Services Plugins FAQs

Stripe: refundable deposit

#1

A new idea on the forums but- does it sound conceivable that Stripe could do refundable deposits?

We’re an online rental marketplace and some items are not worth paying $5 insurance fee for (like a $5-$10 transaction for instance). So we’re wanting to do deposits instead for those. There doesn’t seem to be an obvious way to have Stripe do this though (we already have it set up for payments, but not this aspect).

Any ideas on how to do this?

Idea: what if, the day the transaction were to start, we issued a charge hold and it only went through if damages happened? this would be fine on rentals that are shorter than 7 days but not otherwise. Then again, if it’s over 7 days, it’s probably worth paying $5 for insurance as the price will be decently high…

#2

Hello @alex4, thanks for reaching out.

As far as I know, Stripe allows you to offer partial refunds. I suppose, a workaround for this case is adding a sum (the deposit) to the item price, which you can refund when the item was returned intact.

Some interesting Forum threads concerned the Stripe Refund functionality:

Stripe Documentation > Refunds: Stripe API reference – Refunds – curl

Perhaps, if you’re going to try this way, the following Bubble documentation will be useful for you:
https://manual.bubble.io/using-the-bubble-api/scheduled-workflows
https://manual.bubble.io/using-the-bubble-api/examples
https://manual.bubble.io/using-the-bubble-api/what-is-the-bubble-api-it-for

I hope this information will be helpful :pray:
Regards,

#3

Thanks Kate!

This solution sounds great in theory but the primary issue is the cost associated. Stripe does not refund their processing fees. So to add a $50 deposit on a $7 transaction would mean, for us, charging the customer at least $1.50 for the deposit, or cutting our profit from $2 down to $0.50. Then again, we could charge $1 or $1.50 and it wouldn’t be that big of a deal… hmm. Ya, we may go for that. Thanks!

EDIT:
Overall, it ended up being quite easy to add, though I had to add some approval steps on the user side. After checking out the links you sent I realized I hadn’t really thought about what would happen if the charge failed- so I’ll be sure to add that. Thanks!

1 Like
#4

On one note with the notifying them of an failed charge,

The Bubble documentation is using an API call not present in the zeroqode one, “Get Stripe Event”. What would be the equivalent to this? Retrieve a customer? Retrieve a Session? Something else?

#5

@alex4,

If you are asking if the Stipe Marketplace Express plugin (by Zeroqode) has the Get Stripe Event data call - the answer is no, there is no such data call in the marketplace express plugin, unfortunately.

You can set this functionality using webhooks or crete a Payment, and refer to the Result of step x payment’ error is empty/ not epmty.

Some useful documentation:
https://docs.servicebot.io/subscription-portal/integrations/bubble/how-to-build-a-stripe-webhook-endpoint-in-bubble

Also, take a look at this short video:
https://www.loom.com/share/698ce127f2244adeb583ba704582adca

Some useful forum threads:

#6

I’m using charge captures which are approved as it is a marketplace. Would I check for errors when capturing the charge? Or when doing the initial charge that is delayed?

#7

Hello, @alex4. Apologies for the delayed reply.

You can capture check for the errors when you are capturing the charge. You can create a Payment, and refer to the Result of step x payment’ error is empty/ not empty in order to capture an error while processing a charge.

Some useful references:

I hope it helps.
Regards,