Real-time monitoring system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10977659-B2
Application number	US-201715853378-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 22, 2017
Priority date	Dec 22, 2017
Publication date	Apr 13, 2021
Grant date	Apr 13, 2021

Abstract

A systems of servers and algorithms allows merchants to refund value, for example, for refunds on returned goods or for other customer satisfaction reasons. The system receives the request for credit from a merchant refund session as well as a target financial instrument associated with the customer receiving the credit. The system then creates a specialized monitor for the customer's transactions to identify transactions made with that merchant and applies the previously credited funds for purchases made at the merchant. These credits may be made in real time at the register during a purchase or via a statement credit. The credit may also be applied to partner brands associated with the merchant by expanding the scope of the monitor.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of providing refunds to a user by an entity, the method comprising:
receiving, by a central processing unit (CPU) of a customer service terminal of the entity, data corresponding to a credit amount to be refunded to the user;
receiving, at the customer service terminal, identification of a payment instrument of the user;
generating, at the customer service terminal, a formatted message containing data including an identifier of the entity, the credit amount to be refunded to the user, and the identification of the payment instrument of the user;
communicating the formatted message from the customer service terminal to a service provider via a network coupled between the customer service terminal and an input of the service provider, the service provider associated with the payment instrument of the user;
storing the data associated with the formatted message in a database to provide stored credit information associated with the payment instrument of the user, storing the data associated with the formatted message in the database comprising creating a user account and associated ledger;
activating a monitor coupled to the service provider and the database;
determining, via the monitor, an occurrence of a purchase transaction with the entity;
comparing, via the monitor, an identification of a payment instrument involved in the purchase transaction with the data stored in the database to determine whether the identification of the payment instrument involved in the purchase transaction matches the identification of the payment instrument in the stored credit information, a refund being available to apply to the purchase transaction if the match is found; and
applying to the purchase transaction, via the monitor, the refund up to the credit amount when the refund is available.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving data corresponding to the credit amount comprises receiving the data via user interface of the customer service terminal.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying, via the monitor, the refund comprises applying the refund during a billing cycle of the payment instrument.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying, via the monitor, the refund comprises applying the refund using a real time reduction in the purchase transaction.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising updating a remaining value in the database after reducing a starting value of the credit amount by the refund applied to the purchase transaction.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating and communicating to the user a signal indicating one of creating the credit amount, application of value from the credit amount to the purchase transaction, or exhaustion of the credit amount.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein communicating the signal indicating application of the credit amount comprises communicating the signal from the monitor to the entity.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising, communicating, from the entity to the user, a second signal indicating application of the credit amount to the purchase transaction.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the communicating the second signal comprises one of communicating a text message to the user or posting a social media message to the user.

Assignees

• Rhee Peter
• Soriano Edmar
• Campbell Alexander
• Visa Int Service Ass

Inventors

• Rhee Peter
• Soriano Edmar
• Campbell Alexander

Classifications

• G06Q20/401

  Transaction verification · CPC title

• G06Q20/20

  Point-of-sale [POS] network systems · CPC title

• G06F11/3034

  where the computing system component is a storage system, e.g. DASD based or network based (digital input from or digital output to record carriers G06F3/06; digital recording or reproducing G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097) · CPC title

• H04W4/14

  Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD] · CPC title

• G06Q20/405

  Establishing or using transaction specific rules · CPC title