Customer Grievance Redressal Policy
Introduction
Cashfree Payments India Private Limited, a company incorporated under the Companies Act 2013, having its registered office at Vaishnavi Summit, No. 6/B, Summit, 80 Feet Rd, Koramangala 1A Block, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560034, (hereinafter referred to as “Cashfree”) provides payments solutions (including payment aggregator and gateway services) that helps businesses collect and disburse payments.
Cashfree facilitates a variety of Business Institutions (“Merchants”) to collect payments, from their end customers, through its powerful, scalable, tailor-made payments platform, for both domestic and international transactions. Cashfree offers multiple products to its Merchants, which allows the Merchants to collect payments in a secure, transparent, affordable, and convenient manner from their end customers. Being a service oriented financial services company, satisfaction of Merchants and the Customers using Cashfree, is of prime importance of Cashfree to maintain a lasting relationship, and to encourage Merchants and Customers to transact digitally in a safe and secured way.
Therefore, Cashfree has delineated this Policy, duly approved by its Board of Directors, to define mechanisms (a) to ensure that the Merchants and Customers are treated fairly and without bias always, and (b) to provide for an opportunity to the Merchants and the Customers to raise and/ or escalate their complaints within and outside Cashfree, if they are unsatisfied with Cashfree’s products or services.
Objective & Scope
Define Cashfree’s responsibility as a Regulated Entity.
Comply with the RBI’s policies, and all other relevant and applicable regulations.
Document protocols and principles for customer and merchant grievance redressal and dispute resolution, and to put in place systems, procedures and review mechanisms for customer and merchant complaints / grievances and to ensure prompt redressal of the same.
Define mechanisms through which the Customers can raise their concerns against suspected/ actual fraud, deception, or unethical practices against any of Cashfree’s Merchants.
Ensure that there is a mechanism for compensating customers expeditiously as required under the applicable laws.
This Policy is applicable to Cashfree, and all the products and services offered by Cashfree, including Cross Border Payments, its Merchants, Partners, Employees, Customers, and Agents doing business with Cashfree.
Governance & Oversight
The Board shall oversee the implementation of Cashfree’s Grievance Redressal framework and be responsible for approving the Policy, and any change thereafter, to set the tone from the top for continuous adherence to applicable laws and regulations and RBI’s directions. The Board shall appoint a Nodal Officer for the purpose of ensuring adherence to the Policy requirements.
The Nodal Officer shall, on a quarterly basis, monitor the complaint trends, corrective and preventive actions being taken to reduce complaints along with other customer focused initiatives to enhance customer experience, and along with the inputs from the senior management, if any, on the improvement of the quality of service delivered to customers, put the key results and recommendations to the Board for consideration. Senior Management shall include the Business Unit heads of the functions, contributing to the majority of grievances during the period under review.
Record Keeping
The records pertaining to customer complaints shall be maintained for at least five years after the business relationship is ended. Moreover, timely backup of system data of complaints shall be taken to ensure availability of data at all times.
Definitions
“Customer(s)” is defined as an end-customer who will be purchasing goods /services from the Merchants by making payment via different payment instruments.
“Merchant(s)” shall be a user of Cashfree’s services for accepting various payment instruments from the Customers for completion of their payment obligation.
“Complaint(s)” shall include service deficiency or error on the part of Cashfree in offering any service and /or non-conformance in any of the Cashfree’s product / process leading to a dispute / grievance by the Merchant or the Customer. Examples of such complaints -
Customer facing unreasonable delay (beyond delivery due date) or failure on part of the Merchant in delivering goods / services for which the payment transactions were processed using Cashfree services, and Merchant is not supporting the Customer;
Customers having noticed an unauthorised electronic fund in their account, and the funds were used to process transactions on Cashfree’s platform, and the Customer approached Cashfree through appropriate legal procedures;
Unreasonable delay (beyond the time communicated to the Customer by the Merchant) on refunding the transaction amount post refund confirmation;
Non-adherence to any instructions / circulars / guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India or any applicable law to Cashfree and/ or the Merchant;
Merchants not getting services as promised by Cashfree, including downtime of the payment gateway etc. or;
Any other issue pertaining to the transaction processed by Cashfree.
Grievance Redressal and Escalation Matrix
Merchants / Customers, having any Query, Feedback or Complaint, pertaining to the transactions they may have processed or attempted to process using Cashfree’s platform, or with regards to the product or services offered by Cashfree, may directly reach out to Cashfree via any of the following channels -
The Merchant / Customer can visit Cashfree Support Page - Support and refer to the information (provided in an FAQ format) for the specific queries / issues related to their complaints / grievances at https://www.cashfree.com/support/
Customers may also check the status of their transactions using the reference number provided by Cashfree at https://www.cashfree.com/en/report-issue
Upon receipt of the query, feedback or complaint from the Customer or the Merchant, a ticket is generated, and a unique reference number is allotted and the same is communicated via email. The Cashfree Support team shall respond to the grievance filed by the Merchant / Customer within 10 business days from the date of receipt of such complaint.
In the event that the Merchants or the Customers are not satisfied with the resolution provided for their queries or the complaints, they may use the following mechanisms to escalate their concerns to Cashfree.
Additionally, Customers may reach out to Cashfree through alternate channels, such as via their Issuing Banks where they face challenges regarding the non-delivery of goods / services or through Law Enforcement Agencies when they see an unauthorised transaction in their account, for which the process is detailed in the subsequent sections.
Level 1
In case the Merchant / Customer wishes to escalate the complaints / grievances, the Merchant / Customer can write to: escalations@cashfree.com.
Cashfree shall attempt to respond within 5 business days from the date on which grievance was filed.
Cashfree shall provide an option to the Customers / Merchants to seek / track the status of their grievances, throughout the lifecycle of a grievance, via email and / or through the merchant dashboard.
The Merchant / Customer may request for an update on the grievance in case any grievance requires more than the specified time period. The Merchant / Customer shall be kept updated on the status of their complaint(s).
If the Merchant / Customer is not satisfied with the response provided, the Merchant / Customer can go for the next level of escalations.
Level 2
In case the Merchant / Customer still has any complaint / grievance, the Merchant / Customer may escalate such complaint / grievance to Cashfree’s Grievance Officer, the details of whom are provided as follows:
Nodal Officer (Grievance Redressal): Fasih Abbas M
ADDRESS: Cashfree Payments India Pvt Ltd, Vaishnavi Summit,�No. 6/B, Summit, 80 Feet Rd, Koramangala 1A Block, Koramangala 3 Block, Koramangala, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560034.
E-MAIL: grievances@cashfree.com.
The Grievance Officer shall attempt to respond within 5 business days from the date on which grievance was filed.
The merchant/customer may request for an update on the grievance in case any grievance requires more than the specified time period. The Merchant / Customer shall be kept updated on the status of their complaint(s).
Level 3
If the Merchant / Customer is not satisfied with the resolution provided by Cashfree, or has not received a reply within 30 days of filing the complaint with Cashfree, then he / she can file the complaint with the RBI’s Integrated Ombudsman. Complaint lodging portal of the Ombudsman: https://cms.rbi.org.in/
Toll-Free Phone No: 14448Email ID: crpc@rbi.org.in
Address: Centralised Receipt and Processing Center, Reserve Bank of India, 4th Floor, Sector 17, Chandigarh, PIN – 160017
For more details about the RBI’s Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, please refer to the link: RBI Ombudsman
Cashfree shall display the Grievance Redressal Mechanism on its website, https://www.cashfree.com/support/, to increase the awareness of the same among its Merchants and the Customers.
Cashfree shall intimate the details of the Nodal Officer appointed for the purpose of grievance redressal to RBI and prominently display the details of the Nodal Officer on their website. Further, Cashfree shall also ensure timely submission of any ad hoc / periodic reports required by RBI related to Customer / Grievance Redressal.
Dispute Management/ Chargebacks Mechanism
A dispute, also known as ‘chargeback’, arises when a Customer raises a claim with the Issuing Bank for a purchase/transaction that was made on their account. Card networks and regulated entities such as National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) provide the rights to the cardholder/consumer to claim a chargeback for various reasons such as:
- Fraud transactions;
- Product/ services not delivered;
- Defective product or services are delivered;
- Duplicate payments/ double debits; etc.
The timeline(s) for raising such disputes may vary from card association to card association.
Chargeback Process
The chargeback process would involve parties such as the cardholder, the issuer, the acquirer, the processor, and the merchant who renders the goods or services, each of which has different responsibilities in the life cycle.
The overview of the process is as follows:
Broadly, where a customer has reached out to the Issuing Bank/other institution and has disputed the transaction made by them using his/her payment mode/mechanism on the merchant site, the following process is followed:
- The acquiring partner sends us a dispute notification to determine the validity of the transaction and we create a dispute corresponding to such transaction(s) in our system.
- Upon receiving such notification from the bank, Cashfree notifies the merchant with the dispute details to submit such supporting documents.
- Once the Merchant uploads such documents for evaluation, Cashfree further submits them to the banks for their review.
- The banking partner analyses the evidence/documents and determines whether the services are delivered by the Merchant as promised.
Chargeback Resolution
A chargeback case may have one of the following outcomes -
| Possibility | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Acceptance | When the Customer’s chargeback is valid, the Merchant may choose to accept the chargeback. An acceptance will result in a credit to the Customer’s account as per the network timelines and a permanent debit to the Merchant’s account. |
| Contestation/ Representation | When services / goods are rendered against the said payment, the Merchant can upload the relevant documents such as proof of delivery, service utilisation proofs etc. The documents hence submitted are further represented to the acquiring banks and subsequently to the issuers and networks. |
| Deemed accepted | In the event a chargeback is not represented / accepted by the Merchant within the given timeline, the chargeback is deemed as accepted and the decision is not reversible. As in the case of acceptance this too shall have a permanent debit to the Merchant’s Cashfree account. |
Refunds
Customers may request a refund from the Merchant due to reasons such as the non-delivery of goods or poor service quality. Merchants can initiate refunds against transactions with Cashfree payments, which are posted to the original method of payment unless otherwise agreed by the end Customer. Credits for such refunds or reversals (as detailed in the previous section) shall be routed back through Cashfree’s PA escrow account.
Failed transactions and reversals
As per RBI’s Notification on Harmonisation of Turnaround Time (TAT) and customer compensation for failed transactions, a ‘failed transaction’ is a transaction which has not been fully completed due to any reason not attributable to the customer such as failure in communication links, non-availability of cash in an ATM, time-out of sessions, etc. Failed transactions shall also include the credits which could not be affected to the beneficiary account on account of lack of full information or lack of proper information and delay in initiating a reversal transaction. Further, domestic transactions i.e., those where both the originator and beneficiary are within India were covered as part of the circular.
Therefore, Cashfree shall ensure that the reversals happen within the TAT prescribed in the guidelines, corresponding to the payment mode used, or provide compensation to the customer wherever there is a delay.
Fraud alerts from the LEA
As stated in the previous section, in the event Cashfree receives an alert from the Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) through NCRP portal, email communications from Income Tax Department, MHA etc., regarding unauthorised transaction in the Customer’s account, Cashfree shall take all reasonable steps to stop the transactions at the Merchant’s end to recover the funds or to take necessary proof to evidence that the goods / services were provided in good faith.
Cashfree shall also ensure to adhere to any other instruction received from the LEA. Cashfree has laid down a dedicated team to handle such requests, along with a Nodal Officer, who may be reached out at the following details -
Nodal Officer (LEA support)
ADDRESS: Cashfree Payments India Pvt Ltd, Vaishnavi Summit, No. 6/B, Summit, 80 Feet Rd, Koramangala 1A Block, Koramangala 3 Block, Koramangala, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560034
E-MAIL: cybercell@cashfree.com
Details of the Nodal Officer shall be updated on Cashfree’s website too
Review
This Policy is subject to review by the Board of Directors of Cashfree as and when deemed necessary. The Board of Directors shall annually review the functioning of the grievance redressal mechanism.
Obligation of Secrecy
Cashfree shall maintain secrecy regarding the Merchant / Customer information which arises out of the contractual relationship between Cashfree and the Merchant.
While considering the requests for data / information from the Government and other agencies, Cashfree shall satisfy themselves that the information being sought is not of such a nature that will violate the provisions of the laws relating to secrecy in the banking transactions. The exceptions to the said rule shall be as under:
Where disclosure is under compulsion of law.
Where there is a duty to the public to disclose.
Where the interest of bank requires disclosure; and
Where the disclosure is made with the express or implied consent of the Customer.
Applicable Regulations / Guidelines
RBI Guidelines on Regulation of Payment Aggregators and Payment Gateways as amended from time to time.
RBI Notification on Harmonisation of Turnaround Time (TAT) and customer compensation for failed transactions using authorised Payment Systems.
RBI Notification on Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2021.
Regulation of Payment Aggregator – Cross Border (PA - Cross Border) as amended from time to time.
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