Refund confusion

Lbee

New member
Joined
Jun 30, 2019
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3
This should be a super easy one for you math wiz's! I don't know why this simple problem is confusing me.
This is a real life math problem. sorry if it is not appropriate for this forum.

I went to the store with my mother. I paid with credit card for my purchase and the cashier separated her total and she paid cash. Although all the items were on one receipt. Her item went on sale so I was able to get a price adjustment.
Mom paid 39.40 cash for item.
Store refunded me 39.40 to my credit card and then charged me the new sale price of $21.88
If I pay her $17.52 cash are we double paying by me paying to the items?

Sorry for the silly question but I just wanted to confirm I go this right. I feel like I tangled myself and I both scenarios were making sense to me earlier.
 
… Mom paid 39.40 cash for [her] item … Store refunded me 39.40 … then charged … $21.88 … If I pay her $17.52 … are we double paying …
Hello Lbee. Nobody is double paying, if I understand your description correctly.

Your mom has already reimbursed you $39.40 for a $21.88 charge on your credit-card account. (The original $39.40 charge no longer exists because it's been credited.) You owe mom $17.52 and -- after you pay her -- she will have spent $21.88 for her item and you will have spent nothing for it. Cheers

?
 
Otis did a great job explaining this but sometimes what seems clear to one (and Otis' explanation is clear to me) is not clear to another so I will give this a shot.

Let's separate what happened with your cc and what your mom paid you.
The credit card company charged you $39.40, reimbursed you $39.40 and then charged you $21.88. So in the end you were charged $21.88 and your mom gave you $39.40. Since this transaction was not for your merchandise (that is you got no merchandise from this part of the transaction) you now have $39.40-$21.88 = $17.52

Now if you give $17.52 to your mom you will be even. Now your mom originally paid you $39.40 and then got back (from you) $17.52. So in the end mom paid $39.40-$17.52 = $21.88 which is the correct sale price.
 
thanks so much guys. But I wanted to clarify one thing...which is the reason this simple problem was getting complicated in my head.
The credit card company never charged me 39.40 originally because my mom paid that in cash to the store (not to me). Since I saw it cheaper later on, and was able to get a price adjustment, I got one. We don't live in the same city and the store assumed I had originally charged it to my card since it was on one receipt, so they refunded me the 39.40 and then re-charged me the sale price onto my credit card. However, my mom had already paid the store 39.40 cash.

So I was thinking I would end up paying for the item via my credit card charged and my mom would have been out the 39.40 she paid the store cash.

But I think Otis confirmed my thoughts. It won't be double paying (my CC charged plus the 39.40 cash) and I actually owe mom the 17.52.
 
mom->$39.40 in cash directly to store
store ->$39.40 to me via credit card refund (+)
store->charge me $21.88 for the merchandise (-)
 
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