We transitioned to Adyen in July 2023, and have been disappointed with the company thus far. In addition to sub-par reporting, Adyen imposes significant limitations on refund capabilities, with a cap of $5000, unless you pre-fund the amounts to your Adyen account. This cumbersome workaround process undermines the core benefits of engaging a merchant services provider.
This limitation highlights a critical need for adaptability managing refunds, particularly in light of the challenges posed by performance cancellations and other unpredictable circumstances. If we need to cancel an event due to weather or other unforeseen circumstances, we cannot wait 2-3 days to begin processing refunds because Adyen won't allow it unless the full amount is in our Adyen account. I am so grateful Adyen was not our processor during 2020 or 2021 because it would have been untenable. The lack of flexibility in Adyen's current setup prompts a reassessment of our approach to merchant services. Tessitura is aware of the issue and the challenges with Adyen. If you haven't made the switch to Tessitura Merchant Services, I would strongly recommend that you pause until the issues are addressed with the payment processor. Moreover, should there be an absence of significant improvement in service adaptability and responsiveness from Adyen, it would be prudent for Tessitura to reconsider its requirement that all organizations make the shift to Adyen. Allowing organizations the autonomy to select their merchant services provider would enable the selection of entities that are not only more aligned with their operational needs but also adhere to industry best practices.
thanks for sharing that info, Chuck! I am curious, is the hope to have a longer-term solution with Ayden before support ends for Windcave/World Pay in Aug 2025? Thanks again!
It is certainly my hope but I want to be upfront in saying that it will probably not be a determining factor in the timing. As I said, we feel that we have a way to deal with the refund issue in most cases and there are many overriding benefits in moving to a more modern solution.
makes sense! I appreciate the response.
Thank you all for the feedback and the discussion.I just wanted to add one more point of clarification. We have recently extended our Worldpay sunset to August 2025, but there is not a planned sunset for Windcave.
Does that mean you do not plan to sunset Windcave, or that you do not have a sunset date at this time?
Thanks Shelly, I am wondering the same thing about Windcave.
Heather Clark said: I suspect this crazy set up is because Adyen is not a US based provider.
But neither is Windcave, right?
Pretty sure Windcave is New Zealand based.
Hi Chuck,
Perhaps there's documentation I should be going to for this, but I have some questions about refunds with TMS.
First, though, I should state that we have to refund a bare minimum of one event every year, whether it's Visa issues, artist illness, forest fires, whatever. We've done two this year, and were very happy to have the Event Cancellation Utility to do it with. I'd be surprised to discover that this is somehow bad luck that only happens to us.
My first question is about how the available funds are calculated. If I attempt to enter a $10,000 gift, get an error, attempt a second time and succeed, then go to the customer record and see two contributions, presumably I can safely back the first out and refund it because that $10,000 is still in available funds? You say "on an individual day", so I would have until midnight(?) to detect my mistake (say I have to send a query to Finance to see if there was double charge) and refund without having to worry about adding to my reserve?
Second question: I have to refund an event, so I know I have to put money into my reserve. I don't know how many tickets I will be able to successfully refund ahead of time, so I'll have to manually transfer the entire ticketing income plus fee income from orders on that event to Adyen. How long does that transfer take? Then I'll run the Event Cancellation Utility, and record the amount successfully refunded. Now I subtract that amount from the amount I originally deposited and reclaim that from Adyen. I can do that right? Is that the expected process?
Third question: I suppose you could consider this our problem to deal with, though I'd expect it to impact anyone doing this, how am I squaring these financial transactions for my records? I have a mass transfer out of my organization, then I'm recording the automated refunds also as transfers out of my organization, then I'm transferring some of that money back into my organization, then I'm doing the other refunds, presumably by check, also registered as transfers out of my organization.
Fourth question: currently when running the Event Cancellation Utility, tickets that were moved to a different order, or purchases on cards that have since been cancelled fail. We collect those and either apply them to a card on account (if we can see which card was used in the original order) or contact to customer to choose a card on account or give us a card to apply the refund to. Am I correct that we fundamentally cannot do this step with TMS?
Again, if there's documentation that answers all of these questions, please forgive me and point me to it.
Thanks,
Gawain
My mistake :)