Refunds — and the trap to avoid

The two kinds of refund

• Payment reversal — the charge was wrong and the money genuinely goes back. The debt should return, so a refund on its own is right.
• Goodwill or cancellation — you are giving money back and they no longer owe it. A refund on its own is wrong: it leaves them owing.

Doing it safely

1. Decide which of the two you are doing.
2. For goodwill or a cancellation, switch automatic payments off on the member first.
3. Record the refund.
4. Add a Credit for the same amount, describing why, so the balance returns to zero.
5. Switch automatic payments back on if the member is continuing.

Where to refund from

For a payment taken through the gateway, use the Stripe Transactions tab — the row has a Refund action, a Refund Amount capped at what was paid, and a description. For money returned some other way — a bank transfer, a cheque — record it on the Transactions tab instead.

What cannot be refunded

• Payments not taken through the gateway — refund those the way they were paid, then record it.
• Bank debits that have not settled yet.
• Returned or disputed bank debits — the money never arrived.

When Stripe refuses a refund

If Stripe will not make the refund, a Refund failed message appears with Stripe's own reason, and nothing is recorded on the member. The usual causes are a tribe whose Stripe account has been closed or restricted, a secret key that has been revoked or replaced in Stripe, or a Stripe balance too low to cover the refund. Turning off Collect membership payments for a tribe, or setting its online store to Disabled, does not stop you refunding payments it has already taken. The one exception is a payment taken while the tribe's online store was in Test mode. No real money moved, and the payment is on the Stripe test account, which membership refunds do not use, so the message tells you to refund it in the Stripe test dashboard instead.

Two other messages mean Gorilla Dash could not talk to Stripe, and they ask for different things:

• Refund failed saying the refund was not sent: no refund was sent to Stripe and no money moved. Wait a few minutes and try again.
• Refund status unknown: the refund was sent but no answer came back, so it may have gone through. The dialog closes and the list refreshes from Stripe. If the Refund Amount on the row has gone up, the refund was made; otherwise, check with whoever manages the tribe's Stripe account before you try again, so the member is not refunded twice.

Partial refunds

You can refund less than the original payment. The row keeps a running Refund Amount so you can see what has already gone back and refund the rest later.