Visa Purchase Return Authorization

Visa is enforcing new workflows and requirements regarding refunds. This page is designed to help Point of Sale developers understand how these changes will impact them through the Genius APIs.

Visa’s changes involve reaching out for an authorization at the time of a refund to verify it can be completed. As opposed to the previous behavior of simply putting the transaction in the batch to run later, taking for granted that the refund will complete.

These changes, from an integration/API perspective, will present themselves in a few ways:

• Approved Refunds will now be returning an Authorization Code.
• Refunds can result in a DECLINED status (previously rarely seen).
• Refunds can result in a REFERRAL status (previously rarely seen).
• Refunds may now return additional information in the form of a Response Code (differs by API).

Response Codes are being mapped to the already existing Status values (APPROVED, DECLINED, REFERRAL, FAILED). Depending on the API you are using, additional data may be found in the Error Message field in the response. However, the possible values of those Response Codes are numerous and inconsistent, so coding to those responses is not advised.

It is possible that some systems may have hard coded to old behavior. While that is not considered best practice, we have designed test cases in our Sandbox environment to simulate these responses. This allows a developer to test their system receiving the new possible responses and verify how they would handle these changes.

Sandbox Environment Testing

You can use the same credentials as your normal test account, but hitting the Sandbox involves changing the endpoints you are using for our services and the Genius device.

Sandbox Endpoint: certeng-test.getsandbox.com
Transport Endpoint: http://certeng-test.getsandbox.com/v4/transportService.asmx
Genius Device Endpoint: http://certeng-test.getsandbox.com/pos?
Genius Device v2 Endpoint: http://certeng-test.getsandbox.com/v2/pos?
MerchantWare 4.5 Endpoint: http://certeng-test.getsandbox.com/Merchantware/ws/RetailTransaction/v45/Credit.asmx
MerchantWare 4.0 Credit Endpoint: http://certeng-test.getsandbox.com/Merchantware/ws/RetailTransaction/v4/Credit.asmx
MerchantWare 4.0 Reporting Endpoint: http://certeng-test.getsandbox.com/Merchantware/ws/TransactionHistory/v4/Reporting.asmx

In the case of Genius, this will have your system generate a Transport Key from the Sandbox Transport endpoint, and send it to the Sandbox Genius endpoint instead of your actual device, which will return a response as though you had swiped a card through your device.

The Visa Return test cases below can be used on any card since the Sandbox just uses the amount to trigger the response and they will return as a Visa transaction.

Visa PRA Test Cases (Sandbox)
Valid For: Genius Refund, MW4.5 Token Refund, MW 4.0 Token Refund

Refund $30.00 – Approved Refund with Authorization Code
Refund $31.00 – Declined Refund
Refund $32.00 – Declined Referral Refund