Online Shopping refund issues

[uziel]

I have been shopping online for almost 5 years now from most of the available e-commerce portals like Shopclues, eBay, Myntra, Zivame, Tradus, Indiatimes, rediff, Tastykhana, Justeat, StarCJ, Futurebazaar, Snapdeal, Hoeshop18, Pepperfry etc and what I have observed in common is for a failed transaction/cancelled orders, the refund does not come fast and quick, mostly you have to followup. In this internet age, when I am shoppng, I am paying instantly, within minutes, so why should refunds come back after 10-15 days!! Most e-commerce sites keep the funds with them deliberately to build their cash reserves to attract investors and to also do business with cash thats not theirs. As a policy they take time and refund at their convenience. I thought to raise this issue here and get members experience so that I can raise this issue at the ministry of commerce and Finance so that a policy is drafted in favor of the buyers. Please share your views. Thanx

 

[blkrb0t]

Yes, of course. They hold all the cards, and set the rules of the game too. It'll be very hard for you to prove that it's intentional in court.

 

[hotshot05]

I don't think the money is transferred to their account instantly after we make the payment at a payment gateway(like CCAvenue, BillDesk etc). I think it remains with the payment gateway and is only deposited into the eRetailer account on a specified date every month.
So when we need a refund, we tell the eRetailer and in turn they ask the Payment Gateway to refund the money. After that the buck is passed on to the Bank to display the amount in our account.

But this is only my theory and only those who work in the finance department of eRetailers or Payment gateways will be able to confirm it.

 

[Criminal]

... Most e-commerce sites keep the funds with them deliberately to build their cash reserves to attract investors and to also do business with cash thats not theirs...

no, that's not possible. such kind of money is captured under liabilities/accounts payable section and investors know where to look for money-not-owned by the company. only fraudsters (like Raju) maintain their books of accounts wrongly.

 

[mk151]

I don't think the money is transferred to their account instantly after we make the payment at a payment gateway(like CCAvenue, BillDesk etc). I think it remains with the payment gateway and is only deposited into the eRetailer account on a specified date every month.
So when we need a refund, we tell the eRetailer and in turn they ask the Payment Gateway to refund the money. After that the buck is passed on to the Bank to display the amount in our account.

But this is only my theory and only those who work in the finance department of eRetailers or Payment gateways will be able to confirm it.

I got a refund within 2 days from amazon USA . So, it's highly improbable that the Indian e retailers should face gateway issues and take 7-10 days for the same.

 

[6pack]

I don't think the money is transferred to their account instantly after we make the payment at a payment gateway(like CCAvenue, BillDesk etc). I think it remains with the payment gateway and is only deposited into the eRetailer account on a specified date every month.
So when we need a refund, we tell the eRetailer and in turn they ask the Payment Gateway to refund the money. After that the buck is passed on to the Bank to display the amount in our account.

But this is only my theory and only those who work in the finance department of eRetailers or Payment gateways will be able to confirm it.

Doesn't work like that. Payment gateways only facilitates transaction between merchant and bank. Money is credited by the bank immediately as soon as the merchant asks for it.
Fyi, CC gateways and banks process millions in transactions every day. Keeping a backlog of transactions for a whole month would not be possible.

So your money gets paid within hours of a successful transaction.

 

[blkrb0t]

And moreover, if payment gateways hold the payment for almost a month, or even 15 days, then are e-commerce sites delivering products before they even receive the money? Most of them deliver within a week. No fat chance that they will choose any payment gateway that will hold money for a certain duration of time. Even PayPal is forced to transfer money to the individual's bank account due to government's new rules.

 

[uziel]

Yes, the payments are transferred the same day 6PM closing time, if the bank is same, its instant as per the contract. In several refund cases of mine, the company instantly send me mail for successful refund and then its more than 10 days, no credit, when I chase them , they say, sir its business day and reset the SLA to 14 days and so on. The refund has to be instant and is has to be credited back in 24 hours max, any thing above is bad.

 

[hotshot05]

I was going through my Ebay mails today and noticed this in a refund processed mail -

You should be able to view the refunded amount of Rs. xxxx.xx in your credit card statement / account within 3-4 working days if your issuing bank is private bank else it may take 12-15 working days for nationalized bank.

Note: If you have paid using debit card the refund may take longer than 3 working days. In case there is a delay, please get in touch with your issuing bank.

Here they specifically mention that we should contact the issuing bank if the refund is not reflected in our bank account.

 

[uziel]

Yes and when we contact they bank, they have no idea what we are talking about and they turn us back to the company and we as usual are made fools.

 

[premiumseller]

Refund is processed by the merchant bank of the payment gateway mostly its citibank or sbi these days and it takes times due to different banks . Lot of transanction to be refunded . You are not the only one .

 

[asingh]

Yes and when we contact they bank, they have no idea what we are talking about and they turn us back to the company and we as usual are made fools.

Usually the bank acts as if you asked them the color of the grass growing on Mars. They are clueless, and send you back to the vendor.

 

[uziel]

Refund is processed by the merchant bank of the payment gateway mostly its citibank or sbi these days and it takes times due to different banks . Lot of transanction to be refunded . You are not the only one .

I do not agree, if I am not the alone, i am also not the alone to buy from tese sites, how do they get payments instantly but refunds takes time due to MANY people for refunds? These are just gimmicks.

 

[Criminal]

... how do they get payments instantly but refunds takes time...

the whole process is manual... you manually send them money and it gets transferred immediately. in case of refunds, someone manually needs to look into the issue and approve it for reverse transfer. from your side, there is only one person involved - that's you. but on the merchant's side, there are several individuals working at different stages. so, you can't compare your money transfer speed with that of merchant's.