Why was my order refunded?

The following are reasons a Marketplace Product might be Paid successfully and then refunded after payment if you did not request the refund:

• The seller processed a refund due to a lack of or damaged inventory.
  • Sellers are responsible for ensuring they have enough inventory to fulfill their sales on Tophatter. If an order is refunded by a seller without a buyer's request, the merchant will receive a strong selling penalty for failing to fulfill your sale. Our system detects when this has occurred and applies the penalty automatically as part of our quality assurance process. 
• Some sellers cannot ship some items to Alaska, Hawaii, or P.O. Boxes due to shipping constraints.
  • If you find that a merchant has refunded an order that you did not request to cancel and you live in Alaska, Hawaii, or you have a P.O. Box, to avoid future refunds, we recommend that you use a mainland mailing address or a physical mailing address, respectively, whenever possible.
• Our system processed a refund because the payment was not approved by our processor.
  • Sometimes our payment processor doesn't approve transactions. Unfortunately, if this has occurred, we are not provided with details or the reason for the decline. Our payment processor has provided the following general tips to avoid the experience again; however, we cannot guarantee that future payments will be approved.
    
  • Be sure the mailing address you entered is also your credit card billing address.
  • If you have a high number of purchases in a short period of time, try waiting to pay for any additional unpaid orders until tomorrow, when payment may be successful.
  • If you were trying to pay using a prepaid or gift card from a major credit card company, these are accepted as long as the cards are registered online with a billing and mailing address. Visit the website on the back of the card or call the toll-free number found there, and then try paying for your next order after the card has been registered.
  • Please note, if a high number of payments are declined, your account will be blocked from making additional purchases.
• Tophatter processed a refund through Buyer Protection because we discovered the seller did not ship the item, or the tracking was invalid.
  • When this occurs, sellers incur additional fees and penalties. 
  • Sellers who repeatedly fail ship orders or use fraudulent tracking will be removed from the platform.
• Tophatter processed a refund because an issue was detected with the seller, and they have been removed from the platform.
• Tophatter processed a refund proactively because we detected the product has received more poor ratings than average.