Refunding a gift card transaction that there is no card to reapply the funds

[IndyCBDPlus]

Customer came in with a physical Square gift card that we sold. Customer tried to use gift card and the employee used the gift card button. The gift card value was $40 the transaction was for $171.20 and the system just completed the transaction without taking the $40 and without requesting the rest of the balance. So the employee just started another transaction and cannot void or refund the previous transaction because there is no card to put the $171.20 back. Inventory is off and the sales numbers are off and this is not acceptable for accounting reasons. Please advise. 

[Donnie-M]

@IndyCBDPlus Have you reprinted the receipt on the original transaction?  I would be interested to see what it says about the payment.  I just went through the transaction flow myself and I can't get this to do this.  So maybe it was a bug?  When you do the refund, does it ask for same gift card again?

[IndyCBDPlus]

Thanks for the reply! I can print off the receipt and attach it here but it does not tell much. We are going through today's transactions and matching it with the NET sales. The employee performed the OG transaction incorrectly. So after balancing the transactions Square is counting both of the 171.20 transactions. If we try to process the refund by "refunding items" it asks for the physical card. If we select "refund dollar amount" it just has you select the reason for the refund. After selecting "accidental charge" it seems as though it was refunded but the dashboard has not updated. We just processed the refund as refund dollar amount. Employee states that when the transaction was completed it never asked for the card info after selecting "other gift card or certificate". So I am guessing it assumed it was some hand written certificate. Sounds like we need more training! 

[Donnie-M]

@IndyCBDPlus I would disable the other gift card or certificate payment option if you can.  I only have the gift card option as a payment option on mine so as to prevent an alternate tender.  And yes, you can always manually adjust the inventory as when you refund a dollar amount it will not reduce the inventory.  Only when you refund items does it put those back into stock from what I understand.  With food, it does not change for us since we can't return a cheeseburger to inventory obviously.

[MayaP]

Hello there @IndyCBDPlus,

Thank you for reaching out. This isn't a great experience and we certainly want to get to the bottom of this. As Donnie-M mentioned that shouldn't be the process. Was the gift card balance checked prior to processing the transaction? I hate to ask but sometimes the customers can be confused. 

[IndyCBDPlus]

Thanks for the reply! NO they did not check the value of the gift card before processing the transaction. We do not sell many gift cards. Employee states that she selected "other gift cards and certificates". The Square gift card still has the value on it which was $40 and the transaction was $171.20. SO it seems that the employee handled the transaction incorrectly. But I am still concerned that the accounting and inventory is incorrect.

Edit: double checked inventory and it states that we have one more on hand than reality, so I am not sure what has happened. I assumed that both transactions would pull double the inventory and then the refund would have put the inventory back to what is actually on hand. 

[MayaP]

Thank you again @Donnie-M for hopping in here. This happens all the time @IndyCBDPlus, you certainly aren't the only one who has done this. As Donnie mentioned I would remove that other gift card option as that can cause confusion. When that option is selected the Square gift card is not actually processed, maybe at least until employees are more confident.  Glad we were able to track down this issue a little further but sorry this did cause confusion and some more work on your end. Please let us know if you need anything else! 😊