Refunding invoice error: transaction occurred over a year ago?

[lenjobakes]

Context: I run a wedding cake bakery and as such, we take deposits for orders months in advance.

We take a refundable deposit for rental items and then when the items are returned post-event, we issue a refund.

Problem: We had an event last month on 10 June 2023. The first half of the payment was made in June 2022 and the second half was paid in May 2023. I tried to refund $60 from the invoice, but got the error. "This transaction occurred over a year ago and can no longer be refunded."

Now, one part of the transaction occurred over a year ago, but not the second part.

How can I avoid this error and issue a refund to this buyer?

We have a lot of these situations upcoming and I'm pretty sure we've had them in the past and haven't experience this error before.

I know refund fee policies have changed, but is this new? How do we avoid this happening?

Screenshot:

[JJ_]

Hey there  

Our 1 year refund time frame was a policy change from 2019. Before this change, Sellers could only refund transactions completed in the last 120 days. It might've been the case that you may have refunded transactions prior to the full 365 days lapsed. 

I hope this information is helpful in making plans accordingly. 

[lenjobakes]

Hey @JJ_!

That's helpful, yes. But a portion of this transaction was completed less than a year ago? Why can't I refund that portion?

[JJ_]

Are you looking to refund the amount from May 2023? If so I'd recommend searching this transaction via the Transactions page and refunding it there. Please let me know if the problem persists there. 

[lenjobakes]

Hey @JJ_!

Just tried it from the Transactions tab and the problem does indeed persist there.

The last payment was made on April 10, 2023 and when I click on "issue refund" I get the same error message that the transaction occurred over a year ago.

Definitely seems like something buggy might be going on!

[JJ_]

Hey, @lenjobakes!

Sorry for the super delay in my response; your reply fell through the cracks.

I just looked into this, and from what I gathered, this is not acting as it should, and there aren't any similar reports.

To take a closer look a this, can you please share the invoice IDs and the transaction amounts of the Invoices in which you have encountered this situation? 

[lenjobakes]

Hey @JJ_! Thanks for circling back.

So far it's only this invoice (#747) and the total amount of the first payment made June 21, 2022 was $498.70 and the second payment made May 20, 2023 was $523.26.

I can forsee this happening with Invoices #1011, 828, and 975 in the future because these are all weddings slated for 2024 that will have deposits to return - but I can't do that if it categorizes the entire invoice as a transaction that occurred over a year ago.

Thanks for looking in to this! The customer is keen on having their funds back and I'm keen on ensuring that I can do it through Invoices for proper accounting. (Or the team can come up with a way to take deposits - either option would make me happy!)

[JJ_]

Just wanted to let you know that I have escalated your case and you will be hearing back from our team via Email once they investigate the situation @lenjobakes 

[lenjobakes]

Hey @JJ_!

It's been a couple of weeks and I've heard nothing? Can you double check that someone is resolving this so I can get my customer their deposit back?

Thanks!

[JJ_]

I am sorry to hear that no one has reached out to you regarding this escalation @lenjobakes.  I will be looking into this right now.

[isabelle · Accepted solution]

The refund was issue by Square today. Thank you for your patience @lenjobakes and apologies that you had to contact Support to get this resolved.