Since Patreon only provides the venue upon which transactions between users are made, we do not issue refunds on behalf of creators.
If a member wants to request a refund, they'll need to contact the creator to do so. Creators can issue refunds from their Relationship Manager. Here's our guide to refunding a member, if you need help with that.
Once a refund is issued, processing can take up to 10 business days.
Refunds I didn't initiate are listed as "Refunded by Patreon"
There are instances in which a refund might occur due to fraudulent activity or other circumstances as determined at Patreon's sole discretion. Under your member's payment history, these are considered fraudulent refunds and will be listed as "Refunded by Patreon" in your Relationship Manager.
When a member is suspected of fraudulent activity, their account is disabled and the funds from their pledges are returned to the cardholder if we do not hear back from them within 10 days of the notice.
Creators do have the option to submit an appeal. Appeals are typically responded to within 5 business days.
What is a failed refund?
A failed refund can occur if you attempt to refund a member without having funds in your account balance. It can also occur if there was a technical error on our end. You'll find these failed refunds as refunds of $0 in the Refunds CSV download. You have the ability to reattempt a failed refund at any point from your RM.