Flexible payment gateway refund process is are one of the reasons why customers can trust online commerce. The easy returns and refund policy provides an added advantage to any eCommerce business.
As per an online source, the returns at physical stores are at 8 %, whereas when the product is bought online it goes up to 25%. Further, a survey says that 92% of customers would buy again if the return process is convenient and 79% of customers demand the free shipping of returns.
The average refund time window is around 7 – 14 working days. The time taken varies as per the payment method used by the customer while making the payments. Also, the refund is credited to the same source account from where it was deducted, for example, if the payment was made from the wallet, it would be received in the same wallet account.
If you are looking for information related to why do refunds take time? Or What happens in the payment gateway refund process? , you may visit this blog from here => Refunds | Reasons for why Refunds take a long time to Process
The payment gateway refund process in different situations
1. When the payment was failed but the amount was deducted
Under this situation, an auto-refund is processed to the customer. The situation occurring here would be like this – if you have referred to the blog mentioned above you would know that the transaction information is passed from issuing bank to acquiring bank (payment gateway bank) through the card network, and every party involved in the payment process checks the status of the transaction. During this, the issuing bank (customer’s bank) deducts the amount however the transaction at the acquiring bank fails.
It takes up to 24 hours for the payment gateway to get the actual status with the acquiring bank in such a type of transaction. If the final status is failed then the transaction is auto-refunded to the customer whereas if it is successful then the payment is settled to the merchant. With the Paykun Delayed Capture feature, if the reconciliation is done after 24 hours then the payment is auto-reversed and not settled.
In this scenario, the refund is processed automatically and the payment gateway is involved only in the reconciliation process.
2. When the payment was successfully processed and Seller refunds due to any reason
3. When the payment was successfully processed and the Buyer requests the refund
This article is more about situations 3 and 4, in both of these cases, the Refund can be initiated by the Merchant himself. Payment Gateway is involved in the process but it is not authorized to initiate the refund.
The merchant can issue a partial or full refund from their PayKun Merchant Dashboard. When the refund is being initiated by the merchant through the payment gateway, the payment gateway acts as a mediator in the back and forth authentication requests. Various parties are involved in the authentication process comprising a lot of manual human interventions and procedures (this is the main reason for the delay in refund).
So, for the Refund requests, you need to contact the merchant directly or you may drop an email to the payment gateway who in turn would forward your request to the merchant.
(The merchant would deal with the refunds as per their Return and Refund policy)
Conclusion-
When a customer shops online they want the cushion of a smooth payment gateway refund process and easy returns. In a way, it is required, because the customer is not able to touch or feel or experience the product or service when they buy it and if it does not match his requirements they would not want their money to be wasted. On the other hand, the customers take undue advantage of these services and so the merchants need to keep a strict refund and return policy as per their business model.
