Grievance Redressal Policy

Introduction

CES Pay has a network of KYC compliant authorised/ designated merchants, through whom various financial activities are facilitated to customers.

This policy will apply to Merchants and will also act as guiding tool to the Merchants availing service of Bill Payment and other products/ services facilitated by CES Pay.

For the purpose of this Policy, the term ‘Merchant(s)’ shall mean the Merchant, availing service of Bill Payment and Merchants availing other products/ services facilitated by CES Pay.

Merchant Protection and Grievance Redressal Framework

CES Pay shall disclose all important terms and conditions in clear and simple language to the Merchants while issuing the merchant ID. These disclosures shall include:

• All charges and fees associated with the use of the Merchant ID.
• The expiry period and the terms and conditions pertaining to expiration of the contract.

CES Pay shall put in place a formal, simply disclosed Merchant grievance redressal framework, including designating a nodal officer to handle the Merchant complaints / grievances, the escalation matrix and turn-around-times for complaint resolution. The complaint facility, if made available on website / mobile, shall be clear and easily accessible. The framework shall include, at the minimum, the following:

• CES Pay shall disseminate the information of Merchant protection and grievance redressal policy in simple language.
• CES Pay shall clearly indicate the Merchant care contact details, including details of nodal officials for grievance redressal (telephone numbers, email address, etc.) on website, mobile wallet apps, and cards.
• CES Pay’s merchants shall display proper signage of the CES Pay and the Merchant care contact details.
• CES Pay shall provide specific complaint numbers for the complaints lodged along with the facility to track the status of the complaint by the Merchant.
• CES Pay shall initiate action to resolve any Merchant complaint / grievance expeditiously, preferably within 48 hours and endeavour to resolve the same not later than 30 days from the date of receipt of such complaint / grievance.
• CES Pay shall display the detailed list of its authorised / designated agents (name, agent ID, address, contact details, etc.) on the website / mobile app.

CES Pay shall create sufficient awareness and educate Merchants in the secure use of the CES Pay platform, including the need for keeping passwords confidential, procedure to be followed in case of loss or theft of card or authentication data or if any fraud / abuse is detected, etc.

CES Pay shall provide an option for the Merchants to generate / receive CES Pay account statements for at least past 6 months. The account statement shall, at the minimum, provide details such as date of transaction, debit / credit amount, net balance and description of transaction. Additionally, the CES Pay shall provide transaction history for at least 10 transactions.

CES Pay shall ensure transparency in pricing and the charge structure as under.

• Ensure uniformity in charges at merchant level.
• Disclosure of charges for various types of transactions on its website, mobile app, merchant locations, etc.
• Specific agreements for prohibiting them from charging any fee to the Merchants directly for services rendered by them on behalf of the CES Pay.
• Require each retail outlet to post a signage indicating their status as service providers for the CES Pay and the fees for all services available at the outlet.
• The amount collected from the customer shall be acknowledged by issuing a receipt (printed or electronic) on behalf of the CES Pay.

CES Pay shall be responsible for addressing all Merchant service-related queries.

CES PAY shall also display Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on its website / mobile app related to the platform.

Reporting of issues by Merchants:

• CES Pay shall ensure that its Merchants mandatorily register for SMS alerts and wherever available also register for e-mail alerts, for electronic payment transactions.
• The SMS alert for any payment transaction in the account shall mandatorily be sent to the Merchants and e-mail alert may additionally be sent, wherever registered.
• To facilitate this, CES Pay shall provide Merchants with 24x7 access via website i.e. www.cespay.in or any other website / SMS / e-mail / a dedicated helpline number.
• Further, a direct link for lodging of complaints, with specific option to report unauthorised electronic payment transactions shall be provided by CES Pay on its mobile app / home page of its website i.e. www.cespay.in or any other website / any other evolving acceptance mode.

CES Pay shall implement an effective mechanism of creating Merchant awareness on the risks and responsibilities involved in electronic payment transactions and Merchant liability in cases of unauthorised electronic payment transactions. Under the said mechanism, CES Pay shall inter alia regularly communicate with the Merchants and shall frequently run awareness campaigns, conducted in the middle of every 2-3 months.

CES Pay shall put in place a suitable mechanism and structure for reporting of the Merchant liability cases to the Board or one of its Committees. The reporting shall, inter-alia, include volume / number of cases and the aggregate value involved and distribution across various categories of cases. The Board or one of its Committees shall periodically review the cases reported by Merchants or otherwise, as also the action taken thereon, the functioning of the grievance redressal mechanism and take appropriate measures to improve the systems and procedures

A ‘failed transaction’ is a transaction which has not been fully completed due to any reason not attributable to the Merchant 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.

Terms like, Acquirer, Beneficiary, Issuer, Remitter, etc., have meanings as per common banking parlance.

T is the day of transaction and refers to the calendar date.

R is the day on which the reversal is concluded, and the funds are received by the issuer / originator. Reversal should be affected at the issuer / originator end on the same day when the funds are received from the beneficiary end.

The term bank includes non-banks also and applies to them wherever they are authorised to operate.

Domestic transactions i.e., those where both the originator and beneficiary are within India are covered under this framework.

Lodging and tracking of disputes and grievances

• Merchants shall be provided with web-based lodging disputes and grievances. As mentioned above, such facility shall be provided by the CES Pay (the issuer institutions with whom the Merchant has a relationship) with a mechanism to link / access the system put in place by CES Pay. The industry may progressively increase the variety of these channels.
• In addition to the above channels, in case of mobile phone-based systems like Unified Payments Interface (UPI), third party app providers (TPAPs) shall also provide Merchants with a facility to lodge disputes and grievances through the same mobile app used for making payments.
• The process of lodging the dispute or grievance shall be simple and involve only necessary minimum details. The system should be made capable of automatically fetching full details based on the information provided by the Merchant. The aspect of data confidentiality shall specifically be taken care of while designing such parameters.
• Once a Merchant has lodged the dispute or grievance, a unique reference number shall be allocated by the system. Facility shall be provided to the Merchants for tracking the status of the dispute or grievance using this reference number.

Ways to Reach Us

Website: Visit the “Contact Us” section on our website www.cespay.in, fill in the details of your query, and submit the form.

Email:  You can email your queries, concerns, feedback, and complaints to support@cespay.in