Why can't coffer donations be refunded?
Posted: Mon May 23, 2011 9:43 am
Our policy here is to allow donations to be added to accounts, but not to be transferred between accounts or refunded. We have this policy for several reasons:
* Security: Issuing a transfer would require special scrutiny in order to avoid fraud stemming from someone pretending to be a customer and authorizing that his money be moved to another account.
* Legal/regulatory: We aren't a bank, and if we start acting like a bank (by both accepting deposits and issuing monetary withdrawals), then we will be subject to additional regulations and limits. This is not something that we are interested in at this time.
* Consistency with existing policy: We have a policy against refunds overall, and it is simplest to remain consistent.
* Donator wishes: Any refund or transfer would require the permission of those who submitted the funds, because they did not expect for them to be used in this way.
* Cost: We are charged fees for payments and for refunds.
* Overhead: Anything to do with money transfers or refunds requires manual processing and this time spent increases our overhead, in turn raising our costs and prices.
We are clear about our policy on all our donation pages, so that all donators know the situation up-front and there is no confusion. Donated funds never expire and are available to customers until they are used, so no funds are lost in our system.
Another way to think about the coffer here at NFO is that sending funds to a customer's coffer is similar to buying that person a gift card at a brick-and-mortar store. The stored funds can then be used for services at only that retailer. Gift cards can't be exchanged for cash, and in most cases, they aren't allowed to expire.
* Security: Issuing a transfer would require special scrutiny in order to avoid fraud stemming from someone pretending to be a customer and authorizing that his money be moved to another account.
* Legal/regulatory: We aren't a bank, and if we start acting like a bank (by both accepting deposits and issuing monetary withdrawals), then we will be subject to additional regulations and limits. This is not something that we are interested in at this time.
* Consistency with existing policy: We have a policy against refunds overall, and it is simplest to remain consistent.
* Donator wishes: Any refund or transfer would require the permission of those who submitted the funds, because they did not expect for them to be used in this way.
* Cost: We are charged fees for payments and for refunds.
* Overhead: Anything to do with money transfers or refunds requires manual processing and this time spent increases our overhead, in turn raising our costs and prices.
We are clear about our policy on all our donation pages, so that all donators know the situation up-front and there is no confusion. Donated funds never expire and are available to customers until they are used, so no funds are lost in our system.
Another way to think about the coffer here at NFO is that sending funds to a customer's coffer is similar to buying that person a gift card at a brick-and-mortar store. The stored funds can then be used for services at only that retailer. Gift cards can't be exchanged for cash, and in most cases, they aren't allowed to expire.