In this article, you will find instructions on how to refund a customer after a charge has been made via your Zenchef interface.
Summary
Refunding a credit card guarantee charge
Refunding a prepaid experience
Common cases & FAQs
Support & Related articles
What you need to know
Important: For credit card guarantee, do not process refunds directly from your STRIPE account.
You must process the refund from your Zenchef interface.
If you issue the refund through Stripe, you are only transferring funds from your account to Zenchef’s intermediary account.
As a result, our team will have to intervene manually to complete the refund from Zenchef's account to your customer's account.
This is why it's crucial to process refunds for both charges and prepaid experiences directly from your Zenchef dashboard.
When you've activated a credit card guarantee or a prepaid experience via Zenchef, a charge may be made in case of a no-show or late cancellation. Once the payment is captured, you can issue a refund directly from your Zenchef interface.
The refund is processed using the same payment method used by the customer (credit card), and may take several business days to appear on the customer’s account.
1. Refunding a credit card guarantee charge
Keep in mind that the credit card guarantee is primarily a deterrent tool, and not intended to encourage charging customers.
So if you're dealing with a no-show, we recommend trying to contact your customer to clarify the situation before initiating the charge. This could help you avoid having to issue a refund in case the customer provides a valid justification.
However, if for any reason you wish to refund the customer:
Go to your Reservations page
On the relevant reservation, click the action button (status)
Select "Refund the charge"
2. Refunding a Prepaid Experience
The refund policy for prepaid experiences follows the strategy you’ve set in your Zenchef settings:
A service-specific refund strategy, based on your service types
A default strategy, used for off-service reservations
There are 3 possible strategies:
Manual refund (only via action from the restaurateur)
Automatic refund based on cancellation deadline (What is a late cancellation?)
Automatic refund (triggered after every cancellation)
To refund:
Go to your Reservations page
On the relevant reservation, click the action button (status)
Select "Refund the prepayment"
3. Common Cases & FAQs
Common cases
The refund doesn’t show up immediately on the customer’s account.
A processing delay of 3 to 5 business days is normal
FAQs
What if I don’t see the “Refund” action on the reservation?
Make sure the refund action is activated in your settings under “Action Settings”: How to configure available reservation actions?Can I cancel a charge before it’s captured?
No, once the charge is initiated, you must wait for it to be captured before issuing a refund.Is it possible to issue a partial refund?
A partial refund of a prepayment is possible, but this is not the case for a credit card guarantee , for which the refund will be full.
4. Support & Related Articles
Contact our Support Team
For any additional help, feel free to contact Zenchef support via the chatbot available in your client area or by visiting our Help Center.