Purchase and return warning

If you are depending on the return being processed on the same day as as the purchase it might not happen that way. There is a certain shop which requires a $25-$50 purchase. You may do the return within minutes if you want. My wife and have each done this shop using Visa debit cards from different banks . We both made our purchases in the morning and returned the items the same morning. The purchase was immediately deducted from each bank account but the refund took 5 days even though the purchase and return was done in an hours time frame. We don't have a lot of extra money and don't use regular credit cards so not having close to a $100 unavailable caused a hardship.
I believe this has to be the store itself causing this as I have done other purchase and returns where the credit shows up immediately in the account.

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More About Purchase and Return Assignments

Yes, that is the case. That is why I use the credit card and then use the pay to pay on that credit card. I have a problem with letting my cash being held as well. This does need to be reiterated though.

I don't know the vendor, but from my experience, in general, my debit/charge card purchases are not credited back as quickly as regular credit cards.

But even credit card returns can take 5 to 10 days to happen. That is why any P/R I consider doing I make sure I am using a card that is early enough in the billing cycle for the CR and DR to land in the same cycle even if the store is pokey about processing it. But I do few P/R because they are mostly 2-shops-for-the-price-of-one and I am not fond of providing freebies to corporations.

one of the reasons its easier to use cash on p/r shops...

shopping north west PA and south west ny

cooldude581 Wrote:
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> one of the reasons its easier to use cash on p/r
> shops...

The guidelines specify that you must use a debit or credit card. Cash is not an option.

Some places will return cash with a check days later.

^^^ What prettygul1 said.

ces, I've never disputed a charge on a debit/charge card, so I don't know if this is possible, but you might want to call and find out if you can do that, and maybe they'll free up the funds.

I actually just did this with my American Express, due to the absence of a refund which should have been credited more than a week ago. The charge was temporarily lifted from my account while they investigate. I know most credit cards issuers will do this, but again, I don't know if it applies to a debit/charge.

I have done purchase and returns and they usually clear within twenty four hours. I am really surprised to hear these returns taking so long to appear on the credit card. The only explanation I can think of is the vendor is holding up the return paper work. I can understand debit cards taking this long.

If we are ready for some paranoid speculation. . . Retailers generally report their sales on a weekly basis. In the investment arena "same store sales" on a week by week or month by month comparison are valuable and sought after data. Since returns offset sales, by delaying processing the credit, they can have higher "sales" for a week that otherwise might be slow.

The credit on my checking account showed up this morning (Wens) the purchase and return were done last Friday morning. Here's something interesting, on Sat I made a purchase with my debit card at Staples (nothing to do with mystery shopping) When I got home the purchase had been deducted from my account. Later the same day I needed to return the item. When I got home the credit had been posted to my account. So it's either the store or the CC processor gumming up the works.

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Purchase and return warning

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