Who controls the refund policy (and what should that policy be)?

At Passage, we strongly suggest you stick with the default “All Sales Final; No Refunds or Returns” policy, though you’re welcome to edit that policy as you like in your venue settings. With that said, we realize that sometimes extenuating circumstances come up and you’ll need to give a refund or two, so we’ve incorporated that functionality right into your reporting.

How can I give refunds?

The option to refund a customer's purchase is available in your transactions reporting. Use the filters to quickly locate their transaction by the last 4 digits on the card used to purchase, name on card, or date of their purchase. Then click on the orange number link in the transaction ID column to open their transaction details. Here you'll see 4 orange links next the transaction number: Print Receipt | Print Ticket | Send Customer Receipt | Refund Transaction. Clicking "Refund Transaction" will refund the entire amount of the purchase. Issuing a refund will devalidate the associated tickets, so these will no longer be accepted when scanned on the app at your event.

Only 100% refunds are currently possible for event administrators. If you need to issue a partial refund to a customer, please contact the Passage support team at support@gopassage.com. We are able to process partial refunds on your behalf. Just include the customer's email address, name on card, or last 4 digits of their card number along with the the amount to refund, and we will take care of it for you right away.

What is a chargeback?

A chargeback is when a cardholder calls their credit card company and says a charge to their credit card was illegitimate for any number of reasons (the cardholder didn’t authorize the charge or doesn’t know what it’s for, the cardholder’s card was lost or stolen, the purchase was intended but the merchandise or service was never received, etc). When a transaction goes through, a cardholder has up to 60 days to submit a “chargeback” to their card-issuing bank, so this could come a number of days after a ticket sale takes place.

Sadly, the card-issuing banks default to the cardholder being right. That means that when a chargeback is submitted, the money for that transaction (plus a chargeback fee) is taken out of the merchant’s bank account immediately, and if you want to get your money back, you’ll need to fight the chargeback by providing proper documentation of the transaction.

How can I avoid chargebacks?

We know chargebacks can be costly, and that’s why we’ve gone as far as humanly possible to help you prevent and fight chargebacks. Here are just a few of the things we do to prevent chargebacks in the first place.

  1. Minimize Fraud by Card Information. Most chargebacks occur when a card or card information was stolen, otherwise known as a fraudulent transaction. Because of that, the first step in minimizing chargebacks is to minimize fraudulent transactions. In order to limit the amount of fraudulent transactions going through, we match extended information such as the CVV/CVC value (usually on the back of a credit card), street address, and zip code. If they don’t match, the transaction is rejected.
     
  2. Minimize Fraud by Advanced Filters. We've integrated directly with the ThreatMetrix system to automatically filter out transactions from known fraudulent IP addresses and card numbers. This blacklist is updated in real-time, so as soon as fraud is reported, we can lock-down a transaction from happening when sent from a known fraudulent IP or card.  Additionally, the ThreatMetrix toolkit helps us score fraud potential on all additional transactions in real-time, and reject any transactions that are likely fraudulent based on other variables (IP address range, location, device type, etc). We can even customize this for individual Passage merchants.

  3. Minimize Fraud Exposure by Maximum Tickets Per Purchase. As an event organizer, we let you set a maximum number of tickets per purchase. This can be helpful in limiting fraud exposure, because you can limit the size of a potentially fraudulent transaction (to say, 5 tickets instead of 500). This function can also be handy for making sure you get the chance to speak with (and potentially upsell) a large group that may be attending!
     
  4. Auto Refund Bad Transactions. Fraud can't always be caught before a transaction, but sometimes if can be caught after a transactions, but still before a chargeback! If our fraud system finds a recent transaction that was since reported as potentially fraudulent, our system will reach out to you immediately with the option to immediately & pro-actively refund the transaction and disable the ticket. This would avoid any chargeback penalties, and the hassle of fighting a chargeback.
     
  5. Provide the Purchase Immediately.We’ve recently switched to providing printable/downloadable tickets immediately upon the completion of an online purchase. An email backup is also sent to the purchaser, but by providing the ticket immediately upon order completion, we avoid overactive spam filters or other reasons for possibly not receiving the tickets. If someone completes a purchase, they also receive their tickets!

What if I receive a chargeback?

First off, don’t panic. A chargeback definitely isn’t the end of the world. Here’s the process:

  1. You’ll receive a notice of the chargeback by email, documentation of the charge, and an option of whether or not to fight the chargeback. You’ll need to respond to this request within 2 weeks, but the quicker the better!

  2. The transaction amount and the $25 chargeback fee will be withdrawn from your account.

  3. If you fight the chargeback, and win, you’ll get your money back. If not, the money will be refunded to the cardholder.

How do I fight a chargeback?

The email notification you receive will tell you the steps you need to take to fight the chargeback, which can usually be done online. But more importantly is what you’ll need to fight the chargeback.

In the case that you receive a chargeback while using Passage, we have you covered. We do this by keeping the right information and automatically packaging it for your use when a chargeback comes in. The list of items we hold on to is extremely long, but here are a few key items:

  1. Transaction Timestamp & Customer IP Address. We store as much information as possible, including the transaction timestamp and customer IP address. For e-commerce, this can be as good as a signature! 80% of chargebacks are currently initiated online, which means that the card issuer has record of the IP address of the card-holder. If that IP address matches the one we have on file it's an easy win!

  2. A Full Receipt for All Transactions. The more details the better, especially when someone says they didn’t receive what they expected to receive. When a copy of the receipt they received can be shown, it’s often enough to eliminate any doubt that they got what they paid for.

  3. In-Person Signatures.If a transaction is done in person, we provide the ability to gather a signature directly on the mobile device during the checkout process. A customer can simply sign with their finger. When a signature of the cardholder can be produced, that cardholder was likely present and in possession of their card.

  4. An Optional Ticket Signature Space. We’re also providing the option for venues to require a signature on the tickets. This can also be valuable for limiting legal liabilities by having customers sign directly on the ticket, stating that they understand the purchase and your event terms.

With all of these precautions, we expect 80 to 100% of all chargebacks to be quickly overturned. That’s a rate that no other event ticketing provider can claim!