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How to Refund a Customer

If you need to refund a customer or guest, follow the below steps. The process is a bit different, depending on the method of payment that needs to be refunded.

Refunding Credit Card Payments
Refunding 3rd Party CC, Terminal, or Imported Payments
Refunding with a Check
Refunding a Gift Certificate Payment

Related: How to Issue a Gift Certificate in Place of a Refund


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Refunding a Credit Card Payment

First, ensure that you can properly identify a Credit Card Payment; this is critical. Customers that have paid with a credit card in ThinkReservations via your currently configured payment processor will show the card type followed by the last four digits of the card and the payment status.

The payment type will be "Credit Card."

  1) Open the bill that has the payment that needs to be refunded.

 2) Click on the payment transaction that you wish to refund and available actions will become clickable.


(If only "Void" becomes available, such as in the image above, read below.)

3) Click on Refund and enter the amount that you wish to refund the customer in the pop-up box that appears. For example, if you need to refund a guest $45.80 then enter: 45.8

If your only option is to Void and not refund, it is because the transaction is still pending settlement. You can only refund money to a customer that has settled successfully with your payment processor. Please Void the transaction and run for the correct amount if you have the opportunity to do so.

4) Click Refund Payment.

5) If you wish, you can contact your guest and email them an updated bill.

Please note that refunds can take 7 to 10 business days to process back on the initially charged card, depending on the customer's bank. 
 
 

3rd Party Credit Card, Terminal, Imported CC Refunds:

If the customer paid outside of ThinkReservations or with a "Third Party Credit Card Processor," then you should use that 3rd party system or processor to refund the customer. A common situation for this is imported payments from your old system. If you cannot refund the card with the original system/processor, you need to credit the customer another way. Once you have given the funds back (check or certificate) to your guest, indicate within the bill that you have refunded the customer to keep the bill accurate. Only update the bill in ThinkReservations after you have actually completed the refund outside of ThinkReservations!

To record a refund from a "Third Party Credit Card Processor" or "Terminal" payment, refund the customer with the system they were charged with if possible. In ThinkReservations, click on the payment, and then "Refund" in the same way you would a credit card refund. This will update the bill only, so make sure to do this only after you have actually completed the refund outside of ThinkReservations.
 

Note: Other payment types may have the "Refund" option. However, please note that only credit card transactions that were charged using the payment processor configured in ThinkReservations, via ThinkReservations, can actually both show a record that a refund was given and refund back to that credit card. Only those that look like the first example (Credit Card or E-Charge) will put funds back onto the customer's card automatically when using the orange "Refund" link.


Refunding the customer with a Check:

Sometimes you need to send your guest's a check in the mail to issue them a refund. If issuing a check in place of a credit card refund, we suggest you ask your guests for written confirmation of receipt.

If you need to refund the customer with a check to them, follow these steps.

  1. Open the reservation in question.
  2. Click one of the green Payment buttons.
  3. Change the PAYMENT TYPE to Check
  4. Enter the amount of the check you are sending to your guest in the negative (with a dash in front) in the AMOUNT box.
    For example, if you need to refund $353.15, enter -353.15 in the box.
  5. Enter an optional note in the REFERENCE NUMBER box. We recommend the check number go here.
  6. Click Take Payment. The bill will be updated.

     

Refunding a Gift Certificate Payment

 If payment was made with a house certificate that exists in ThinkReservations, follow similar steps as refunding a credit card to put the funds back onto the certificate and update the bill.

  1. Click on the certificate payment to select it. It will turn blue.
  2. Click on the Refund button
  3. Enter the amount to put back onto the certificate.
  4. Click Refund Payment. The funds are put back onto the certificate and the folio is updated.

     

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