It was an item that was never in stock to begin. They weren’t sure how I managed to place the order. I paid with a straight bank transfer, no debt or credit.
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There are a few ways that this could play out. Imagine you buy an item from an online store. You check the bank and your money is gone. But in reality, the money isn’t gone yet. The transaction has simply passed through a network of processors, to reach your bank. Your bank knows that someone is going to claim this money soon so they prevent you from spending it. They will also not show this money when you look up your balance.
The next step is for the merchant to “settle” your transaction. Here is where they will take a big batch of payments, and send them to their processor. (In some cases, they don’t actually do this and it’s just taken care of by the processor automatically). It’s at this stage that money starts to move from one account to another, but it can take a few days.
If you do a refund after settlement happens, it’s generally the same thing in reverse. The money is placed on hold in the merchants account, goes through the settlement process, and eventually gets back to you.
Its also possible for a refund to be instant. If the original transaction has not been settled, then it can be voided. In this case, there are a couple of ways that it can happen. Traditionally, a void would have just been removing the transaction from the settlement, and after a few days, the hold would expire on your account. Then you can spend your money again.
It’s becoming more common nowadays for voids to be “online”. In this case, the void is sent through the network, makes it to your bank, and the hold can be removed immediately.
Source: Am software dev for a payments company
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