System and method for preventing multiple refunds and chargebacks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9785945-B2
Application number	US-201213564370-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 1, 2012
Priority date	Aug 1, 2012
Publication date	Oct 10, 2017
Grant date	Oct 10, 2017

Abstract

A system and a method for determining whether a refund has been issued by at least one of multiple parties having potential responsibility for issuing a refund. Issuance of multiple refunds to a claimant or claimants, or chargebacks to acquirers when a refund has been issued is prevented. The system includes an electronic storage device that has a database of data concerning transactions, including data as to whether a refund has been issued, an access path that allows access to and supplementing of data concerning a transaction, and a processor for assembling the data concerning the transaction so that access is provided to the multiple parties granted selected access to the data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for determining whether a refund has been issued by a first refund party of a plurality of parties having responsibility for issuing a refund, the system comprising:
a server for chargeback and refund management that receives data from the plurality of parties, the received data including data for transactions on a payment card network, data for chargebacks and refunds posted by the plurality of parties, a unique identifier of a purchased item, a refund event identifier for the purchased item, a refund party identifier specifying the one of the plurality of parties that is refunding a price of the purchased item, existing agreements and policies that pertain to the transactions amongst the plurality of parties, and, if a prior refund has been issued for the refund event, the refund amount already issued for the refund event;
an electronic storage device that is in communication with the server and that stores in a database, the received data for the transactions;
a processor for assembling the data in the database for a selected transaction, and for providing the assembled data to the plurality of parties that have been granted access to the database, wherein the processor is configured to:
supplement the data in the database for the selected transaction at a first time, the supplemental data including the unique identifier, the refund event identifier indicating whether a refund issued for the selected transaction, and one or more links to a document relevant to the selected transaction;
receive, from a purchaser of the purchased item, a refund request for the purchased item;
check the database for the refund event identifier of the purchased item using the unique identifier for the purchased item;
pay the refund and update the refund event identifier if the refund event identifier indicates a refund has not issued; and
determine a hierarchy of payment among the plurality of parties having responsibility for issuing a refund by using the document that sets forth existing agreements and policies between at least the first refund party and a second refund party of the plurality of parties, and whether a further refund to one of more of the parties is warranted,
wherein, when the hierarchy of payment indicates that the second refund party accessing the database is not responsible for payment, the processor is further configured to:
record a request for payment in the database;
send an alert to the first refund party that issued a refund payment; and
issue a denial of a refund request to a refund claimant;

wherein, when the hierarchy of payment indicates that a user entity is responsible for payment, the processor is further configured to:
reimburse a party from the plurality of parties that has previously paid at least a portion of the refund; and
record in the database the payment to the party that received the portion of the refund, and

wherein the database can be configured to be web-accessible.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the database is configured so that some of the data stored is associated with a sale of a ticket.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the purchased item is a ticket.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to send the alert to the first refund party if the first refund party has issued the refund for the selected transaction when the second refund party has accessed the database for data relating to the selected transaction.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first refund party is selected from the group consisting of: acquiring banks, private insurers, industry bonding organization, travel agency trip insurers, and airline liquidators.

6. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a web site for making the database available to users of the web site.

7. The system of claim 6 , further comprising an Internet connected device for connecting to the web site.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein said Internet connected device is one selected from the group consisting of a mobile telephone, a computer, a tablet, and a personal digital assistant.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the document is selected from the group consisting of: a credit card agreement, an insurance policy, terms of industry bonds, and a court document related to a bankruptcy and liquidation.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the refund is in whole.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the refund is in part.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to perform the operation of automatically generating an email or letter to a claimant informing the claimant that no refund will be issued.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to perform the operation of: automatically generating an email or letter to a claimant informing the claimant that the claim has been paid by another party.

Assignees

• Groarke Peter
• Corrigan Peter
• Mastercard International Inc

Inventors

• Groarke Peter
• Corrigan Peter

Classifications

• G06Q20/4016 Primary

  involving fraud or risk level assessment in transaction processing · CPC title

• G06Q10/10

  Office automation; Time management · CPC title