Refund and Disputed Payment Policy

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This policy indicates the respective responsibilities of Estratos Digital and the Clients using the LUNDA donation form in case a LUNDA user (donor) requests either a refund or disputes a payment. 
The responsibility to issue refunds lies with the clients/campaigns using LUNDA as their fundraising tool. However at LUNDA we believe that campaigns should be open to issuing refunds for donations as long as the claims of the donor are reasonable.

If you are a donor and you are interested in a refund, please contact us at info@lundadonate.org

This policy is an integral part of the contract between the Client and Estratos Digital and is binding on both Parties. 
Non fulfilling the obligations of this policy can lead to the unilateral termination of the contract by Estratos Digital.

Any amount still owed to Estratos Digital as a result of the application of this policy will be recovered using all relevant legal resources.
Following a donation any LUNDA user may alternatively:

• Contact either the concerned LUNDA Client or Estratos Digital to ask for a refund of their donation (refund)

• Contact the respective bank or issuer of credit card to block the payment (disputed payment)

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Refunds 

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• ​For the purposes of this Policy, a refund means a repayment of the financial donation to the donor.

• The responsibility to decide whether to refund a donation to a given user rests entirely on the concerned LUNDA Client.

• The norms concerning donations and the right to receive refunds can change across jurisdictions. Estratos Digital would be available to discuss, and advice Clients as needed on the situation in their country.

• Equally, all refunds need to be paid uniquely by the respective LUNDA Clients. Estratos Digital can handle the refund process through Stripe but it cannot pay on behalf of the Client refunds requests.

• In general terms, Estratos Digital encourages a positive attitude of LUNDA Clients towards refund requests to prevent them from becoming disputed payments (see below) and possibly harm the reputation of the Client concerned or LUNDA, and Estratos encourages that the Client issues refunds within 48h since the requested is made whenever the donor claims a mistake or any other reasonable justification agreeing in the terms set out below.

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 Process for refunds if the donation is received through STRIPE 

• A refund request is initiated when a user contacts alternatively the concerned LUNDA Client or Estratos digital to ask for a refund of their donation.

• If the user has contacted the LUNDA Client directly, the Client can initiate a refund by clicking on the corresponding button on the LUNDA Interface. 

• If the Client has contacted Estratos Digital, we will immediately inform the Client accordingly and the Client can initiate a refund by clicking on the corresponding button on the LUNDA Interface.

• A refund can only be initiated if there is a sufficient balance in the LUNDA Client Stripe account. If the balance is lower then the amount to be refunded the Client is responsible for topping up their Stripe account.

• Provided sufficient funds are available, upon refund initiation, the LUNDA Stripe account will claim the concerned amount from the Client Stripe account and refund the user concerned.

• The refund button on LUNDA Interface will only be available for a period of 120 days since the donation was made.

• If the client has not refunded a donation within this time frame any eventual refund will need to be processed directly by the client through its own means.

Process for refunds if the donation is received through PAYPAL (only applicable to clients who have activated PAYPAL app) 

• In case of donations made by a donor through Paypal, the refunds are solely the responsibility of the concerned Client. In this scenario, nobody in the LUNDA team can be involved in the refunds process.  

• The client should directly refund donations received through Paypal through the means most convenient to them.

• As Estratos does not take part in the refund process within Paypal, any refunded amount is not reconciled on the LUNDA metabase and will not be visible on the LUNDA account of the client.

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Disputed payments
 

• For the purposes of this Policy, a dispute (also known as a chargeback) occurs when a donor questions a payment with their bank or card issuer. 

• As in the case of refunds, the decision to accept or challenge a disputed payment rests entirely with the LUNDA Client.

• Equally, the refunded amount to the user in case of disputed payment is legally the responsibility of the respective LUNDA Clients. 

• The fees that are accrued for disputed payments are the responsibility of Estratos Digital and will not be charged on the Client.

• Estratos Digital strongly encourages Clients to avoid payments to be disputed. We stand ready to provide support to Clients to minimize the risk of disputed payments.

• Estratos Digital reserves the unilateral right to terminate a contract with a Client if the number of disputed payments exceeds the average number of disputes for similar clients. In this case, the Client is responsible for paying Estratos back all the chargeback fees incurred due to its missconduct.

Process for disputed payments

• Disputed payments are directly initiated by the LUNDA user who contacts either its bank or credit card issuer depending on the payment method the LUNDA user used for the donation.

• Disputes can be initiated by the LUNDA user within 120 days since the donation was made. 

• When an account owner (donor) files a dispute against a payment (donation), their bank alerts Stripe and Stripe notifies Estratos and Estratos will notify the client accordingly.

• There can be three types of disputes: 

               a. Unchallengeable disputes: some kinds of disputes cannot be challenged under the rules of the card                               network they were processed on.  In general, Stripe immediately closes them as lost as soon as the                                 notification has been made, and there is no opportunity to present evidence to the issuer. 
                b. SEPA disputes: Unlike credit card disputes, all SEPA Direct Debit disputes are final and there is no appeal                        process. Any disputes within this period are automatically honoured. This is a feature of SEPA Direct Debit                      as a payment method and Stripe has no control.
                c. Challengeable disputes: (see below). 

• In the latter situation, (challengeable disputes), the LUNDA Client has three options (to accept or respond within 7-21 days): 

1. Counter a dispute (typically resolves in 40–90 days)
   - Submitting evidence to the card issuer that invalidates the dispute claim before the deadline.
   - Wait for card issuer final decision

2. Accept dispute
   - Means you reviewed it and made a decision not to challenge it.
   - The dispute will be marked as lost
   - Estratos still need to pay the dispute fee

3. Do nothing
   - Technically same outcome of accepting one

• ​The Client can decide whether to accept or challenge the disputed payment. If the Client challenges the disputed payment it will need to inform Estratos accordingly so that we can proceed with activating the disputed payment process.

• The credit card issuer or the bank will take the final decision in case a disputed payment is challenged.
  When a payment is disputed, the money is automatically deducted from Estratos Lunda account.

• Estratos will thereupon claim the same amount from the Client Stripe balance. If the Client does not have sufficient balance the money will be deducted nevertheless and its balance will go negative until more funds are again available. 

• Stripe will also issue a corresponding fee for disputed payments handling. This fee is the responsibility of Estratos Digital.