How do I refund a customer?

[fash]

how do one refund customer back his money

[Chad21]

Please help! Urgency. A large amount was charged to one of my customers ACCIDENTLY and I wanted to see if there’s any way the refund process can be expedited. Even if there is an additional charge. Can someone please advise if this is possible. 

[VanKalkerFarms]

a refund process is started the second you hit refund in your Square POS app.  after Square sends the refund (which happens near instantly) there is nothing Square can do as it is up to the bank or credit card of your customer how long it takes to be available to them.

[smoothieartist]

I don't have any funds left in my Square balance because they have all been scheduled to automatically to my bank account. To process the refund, it sounds as though Square would need to withdraw funds from my bank account. Do I get hit with a fee or anything for not having enough in my Square balance to issue the refund from?

I haven't been able to figure out how to transfer funds from my bank back INTO my Square balance.

[Alex_]

Hi @smoothieartist,

Happy to help answer this.

If you issue a refund, and don't have the amount in your Square Balance, we will debit the bank linked on file. There are no penalties or extra fees for debiting your bank. 

Please let me know if you have any other questions by replying to this thread. 

[smoothieartist]

Thanks, @Alex_ !

[feweiss]

I am charging one American Express credit card but customer wants a refund to a different American Express credit card for the same amount. Can I do that?

[k_atie]

Hey @feweiss, welcome to the Seller Community! 

If you are initiating a refund back to your customer, it has to go back to the original card that took the payment. Our system does not allow us to refund a transaction to a different card. If your customer absolutely needs the refund to go through to another card, it will have to be settled outside of Square such as a bank transfer. Check out this article on Square's refund procedures to learn more. 

If you need help with anything else, please let me know, I'd be happy to assist in anyway I can. 

[Sierra]

The partial refund was easy enough to do. Yay! 

Will the customer be notified of this refund prior to seeing it on their card/bank statement? Will the reason for the refund appear on their statement? 

I see an option to send customer a new receipt, however that requires me to know their email address or phone number ... which I don't know ... but Square does since the customer chose a text receipt yesterday! Will Square send a new/revised receipt automatically? If not, why not? Thank you!

[Helen]

I'm glad to hear you were able to complete the partial refund @Sierra! To answer your questions:

If your customer paid you originally with a credit or debit card and received a digital received they will be notified of the refund automatically when you process it. The reason for the refund won't appear on your customer's statement, however your customer should see the SQ* along with your business name or business type in the statement description.

You can also reissue your customer a receipt from the Dashboard or app. It sounds like your customer did subscribe to digital receipts, so they should receive a notification automatically when you issued the refund.

If you need to send their receipt to a different email address or phone number you'll need to reach out to your customer to in order to issue the receipt to a different email/number.

Hope this helps but please let me know if you have any additional questions! 

[Sierra]

Thank you for your reply!

I have no way to reach out to my customer since I didn't personally capture any of their information. It used to be that Square auto-populated the text & email fields, but that didn't happen with this customer when she made her original purchase. Or maybe this is the first time she used that particular card with Square?

My main concern with all of this is trying to protect myself against a potential chargeback, should the customer realize that she was charged a couple dollars more sales tax than expected ... and now, perhaps not being aware of why she's receiving a partial refund. I'm hoping since I made a comment about the refund when I issued it, that IF this customer does a chargeback, Square would see my refund comment and take that into consideration. 

[Helen]

You're welcome! You're right, she might not have used that card with Square before.

You were definitely right to provide the reason for the partial refund! If this customer were to file a chargeback, we’ll use this information to fight the dispute on your behalf and evaluate your eligibility for coverage under our Square Chargeback Protection program. Though the final decision will be made by the card issuing bank, our team will do whatever we can to best represent you in this process!

[HairbyBryanDean]

There has to be an easier way. From this, I have to find the transaction for the item that was sold then do the refund. One of the issues that I have with square is that you can not look up your clients purchases all in one page. Instead you have to look at each and every transaction.  LAME! 

[charlenereano]

How do I refund the customer and also does the Square charge me a fee for doing a refund

[Joe]

Hi there, @charlenereano - thanks for reaching out!

I've merged you post with an identical thread of Sellers asking how to refund. You can find some Best Answers to your question here.

Regarding fees for refunds, we do not collect any fees for refunding customers. An fees collected in the original sale will be returned to the customer for a full refund of their original amount.

Happy selling!

[acourt3]

I have a customer who is tax exempt but it was not removed when she swiped her card. I need to refund her what she paid for tax. When I go to do a refund there is no option to refund the tax amount. How can I refund a customer for just taxes paid?

[ashc]

Hey @acourt3,

For that you'd just want to do a partial refund.

You can choose to either refund the full amount of enter your own amount when you select to refund. 

[NShuttle]

Does this allow a partial refund?  So, if the invoice was for $650 and I want to refund just $150, can I do that?

[NShuttle]

I am concerned that if I follow these steps from my Dashboard, go to the Invoice send (and paid by the customer) then choose "Refund" that Square might then refund the entire amount.

How do I make sure or specify only a partial refund?  E.g., from a $650 invoice paid, to refund just $500 or perhaps $470?

NShuttle

[NShuttle]

I just tried to follow your steps (after watching the video).  How can I see if the refund request was processed/completed?  Will it show up as a new transaction?  Will my customer get a receipt or message about it?

In this case, the refund was partial and was to go to their Visa card.

NShuttle

[Joe]

Hi there, @NShuttle - once your refund was requested, you should be able to see the refund listed within the original transaction either on your Online Dashboard, or within the Transactions tab on your Point of Sale app. It will not show up as a new transaction.

Your customer will get an email confirmation of their refund and the amount re-issued to them. This same process is applied to partial refunds, as well. 

[quantumhypnosis]

The Issue Refund button is grayed out. I've issued several refunds in the past without issue. This is the first time I see the card with gray lines over it and the Refund button is grayed out.