Is it possible to issue a full or partial refund onto a gift card?

[erinekate]

If a customer wants to return something and our policy is to only allow store credit - how do we issue a refund by putting the total amount of the refund onto a gift card? Right now it only allows you to refund to the original form of payment. 

[Chad]

Hello @eriniekate, welcome to the Seller Community! 🎈

Currently, the ability to refund using a gift card is not available. I will pass this feedback along to our product team. I can see how this could be a useful feature, since a lot of boutique return policies are strictly store credit. 

If there is anything else you would like to share please feel free to reply back! 😃

[noahmarion]

I would really like this option. I just went to refund something (for the first time maybe ever) and thought that would be an option when I hit refund but it just went back to the card, which is not what I had wanted to do. Then I couldn't stop the refund process. I'm very displeased. 

[EJ_]

@noahmarion I can definitely see how this feature would be useful. We'll be sure to announce an update if anything happens with this. 

[Birgitoconnor]

HELP I have a card that has $145 and they ordered $127 ....How can I deduct that from the card?

If I go to clear balance, I am not able to deduct the amount....HELP

[Twnshnds]

Would it work to:

Simply add the refund amount to a gift card, and skip the actual refund process? The biggest downside I see to this is that it might make your reporting messy, as Square will still show that item as sold when in fact you have it back in stock. Any other reason not to take this route? 

[Spenser]

I think that's a good suggestion, @Twnshnds. As you say, the main drawback is the reporting.

Otherwise, you can load a gift card for the desired amount, and complete the sale using "Other Tender" to do so without charging the customer. In the other tender field you could also add a note to say "store credit" or something along those lines. 

[lilychiang · Accepted solution]

Great news everyone, we just introduced the abliity to refund a payment to a gift card! You can check out more details in our product update, but in a nutshell, we added the option "Tap Add Gift Card or Swipe" in the refund flow in the Point of Sale app for iOS users (hoping to offer Android support soon).

Please let me know what you think and thanks for the taking the time to share your feedback prior to this launch! 

[lulu90803]

Can I refund a payment to a gift card on the Square Terminal? 

[lulu90803]

There are no details in the product update?

[Chad]

Hello @lulu90803! 

Currently issuing a refund to a gift card is only available on iOS devices. Square Register runs on an Android operating system. I don't have an ETA on when it might be available, but it is something we're looking into. 

[lulu90803]

Why would Square sell me a their latest Terminal that doesn't offer this feature? So I have to bring an Ipad to work?

[toyssamurai]

I found it ridiculous that this feature was made available to the iOS in July, 2017, but it wasn't available on Android (ie, Square Register and Terminal as well) until Jan, 2019. Square actually dares selling people a $800 register, and not treating the platform as first class citizen. Don't forget that the usual Android fragmentation problem dosen't apply here -- they develop the Square Register themselves!

[lulu90803]

Our store only offers store credit. Its absolutely ridiculous that the new Square POS system that I am currently paying $177 a month for does not offer a refund to gift card.

So Squares solution is that I offer a refund on my phone. If I wanted to do that I wouldn't have upgraded to the Square POS. 

It's 2018...how hard is it for Square to update this...especially as this seems to be a request by a lot of vendors and for over a year.

[Chad]

I hear you @lulu90803, it would have been ideal to include this feature at launch for the Square Register. 

This is something we're actively looking into. While I can't share a timeline of when it might be available, I can say that we will post an update on this thread when it is available. 

[SarahCotta]

Has this issue been resolved yet?  Is there a way to issue a refund to a gift card?  

[cornerboutique]

We have decided to accept returns at our boutique, but we will only be issuing a store credit for the return.  How do I accept the return of the item and put that amount on a gift card?  Does it give me the option of where to put the refund amount when we're processing the return?  We haven't actually tried it yet.

[JustinC]

Thanks for posting @cornerboutique

The best answer on this thread I moved to you should help!