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FINANCE - A ghost payment has come into the Help Desk - what do I do?

Ghost Payments

1) What are ghost payments and when are we to expect potential ghost payments?

Ghost payments are when a client reports paying for one of the elements below, but not having access to whatever they paid for in COL (i.e. paying for a program but not seeing the program in their list) and also seeing that it has been charged on their card without issue.

  • Registration
  • Participation
  • Program application
  • Translation deadline
  • ERAS
  • Force payment (added by finance)

2) How are ghost payments reported?

    1. Client Services
      • Clients reports it through help desk via call, chat or e-mail.
    2. Finance
      • Finance does a reconciliation every day, if they notice a ghost payment, clients are contacted through Zendesk by finance directly.
      • Finance is aware of every ghost payment.
        • Except for registration - if the client information is not properly provided Finance cannot contact them.   
    3. Operations
      • Reported through Registration failure

3) What are the expectations of Client Service when a ghost payment is reported? 

  • Search in Zendesk to see if there is an existing ticket for a possible ghost payment for that applicant and if no existing ticket exists, you can also refer to the BATCH RECCONCILIATION.xlsx to see if they are on the Finance Ghost payment list.  
    • For a call or a chat: if an existing ticket exists, or they are on the BATCH RECCONCILIATION.xlsx , advise the applicant that finance is aware and will be dealing with the issue shortly. If the applicant is reaching out for the first time regarding this issue, and is not on the BATCH RECCONCILIATION.xlsx create an internal note within the ticket and assign it to Josee. The internal note should include:
        • First and last name
        • CaRMS ID
        • Email on file
        • The ghost payment that happened (was it during registration? program application? translation?)
    • For an email. Initially reply stating that their request was received and that it is being sent to finance and that they should hear back within 5 business days. Regardless of whether an existing ticket exists or if they are on the BATCH RECCONCILIATION.xlsx , assign the ticket to Josee.

If not a critical deadline: (Application deadline, for example):   

Keeping the above process in mind, you can advise the client of the following two options:

  • We will send the issue to finance, they can wait for refund, and try again once refund is completed.
  • We will send the issue to finance, they can try again in meantime, have two charges for time being, wait for refund.

If critical deadline:

If the deadline is critical, it is more important to ensure that the applicant pays what they need to as soon as possible. The following two options are possible:

  • Send to finance, try again, have two charges for time being, wait for refund.
  • Send to finance, use Gen’s CaRMS credit card if the applicant mentions their credit limit is exceeded. 

Regardless of ticket type (call, chat or email) assign the ticket to Josée (jclement@carms.ca) for action on her part.

4) What are the expectations of Finance when a ghost payment is reported? 

  • Tracks via Batch reconciliation (see link reported above) refunds them, contacts applicants who are impacted via Zendesk.
  • Responds to tickets that are sent over from Client Service. 

5) What are the expectations of Operations when a ghost payment is reported? 

If there is ghost payment at registration, ops has to change an e-mail in COAT (Find this process).