Research question and scope
Published September 10, 2026.
This study asks whether completed partial refunds match the applicable order facts and policy, and whether the customer-facing explanation reflects the recorded calculation. It covers selected refund types, currencies, and sales channels in a defined period. It does not assess chargebacks, full-order cancellations, or legal entitlement outside the declared policy review.
Methodology
Prespecify eligible refund states, policy versions, tolerance for rounding, sampling strata, and exclusions. Draw a reproducible sample by channel, refund reason, promotion use, currency, and approval tier. Reconstruct the original transaction from line items, quantities, allocated discounts, tax, shipping, fees, earlier adjustments, and returned value.
Two reviewers independently recalculate a subset using a locked worksheet or tested query. Test the final amount, payment destination, approval evidence, processor submission, and customer explanation separately. Preserve a missing-data category and report adjudication rules.
Measures and analysis
Report exact-match rate, amount variance, over-refund and under-refund rates, unsupported fee rate, duplicate-processing rate, and explanation completeness. Separate internal approval time, processor submission time, and external posting time. Provide counts and denominators, not percentages alone.
Inference boundaries and limitations
The study cannot determine when a customer's financial institution made funds available. A mathematically correct refund may still conflict with consumer law or unclear policy, which requires qualified review. Missing tax or promotion allocation data may prevent recalculation. Results are bounded to sampled systems, currencies, and policy versions.