Refunds, disputes and failed payments

Refunds

1. Open Payments → Customers → the family → Invoice History.
2. On the paid invoice, open the row menu and choose Refund payment. You can refund in full or partially; the money returns to the payment method that paid, typically in 5–10 business days.
3. Refunding doesn’t undo the enrollment that created the charge. If the swimmer is leaving, also cancel the enrollment (and archive the swimmer).

Processing fees from the original charge aren’t returned by the processor, so a full refund can cost the team the original fee. Worth knowing before promising “a full refund including fees.”

Failed payments

A failed autocharge alerts the family automatically (app, email, and push: “Payment failed”, and later “Past due invoice”) and keeps the invoice open. Your side:

1. Stripe retries failed cards on its own smart schedule, up to five attempts. The invoice shows the next attempt date, and “5 failed. No more retries.” when it gives up.
2. Payments → Invoices opens on Overdue & Failed. Each failed row shows why (card declined, no payment method on file, ACH returned).
3. Once the family adds or fixes a payment method, use Attempt to Charge, or let them pay the open invoice from their own Payments page.
4. For a payment you collected outside Commit (check, cash), use Mark as Paid with a note instead of chasing the charge.

Bank payments behave differently: an ACH charge sits Pending for a few business days while it clears, and the row’s actions are hidden until it resolves. Pending isn’t failed; give it time.

Disputes (chargebacks)

A dispute is the family’s bank reversing a charge. It arrives through Stripe, not Commit, and the money is held while the bank decides.

1. You’ll get a Stripe email; respond through the Stripe dashboard (Settings → Integrations → Payment Processing) with evidence: the registration, the program description, your refund policy.
2. Talk to the family first. Most disputes are a parent not recognizing the statement descriptor, and they can withdraw it.
3. Banks charge a dispute fee either way, so a proactive refund is often cheaper than a fight you might lose.

Common questions

Where did the refund go? To the card or bank account that paid the invoice, never to a different method.

Can I refund part of an invoice? Yes. Enter a partial amount in the refund dialog.

Can I refund as account credit instead? There’s no one-click refund-to-credit. Skip the refund and add credit to the family’s account instead; it offsets their next invoice automatically.

A family disputes a charge they also want refunded. Once a dispute is open you can’t refund normally. Respond via Stripe or accept the dispute.