Before traveling to Europe, I have googled about the VAT tax refund and read from there that most of them are getting back their refund like 2-3 months after. One of the worst I've read is that the guy only got it back like 18 months later and that was really long huh.
I am going to share about my VAT tax refund experience here. I purchased bags in Paris using my credit card and the staffs in the shop will asked you if the VAT tax refund to be credited back to the credit card which is most of the case. I'm not sure about using cash though, as in how do they refund the tax back to you if you're purchasing by cash. You can easily google about it and you can check out France VAT tax refund here as reference. There are only 2 simple steps to follow during VAT tax refund.
First things first, the customs do not care who did the VAT tax refund so long as the person doing it is the person who has filled in the VAT tax refund form (the shop will actually helped you to prepare one, so no worries). In the tax refund form, it is written as 19% tax but minus off those administration fee / handling fee / whatsoever fee it comes to 12% only but it's a lot still. So, don't freak out on why it is written as 19% but in the end they are giving you back 12% only.
Secondly, you must have your items for VAT refund with you, in case the officer wanna check it out. But in hubby's case, the officer just asked him whether the goods are with him and he replied yes and that's all.
You're done with the VAT refund and now you just need to check your credit card statement whether they have credited it back to the card. In my case, it just took them 2 weeks plus to refund it back to the credit card which kinda surprised me as I do not expected it to be that fast. Anyway, developed countries are more efficient than our own country right?! It has always been that way, sigh.
*If you are traveling around Europe and you have made purchases early in the trip, you will only need to do your tax refund at the last embarking country which means the last Europe country you are at before leaving back to Malaysia. In my case, we went from Kuala Lumpur --> London --> Paris --> Rome --> London --> Kuala Lumpur. Those bags were bought from Paris, thus making the VAT tax refund should be at London Heathrow Airport. You can also ask the staffs in the shop for any information on this.
