In Xola, a refund means decreasing the total booking value and returning full or partial payment to the customer. You also have the option to Return Payment Only meaning returning money to a customer in order to collect that money in another form of payment or from another customer. This does not decrease the total booking value. Whatever reason you have for refunding or returning payment, Xola can handle these requests.
What's covered in this article:
Reduce booking value and return payment
Refund to multiple methods of payment
Reduce booking value and return payment
What this does: Reduces the customer's total booking value and sends full or partial payment back to the customer.
When to use: When you need to offer a customer a discount or full refund on their balance or payment. This might be due to something like bad weather conditions or placating an unhappy customer.
For example: Ava charges two tickets for $63 to her credit card for the Bob Dylan tour with Popspots.
At the very last minute the guide calls in sick, and Ava and her husband are already on-site ready for their tour. For this terrible inconvenience, Popspots wants to issue Ava a full refund. In this case Popspots needs to send $63 back to Ava's credit card.
Popspots would the the following actions:
- Navigate to Ava's purchase and click the Refund button.
- Select Reduce booking value and return payment.
- Ensure 63 is populated in the Amount field. If this is a partial refund, type in the amount to be refunded into the box.
- Select Ava's credit card as the Method.
- Add a reason for the refund in the Comment field.
- Click Refund.
Please note that when issuing credit card refunds, you may not refund a customer more than the amount originally charged on their credit card.
Return payment only
What this does: Returns payment to one customer in order to collect that money either in a new form of payment or from another paying customer. Using the Return Payment feature will always open a balance on the purchase for the amount returned.
When to use: To split payment when one customer has for several guests, and those guests would like to pay their share. To allow a customer to switch from a cash payment to putting the balance on a credit card.
For example: Zara charges two tickets for $42 to her credit card for the Sex & The City tour with Popspots. When she and her friend, Ariel, arrive for the tour, Ariel explains that she would like to put the charge for the tour on her card instead. In this case Popspots needs to send $21 back to Zara in order to then collect the $21 from Ariel instead.
Since Zara originally paid for both tickets, Popspots would click Return Payment and type in $21 (the price of Ariel's individual ticket). This will send $21 back to Zara's card and open up a $21 balance on the purchase.
Popspots would then do the following:
- Navigate to Zara's purchase and click the Refund button.
- Select Return payment only.
- Type 21 into the Amount field.
- Select Zara's credit card as the Method.
- Add a reason for the return of payment in the Comment field.
- Click Return Payment.
- In the Purchase, click Collect Balance.
- In the popup window, select Add a new card and enter in Ariel's credit card details. Popspots could also accept any other form of payment.
- Click Collect.
Please note that when returning payment to a credit card, you may not return a customer more than the amount originally charged on their credit card.
Change guest quantity
What this does: Reduces guest count and gives sellers the option to refund the full or partial price of the ticket.
When to use: It's important to reduce guest quantity and not issue a refund when a guest cancels or does not show up as part of a group. This will maintain your proper guest records and allow you the option of refunding in full, in partial, or not at all.
For example: West High School buys 15 tickets at $20 each to the Times Square tour for a field trip. A few days before the tour one student realizes he won't be able to make it - With Popspot's cancellation policy the school is eligible for a 50% partial refund (including taxes and fees). As such, Popspots need to reduce guest count to 14 and refund West High ten dollars.
Popspots would do the following:
- Navigate to West High School's purchase and click the Refund button.
- Select Reduce guest count.
- Use the minus button to bring guest count down to 14.
- Click the Refund menu, select Partial, and enter in 10 as the amount to be refunded.
- Click Save Changes.
- Select West High's credit card as the Method.
- Check that Reduce Guest Quantity appears in the Comment field.
- Click Return Payment.
Refund to multiple methods of payment
You may process multiple customer's credit cards or payment methods on one purchase. As such, you may need to issue a refund to multiple methods of payment.
- Navigate into the Purchases tab and click into a purchase in which two or more customers have paid.
- From the Modifications Banner, click Refund.
- In the popup window, enter in the exact amount into the Amount field that you want to refund to customer.
- Select the Method of payment with which you would like to refund the customer.
- To refund an individual customer directly, choose an individual customer's card in the drop down menu. To split the refunded amount across all paying parties on this purchase, keep Automatic Split Refund selected. Please note that this is only applies to credit card refunds.
- Click the green Refund button.
- To issue a refund to another customer on this purchase, repeat steps 1 - 6.
Refund excess payment
Several modifications, such as adjusting guest count, changing arrival, or switching experiences can decrease the balance on a purchase. The steps below detail details how to refund excess payment on a purchase.
- As soon as excess payment is detected, a green Refund Excess Payment button will appear in the customer purchase.
- Click Refund Excess Payment.
- In the window that opens, the Amount field will default to the full amount of the balance. If you're collecting the full balance, simply choose the method of payment and click Return Payment. If you only want to collect a partial amount, type in the amount, choose the payment method, and then clickReturn Payment.
- You’ll immediately see the balance adjust in the purchase to reflect full or partial settling.
Note: If you wish to add funds to your account to issue refunds please see article here.