Help with refunds in split tender transactions to MC/V Gift Cards that were trashed!

[HeatherS]

A customer purchased merchandise using two forms of tender.

She used up a Mastercard Gift Card and paid the balance with her Mastercard Credit Card.
She later returned the merchandise. Square issues refunds to the original tenders.

PROBLEM: The Mastercard Gift Card no longer exists in the real world. She used it up and threw it away. We were stuck issuing the refund to the nonexistent MC Gift Card in order to refund her actual Mastercard Credit Card. She doesn't have that MC Gift Card, so, we had to issue a written store credit that she can actually use against a future purchase. Double refund on our books!

Do you know of a way to give the customer her full refund without costing us double for the MC Gift Card amount?

Thanks!

[bacomputer]

This won't be much help, but FYI I tested this, and discovered under Square Help this note: "At this time, you're not able to issue a partial refund on an item."  Also each payment type seems associated with a customer record, as though two people decided to split a meal.  The long and short of it is, a voided transaction plus a cash refund may be only work around.  Here is info from another thread:

You can enable Comp and Void on your Square Dashboard under the Items tab. Once you're on the Items tab > Settings > Comp and Void. From here you'll be able to create all of your comp and void settings. 🙂

[HeatherS]

Hi @bacomputer!

If we voided the transaction, wouldn't the MC Credit Card & MC Gift Card payments be voided as well? If so, we would be in the same situation. I really appreciate that you worked on it & tried to create a work around!!

[Chad · Accepted solution]

Hello @HeatherS! 

I'm sorry to hear about the double refund situation due to the MasterCard Gift Card. I can shed some light on your options in this situation. 

For split tender payments you have the ability to refund the exact amount per tender method. In the future you could issue a refund for the credit card payment and then provide them with store credit for the lost gift card. When processing a refund the first prompt will ask you to select an item or an amount. If you select amount, you can enter the value of the credit card sale. 

If this is something you run into often, it might be worth while adding a note on your receipts stating that you can only issue refunds to the payment method used for the sale. 

In case you weren't aware, we discourage refunding credit card sales using cash.  Because your customer can still file a payment dispute with their bank, which could cause you to be out twice the amount of the sale. 

If you have any other questions please feel free to reach out to me! 

[HeatherS]

@Chad,

We were thinking we had to refund to the original tender which was the MC Gift Card.

We didn't remember that Square will allow us to issue a store credit to one of our Gift Cards regardless of original tender. If we can issue a store credit in Square, our problems are solved! Period.

Thank you so much for the reminder! We are slapping ourselves on the sides of our heads,,,duh! 

(We agree. I isn't the best practice to refund cash for credit card transactions.)

[WildberriesBtq]

From what I understand, you can't refund to a gift card with a split tend sale. This is a terrible flaw in your system. Is this something that will be rectified?

[wishonmain]

I process returns using gift cards for store credit.  When someone tries to return an item when they used two firms of payment square just gives an error message saying refund not available?  I am not able to process a return or exchange on split payments.  Help?

[Kassi_]

Hi @wishonmain! 

I moved your post to a board on the same topic. 

Are you having any issues with processing a regular refund? Processing a split payment refund would operate in the same fashion, returning the funds back to the original tender used. 

[wishonmain]

We are able to process returns and issue a gift card as store credit instead of refunding as long as there was only one form of original payment.  Square will not allow us to issue gift card or refund when original form of payment was split.

[awakenings]

I just ran into a situation where a customer paid $20 in cash and the remainder of her transaction was paid with a mastercard.  She opted to exchange an item about an hour less.  Why am I not able to simply issue this as a gift card (store credit) vs. having to refund part cash and part to the master card?  This should be rectified and seems like a very logical solution.

[lmkoob]

Hello,

My daughter was overcharged on her account. She only purchased 1 Kane Brown Jersey and was charged for 2. What do we need to do to get a $75 refund? 

[Anthill]

I Just had same issue. Customer originally paid half with credit card and half cash. She came back now to return one item. We issue refunds only as store credit on gift card and never had any issues when customer paid only with one form of payment. This time i did everything as usual but it said that split payments are not refundable on gift card.

Please help because this is really not normal. I had to sell her gift card in amount of item she returned without actually getting payment for it. This messes up all accounting and inventory. Big big issue needs to be looked in ASAP PLEASE

[Arie]

Hi @Anthill,

Thank you for writing back in to the community, and I'm sorry to hear about the issues refunding your customer. At this time, refunds to gift cards aren't available for split tender payments, but I can see how this feature would be helpful for you, and other businesses. I'll pass your feedback on to our product team, and will share any updates with you here! 

If you find that you need to issue a gift card again, you can sell it for a 100% discount so you don't have to pay for the card yourself. You can create a discount for gift cards here. 

[bradrsi]

This is a huge flaw with Square POS.  We should be able to offer store credit to a gift card even if it is a split payment.  This makes no sense and causes lots of issues because it doesn't work.  Please fix this ASAP.

[JJ_]

Hello @bradrsi,

We understand the need for this feature and appreciate your patience. We will pass this feedback to our Product team for them to consider in future updates to Square Gift Cards.