Help Me Hank: Help Me Hank! Passport refund

Three travelers, two passports, you do the math. The stakes were high as the Helton family's vacation neared. It looked like mom would have to stay home.
 
Kathy Helton, traveler
"I was so worried."
 
The whole family had applied for passports in early February expecting them by mid-March. But when April Fools Day came and went and no passports, Mom, Kathy panicked. She called the National Passport Information Center and they said for a $60 expediting fee, their passports would fly to the front of the line. And it worked, passports came in the mail shortly after. Only two of them arrived- her husband's and her son's.

Kathy Helton, traveler
"I was shocked because they all went together in one packet."
 
Would Kathy get to St. Maarten? With one day until take off, she was told to go to the Boston Passport Agency where they'd print up her papers right away. And that they did.
 
Kathy Helton, traveler
"It was an all day event."
 
The vacation was great but when the family arrived home in the mail Kathy found another passport! The one she'd been waiting for but now no longer needed. Why should she pay to expedite a passport that arrived after she got home?
 
Kathy Helton, traveler
"I did think I was due a refund."
 
She sent her request to the State Department, but after one month no refund. She mailed another letter, asking again. Again, no response. To get this refund off the ground she tried something else.
 
Kathy Helton, traveler
"I'm going to call Help Me Hank."
 
Since when can you get a refund for your passport? We've done stories about long hours at the passport agency and delays after the passport law changed. But getting a refund? Turns out yeah!
 
If you didn't get the expedited service you paid for then you might get that $60 back. Last year they gave out 16,000 expedited fee refunds.
 
So why didn't Kathy get hers?
 
Turns out the passport office never charged her for it. We found there was no record of the transaction on her credit card statement. You can't get a refund on something you didn't pay.
 
Kathy Helton, traveler
"I'm glad it turned out the way that it did."

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