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 Switch 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 Switch 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.
When a merchant issues a refund from their portal:
- The refund is sent in USDC to the address the payment came from. Full and partial refunds are supported, up to the original order amount.
- The transfer fee and the event fee that the shopper paid at checkout are not refunded. They covered a transfer that did complete.
- Refunds usually confirm within minutes. The shopper should check the wallet or app they paid from.
- If the shopper paid from an app that does not accept incoming transfers to the sending address, the merchant and shopper agree an alternative address before the refund is sent.
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 can return it from the portal as a refund, 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 from the portal.
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.
- Switch 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 the event fee for a payment that expired or failed.
- Fees the shopper paid on a completed payment are not returned when that payment is later refunded.
- Network costs of sending a refund or a recovery are borne by the party receiving the funds unless the merchant chooses otherwise.
Contact
Shoppers: contact the store you bought from first. Merchants: [email protected], with the order id and transaction hash.