Inspired by an incident which happened to me with Uber Eats just now. When I placed the order my credit card was charged instantly, of course; but when Uber Eats cancelled the order (a story in itself) they inform me it will take 3-10 days to refund the charge. But why? If payments can run instantly, why not refunds?
A suspicious mind might say it’s so that the bank or someone can hold on to my money and earn interest on it for a few days. But of course it’s not really my money, it’s a credit card so it’s the bank’s money they’re lending to me. So what’s the deal?
Indeed the pending transaction has now disappeared from my bank account in only a couple of hours, despite them explicitly saying 3-10 days. Which goes to support your theory that it’s CYA.
You’re lucky; we’re still trying to resolve a dispute with Walmart that began August 30th. Our credit union took 10 business days (holidays excluded) to file the complaint and Walmart has 45 business days (holidays excluded - that’s nine weeks!) to counter. No amount of phone calls has helped - no one knows nothing!