Merchant says refund went to a closed card but bank has no record
When a merchant issues a refund to a canceled or closed card and the bank cannot locate the transaction using a reference number, customers are left with no way to verify the funds. This leaves people stuck between a merchant claiming payment was sent and a bank that refuses to investigate without a visible transaction.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
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- 1filing a chargeback through the credit card companyDid this help you?
- 2relying on email correspondence with the merchant to prove active attempts to get a refundDid this help you?
- 3Emailing customer supportDid this help you?
- 4Scouring the internet for a phone number to callDid this help you?
- 5Filing a bank disputeDid this help you?
- 6Contacting the bank to inform them that the merchant issued a refund and closing the matterDid this help you?
- 7Waiting longer to see if the refund postsDid this help you?
- 8Opening a payment dispute through PayPal or the bankDid this help you?
- 9Contacting both the merchant platform support and the payment provider customer serviceDid this help you?
- 10Requesting support via live chat or phone during business hoursDid this help you?
- 11Asking the payment provider representative to process the cancellation or back out the holdDid this help you?
- 12Go to the order history and click on the Help with order link.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Last month I returned a ring to Zales due to it being faulty and ultimately breaking on me. The ring was returned August 12th and Zales says they processed the return the same day. I let them know that the card I paid with is no longer active and they said it wouldn’t be a problem. It’s now 33 days later and my bank let me know that there hasn’t been a refund while Zales continues to say ir was refunded and gives me a reference number. Chase bank won’t even look at the reference number because they can’t see the transaction.”source ↗
“My question here is do I go ahead and file a chargeback through chase? And in the event that I file the charge back and Zales decides to credit my account what do I do?”source ↗
“I put in a dispute on a purchase because I legit accidentally pressed purchase lol”source ↗
“Sent another email, no response after a day. Put in a dispute, yesterday and look who suddenly wants to respond to me! Now say they can’t refund me because it was already delivered. Can I still win my dispute?”source ↗
“So I bought something on Etsy and paid through Klarna. After I placed the order, the Etsy order was canceled and Etsy shows it as refunded. The weird part is that Klarna is still showing the charge/order like nothing happened and I’m not seeing any refund on their end.”source ↗
“On top of that, the Etsy shop/account that sold me the item has completely disappeared, so I can’t even contact the seller anymore.”source ↗
“I’m mainly trying to figure out who is actually responsible for getting the refund through to Klarna because I obviously don’t want to end up paying for something that was canceled.”source ↗
“i ordered a pair of fall press on nails last week just for fun last week. I was gonna message the shop today since it’s been a while since i ordered and i hadn’t gotten any updates, only to find that the shop has been deleted (im pretty sure). What do i do? Can i get a refund? Is there any way for me to open up a case with Etsy before the 20th of october?”source ↗
“It’s been 5 business days and haven’t received anything yet. Usually any refund initiated to me is almost immediate through PayPal and Chase so just curious if something like this has happened before or if I really need to wait longer before opening disputes.”source ↗
“Also wondering if them closing the site or removing the product before the refund processed caused the product price to go to $0 and then technically I got a refund of $0.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Etsy refunded the buyer but the package arrived
- 4Seller refusing refund for AI-generated item not disclosed in listing
- 3Why is my Etsy payout missing or locked?
- 3Why am I getting refund requests for orders from years ago?
- 8How to get a refund when an online seller won't ship or reply
- 2Can merchants send you to collections after a chargeback?