With the new "Refund" button, I am unable to refund money on a patron's account to the original method of payment. That is something we have done frequently in the past. Is there still a way to manage this? We have always done this manually and carefully, and now it seems like refunds can only be done if they are tied directly to the original purchase. Please tell me this isn't the case!
Lindsay
Hi Lindsay,
In my experience with this, I've only ever been able to use the Refund button in the original order. This is an issue when trying to refund tickets that had previously exchanged as well. You can of course still process a refund by selecting the card type, then Accounts. However, Tessitura reporting/analytics on refunds that are not processed in the original order is also tricky because this type of transaction is considered a "zero adjustment" not a refund.
-Michelle
The refund button on the payments screen is for the "Refund Prior Payments" feature, which does a specific type of refund with a payment card processor called "refund by reference". This basically lets you reverse a part or whole of a previous credit card payment, which is why it can only be done on the original order where the original payment took place.
For other payment methods like on-account, or to do a direct credit to a payment card when the original payment is not available, you don't use the refund button at all, and instead just enter a negative payment amount and choose the desired payment method to refund to the sam way you would charge that payment method.
If you are in a situation where an exchange has been made in a new order, and you want to refund by reference (which is always preferable to a direct credit in the case of a credit card refund), you can still do this by using on-account to transfer the refund money back into the original order, where the Refund Prior Payments button can be used.
Just remember that there are occasionally limitations: if you are using WorldPay as your payment processor, for example, the refund by reference function is only available within a 90-day (formerly 45-day) window. Also, the availability of refunds for a payment method are subject to Tessitura Security controls, and payment method configuration in Campaigns/Payment Methods.
I am having this same issue. When a patron makes a payment online it now goes to TNEWgen instead of stored into Accounts. So if we do an exchange and then a refund is requested there is no way that I can see to refund without getting the patron's FULL credit card information. This poses a security risk because then anyone can call and give us a patron's name and say they need a refund and then give us incorrect credit card information. Plus it gives a negative experience to the patron if they leave us a voicemail or e-mail and then we have to call them and leave a voicemail to call us back, and obviously we shouldn't ask for CC info in an e-mail.
Does anyone know if there is something we have configured incorrectly?
Hi Zac - I'm going to open a support ticket so we can look at this together using data from your environment.
Thanks,
Patrick