Refund system and method
OwnerWaleed Hanafi, Stefano Bassiinventors
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A refund system provides for detections of eligibility of a user for a refund and uses a token to identify purchases and to retrieve the information in respect of those purchases for processing a refund in respect of those purchases.
Claims31
1-37. (canceled)
An apparatus comprising a validation station having:
- validation station input means configured to receive a token, the input means comprising a reader operable to read a machine readable user identifier that identifies the user;
- validation station processing means configured to transmit a validation request message that identifies the token to an approval system that holds or has access to transaction information identifying one or more purchases associated with the token to validate a tax refund for the one or more purchases for an eligible user, eligibility being derived from information from the machine readable identifier;
- validation station output means, the validation station processing means further being configured to receive a response message from the approval system and to indicate to the user whether a refund associated with the one or more purchases has been validated.
An apparatus comprising an approval station having:
- approval station input means configured to receive a token, the input means comprising a reader operable to read a machine readable user identifier that identifies the user;
- approval station processing means configured to obtain information from an approval system that holds or has access to transaction information identifying one or more purchases associated with the token;
- an output interface configured to present to an official details of the one or more purchases and/or of the user associated with the identifier.
An apparatus comprising an approval system, the approval system having:
- access to storage for transaction information identifying one or more purchases associated with a token;
- approval system storage for rules defining eligibility for a tax refund;
- approval system processing means operable in response to a validation request message that is received from a validation station and that identifies the token and a user to determine whether to validate a refund associated with the one or more purchases based on the token for the user and to transmit a validation response message.
An apparatus comprising an operator host system having:
- storage for storing transaction information identifying one or more purchases in association with a token and a merchant identifier;
- and
- processing means responsive to transaction information that identifies one or more purchases associated with a token from a merchant system to store the transaction information identifying one or more purchases in association with the token and the merchant identifier, the processing means being further operable to transmit the transaction information identifying with one or more purchases associated with the token to an approval system.
An apparatus comprising a merchant system having:
- merchant system input means configured to receive a token identifying a user and/or details of one or more purchases,
- merchant system processing means operable to transmit a transaction message to an operator host system, the transaction message defining one or more purchases associated with a token and a merchant identifier.
A computer implemented method of processing a refund comprising:
- in response to a user making one or more purchases, recording transaction information representative of the one or more purchases associated with a token;
- and
- in order to validate a refund, a validation station receiving input of a machine readable user identifier and the token;
- and
- an approval system that holds or has access to the recorded transaction information determining whether to validate a tax refund for the one or more purchases for an eligible user, eligibility being determined from information from the machine readable identifier;
- the validation station indicating to the user whether a refund associated with the one or more purchases has been validated and in response to positive validation, effecting a refund.
The method of claim 386, wherein the approval system determines, on the basis of pre-defined rules, whether to validate a refund associated with the one or more purchases based on the token and the identity of the user.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.