How long does it take to process a refund? / Where's my refund?
We usually process refunds within one business day. However, refunds can take a few business days or even a full billing cycle before they appear on your PayPal or credit card account.
Once we issue the refund, the money is out of our hands and entrusted to a third-party service (ex: Stripe, PayPal, your bank). Please contact your credit card company, or PayPal, directly if you have further questions about how long it will take to process.
However, please keep reading to learn how payment
authorizations-and-releases may appear differently than
charges-and-refunds on your credit card or PayPal account.
Important note about canceled authorizations:
If you’re not seeing your refund, it could be because we never charged your credit card or PayPal at all. This is usually the case when an order or transaction is canceled. When you place an order with White Rabbit Express, we
place a hold on your PayPal, or credit card, for the amount of the order, but do not take any funds until making a purchase on your behalf. This hold on the funds is known as an
authorization. Once your order is processed by our buyers, we’ll either
capture the funds, in full or partially, or we’ll
release the funds back to your account. This is why no new money will be returned to your account, as it never left because no capture was made.
About Payment Authorizations
When you checkout at White Rabbit Express, the payment processing goes through two stages:
Payment Authorization — This is when the transaction is verified by the credit card company. They check your account validity and whether you have sufficient funds for the transaction. When everything’s fine, the transaction is then authorized and the total amount of transaction is deducted and held from your credit line account. Note that no money has been transferred to White Rabbit Express yet.
Payment Capture (or Release) — This is when White Rabbit Express “tells” our credit card processor, or PayPal, that we’re going to proceed to buy your requested items. Now, money can is captured from the authorization. Alternatively, if the item is unavailable (ex: sold out, expired listing, etc.), our buyers will cancel the authorization and the funds are released from the hold.
A common cause for confusion is when an authorization appears as a payment, so you may be expecting to see a refund. However, once the authorization is released, a refund will never appear--as the funds were never removed from the account.
Hello, Just writing because I have still not received a refund for this. It was taken out of my PayPal account 45 days ago. I don't understand why this takes so long.
White Rabbit Express:
Thanks for reaching out to us! Since your order was canceled, we put a temporary hold on the funds, and then voided the transaction...
Concerned Customer:
Ok I called PayPal, yeah...it was showing as -96.94 but they said they just canceled the hold so it technically never left! Sorry for the confusion :) thank you for the response!
Here's another example of an unfortunate conversation that could be caused by confusion about authorizations, captures, and refunds.
Irate Customer: Ok so you refunded me for the visors, but what about the other $936.42 / 95,000 yen you took from my account for the canceled auction. I expect this to be refunded or I will pursue legal action . . .
White Rabbit Express: I see that (Customer Advocate) mentioned previously that you were not charged for the bumper, since the auction was already closed. The original amount was authorized but later voided by us since the transaction was canceled. Here's a breakdown of the payment history which will hopefully clear up the issue: [attachment]
Irate Customer: There is no confusion, you have not refunded me for the bumper end of story. Stop trying to scam me and refund my *** **** money. Attached is a complete history of all transactions between our two parties and you can see there was only one refund made recently for the window visors and not the bumper. Stop sending fabricated data through because I have access to my finances and can see as clear as day you have not refunded this money.
White Rabbit Express: Could you kindly try reaching out to PayPal or your bank about the voided authorization? We suspect they may not have straightened out their documentation just yet. Please let us know if contacting PayPal or speaking with your bank clears things up. As mentioned before, no funds were captured and the amount should have never left your account.
Irate Customer: Hey sorry so I got in touch with them and they said they just needed more time to process the cancelation. They told me about the error so I'm really sorry about the assumption on my part.