What is a refund?
A refund is a standard cancellation that you as the merchant submit from the GoPay system, either from the interface (GoPay business account) or via the API. It is therefore a payment dispute submitted by the merchant. A refund can also be carried out by GoPay, provided that you as the merchant agree.
What should you bear in mind for cancellations to go smoothly?
To make cancellations run smoothly, the Mastercard card scheme has issued recommendations that you should follow.
The most important recommendations are the following:
1. A payment dispute should not exceed a period of 6 months from the date the payment was made
A payment should be refunded at the latest within 6 months of the date of the original purchase, unless stipulated otherwise, for example by law or by other relevant regulation.
2. A refund request must be submitted no later than 24 hours after the cancellation confirmation is issued
You must submit the refund request at the latest within 24 hours of giving the customer confirmation that the refund will be carried out.
3. The card issuer may reject the refund request
It can happen that in some situations, such as an invalid card or a closed bank account, the card issuer (the customer's bank) rejects the refund. This means that the bank will not return the payment.
You should cover such cases in your complaints procedure and offer customers another way of returning the funds, in cash for example.
Summary
The recommendations above are essential for handling payment disputes smoothly and avoiding potential chargebacks (a dispute raised solely by the customer).
Incorporate the changes into your complaints procedure to prevent any misunderstandings on the part of card issuers (= banks).