Help on refunding prosses

[123Techguy]

Hi, 

I performed a card charge to a credit card number & info that a warranty company gave me to pay for car repairs . I then find out the card I used is someone's card I don't know ? When I did transaction in beginning I transferred money from square to my bank.  I then got call from stranger in Oregon  stating I charged his card ? I then went in to square dash board & refunded his money. I then call the Extended warranty company (PRco) & they said that that card went throw & all is good on there end? So I got my money but did money go back to starangers card ?

any help would be grateful

 Guy

[Donnie-M]

@123Techguy I think this is a tricky one that doesn't pass the smell test of what I would be comfortable doing, and I think you probably did the right thing in the long run.  While, I also don't think you did anything wrong.  What I do know, once you processed a refund on the credit card that you charged, that money will be sent back to the credit card owner and your account will be debited for that money, even if you transferred it to your bank.  I am not sure how or when Square does this, but they will get it back.

I think the bigger issue is the warranty company giving you a card and authorizing you to use it for the charge.  If they did not have the customer's permission and it wasn't their actual credit card, that sounds an awful lot like fraud.  Now it could be, the customer had to pay for the repairs and get reimbursed by the company, but if that is the case you should have some documentation from the repair company.

I do think that you have a valid point to not give the car back till you are paid for the services you provided.  But if the customer called their bank/card issuer and said they didn't authorize the payment, you would probably get a chargeback you couldn't win since the transaction wasn't in person with a chip.  I would require the warranty company to give you a card that they own and control as I don't think you really can pass along credit card info.

"Ask a customer to provide the card number, the name on the card, billing address, expiration date, and CVV code on the back of the card." is some great advice in this next article:

https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5079-best-practices-for-accepting-card-payments 

Right now, I would be contacting the warranty company and the customer and letting them know you need to be paid as it sounds fishy to me.