Refunds
What is the typical timeline for a credit card refund to be returned to an end user's bank account?
To be paid out / refund reserve refunds: 3-5 business days
Bank debit refunds: 6-10 business days
How are client's notified about disputes?
At least one user on the dashboard must be subscribed to receive Dispute notification emails.
What are the four Deposit Statuses on the payouts report?
Scheduled, Initiated, Succeeded, Failed.
What is an Acquirer Reference Number, and how do we find it?
The Acquirer Reference Number (ARN) is a number that we can request from Stripe to help end user's locate their refunds.
Refunds can sometimes take longer than expected to reach an end customer’s account. In some cases, the refund will appear successful in FareHarbor and the client is confused as to why their customer has yet to receive their refund.
We can provide the end customer/client the Acquirer Reference Number. The end customer can then provide this number to their bank and their bank should be able to locate the refund.
https://fareharbor.com/help/internal/payment-operations/acquirer-reference-number-refund/
Our client from Kauai Down Under Scuba calls in on September 4 about booking 24999617. The end-user is complaining that they have received the refund for $20.25 but not received the refund for $182.29 yet. How do you respond?
The refund for -$20.25 was taken from the to be paid out; the refund for -$182.29 was a bank debit refund.
How can you check the status of a credit card refund in the FareHarbor dashboard?
From the booking, there are two places - the payment summary and the booking history.
If your payout says "Succeeded" on the To Be Paid Out report, does that mean the money should be appearing in the client's bank account?
NO! Succeeded means that FareHarbor has successfully made the deposit and your bank has verified with us that they have received it. It may still take a day or two for the funds to appear in your account, depending on your bank.
Are FareHarbor clients charged the credit card processing fee on refunds?
In the US - NO, refunds are completely free.
For Non-US accounts, the 30cent charge is not covered by FareHarbor. The 1.9% is covered by FareHarbor.
Explain where the money for a refund comes (in order) including refunds for accounts in the US.
A client calls in and is very cranky that they lost a dispute. They want to know if there is anything else they can do to fight the dispute. How do you respond?
Unfortunately, when the bank decides to refund the customer, there’s nothing we can do to re-open the case. For this reason, it’s helpful to take a look at our Tips for preventing disputes page to minimize the chances of receiving a dispute in the future.
What time does FareHarbor initiate payouts?
12am UTC (10am AEST)
Is the FareHarbor 6% fee refunded on partial refunds?
No, the FareHarbor 6% fee is only refunded when 100% of the charge amount is refunded.
A client from Italy calls in about making a refund but does not have sufficient funds in her To Be Paid Out or Refund Reserve. What are her options for processing the refund?
1. Wait for bookings to come into your Dashboard. Once you have enough money in your To Be Paid Out balance, issue the refund.
2. Make a direct booking with your own business or personal credit/debit card for an amount greater than the amount you wish to refund (more because of processing fee!). Once you have enough money in your To Be Paid Out balance, issue the refund.
A client calls in and says that they have to refund a customer, but the customer experienced fraud on their credit card and had to cancel their credit card. They are concerned that the customer is not going to receive their refund. How do you respond?
The refund process in FareHarbor remains the same, even if there has been a change in the customer’s card. Once you’ve successfully issued a refund, the customer’s card issuer will route the refund to the correct account.
What is the most common reason that sales reports do not match up with the amount on the Payouts report?
Refunds!
What hardware options does FareHarbor offer for reading credit cards?
1. EMV chip reader (US only)
2. USB magnetic strip reader
3. iOS magnetic strip reader
https://fareharbor.com/help/payments/credit-card/comparing-fareharbor-approved-card-readers/
What feature will be coming out in the next few days to make processing refunds easier for non-US based clients? How does it work?
Recurring Refund Reserve
Allows clients to automatically transfer money from their future payouts (to be paid out) into their Refund Reserve.
What are two tips for preventing disputes?
Send confirmation and reminder emails to customers.
Include a detailed cancellation policy in your confirmation and reminder emails.
Ask the customer to sign a receipt or waiver
Use the check-in feature on the manifest to keep track of which customers did or did not show up.
If you have a scanned copy of a customer’s ID, keep this on file.
Check IDs when guests arrive and compare the name to the credit card they used to pay for the booking.
Keep any documentation about damage or incidentals
https://fareharbor.com/help/payments/disputes/preventing-disputes/
A client calls on a Tuesday and asks when they will see their payout from Monday appear in their bank account. How do you respond?
It really depends on the bank. We can say for sure that we batch at midnight and initiate the payouts next day. For many banks, the funds are visible the next day, but this is not always the case.
See chart at the bottom of this page for an estimation: https://fareharbor.com/help/internal/sales/sales-nugget-arsenal/feature-service-selling-points/next-day-payouts-language/
A client calls and says that their customer is seeing a "Recurring charge" associated with their tour charge. They went on a one time tour that will not recur - why would this appear on the bank statement?
This happens in some cases when a card is originally saved on filed and then charged later. To maintain PCI compliance, our payment processor Stripe cannot store CVC codes after initially verifying the customer’s card. So when a payment is made later with saved card information, Stripe will mark the payment as ‘recurring’ so the bank knows why the charge request is missing that information.