How long for a debit card refund to reflect on bank account balance?

Thiamine

Not sure whether this is the right category to post about this but it does involve banking. I sold an item via my online store to a customer who is now claiming the item didn’t arrive.  The tracking receipt shows “left with neighbour.”  This individual paid using his Visa Debit card via my payment process (Stripe)

I issued him a refund because what else could I do?

However, the refund, initiated on Monday, has not reached his bank account yet (according to him.). He is messaging me approx 20 times a day, accusing me of fraud and saying he has never waited this long for a refund before in his life.

He claims he has spoken to his bank (Barclays) and that they have told him that if the refund doesn’t arrive by Friday morning he should raise a dispute and they’ll issue a temporary refund while it’s investigated.

My question is — can it take this long for a refunded Visa debit card payment to arrive back in a Buyer’s current account?

Also — if he files a dispute via Barclays wouldn’t I end up having to refund him twice?

Am I right in thinking that given I’ve taken his word for it and refunded him he doesn’t have the right to be sending me 20 messages a day lamenting the fact he’s (according to him) been “scammed” multiple times over the years by various Sellers?

He’s just sent me another three messages while I have been typing this post.

Thiamine

Also this individual says he banks with Barclays and that they have told him that if he raises dispute it will take them 15 days to (temporarily) refund the disputed amount back to his current account.  This doesn't quite ring true to me.  I had to dispute a charge myself last year and my bank had the disputed funds back in my account within 5 minutes, albeit with a warning that should the "chargeback" ultimately be unsuccessful those funds would be re-debited from my account.

born_again

For non receipt of refund chargeback. Visa state you can only action after 15 days from the date of the expected refund being processed.
For that they also need proof that the refund was processed. So that is Date, Amount & last 4 of card no. Have you given this to the customer?

In reality you need to chase your payment processor on the refund & the delay. As refunds should be processed in the same timescale as debits.

Just email them back saying you are looking into the matter and simply ignore anymore that are received.

Thiamine

born_again said:

For non receipt of refund chargeback. Visa state you can only action after 15 days from the date of the expected refund being processed.
For that they also need proof that the refund was processed. So that is Date, Amount & last 4 of card no. Have you given this to the customer?

In reality you need to chase your payment processor on the refund & the delay. As refunds should be processed in the same timescale as debits.

Just email them back saying you are looking into the matter and simply ignore anymore that are received.

Yes I've given him details of date, amount of refund and last 4 of card.  The process I use is Stripe and they referred me to this from their website:  "Once you initiate a refund, Stripe submits refund requests to your customer's bank or card issuer. Your customer sees the refund as a credit approximately 5-10 business days later, depending upon the bank. A customer may contact you if they don't see the refund."

Unfortunately, I have zero control over how long it takes this refund to actually arrive into the Buyer's bank account

eskbanker

Thiamine said:
The process I use is Stripe and they referred me to this from their website:  "Once you initiate a refund, Stripe submits refund requests to your customer's bank or card issuer. Your customer sees the refund as a credit approximately 5-10 business days later, depending upon the bank. A customer may contact you if they don't see the refund."

Unfortunately, I have zero control over how long it takes this refund to actually arrive into the Buyer's bank account

Taking that wording literally, Stripe are saying that the fastest they'd get the refund issued is a week, and the slowest two weeks!

jonesMUFCforever

Depending on what time Monday you initiated the refund - let's say Tuesday as day 1 then the refund should show in his account on day 5 (next Monday 5th Oct) or at any business day thereafter until day 10 which would be the 12th October.

Going offroad for a minute I take it you have asked him if he has checked with the neighbour? I would also put in a claim with whoever delivered the package.

Thiamine

eskbanker said:

Thiamine said:
The process I use is Stripe and they referred me to this from their website:  "Once you initiate a refund, Stripe submits refund requests to your customer's bank or card issuer. Your customer sees the refund as a credit approximately 5-10 business days later, depending upon the bank. A customer may contact you if they don't see the refund."

Unfortunately, I have zero control over how long it takes this refund to actually arrive into the Buyer's bank account

Taking that wording literally, Stripe are saying that the fastest they'd get the refund issued is a week, and the slowest two weeks!

Right, so the fact he's not seen his refund yet is not cause for concern as it is well within the timeframe given.  He was already going off the deep end on Monday because the refund wasn't in his account within 30 minutes of me processing it.

Thiamine

jonesMUFCforever said:

Depending on what time Monday you initiated the refund - let's say Tuesday as day 1 then the refund should show in his account on day 5 (next Monday 5th Oct) or at any business day thereafter until day 10 which would be the 12th October.

Going offroad for a minute I take it you have asked him if he has checked with the neighbour? I would also put in a claim with whoever delivered the package.

I asked him to check with his immediate neighbours and he responded by ranting about how now has no money and I've caused him enormous drama.  He seems a generally very anxiety-ridden person.

eskbanker

Thiamine said:

eskbanker said:

Thiamine said:
The process I use is Stripe and they referred me to this from their website:  "Once you initiate a refund, Stripe submits refund requests to your customer's bank or card issuer. Your customer sees the refund as a credit approximately 5-10 business days later, depending upon the bank. A customer may contact you if they don't see the refund."

Unfortunately, I have zero control over how long it takes this refund to actually arrive into the Buyer's bank account

Taking that wording literally, Stripe are saying that the fastest they'd get the refund issued is a week, and the slowest two weeks!

Right, so the fact he's not seen his refund yet is not cause for concern as it is well within the timeframe given.  He was already going off the deep end on Monday because the refund wasn't in his account within 30 minutes of me processing it.

Depends on what you mean by cause for concern - your payment services provider may be acting in accordance with their Ts & Cs, so you don't have any reason to pursue them (yet), but from the perspective of an obviously jittery scammer customer, he's not interested in that....

Thiamine

eskbanker said:

Thiamine said:

eskbanker said:

Thiamine said:
The process I use is Stripe and they referred me to this from their website:  "Once you initiate a refund, Stripe submits refund requests to your customer's bank or card issuer. Your customer sees the refund as a credit approximately 5-10 business days later, depending upon the bank. A customer may contact you if they don't see the refund."

Unfortunately, I have zero control over how long it takes this refund to actually arrive into the Buyer's bank account

Taking that wording literally, Stripe are saying that the fastest they'd get the refund issued is a week, and the slowest two weeks!

Right, so the fact he's not seen his refund yet is not cause for concern as it is well within the timeframe given.  He was already going off the deep end on Monday because the refund wasn't in his account within 30 minutes of me processing it.

Depends on what you mean by cause for concern - your payment services provider may be acting in accordance with their Ts & Cs, so you don't have any reason to pursue them (yet), but from the perspective of an obviously jittery scammer customer, he's not interested in that....

I've spoken to the payment processing provider twice and they're like "what's the issue?" because the refund is not even "late." Jittery as this guy is I'd not be at all surprised if he demands a chargeback from Barclays tomorrow.   There's nothing I can do about that.  But I darn well hope he doesn't end up getting a double refund (the one I've already initiated AND a refund from Barclays)

eskbanker

Thiamine said:
I darn well hope he doesn't end up getting a double refund (the one I've already initiated AND a refund from Barclays)

He won't - if he initiates a chargeback claim then you'll be given the opportunity to challenge it, and if you can demonstrate that you've already refunded then the chargeback will be rejected and reversed.