Customer Refund - Took customer’s money instead of refunded

[JAS4]

Has anyone’s customers complained their expected refund was actually deducted from their bank? I’ve search my end and everything says refund but she sent me a picture of her Credit Union account and I clearly see my business name and a deduction. Customer is furious!

[ryanwanner · Accepted solution]

Hello @JAS4 !

That is really weird! I've processed quite a few refunds today alone due to testing on the online store, and all of them were returned relatively quickly.

Depending on the bank, there may be a delay in reporting the refund. What I normally tell my customers is that refunds should show up within 1-3 business days. I have never had a customer call me back saying the refund hasn't been processed after that time period.

If in that time period the refund doesn't post to her account, I'd say your next best thing is to contact customer service so they can dive into your account more than we can in a public forum. You can do that by using the link in my signature below.

[JAS4]

Thank you.

Other than testing small refunds/payments when I first enrolled a couple years ago, this was the first need for a customer refund. I’ve already spoken to support via chat and on the phone and they only say everything was processed correctly on our end. I was just curious if this ever happened to anyone’s customers. 

[Sari18]

Hi there this is so weird because I never know about square up and you guys charged me $25.40 from my bank account, why??? Could you please refund my money.

Thank you

[VanKalkerFarms]

You made a purchase at a store that uses Square as their cash register and credit card processor. It shows up on your receipt as 

you can look up your receipt here.  https://squareup.com/receipts

https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5103-square-purchases-and-cardholder-help

[Sari18]

Hi there please respon me, 

[MeLo]

Yes, It just happened to me apparently. Now what?

[JAS4]

It took two weeks for my customer to receive a refund of "both" charges. Square could not help me since it appeared properly on their end. Needless to say she will never do business with me again and I'm sure she will try to deter others as well. I'm afraid to use the refund functionality now. Hopefully your customer's bank works faster than two weeks to investigate on their side. I recommend you ask your customer to speak with a live representative at their bank in hopes that it moves the process along faster.

[Limelight]

A customer just reported that the same thing has happened.  She mistakenly made a purchase of five items instead of just the one she wanted, and I refunded four of the purchases.  She just informed me that instead of five charges and four refunds, she has nine charges on her card!  I'm interested to know that this is not the first time such a mistake has happened.  I'm hoping to get it corrected right away. 

[ryanwanner]

@LimelightI'm sorry to hear about your customer's issue!

Quick question: you mentioned that this was just reported to you. Was the sale from today or yesterday?

The reason I ask is that it is very possible that her bank is reporting the refund as a transaction until the transaction clears the bank, which usually takes 1-3 business days. This isn't something Square can control; it's completely on the customer's bank. Additionally, Square's refund policy is that it can take up to 3 days to show on the customer's card.

This is one of the major flaws of everyone having access to their banking info in real time. In the past, all these transaction shenanigans happened before the customer was aware. Everything was cleared up before the monthly statement was mailed out. I'm betting that your customer just got caught up in this.

Whenever I have anyone question any charges from my store (duplicate, extra tip, etc), I always tell them to give it a day or two for the bank and Square to talk to each other correctly. I then ask them to contact me after the two days if there is still something wrong. I have yet to get the return call.

[JAS4]

Square told me that it was an issue with the customer's bank. It's just a hard thing to explain to a customer. In my case, the pending transaction nearly overdrew her account and required her to deposit moneys in order to cover the difference until the bank "reversed" the hold for the refund and deposited the returned funds.

Although it took 1-3 days to process on Square's end, it can take up to 10 days on the customer's end depending on their banking institution. Truly unfortunate.

[ryanwanner]

@JAS4  Yup. It all depends on their bank unfortunately. We end up being caught in the middle.

The only other option that you have as a merchant is to show them the transaction history including the refund. Once we process the refund on our side it is completely out of our hands.

I really wish that banks would be more open to faster hold times for something like merchant refunds, but I'm pretty sure the big banks just want to drive customer accounts negative so they can get the NSF fees....

For the record, I bank with a small regional bank for my personal accounts. Whenever I use my card for testing purposes and then refund the transaction, my funds are back in the account by close of business the next day.

[Limelight]

In my case, the refunds were processed over 10 days ago.  
My story has a good and quick ending, though.  While I was on chat with a Square agent, the customer emailed again: 

"Ignore my prior message. All is well. The minus signs were so small my husband didn’t see them. Refund done.”
😁

[JJ224]

Same thing just happened to my customer. This is not a good look. 

[JJ_]

Oh no, @JJ224

Firstly, welcome to the Seller Community + sorry to hear that you're here because you've run into trouble. If you haven't already, your best bet is to get in touch with us directly, so that a member of our Support team can dig in with you and address this. 

When you have a moment, please reach out directly by logging into your Square account and heading here.

[Fawnzy77]

Oh yeah. I am still waiting on them to refund $100 back. Took it from my square accound, says its been processed but has not been. I called and they said they were escalating it and my account was in review but couldnt tell me why. Totally straight up stole from me.