Order Refund Policy, Chargebacks and Return Processing
This article will teach you about our refund policy, the fees associated with refunds, the difference between a chargeback and a refund, and how refunds are handled on split accounts.
Refund Policy
When we get a refund request from a customer, we usually direct the request to your support contact so that you may handle it. We generally only refund order without consulting Sellers if a customer contacts us about a a fraudulent or erroneous charge, if the product was not fulfilled as advertised, or to prevent a chargebacks. We can usually issue credit card refunds up to six months after an order, but PayPal has a 90 day refund limit. The refund fee is 3.5% of the order total.
Chargebacks
Chargebacks are different than refunds. A chargeback is the return of funds to a consumer, forcibly initiated by the consumer's issuing bank. The customer signs an affidavit with their credit card provider claiming they did not make the purchase. The only way a merchant can dispute this claim is to provide trackable shipping to the customer's address. Since most orders are only digital, we typically cannot provide this information, and the issuing bank decides in favor of the customer.
Refunds with Split Accounts
In a situation where you have a split account, your partner takes a certain percentage of the sales. We often get asked what happens when a refund happens in this circumstance. To answer this question, we will use an example.
Let us say that the customer paid $100 for your product and that your partner gets a 70% split. $100 will go into your account, and then part of it comes out for the FastSpring fee. For the sake of this example, suppose the FastSpring fee was $5.00. (Your actual fees may vary.) So $5.00 would come out of the $100 order, leaving $95. Then your partner's 70% split would be deducted next and paid into their account; that is, ($95 x 0.70), or $66.50. This would leave ($95 - $66.50), or $28.50, credited to your account.
If there is a full refund, the $66.50 is removed from your partner's account and put back into your account. The FastSpring fee of $5.00 is also put back into your account, so now all of the original funds other than your $28.50 share have been credited to your account. Then $100 (including your $28.50) is returned to the customer, and there is a 3.5% return fee--in this case ($100 * 0.035), or $3.50--assessed to your company.
Refunding an Order
It takes under a minute to refund an order. You can perform three types of refunds:
- Full Return: refunds the entire order's purchase price
- Line Item Return: refunds the entire price of one or more products in an order
If you select a Line Item Return, check the box for any product that you want to refund. This is only an option when a customer purchases multiple products in one order.
- Partial Refund: refunds a portion of the amount of one or more products in an order, plus any applicable tax
If you select to refund a partial amount, enter in the amount to refund for each product in the order. This is most commonly used when customers notify you that they forgot to enter in a coupon code during the order process.
For more detailed information, see How do I refund an order?
We're Here to Help
If you need assistance with refunding an order, please open a support ticket.