Took payment but won't let me book: can a golfer be charged without a booking?
Being charged without a booking is the complaint that ends trust. How OpenTeeSheet ties the charge to the booking, and refunds the cases where they come apart.
Updated 2026-10-24. Every quote links to where it was published.
In owners' own words
“Took payment but won’t let me book appointments.”
What it is
A booking and its payment are two records in two systems: the venue's calendar and the card processor. They can come apart when a checkout is slow, a payment webhook arrives late or twice, or two golfers race for the same bay. A golfer who is charged and has no booking, or who has a booking the venue was never paid for, stops trusting the venue.
How OpenTeeSheet does it
| The booking is confirmed, and the door code issued, only after the payment succeeds. | Pinned by automated tests: booking-payments.test.ts, booking-finalize.test.ts |
| A payment that lands on a booking whose 30-minute checkout hold already expired is refunded once, even if Stripe replays the webhook; a late-cancel booking that kept its payment is never refunded by mistake. | Pinned by automated tests: webhook-ordering-realdb.test.ts |
| A card charged after the session window ended is refunded automatically, and the golfer is emailed to say why. | Pinned by automated tests: late-payment-golfer-told.test.ts |
Not built or not measured yet
Not built yet: a scheduled check that compares every Stripe charge with a booking row and alerts the owner to any mismatch. Today each known way they can come apart is handled where it happens.
What owners report from other tools
Reviews of booking apps in nearby markets describe being charged with no booking, and a charge that was then refused a refund.
Questions
- Can a golfer be charged without a booking?
- The known ways it can happen (an expired checkout hold, a late or replayed payment webhook, a payment after the session) each end in an automatic refund.
- When is the door code sent?
- Only after the payment has succeeded.
- Is the golfer told about an automatic refund?
- Yes, when a card is charged after the session window, the golfer is emailed with the reason.