Questions on Refund Timelines, Pending Refunds on Customer's Bank Statements, and Processing Fees

[Hendley]

The title of this thread has been edited from the original: Customer said we took back a refund?

I processed a refund for a customer on a Saturday, and now a week later, she is saying she saw it in her account on Monday, which seems too soon, but then it disappeared later in the week. Her bank told her the merchant took it back, but I am not even sure how we would do that. It still shows pending in our Square account, and it looks like it was taken out of our account on Tuesday (the day after she said she saw it). Although the amount taken out of our account was about 7% more than the actual refund. 

Do two questions - was the 7% extra a processing fee? And what is happening with her refund?

[Katie_SQ]

Thanks for your post, @Hendley! 

I've taken a look into this for you, and can confirm that the refund for this payment has been successfully processed on our side.

Refunds typically take up to 7 business days to fully process. During this time, the refund will show as "processing" on your Dashboard. The buyer should see a pending credit on their bank account within 1-3 business days after the refund process begins (this currently applies only to payments made with Visa, American Express, or Mastercard).

Once a refund is completed, it's up to the customer's bank to post the funds. Depending on the bank's processing speed, the refund should appear in their account within 2-7 business days.

Regarding your specific questions:

Processing Fees

The additional 7% beyond the refund amount wasn't a processing fee for this transaction, though it's important to note that Square doesn't refund the processing fees of a payment when you process a refund for it.

In this case, the extra amount that was debited from your account was related to two additional refunds that were processed around the same time, where your Square balance needed supplemental funds to fulfil those refund amounts.

The Customer's Bank

Based on the timeline you described, it sounds like the customer's bank might have initially shown a pending credit but then temporarily removed it while processing. This is a common practice at some financial institutions as they work through their internal procedures. Since the refund still shows as successful on our end, and the funds were debited from your account, the refund is proceeding as expected.

I hope this clarifies the situation! If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.