Cannot refund to a gift card when original payment was split

[RandW]

I have had this happen to me on way too many occasions. Especially when the customer is returning a gift. I cannot refund to a Square gift card, when the original customer made a split payment. Often it is a case where the customer paid with a gift card (which they no longer have) and the remaining amount paid in cash or credit card. Today, the gentleman returning his wifes gifts, just wanted the return put on a gift card, so his wife could come back in and use it to buy what she wants. For his original form of payment he had used a prepaid visa gift card and cash (this was back in December). My only option was to refund the cash part, and the rest had to go on the visa gift card, that he no longer had. I couldn't process his refund and he was very upset. 

Please tell me your team is working on fixing this, because it is a major issue for me as a Boutique owner.

[Tom]

Hey @RandW, thanks for flagging this and I'm sorry to hear about the trouble this is causing.

I checked in with our Retail Team and this option is not available at this time. With split payments, one can only refund to the original tender—even if the gift card does not exist or has been reused.

I can certainly see how this experience is frustrating for both you and your customer. Rest assured that I've surfaced your post with the appropriate team members and pointed out how having more control is important for your business. Please let me know if you have any other questions and thank you for your patience as we work to improve.

[katyh]

Hi Tom - 

Have there been any updates on this? I am now encountering this in my day to day business. I have been having customers use a Square gift card to make a purchase, then come and return that purchase (we only offer store credit, not refunds). However, I am not able to give them store credit on a gift card unless I have their original gift card. Why can't I just use a different Square gift card?

Thanks!

Katy

[Tom]

Thanks for checking in here, @katyh. I don't have an update for this on hand but I've reached out to our Retail Team to see if there have been any developments. I'll be back as soon as I have anything else to share out.

[purplegoose]

This has been an ongoing issue for our store as well.  It is ridiculous to think that they would still have the orginal gift card that they already used during a previous transaction.  Who does that???  Do you keep all your gift cards with zero balances?  This is an example of how I don't think developers of Square understand how a store really works.  I'm seriously thinking of switching to Shopify over this issue.  We have called customer service 3 times on this issue, and clearly they don't think it's much of an issue.

[Shopcolies]

This is a real problem that needs to be addressed by square. We at least need the option to refund a split transaction to a gift card. I had a return from a split transaction that was part a gift card and part a regular debit card and now the gift card that someone else has was refunded 47 something. This issue needs to be fixed. 

[ashc]

Hello @RandW and @Shopcolies!

I reached out to the Retail team to check on this and it looks like they are aware of it. I let them know this is a struggle for you and your businesses not having this option and passed it up as a feature request to hopefully improve this in the future. 

Thank you both for this feedback and know it's been escalated to the correct teams for further looking into. 

[DFinds]

Has there been any solution to this issue? I continually have this issue, which creates confusion for the cashier, annoyance to the customer, and messes with multiple aspects of bookkeeping. 

My business only offers refunds in store credit, so when a previous payment was split between a CC and giftcard, I need to be able to put the entire refunded amount on a NEW giftcard, not one that was used, since most likely, it has been discarded/reloaded/shuffled into the mix of dozens to reuse.

In attempts to find a roundabout solution to this issue, within the return transaction, I attempted to include a "purchase" of a new giftcard with the returned balance, in hopes to transfer the exact amount onto a new giftcard, but that method wasn't allowed.

PLEASE address this issue, since this problem continues to directly impact the customer's experience and attitude towards the business, as well as the accountant's bookkeeping and accounting processes.

[TheMercantile]

It has now been over 3 years, square. This is a serious issue and terrible customer service. This happens at least 3-4 times a month for us. Most recently, I had hoped I could just refund the gift card (even though it was issued to someone else by this point) and go in and take off the balance on that card. However, it will only allow me to clear full gift card amount and not partial. So now, a random customer is walking around with an extra $50 on their gift card and I gave the customer returning the item another gift card and donated it out. This is costing my business a lot. Should not take more than 3 years to fix.

[jacdzg2]

Hi - I have been trying to do returns onto a gift card when a customer has purchased with a split transactions of a gift card and a personal card.  It will not allow me to put the whole return onto a new gift card.  It always returns the amount that was made on the gift card to the original gift card (that has been disposed of) and the other amount back onto their personal credit card.  (I only do exchanges or store credit) so I am losing money on the transaction when this is happening.  Can you all tell me how you are handling this?  It has been so frustrating.  HELP

[JustinC]

Looks like someone surfaced the same issue as you on a different thread. I merged you so you could see Tom's response. @jacdzg2