Authorization and capture
Two distinct steps in a card payment: authorization confirms a card is valid and places a temporary hold; capture is the separate, later action of actually pulling those funds.
This two-step design is standard across the card industry — the hold lets a merchant confirm funds exist before doing any work, and capture stays separate so money is only pulled once the order is ready to fulfill. A third step, settlement, is the multi-party mechanics of captured funds actually moving between banks, usually on a fixed batch schedule.
A caller orders delivery and authorizes payment at 8:40pm. Fifteen minutes later, before the kitchen accepts it, the restaurant is out of a key ingredient and has to cancel. Because the order was never accepted, the authorization is released rather than captured — nothing was ever taken, so there's no refund to issue.
The most common mistake is treating “the payment went through” as one moment rather than a sequence with a real gap in the middle. A related one: assuming a void and a refund are the same remedy — voiding simply releases a hold; refunding requires an amount to have actually been captured first.
An authorization hold is treated as distinct from a settled charge throughout Dohos's payment design, with no specific bank-posting timing ever promised, covered on Order & payment terms.
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