Can you issue a refund to a new E gift card?

[liamcotter]

Hi all I have a hypothetical question. Is it possible to issue a refund to a new E gift card created for that purpose?

Example: 

I have a refund policy that is for exchanges only. Therefore if a person makes a $100 purchase that merits a $50 refund, I would like to be able to load That $50 onto a E gift card that I could then associate with their customer profile for later use without them having to purchase a new plastic or e-gift card.

Is there any native or work around way to do this?

[nika]

Hello @liamcotter! Thanks for your question.

While it's not possible to issue a refund to an egift card, you are able to issue a partial refund to a plastic gift card. I know that's not what you're looking to do, but that's the only possible solution right now if you're trying to send a refund to a gift card.

Appreciate you posting. Please let us know if you have any other questions!

[wtdLani]

It's funny -- I had to deal with this today and I truly thought SQ had this handled.  Unfortunately, I was confusing SQ's process with another service provider who shall remain nameless. 

I am sad that this feature request has not been addressed and function made available because it is a very important need for B&M retail. 

I'm pretty sure that my team created a workaround for this -- but judging by what happened today in store, my team did not properly document it -- and it's clumsy at best.  I will try to followup here with what we figure out.  (UGH)

SQ please make it possible to refund to a digital gift card.  Store credits are an essential part of retail -- and having the ability to issue it as a digitial gift card is critical -- especially now with shipped returns and COVID. 

[rarebloomshop]

We need this exact feature as well. What was the workaround you found?

[crystalimages]

Also want to request this feature. I have responded to another thread with a possible work-around, but not sure it will work.... Here's that idea....

I'm curious about this also. I feel like a lot has changed since I looked into the eGift Cards in the past. 

It seems like you should be able to, but only if a card had been purchased previously and you attach it to the customer. or I guess you could purchase an eGift card (the minimum amount is $1, though you can set another minimum amount), attach it to the customer as a "card on file" and return the purchase to that card. I'm not certain you can return to an eGift card, but it seems set up the same as plastic cards. Remember, there is a $2,000 limit for gift cards, including the current balance on the card. In this example, you could only add $1,999 to the $1 card.

If this is possible, I'd like clarification on it. It's a bit of a work around, but it would be an option. You could also let the customer know you can refund everything except the $1, or you just have to eat that cost to ensure they get refunded as store credit and not lose the full purchase.

Again... I'm not certain this will work. 

[crystalimages]

So, I successfully completed this. After one unsuccessful attempt.....

I had to purchase a $1 eGiftcard.

I attached the eGift card as a card on file to the customer I was refunding.

On the iPad, I found the transaction in question,

then I was able to refund to the card on file which is the eGfit Card.

I confirmed the activity of the eGift Card showed the added credit as well as the original purchase amount.

I first attempted to do this from the dashboard, but the only option I saw was refunding to the original card. So, it appears this must be done on the POS app. 

The only other thing that might be confusing, is I had to send the eCard to myself to get all 16 digits and attach it to the customer. I guess this is a security measure so employees can't use the cards without the owner knowing, just like you can only see the last 4 of a credit card.  You could let the customer know that they will receive the email and need to activate the card to process the refund, or you can re-send the eGift card and change the email to your company email to get the full card number. I guess you could send it to yourself first, attach it, add the refund, then re-send to the customer email. 

If this is something you do regular enough, you could purchase a handful ahead of time and send them to your own email, then pull them quickly from the email to get the 16-digit number. Or print them out for your employees to grab easily.

We don't do a lot of refunds period,  but I'm glad to have gone through this process so that I have this option.