--- title: "Refund an order on your event | Ticket Fairy Guides" description: "Return the face value of a paid order to the buyer's card from the Orders page, confirm it with the authorization code Ticket Fairy emails you, and see what changes for the buyer, the tickets and your reports." canonical: "https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/refund-an-order" --- 1. [Ticket Fairy](https://www.ticketfairy.com/) 2. [Guides](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides) 3. [Find and manage the orders for your event](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/find-and-manage-your-event-orders) 4. Refund an order on your event Checkout and orders # Refund an order on your event Promoters and venue box offices refund an order when a buyer cannot come, a show changes or a buyer ordered by mistake. You return the face value of the order to the card the buyer paid with, after you enter a code Ticket Fairy emails you to confirm it is you. The buyer's tickets and your sales reports both update to match. You're refunding one order as part of looking after the orders for your event. You can return to the complete Orders guide when the refund is done. [Find and manage the orders for your event](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/find-and-manage-your-event-orders) Fai, your AI teammate, can check sales, update your event or change a ticket when you ask. Takes: 6 minutes [Watch the video: Refund an order on your event](https://d3lcdr963b5ubl.cloudfront.net/uploads/guides/video/refund-an-order/2640b8a743610a6f7a2c1fff0a8b76d92c20314bc153ec5e85174f947f327fb8/61ea7390b7171f3e/guide.mp4) · [English](https://www.ticketfairy.com/resources/captions/guides/guide-refund-an-order-61ea7390b717.vtt) ***Watch how it's done** 2 min 52 s, with captions.* - [Open the order's menu and select Refund](#step-1) - [Orders the Refund option covers](#step-2) - [Request the authorization code](#step-3) - [Enter the code and confirm](#step-4) - [Check the order and what the buyer received](#step-5) ## Before you start - You're the owner of the event. If you're not, ask the owner to refund the order, or ask Ticket Fairy support. - Dashboard refunds are turned on for the event. If they are off, the refund option does not appear: ask Fai to turn on dashboard refunds for the event, or ask Ticket Fairy support. - You can open the email account you sign in with, because the six-digit authorization code is sent there. - You know the event's funds have not been paid out yet. You can't refund from the dashboard once the event has been paid. 1. ## Open the order's menu and select Refund [Play from here](#guide-video) Open your event, select **Orders**, find the order on the **Paid** tab, then open its row menu and select **Refund**. When the list is long, search by the buyer's name, email or order number. **Note:** The row menu is only in the wide table, so refund from a laptop rather than a phone. On a phone, each order is a card that opens the order itself, which has no refund option. ![The Orders table with a paid order's row menu open and the Refund entry](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-order-refund--refund-from-order-menu.png) *Event, Orders, row menu.* ## Orders the Refund option covers [Play from here](#guide-video) The option appears on a **Paid** order with an amount above zero, paid by card through your own connected payment account, where every ticket is still valid and none is a table booking. If even one ticket has been checked in, resold, transferred or refunded, the option disappears for the whole order. **Note:** Ticket Fairy support refunds box-office sales marked non-refundable, orders paid through other methods and orders on events whose funds have been paid out or are on hold. 2. ## Request the authorization code [Play from here](#guide-video) The **Refund Order** dialog states the amount and the order number, so check both, then select **Get authorization code**. Ticket Fairy emails a six-digit code to the address you sign in with and opens the next dialog for you. **Note:** The amount is the order's face value plus tax, less any referral reward already paid back on its tickets and any amount kept back on a ticket that was resold. We don't return the ticketing fee, and the dialog gives the address to email when a buyer needs the full amount back. ![The Refund Order dialog stating the amount and order number, with the Get authorization code button](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-order-refund--refund-order.png) *Event, Orders, Refund Order.* 3. ## Enter the code and confirm [Play from here](#guide-video) Enter the six digits from the email and select **Confirm Refund**. The dialog confirms the order was refunded, and the money goes back to the card the buyer paid with. **Note:** Each code works for thirty minutes, and you get five attempts. After five wrong attempts, the code is canceled, and you wait a minute before you can request another. ![Refund authorization dialog with the six-digit code field and the Confirm Refund button](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-order-refund--refund-code.png) *Event, Orders, Refund Order, authorization code.* 4. ## Check the order and what the buyer received [Play from here](#guide-video) The order moves to the **Refunded** tab with every ticket marked refunded, and the buyer receives an email headed Ticket refunded for your event. Their barcodes stop working at once, and the tickets go back on sale or to your waiting list, whichever your event is set to do. **Note:** The card issuer can take several days to show the refund on the buyer's statement. The refund also appears in your event's activity log as Order Refunded, with your name. ## Or have it done for you Fai can request the authorization code for an order and, once you give her the code from your email, refund it. She shows you the order and the amount and asks you to approve before any money moves, and she can turn on dashboard refunds for the event when they are off. Your own AI assistant can do the same over the MCP server, where each refund also waits for your approval in your MCP client. ### In your dashboard, with Fai ``` Find order on , show me the buyer, the tickets and the amount that would be refunded, then request the refund authorization code and wait for me to give you the code before refunding ``` ### From your own assistant, over MCP Connect your assistant to [our MCP server](https://www.ticketfairy.com/mcp-server) and ask it: The copied MCP configuration includes `--read-only`. Remove `--read-only` only when you want your assistant to make changes. Your assistant makes routine changes when you ask, and checks with you before a destructive action if your client supports that. If your client cannot ask, make the change in your dashboard. ``` Find my event , find order on it, show me the buyer and the amount, then request the refund code and wait for me to give you the code before you refund it ``` ## From your terminal Install the CLI from [our CLI page](https://www.ticketfairy.com/cli), sign in with `ticketfairy auth login`, and choose the brand you are working on with `ticketfairy brand use `. `ticketfairy brand list` and `ticketfairy event list` show the IDs the other commands use. Use the CLI to request the code and confirm the refund from a terminal. It runs the same two steps as the dashboard, with the same checks. ### Email yourself the authorization code for an order without refunding it. ``` ticketfairy order refund --request-code-only ``` ### Refund the order with the code from your email. ``` ticketfairy order refund --code ``` ## Resend or cancel a code you have not used [Play from here](#guide-video) While a code is live, the row menu shows **Refund Code** instead of Refund. Open it and select **Resend** for a fresh email, or **Revoke** to cancel the code without refunding. **Note:** If you resend after the thirty minutes have passed, you get a new code and the digits in the older email stop working. Ticket Fairy doesn't check whether the order can be refunded when you request a code, only when you confirm. Fai can resend or revoke the code for an order. The CLI requests a fresh code with the same command as the first one. ### In your dashboard, with Fai ``` Revoke the refund authorization code for order on ``` ## Let buyers request their own refund [Play from here](#guide-video) Open **Tickets**, select **Settings**, turn on **Allow customers to initiate refunds**, then select **Save Ticket Settings**. Buyers then refund an eligible order or ticket from their own order page, without a request to you. **Note:** The confirmation warns that refund requests come to you and that the event isn't paid out while the switch is on. You can't turn it on once the event's sales revenue has been released. Fai can turn buyer self-refunds on or off for an event after showing you what changes. The CLI sets the same switch through the event's attributes. ### In your dashboard, with Fai ``` Turn on customer self-refunds for and tell me what that changes for the payout ``` ## Questions you might have **Can I refund one ticket, or part of the amount?** Not from the Orders page. The dashboard refund returns the whole order's face value in one step. A buyer can refund one of their own tickets when self-refunds are on, and Ticket Fairy support handles any other partial refund for you. **Does the buyer get the ticketing fee back?** No. The dashboard refund is the face value of the order, and the ticketing fee stays charged. When a buyer should receive every penny back, email the address the Refund Order dialog gives and support processes the full amount. **Why is there no Refund option on this order?** Most often because dashboard refunds are not turned on for the event, or because you are not the event's owner. Ask Fai to turn on dashboard refunds for the event, or ask Ticket Fairy support. You also see the option only on a paid order where every ticket is valid, with no table booking, paid by card through your own account, on an event that hasn't been paid out. **The code has expired or was refused. What now?** Open the row menu, select Refund Code and then Resend. If the code is older than thirty minutes, you get a new one. After five wrong attempts, the code stops working and you need to request a fresh one. You can request one code a minute. **What happens to the tickets and the stock?** Every ticket in the order is marked refunded and its barcode stops scanning. The stock goes back to the ticket type, or to the first person waiting if you send returned tickets to the waiting list. **Where does the refund show afterwards?** The order stays in Orders under the Refunded tab, your sales reports take the amount off revenue, and the activity log records Order Refunded with the amount, the order number and who confirmed it. **How long does the buyer wait for the money?** Ticket Fairy sends the refund to the card the moment you confirm. The card issuer can take several days to show it on the buyer's statement, so tell a buyer who asks. ## Still have a question? Book a demo and we will answer it on a call, on your kind of event. Or create your account and see it for yourself. [Book a demo](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing/book-a-demo) [Create a free account](https://manage.ticketfairy.com/welcome) No setup fees. No monthly fee. No credit card required. ## Related guides - [More ways to use Ticket Fairy](https://www.ticketfairy.com/features/orders-refunds-and-resale) - [Respond to a disputed ticket order](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/respond-to-a-disputed-ticket-order) - [Approve orders before buyers receive tickets](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/approve-orders-before-buyers-receive-tickets) - [Postpone or reschedule an event](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/postpone-or-reschedule-an-event) - [Run a waiting list for a sold-out event](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/run-a-waiting-list) - [Set up ticketing for a multi-day festival](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/sell-a-multi-day-festival) - [Find and manage the orders for your event](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/find-and-manage-your-event-orders) - [Every Ticket Fairy guide](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides) ## Do this on your own event Create your account, build your event and follow the steps in your own dashboard. You do not need to book a sales call. [Create a free account](https://manage.ticketfairy.com/welcome) [Book a demo](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing/book-a-demo) ## Sell tickets with Ticket Fairy Start free with unlimited events and no monthly fee, and choose a paid plan when you need more. - Set up your event in minutes - Free events are free - Fai, your AI teammate, is built in [Create a free account](https://manage.ticketfairy.com/welcome) No setup fees. No monthly fee. No credit card required. ## See it on a call Book a demo and we will show you how Ticket Fairy handles your kind of event. [Book a demo](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing/book-a-demo) [More ways to use Ticket Fairy](https://www.ticketfairy.com/features/orders-refunds-and-resale) ### Tips for selling more tickets Practical advice from working event organizers, and every new guide as it is published. We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe anytime. --- This page is on Ticket Fairy, a ticketing, marketing and operations platform for live events and the venues that host them: festivals, club nights, concerts, conferences and tours, and night clubs, beach clubs and concert venues. It grows revenue with fan rewards that turn an audience into a sales channel, and runs the money side with payments and payouts, Vault business banking, and working capital advanced against ticket sales. [How Ticket Fairy ticketing works](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing) · [Ticket Fairy for AI assistants](https://www.ticketfairy.com/llms.txt)