Search

Performing a Return and Refund

Dave McNamara
Dave McNamara
  • Updated

In this article, we’ll guide you through performing Returns and Refunds to each method of payment. You’ll also find links to other helpful resources.

Before you read this article, you should be familiar with:

In this article we'll cover the following:

 

Getting Started

Before you can refund card payments, you should check that your User Account isn’t restricted from processing card refunds. 

If you can’t refund card payments, speak to the administrator in your organisation. To learn more, read our article on Restricting Access to Administrator Roles.

TIP: When performing a Return, you may see fields with a red line or a box with a red outline. These are mandatory fields you’ll need to complete to be able to proceed.

 

Searching for Orders

Before you can perform a Return, you’ll need to search for the Order. Read Searching for Orders for more information.

You can also access any Orders a Customer has made through their Customer Record. Read the Orders section of the Understanding the Customer Record article for more information.

Once you’ve found the Order you want to return, proceed to the next section Returning an Order.

 

Returning an Order

Once you’ve found the Order, select the item(s) you want to return by placing a tick in the check box next to the item(s):

Click the down arrow next to Print and click Return.

TIP: For Group Orders click Edit instead of Return

 

You’ll then be prompted to choose a Sales Channel for the Return:

 

 

Selecting a Sales Channel

You’ll need to select a Sales Channel for every Refund. You should choose the Sales Channel used for the original Order. This will retain any Sales Channel related details about the Order such as Commissions or delivery charges. You can find this by looking at the Order History:

 

 

Once you’ve selected a Sales Channel, you may see a pop up asking if you want to keep or return the Commission. Choose the appropriate option:

TIP: Once you’ve chosen to keep or return commission, you can’t change this option. If you do select the wrong option and need to go back, cancel out of the Order and then perform the steps above, choosing the correct option to keep or return commission.

If you opt to keep the commission and confirm the Return, you can’t return the commission back to the Customer at a later date.

To learn more about Sales Channels, read Choosing a Sales Channel.

 

Refunding a Payment

Once you’ve chosen the Sales Channel, you’ll see the returned items in the Returns section of the Basket/Cart:

 

You can now refund the original payment. The standard refund types are:

You may also be able to refund using the following:

  • Account Credit: The refund is added as credit to a Customer’s Record to be used for a future purchase
  • Custom Refund Types: Used for refunds outside of Spektrix, for example BACS or cheque, where you need to recognise the refund in Spektrix.

To learn how to issue a refund using each of the above methods, click to go to the relevant section.

 

Cash

  • Before you can refund a Cash payment, you’ll need to open a Register.

    If you don’t already have a register open, click Register Closed:

     

    Select a Register from the list:

     

    REMINDER: If you don’t select a Register, you’ll be prompted to open a Cash Register from the list.

    To issue a Cash Refund, follow these steps:

    1. Click Cash Refund within the Refunds tab:



      You’ll see a Cash Refund screen. Check the Amount is correct and click Ok:


    2. You'll be taken back to the Basket/Cart where you’ll see the details of the refund. The amount to pay should be zero:


    3. Click Confirm/Confirm and Print to complete the refund:


 

Card (including Chip & Pin/Chip)

When performing a card refund, you should issue a refund back to the same card used to pay. This can help to eliminate your risk of a chargeback against the original payment. It isn’t possible to refund an amount paid on one card to a different card.

You can only issue a refund up to the amount that was originally charged to the card. For example, if you have an Order for £200 and £150 was paid by card and £50 by cash, you’ll only be able to refund £150 back to the card.

  • To issue a Card refund, follow these steps:

    1. Click Card Refund in the Refunds tab:

       

    2. You’ll see a Card Refund screen. Check the Amount is correct and click Ok:

       

    3. You'll be taken back to the Basket/Cart where you’ll see the details of the refund. The amount to pay should be zero:

       

    4. Click Confirm/Confirm and Print to complete the refund:

       

TIP: When processing a Card refund, the Customer does not need to be present. The Card Refund option includes Card, Chip & Pin/Chip.

 

Account Credit

If you don’t want to refund an Order back to the original payment method, you can refund to Account Credit. The amount would sit on a Customer’s Record to be used for a future purchase.

Read Refunding an Order to Account Credit for further information.

 

Custom Refund Types

There may be occasions where you need to use an alternative refund method, such as a cheque, bank transfer (BACS) to recognise the refund made outside of Spektrix. You can record this refund in Spektrix using a Custom Refund Type.

  • In this example we’re using BACS. To learn how to perform a refund using a Custom Refund type, follow these steps:

    1. Click BACS Refund in the Refunds tab:

       

    2. You’ll see a BACS Refund screen. Check the Amount is correct and click Ok:

       

    3. You'll be taken back to the Basket/Cart where you’ll see the details of the refund. The amount to pay should be zero:

       

    4. Click Confirm/Confirm and Print to complete the refund:

       

 

Refunding to multiple Refund Types

You can issue a refund to more than one refund type. For example, you may want to issue a partial refund to cash and a partial refund to Account Credit

REMINDER: You should refund card payments in full, back to the original card. This can help to eliminate your risk of a chargeback against the original payment.

  • To refund to more than one refund type, follow these steps:

    1. Click on the Refunds tab and select the first refund type. In this example we’re using Cash:

       

    2. In the Cash Refund screen, enter a partial amount you’re refunding to cash. Click Ok:

       

    3. You’ll see the refund in the Basket/Cart along with an updated refund amount:

       

    4. Select the second refund type, in this example we’re using Account Credit. Click on the Credit, deposit & vouchers tab:

       

    5. Click Credit customer’s account:

       

    6. You’ll see a Refund to Credit screen. Check the Amount to Credit Account is correct and click Refund:

       

    7. You’ll be taken back to the Basket/Cart where you’ll see both refunds. The amount to pay should be zero:

       

    8. Click Confirm/Confirm and Print to complete the refund:

       

 

Refunding a Manually Authorised payment

When performing a Card refund, you may see that Card Refund is greyed out. Underneath, you may see Visa: rised:

 

 

This indicates that the payment has been manually authorised. You can see this in the Order History:

 

You won’t be able to refund this payment back to Card as the original payment isn’t recognised as an integrated payment.

You may need to refund to an alternative method, for example, a Custom Payment Type which is processed outside of Spektrix, for example BACS or Cheque.

 

Refunding to an Expired Card

It is possible to issue a refund to an expired card. This is possible as the bank retains the details against a Customer's account. If the customer still has the bank account associated with the expired card, you can normally refund as usual. The refund to the expired card is forwarded to the new card, at the discretion of the bank. 

If you see a "The payment provider experienced an error" message, it means that the bank is preventing you from issuing a refund to the expired card. In this case, you’ll need to issue a refund using an alternative method. You may need to ask your Finance Team to refund outside of Spektrix. For example, BACS, cheque.

If you issue a refund outside of Spektrix, you’ll need to use a Custom Refund Type to account for this refund in Spektrix.

 

What to do if a Customer hasn’t received their Refund

When a refund has been processed by your Merchant Bank, an Acquirer Reference Number (ARN) is assigned to the refund. The ARN is used as a receipt between your Merchant Bank and the Customer's bank. This can help the Customer and their respective banks identify refunds.

ARNs are generated once the refund has been processed by the Merchant Bank. You won’t see the ARN in Spektrix. This means you’ll need to request the individual ARN for a refund from your Merchant Bank. When doing this, you'll need to provide them with:

  • Time and Date of Transaction
  • Amount
  • Last 4 digits of the Customer’s card
  • Card holders name

If you use Spektrix Payments, contact Support to request an ARN, otherwise contact your Merchant Bank.

TIP: When you give the ARN to your Customers, we suggest providing timestamps of the refunds. This gives the Customer as much information as possible to help them query the refund with their bank.

 

Cancelling a Refund in the Basket/Cart

If you’ve added a Refund to the Basket/Cart in error, you can delete the refund by clicking the red x next to the refund:

TIP: You can’t cancel Card Refunds or Refunds to Account Credit. If you’ve refunded a Card in error, speak to your Box Office Administrator or Finance team about how to proceed.

If you’ve refunded to Account Credit in error, click on the Credit, deposit and vouchers tab and click Use customer’s credit/vouchers to add the Refund back to the Basket/Cart

This article should give you the information you need to perform returns and refunds. To learn more, visit the Returns and Exchanges section of the Support Centre.