Refund, underpayment and wrong-network policy
Plain English on what happens when a payment does not go exactly to plan. This policy applies to every payment made through Swtch Pay and forms part of our terms of service. Merchants should link to it, or restate it, in their own terms of sale.
The basics
- USDC, PYUSD and Bitcoin transfers are final once confirmed on the network. Nobody can reverse them, including us.
- The payment page shows the exact amount to send and the network to send it on. It watches the network live and updates by itself.
- Each payment address is one-time and expires. Sending after expiry, sending the wrong amount, or sending on the wrong network is handled as described below.
Refunds
Refunds are issued by the merchant, not by Swtch Pay. If you are a shopper who wants a refund, contact the store you bought from. Their refund terms apply to whether one is given. Full and partial refunds are supported, up to the original payment amount.
How a refund reaches the shopper
- Apps like Cash App, Venmo, PayPal, Coinbase and Robinhood send payments from shared addresses, not from an address that belongs to the shopper. So a refund is never sent back to the address a payment came from.
- When the merchant starts a refund, the shopper gets a secure, one-time link, usually by email. On that page they paste their own receive address from the app or wallet they paid with.
- The refund is sent in the same coin and on the same network the shopper paid with: PayPal USD (PYUSD) on Solana for Venmo and PayPal payments, and USDC for the other apps. The page names the coin and the network, and only accepts an address for that network.
- The link works for 14 days. If it is not used in time, the refund expires and nothing is sent. The merchant can start a new one.
Who sends it
- By default, Swtch Pay sends the refund and deducts it from the merchant's Swtch Pay balance, which reduces their next payout.
- For USDC payments, the merchant can choose to send the refund from their own wallet instead. Swtch Pay confirms it on the network automatically.
- Either way, each refund that is sent carries a per-refund fee, set in the merchant's Swtch Pay pricing and deducted from their Swtch Pay balance. No fee is charged for a refund that is cancelled or expires.
- Refunds of Bitcoin payments are handled by Swtch Pay support at the merchant's request.
After it is sent
- Most refunds arrive within minutes. The shopper sees the refund in the app or wallet whose address they gave, and the refund page links to the transaction.
- Like payments, refunds are final once confirmed on the network. Swtch Pay cannot recall a refund sent to the address the shopper gave, so shoppers should copy the address from their app's Receive screen, on the network the page names.
- The transaction fee on the original payment is not refunded. It covered a transfer that did complete.
Underpayment
If a shopper sends less than the total shown, the order is not marked paid. The payment page shows the amount received and the shortfall, and the shopper can send the difference to the same address before it expires. Once the full amount has arrived, the payment completes normally.
If the shortfall is not sent before the address expires, the payment fails and the order is not fulfilled. The amount that did arrive belongs to the shopper. They should contact the merchant, who asks Swtch Pay support to return it. It is sent to a receive address the shopper gives, less any network cost of sending it back.
Overpayment
If a shopper sends more than the total, the payment completes and the order is marked paid. The extra amount is credited to the merchant. The shopper can ask the merchant to return the difference, and the merchant issues it as a partial refund, which reaches the shopper as described under Refunds.
Wrong network or wrong asset
The payment page states which network to use (for example, USDC on Solana or PYUSD on Solana) and which asset. Sending the right asset on a different network, or a different asset entirely, means the transfer does not reach the payment address in a form we can detect, and the order is not marked paid.
- Some wrong-network transfers can be recovered. The shopper should contact the merchant with the transaction hash, and the merchant raises it with [email protected]. Recovery is assessed case by case, may take several business days, and may carry a network cost that is deducted from the recovered amount.
- Some cannot be recovered at all, in particular assets sent to an address on a network where we do not operate. We will tell you promptly if that is the case.
- Swtch Pay is not liable for funds sent to the wrong network, the wrong asset, or an address other than the one shown on the payment page.
Expired payment pages
Each payment address is valid for a limited time, shown on the page. Funds sent after expiry are not applied automatically. If this happens, the shopper should contact the merchant with the transaction hash so the payment can be matched or returned.
Fees on failed or refunded payments
- Merchants are never charged a fee for a payment that expired or failed.
- The transaction fee on a completed payment is not returned when that payment is later refunded.
- Each refund that is sent carries the merchant's per-refund fee, deducted from their Swtch Pay balance, whether Swtch Pay or the merchant sends it. The fee never reduces what the shopper receives: they get the full refund amount. A merchant who sends a refund from their own wallet also pays their own network fee.
- Network costs of returning a partial, late or wrong-network payment are deducted from the amount returned.
Contact
Shoppers: contact the store you bought from first. Merchants: [email protected], with the order id and transaction hash.