Hi,

I bought something online 3 months ago and was overcharged. According to the merchant, they credited the overcharge. Always according to this merchant, this overcharge has been taken from his account. However it has been over a month ago and nothing has appeared yet on my credit card showing a refund. I know by experience that a credit may take 3 to 7 days to appear on the credit card owner's statement.

I have a merchant account since 7 years and when I do refund to a client, he/she always gets it. I am not aware of an instance where the refund was 'nowhere to be found' in the banking system (i.e where the merchant is withdrawn the money but the credit card owner gets nothing). This merchant uses authorize.net.

Is it possible for a credit to get lost in the banking system? Has anyone of you ever seen this happen before?

I would like to avoid doing a chargeback since my credit card could be flagged as fraudulent and I could have troubles buying online again.

Let me know what you think.

Anything is always possible. I would contact the issuing bank and let them know. You are giving the merchant credit in stating they have issued you a refund. It could also be the merchant did not do this and is hoping that you won't be able to get your money back.

You definitely need to contact your bank and let them know of the situation. Always protect yourself first in the matter

Sometimes you refund money, batch go thru - but merchant bank don't charge your bank account for refund - I sough this few times in past 6 years

You are giving the merchant credit in stating they have issued you a refund. It could also be the merchant did not do this and is hoping that you won't be able to get your money back.


That's what I am trying to know. The merchant may be lying to me or there could really have problem with the refund.


Sometimes you refund money, batch go thru - but merchant bank don't charge your bank account for refund - I sough this few times in past 6 years

If it has happened to you in the past this also could be my case here. I think I will wait another 2-3 weeks to see what happens.

If they claim that they issued a refund, you could ask them to give you a screenshot of the Authorize.Net report indicating that a credit return was issued to your card and suggest that they setup a 3-way call with their merchant processor, yourself and them.

A credit return should reflect in your account within a matter of business days from the point of settlement - certainly within one business week at most.

This being said, that doesn't mean that they are not being honest - they may genuinely feel that they issued the credit. However, I would be curious if they checked to see if their bank account was actually debited for that credit or not.

An unusual glitch can happen from time to time... after all, many millions of transactions flow through each day through the various bankcard networks. But usually there are much simpler answers to the problem and fast resolutions once the full status of what happened and what didn't happen is known.

suggest that they setup a 3-way call with their merchant processor, yourself and them.


What a great idea. I am not used to that but if that's what it takes to solve this issue I'll use the phone.

An unusual glitch can happen from time to time... after all, many millions of transactions flow through each day through the various bankcard networks.

I am a merchant myself and do a few refunds per year when my billing gateway double charge for whatever reason a client. That kind of thing can happen. However I don't need 3 months to solve such a problem. The customer is usually refunded within 3 to 5 days.

Thank you for your suggestions. If I don't get a refund soon I will post my review of this company on WHT on the dedicated server forum.