Many people have embraced a new form of dining out with a discount with Marco Pierre White's app called EatClub. It's an innovative concept which has been helped along by the emergence of UberEats and the subsequent rebound back for restaurants that have remonstrated the hefty margins that such delivery apps take from their business. EatClub only charges a small amount for restaurants to be listed on their app and only take a small processing fee when you pay for your meail. For customers, discounts of up to 50% off makes it worthwhile to scroll through EatClub before eating out.
However there are some situations you need to be prepared for, such as when a restaurant issues a partial refund to you. This refund goes to your Eatclub card but unbeknownst to me, that refund was not forwarded back to my credit card unless I raised a support ticket with Eatclub. This happened six weeks ago and upon remembering, I emailed EatClub about what happened to my refund. They were quick and helpful to pass the refund to me.
However, I did ask whether I would have received the refund if I didn't ask. This was their (standard?) reply -
For refunds of this nature, we do rely on customers to notify us when a venue has processed a refund directly through the payment terminal.
The reason for this is that the refund is typically visible first through your bank, Apple Wallet, or Google Wallet transaction history. While the venue can initiate the refund on their end, we don't receive an automatic notification that a refund has been processed.
That's why we usually ask customers to provide a screenshot showing the refunded transaction — often identifiable by a "+" sign in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, or by the corresponding refund entry in their banking app. This gives us the confirmation we need to verify the refund and ensure it's correctly matched to the original EatClub transaction before we process any adjustments on our side.
I appreciate that this isn't the most seamless process and can feel like an extra step when you've already worked with the venue to arrange the refund. However, the verification helps us ensure refunds are processed accurately and prevents any discrepancies between venue records, payment records, and customer accounts.
The good news is that once we receive the screenshot and verify the refund, we're usually able to move things along fairly quickly.
Thank you again for your patience throughout the process and for taking the time to ask. Feedback like this is valuable because it helps highlight areas where the experience could be improved in the future.
We appreciate having you as part of the EatClub community and hope your future dining experiences are all about great food, smooth transactions, and great savings.
So if you got a refund to your EatClub card, remember to email hello@eatclub.com(.au for Australian users) with a screenshot of your refund and your booking details to get the refund forwarded back to you - because it won't happen automatically.
