A customer paid for a product using their phone or smartwatch through Apple Pay or Google Pay and returns the purchase a few days later. The cashier processes the return in Torgsoft, but the bank terminal does not accept the card or declines the transaction. In such situations, business owners usually ask: Does the customer need to tap the same phone? Why doesn't the physical card linked to the same bank account work? What should they do after replacing their smartphone, and which settings should they check in Torgsoft?
Why Apple Pay and Google Pay refunds differ from refunds to a physical card
When a customer pays with a smartphone, the POS terminal receives a digital card number instead of the actual number of the physical card. This protects the card's real payment details.
Therefore, a card in Apple Pay or Google Wallet and the physical card linked to it may have different numbers in the payment system.
Apple explicitly states that the physical card number and the Apple Pay card number are different. Google also uses a virtual card number for contactless payments.
An important practical detail for Torgsoft: if the original purchase was paid for using NFC on a smartphone, the refund through an integrated bank terminal is also processed as an NFC transaction.
Why a physical card may not work
A typical situation: a customer pays with an iPhone using Apple Pay, but when returning the product, they tap the physical card added to that iPhone against the terminal.
The bank may decline the refund because the terminal received the digital card number from Apple Pay during the original payment, but now receives the physical card number.
Therefore, if the terminal asks the customer to present a payment method, the simplest option is to use the same smartphone or smartwatch and the same card in the digital wallet that were used for the original purchase.
For such refunds, Apple recommends opening the relevant card in Wallet on the device used for the purchase and holding the device near the terminal. Google also recommends holding the phone near the POS terminal when returning a contactless purchase if the terminal requests the card.
This does not mean that every bank always requires the customer to present the exact same device. The refund procedure depends on the bank, the terminal, and how the acquiring bank identifies the original transaction.
How to process a refund in Torgsoft
First, find the original sale for the product the customer wants to return.
In Torgsoft, go to Document → Returns. You can find the sale using the receipt or select it from the sales list.
After selecting the product, click «Refund Money». If the original payment was processed through an integrated bank terminal, Torgsoft uses the details of the corresponding card transaction to process the refund. If a single purchase was paid for through several card transactions, the software allows you to select the required transaction, provided that no full or partial refund has already been processed for it.
The cashier should follow these steps:
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Find the original sale.
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Select the product and refund amount.
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Choose a cashless refund through the bank terminal.
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If the terminal requests a payment method, ask the customer to hold the smartphone or smartwatch used for the original payment near the terminal.
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Wait for confirmation from the bank.
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Issue a fiscal refund receipt if the original sale was fiscalized through a PECR.
The terminal declines the refund even with the same phone
In this case, the problem may not be related to Apple Pay or Google Pay.
Torgsoft has a setting called «Pre-Read Card During Refund». By default, the terminal may first read the card, verify that it matches the original payment, and only then process the refund.
If the transaction is declined at this stage, Torgsoft allows you to disable the preliminary card reading. The bank terminal then verifies the card directly during the refund transaction. Torgsoft Help recommends using this option if preliminary card reading prevents the refund from being processed.
There is no need to change this setting manually after every declined transaction. If the problem occurs repeatedly, it is better to provide a specialist with the following information:
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the bank and POS terminal model;
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the date and amount of the original payment;
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the message displayed by the terminal;
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whether the customer paid with a physical card or smartphone;
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whether regular refunds to other cards are processed successfully.
This information will help determine whether the Torgsoft settings need to be changed or whether the bank should investigate the issue.
If the customer has replaced their phone or removed the card from Wallet
In this situation, you should not immediately process the refund using a different method.
After a card is added to another device, its digital number may differ from the one used for the original purchase. As a result, a terminal that verifies the payment method may not accept the new phone.
Apple states that merchants may sometimes need the last four digits of the Apple Pay card number rather than the physical card number to process a refund. Google also refers to the last four digits of the virtual card number used for the payment. These numbers can be found in the corresponding digital wallet.
If the original device is no longer available or the required card has been removed from the wallet, the procedure depends on the acquiring bank. In this case, contact the bank to find out how it processes refunds linked to the original transaction.
Do not independently replace a card refund with a cash payment or a transfer to an arbitrary IBAN simply because the POS terminal declined the first attempt.
If the terminal asks for a card number
For customers who paid using a smartphone, the last digits on their physical card may differ from those used in the original transaction.
For Apple Pay, the required number can be found in the details of the relevant card in Wallet. Google Wallet also allows users to view the last four digits of the virtual card number.
That is why, when investigating a declined refund, it is more useful to have the original bank receipt or transaction details than simply to copy the number from the customer's physical card.
If the refund does not start in Torgsoft at all
In this case, check the bank terminal settings.
For payment and refund transactions, Torgsoft uses merchants — settings that determine how the software sends the required transaction type and settlement account information to the bank. Some banks have separate refund parameters and may use a dedicated service for these transactions.
An important symptom for business owners is when payments through the terminal work correctly, but all refunds are declined, regardless of whether the customer originally paid by card or smartphone.
In this situation, check the refund configuration of the POS terminal itself rather than Apple Pay or Google Pay.
Should the customer expect to receive the refund immediately?
Not always. A successful refund transaction on the POS terminal means that the bank has accepted the request. The time it takes for the money to appear in the customer's account depends on the bank and payment system.
Apple states that refunds may take several days to appear on a bank statement. Google also recommends checking the bank statement because a refund may not appear in the Google Wallet transaction history.
Therefore, the cashier should not repeat the refund simply because the customer cannot see the money in their account immediately after the transaction.
What should a cashier do if the POS terminal declines a refund?
The procedure should always be consistent: verify the original payment → use the same NFC payment method if required by the terminal → avoid repeating the transaction multiple times → record the terminal's error message → check the refund settings or contact the bank.
The key point is not to treat Apple Pay or Google Pay as an ordinary physical card with the same card number. For the payment system, a smartphone uses separate, protected payment credentials. This is why the refund process may work differently from what the cashier expects.
In Torgsoft, the refund must be processed using the original sale and the details of the corresponding card transaction. If the terminal still declines the transaction despite following the correct procedure, the next steps are to check preliminary card reading, refund merchant settings, and the requirements of the specific bank.
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