The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has gone live with its ‘UPI-Help’ feature on BHIM UPI payments interface. “The redressal mechanism will create a superior and hassle-free experience on issue resolution for BHIM UPI app users,” NPCI said in a statement.
The UPI-Help will enable BHIM UPI users to use the app for the following: check status of pending transactions; raise a complaint for transactions that have not been processed or money not credited to the beneficiary; raise a complaint for merchant transactions.
UPI-Help can resolve complaints online for person-to-person (P2P) transactions. In addition to this, in case of pending transactions where the user doesn’t take any action, the UPI-Help shall also proactively attempt to auto-update the final status of the transactions on the app.
The UPI-Help feature has gone live on the BHIM app initially for the customers of State Bank of India, AXIS Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. Customers of Paytm Payments Bank and TJSB Sahakari Bank shall also be able to take advantage of UPI-Help soon. Users of other banks participating in UPI will be able to access UPI-Help in the coming months.
To raise a complaint on the BHIM UPI app, you need to select the transaction for which you wish to raise a complaint under the option 'raise a complaint'. There will be two options: 'raise concern' and 'call bank'. If you choose ‘raise concern’, it will open an online complaint form where you can fill in the details and submit them. Alternatively, you can speak to the customer service department by choosing 'call bank'.
“The UPI-Help system is an example of the convergence of technology and innovation for future-proofing customer grievance redressal mechanisms. The UPI-Help going live on BHIM UPI will instill a sense of confidence and further encourage more users to get on-boarded into the digital payments ecosystem owing to the enhanced confidence for their UPI transactions,” NPCI further said.
If you are unsatisfied with the grievance redressal through the app, customers can also escalate their complaints to the digital payments ombudsman. In fact, the RBI is planning to integrate the existing ombudsman schemes for banks, non-banking finance firms and digital wallets. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had recently announced, as part of his monetary policy statement, that this centralised mechanism would be called ‘One Nation One Ombudsman’ from June 2021.