Request a refund as a member
This guide shows you how to submit a refund request for a payment in your billing history. Your request goes to the org’s admin team for review.
Who can do this: Any member, for their own payments.
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”- You can request a refund within your org’s refund window — by default, 30 days from the payment date.
- After you submit your request, the admins of your organization who can decide refund requests are emailed about it, and one of them approves or denies it in MapleGather. Nothing is refunded until it is approved. If it’s approved, a refund is requested from the payment processor that took your payment (or, for a payment your organization recorded itself, the refund is recorded and your organization returns the money to you directly), and we email you that it was approved — the processor completes the refund afterwards, and can still fail it; if it’s denied, the admin’s reason appears on the payment’s page (no email is sent).
- Sign in to the member portal and go to My account, then select Billing.
- In the Recent payments section, select the payment you’d like a refund for.
- On the payment detail page, select Request refund.
- In the Why are you requesting a refund? field, select a reason from the list.
- If you want a partial refund, enter the amount in the Amount (optional) field. Leave it blank to request the full amount.
- Describe what happened in the Details (required) field. This field is required, and it needs at least a few words — a request with an empty or one-word description cannot be submitted.
- If an admin placed the charge on your behalf and you did not authorize it, check I did not authorize this charge. This checkbox only appears on charges an admin placed for you. Checking it sets the reason to “Other (I’ll explain below)” and asks you to describe what happened in the Details (required) field — your description is what your org reviews, so say what went wrong there.
- Select Submit request.
Verify
Section titled “Verify”After submitting, you’ll see “Refund request submitted. Your organization will review it.”, and the payment’s page shows a Your refund request section marked Pending review. Request refund isn’t offered again while that request is pending.
The same section shows the decision when it’s made:
- Approved — the date and the amount approved, and what happens to the money: for a card or PayPal payment, a refund has been requested from the payment processor that took your payment, back to the payment method you paid with (the processor completes it after the approval; when it appears on your statement depends on your bank, card issuer or payment provider); for a payment your organization recorded itself (cash, check, bank transfer), your organization returns the money to you directly. We also email you that it was approved.
- Denied — the date and the reason the admin wrote. No email is sent for a denial. See Member refund request denied.
- Refund failed — your organization approved it, but the payment processor couldn’t complete the refund, so no money was returned to you. Contact your organization about it.
If something goes wrong
Section titled “If something goes wrong”- “Request refund” is greyed out — the page says: “This payment is past the refund window, so a refund can’t be requested here. Your organization decides refunds after the window — contact them directly.”
- “You can request up to $X” — the amount you entered is above the figure the form is willing to submit. Adjust the amount, or clear the field to request the payment in full. That figure is a guide, not a decision: it is worked out in your browser from the original payment amount, so on a payment that has already been partly refunded it can read higher than what is actually left. The amount your org approves is the one that gets refunded, and it can be less than you asked for.
- “Add a few more words so we know what happened.” — the Details (required) field needs at least a few words. A short phrase describing what happened is enough.
- Your request was denied — see Member refund request denied.