Articles on: FAQs

Why Pickup Orders Are Charged the Wrong Tax

Some merchants notice that pickup orders are taxed at the wrong rate. This is a Shopify limitation, not a Bird bug.


Shopify calculates tax based on the shipping address at checkout. Bird pre-populates that field with the pickup location's address, but two common scenarios override it:


  • Accelerated checkout (Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal) fills in the customer's saved payment address — often from a different area or city.
  • Logged-in customers with saved addresses may have Shopify auto-fill their default delivery address, overriding the pickup location.


In both cases, Shopify recalculates tax against the wrong address instead of the pickup location.


What You Can Do


1. Enable pickup postal code revalidation

This is the most direct fix. Bird will block checkout if the postal code no longer matches the pickup location, prompting the customer to correct it. Enable it in Bird App > Settings > Validation Settings → "Revalidate pickup location postal code in checkout."


Avoid this setting if your customers commonly use Shop Pay, Apple Pay, or Google Pay — those methods pre-fill a payment address that may not match and will cause false errors at checkout.


2. Note on express checkout and saved addresses

Bird cannot prevent address changes made through express payment methods (Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal) or by logged-in customers with saved addresses. When customers use these, the shipping address may be overridden and the tax experience may not be fully consistent.




Updated on: 05/19/2026

Was this article helpful?

Share your feedback

Cancel

Thank you!