has been discontinued by our blank supplier after you ordered;
  • a price was shown incorrectly because of a technical error;
  • the payment cannot be verified, or the order shows signs of fraud;
  • the address is outside our four delivery countries or cannot be delivered to;
  • personalization text asks us to print official insignia wording that suggests a government affiliation, an official seal, or hateful or threatening content.

Where possible, we suggest an alternative such as a different colour or wording. If you do not want the alternative, we cancel the affected items and refund them in full within 7 calendar days.

7. Real examples

7.1 Wrong years on a personalized tee, noticed two hours later

You email with the subject "Change – order 1234" and the corrected years. We confirm the change by email, the shirt is printed with the right dates, and nothing else changes.

7.2 Switching a polo to a larger size the next morning

Your request arrives 14 hours after ordering. The window has passed, but the polo has not been printed yet, so we make the change and confirm it. Had it already been printed, you could have exchanged it after delivery within 60 days.

7.3 A gift is no longer needed

The reunion was cancelled and you ask to cancel the whole order within the 12-hour window. We confirm, and the full amount returns to your card within 7 calendar days of our confirmation.

7.4 Moving house before the parcel ships

The order is printed but not yet shipped when you send your new address. We update the label before handing the parcel to the carrier, free of charge.

7.5 Adding a shirt for a cousin who just heard about the reunion

Within the window you ask to add one more Large to a family order. We cannot add items to a paid order ourselves, so we reply with a link to place a small second order and note both order numbers so they are printed and, where possible, shipped together.

8. Gift orders and orders placed for someone else

If you placed the order for a relative, the change or cancellation must come from you, the buyer, because you hold the order details and the payment. If the recipient contacts us directly, we will be polite and discreet, but we will check with the buyer before making any change to a gift order so we do not spoil a surprise or redirect a parcel without permission.

9. Helpful tips to avoid changes

  • Check the Size Guide against a garment the wearer already owns before ordering.
  • Read personalization text aloud before adding it to the cart. Dates and the spelling of surnames are the most common corrections we see.
  • Confirm the recipient’s current address with a family member if you are shipping directly to them.
  • If you are ordering for a ceremony or event, allow the full delivery estimate plus a margin so a late change does not put the date at risk.

10. Contact

For anything about an order you have just placed, email support@proudvettee.com with your order number. You can also check progress on Order Tracking, browse our FAQs or visit the Help Center.