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Refund To The Original Card

Updated

Overview

When you refund a credit payment, OrderCounter can send the money straight back to the card that paid for it, using the record of the original sale, so the guest does not need to hand you anything.

This is especially useful for guests who paid with a phone wallet. A card in Apple Wallet can be tapped to pay, but the card readers we ship (VP8300, VP3350) only accept an inserted or swiped card on a refund. A guest who paid with Apple Pay can be refunded without a plastic card: pick their original sale from a list and send the refund to it.

Taking a card at the reader is always available.

How to Use

  1. Start a refund the way you normally do, and choose Credit.
  2. If there are recent card sales that can be refunded, a list appears titled Select the card this refund goes back to. Each row shows the time of the sale, the last four digits of the card, the card type, the name on the card, and the amount.
    • If you started the refund by scanning the guest's receipt, the list shows only the card payments from that receipt. The rest of the day's sales stay out of the way, so the right row is easy to spot.
  3. To narrow a long list, ask the guest for the last four digits of their card, tap Last 4, key the digits in, and press Enter. The list drops to matching cards only. Tap Last 4 again and leave it empty to see everything again.
  4. Highlight the right sale and tap Refund This Card. The refund goes back to that card and prints as usual.

If you would rather take the card

Tap Card at Reader instead. The reader asks for the card as usual.

If you change your mind

Tap the exit button in the top-left corner. Nothing is refunded.

If no list appears

When there is no card sale available to refund against, OrderCounter goes straight to the reader. The reader asks for the card as usual.

Limitations

  • Recent card sales. The list opens on the 100 most recent sales that can take the refund. It is not limited to today or to the current batch — a guest who comes back later in the week can still be refunded to their own card.
  • Card payments taken on this system. Only approved credit sales appear, whether the card was tapped, inserted or keyed in by hand. Gift cards, cash and account payments are not in the list.
  • EBT sales are not in the list. An EBT refund goes back on the EBT rail, so those are always taken at the reader.
  • The whole refund has to fit on one sale. A sale only appears if it still has enough left on it to cover the full refund amount. Splitting one refund across two cards is not supported — take those at the reader.
  • Sales you have already refunded drop off. Once a sale has had its full amount sent back, it stops appearing, so you cannot send the same money back twice. This counts refunds you took at the reader as well as ones taken from this list. On a check that was paid with two cards, a single refund taken at the reader holds back both sales, because nothing records which of the two it came off — the list simply shows nothing and you take the refund at the reader as usual.
  • A scanned receipt narrows the list. When the refund starts by scanning the guest's receipt, only the cards that paid that receipt appear. If the scanned receipt was paid by cash or gift card, no list appears and the refund goes to the reader as usual. A refund started without a receipt scan still shows the full list.
  • The same permissions apply. Anyone who can run a refund can use this. It does not give anyone else access to the refund screen.
  • Use Last 4 to reach older sales. The filter searches all your card sales, not just the 100 on screen, so an older sale is still findable once you key the digits in. On a refund started from a scanned receipt, the digits search within that receipt's cards.

FAQ

Does the guest need to be present? No. That is the main benefit. You can send the refund back to their card without them at the counter.

What if two guests paid with cards ending in the same four digits? Both rows appear after you filter. Use the time, the amount and the name on the card to tell them apart.

The guest paid with Apple Pay. Which row is theirs? The last four digits shown on a wallet payment belong to the device, so they may not match the digits printed on their plastic card. Match on the time and amount of the sale instead — the guest's receipt has both.

Can I refund only part of a sale? Yes. Enter the refund amount as usual. The list then shows sales that still have at least that much left on them.

What if I pick the sale I did not mean to? Contact OrderCounter support or your card processor as soon as possible for help recovering a refund that went to a card you did not intend.

I scanned the guest's receipt. Why is the list so short? That is on purpose. The refund goes back to a card that paid the scanned receipt, so only those cards are offered. A refund started without a receipt scan shows the full list.

Why do I sometimes see no list at all? There were no card sales available that could take the refund. OrderCounter goes straight to the reader in that case. On a scanned receipt, this also happens when that receipt was paid by cash or gift card.

Can I refund a sale from a while ago? Yes. The list is not limited to today. Use Last 4 to find it. Very old sales may not go through on the card processor's side — if that happens, tap Card at Reader or refund by another method.