Infinia Poor chargeback experience with HDFC Infinia for Cleartrip Smartbuy transaction

[niks]

I had a not so good experience with raising a chargeback request for a Smartbuy transaction I did on my Infinia card.

In Dec'24, I had booked a 2-day stay with Azaya Beach Resort Goa using my HDFC Infinia card through Smartbuy. The partner was Cleartrip who in turn (as I found out from the hotel) had booked through Expedia.

On arriving at the hotel, I discovered that the hotel was a disaster. Far from being a 5-star hotel as advertised, there was hardly any staff, rooms were terrible, no water in the bathrooms, and so on. I immediately spoke to the manager on phone (there was none on duty) and we finally negotiated that I will check out immediately & they will process the refund back to the original source within 7 days. I requested them to send me an email confirming the same and he promised he will send it the next day when he is back at work. I had no choice & left the hotel.

After I returned from my trip, when I tried to call the manager, he started blocking my calls & did not send me any email.

Hence, I called up Cleartrip support & raised a ticket. Cleartrip asked me to send them a written communication from the hotel confirming they are willing to refund. I explained to them that they are not responding to my calls & emails. Cleartrip themselves wrote to & called the hotel property but the hotel did not respond to them as well. Surprisingly, the hotel is a Cleartrip partner, but Cleartrip just closed the ticket claiming no response from the hotel.

After a few days, I finally raised a dispute with HDFC Bank and asked for a chargeback. I informed them that both the hotel & Cleartrip have been of no help. HDFC also unfortunately took the same stance that they need an email confirmation from the hotel to process the refund. I explained to them that I am not raising a “refund” matter but a “disputed chargeback” because the hotel is acting fraudulently & not responding either to me or to Cleartrip. However, HDFC refused to entertain any request for a “chargeback”.

Finally, I happened to visit Goa again last week & again visited the Hotel. After being confronted face to face, the hotel staff finally sent me a mail confirming they agree to the refund & based on that Cleartrip finally processed the refund.

I am disappointed at HDFC Infinia’s so called great service since they avoided calling it a “chargeback” or “dispute” and every time treated this as a “refund” case. Probably, HDFC cannot go against its own Smartbuy partners and cannot raise a chargeback against their own partners? For me all is well that ends well, but the Infinia support was surprisingly disheartening.

 

[Sobirvs]

From experience, I think Citi India, when they were operational were the most customer friendly in this process. You call customer care - they understand your complaint - give a temporary credit immediately & ask you to send all the documents / evidence that you have for them to investigate. If found correct, the temporary becomes permanent and if not they will debit the amount again to the cc statement post completing the investigation.

Correct. Citi again, follows international standards. It's not an Indian bank as we all know. Most bank has this process, just that nationalised banks likes sbi, hdfc, icici etc think all their customers are as dumb as their mainstream customers, so they treat every customer equally like that lol.

they understand your complaint - give a temporary credit immediately

Alright, so let me clear this part - Temp credit isn't given to you by the bank, it's given to you by the merchant's business bank account. The trxn merchant does, is reversable for 6 months thru visa/mc network except in cases of OTP fraud cases because in those cases trxn is initiated by the customer so requires FIR/Complaint copy.

In US , a customer can't do chargeback under "fraud" reason code if the trxn goes through otp/verification/authentication. Yes, this exists in US/Internationally too. But the diff is, in India, it is mandated for any gateway provider to do otp verification, but in US, it's upto the merchant if they need this service. It's called payer authentication for gateways, but visa calls it verified by visa, mc calls it mastercard securecode. Services like OF, Money transfer services specifically use this service (it costs $10 for a merchant and 0.10c/trxn - prices can vary depending on merchant's volume).

What does payer auth do? It shifts the liability the the customer bank or customer. Basically if a cx calls bank and says fraud happened with him/her for a trxn done thru payer authentication, bank will simply tell the customer to F**k off(not literallly), and won't initiate the chargeback. Actually bank won't even find an option to initiate the chargeback for that specific trxn as visa/mc disables that option for the bank. However a trxn done thru payer auth can be charged under a diff reason code like - duplicate trxn, or services not received, or defective product/services.

So just to clear - that temp credit is given by merchant. Btw merchant has no option but to let the temp credit go to customer bank, as merchant has no other option. Merchant does have one option, he can stop this debit by calling his bank, but then if he does that, the gateway/merchant account provider has to pay to the customer as temp credit. If this ever happens, gateway provider will simply put the merchant's merchant account on hold,m hold all his future trxns/deposits, and also start a rolling/OH reserve on him which means his whole business get's into jeopardy.

 

[drmsiva]

From experience, I think Citi India, when they were operational were the most customer friendly in this process. You call customer care - they understand your complaint - give a temporary credit immediately & ask you to send all the documents / evidence that you have for them to investigate. If found correct, the temporary becomes permanent and if not they will debit the amount again to the cc statement post completing the investigation.

Yes, Citi was also good. I also had good experience with them.

 

[Beyond]

I had a not so good experience with raising a chargeback request for a Smartbuy transaction I did on my Infinia card.

In Dec'24, I had booked a 2-day stay with Azaya Beach Resort Goa using my HDFC Infinia card through Smartbuy. The partner was Cleartrip who in turn (as I found out from the hotel) had booked through Expedia.

On arriving at the hotel, I discovered that the hotel was a disaster. Far from being a 5-star hotel as advertised, there was hardly any staff, rooms were terrible, no water in the bathrooms, and so on. I immediately spoke to the manager on phone (there was none on duty) and we finally negotiated that I will check out immediately & they will process the refund back to the original source within 7 days. I requested them to send me an email confirming the same and he promised he will send it the next day when he is back at work. I had no choice & left the hotel.

After I returned from my trip, when I tried to call the manager, he started blocking my calls & did not send me any email.

Hence, I called up Cleartrip support & raised a ticket. Cleartrip asked me to send them a written communication from the hotel confirming they are willing to refund. I explained to them that they are not responding to my calls & emails. Cleartrip themselves wrote to & called the hotel property but the hotel did not respond to them as well. Surprisingly, the hotel is a Cleartrip partner, but Cleartrip just closed the ticket claiming no response from the hotel.

After a few days, I finally raised a dispute with HDFC Bank and asked for a chargeback. I informed them that both the hotel & Cleartrip have been of no help. HDFC also unfortunately took the same stance that they need an email confirmation from the hotel to process the refund. I explained to them that I am not raising a “refund” matter but a “disputed chargeback” because the hotel is acting fraudulently & not responding either to me or to Cleartrip. However, HDFC refused to entertain any request for a “chargeback”.

Finally, I happened to visit Goa again last week & again visited the Hotel. After being confronted face to face, the hotel staff finally sent me a mail confirming they agree to the refund & based on that Cleartrip finally processed the refund.

I am disappointed at HDFC Infinia’s so called great service since they avoided calling it a “chargeback” or “dispute” and every time treated this as a “refund” case. Probably, HDFC cannot go against its own Smartbuy partners and cannot raise a chargeback against their own partners? For me all is well that ends well, but the Infinia support was surprisingly disheartening.

Do rbi bamboo to HDFC's behind.
This bank is going worse day by day.

 

[rimtesh]

i have vip membership of cleartrip, i am getting 10% extra vip discount when Booking through their own application but to when trying to book via HDFC smart buy, I am not being prompted to login to cleartrip account, I am not being offered the extra 10% discount because of this.

 

[trooper]

Feel free to ask me anything about chargeback.

Hi. I came across your post when someone posted it in a reddit comment.

I am cross posting my dilemma here. Would appreciate if you could guide me.

So I ordered a Washing Machine on 15th July from Samsung Shop, using my HDFC Credit card. Delivery date mentioned was 18th July. They didn't deliver and now each passing day, they keep asking me to wait another 48 hours. Delivery partner is Shadowfax and it's lying in their warehouse since 16th July, which is an hours drive from my place, max.

And now we're without a machine at home for a week since the old one went kaput and had to be disposed of.

I cannot cancel, since samsung has an INR 3000 cancellation policy.

So my question is, if I make a chargeback claim, can I ask HDFC to make it permanent? Because say Samsung attempt delivery the machine after 3-4 days, and even if I reject it, they'll penalise me 3k for rejection/cancellation. I can't even mail them saying I've made a chargeback claim, because I think they'll twist it into a cancellation. And because of this pickle I can't even order a new machine. I don't even know how long to wait after chargeback since I cannot intimate Samsung of the same, and will have no idea when and if the dummies from shadowfax show up with the machine.

Any inputs?

Thanks in advance

 

[Sobirvs]

Hi. I came across your post when someone posted it in a reddit comment.

do link the post you are talking abt, I am on reddit but never noticed my content there.

And before I give my input, I would want to put some facts to some of your points so people know their rights and have clarity on some scenarios so I will quote some of your statements for this, so let's go.

I cannot cancel, since samsung has an INR 3000 cancellation policy.

well samsung was upfront abt this with you, hence they have an upper edge. Initiating a chargeback isn't about if a bank allows u or not, if the customer says so, then banks have to initiate chargeback but you winning the chargeback totally depends on the bank, they can't use bias, and they can't choose sides, all depends on the evidence and paperwork.

So my question is, if I make a chargeback claim, can I ask HDFC to make it permanent?

hdfc or anyone can't make it permanent. Chargeback can never be permanent. It is a temp process. You ask bank to initiate chargeback and within 90 days(nowadays 30 days) chargeback result comes, mostly 99% of the times the decision is permanent but again, it's not, as customer can start 2nd chargeback too called arbitration, where it is some kind of betting system which you can't afford and merchant can afford but they always decide not to go ahead with it as it's a gamble for them. So your question itself here is invalid.

I can't even mail them saying I've made a chargeback claim, because I think they'll twist it into a cancellation.

Twist? No, they will hate you for it, no merchant likes chargeback's. You are basically abusing chargeback process against them. You may have a right to use chargeback system but is it morally right? well that's subjective to merchant and you. Forget abt what merchant will twist it into, chances are samsung might blacklist you as a customer for future purchases on their platform for any product. Chances are less of that happening as samsung is huge so they might not care BUT it doesn't mean they can't, it's all on samsung to see what action they want to take.

I don't even know how long to wait after chargeback since I cannot intimate Samsung of the same

You can initiate chargeback anytime once the trxn has settled in your credit card outstanding. The only thing that stops a customer to chargeback is if the trxn is still in authorized form and not settled. I hope you know what is settling of a trxn, it takes 1-3 business days to settle a trxn on an average and merchant has max 5 days (depends on card brand visa/mc, both have diff timelines) to capture/settle a trxn in their POS(offline)/PG(online).

My INPUT :

Well the trxn happened 4-5 days back and case isn't abt fraud or anything major. It seems you found a better deal perhaps or something else hence u want to back out, if that's not the case, I apologize but I wouldn't advise for chargeback. Chargeback should be considered as a last option. Usually customer has nothing to lose when you initiate a chargeback other than losing access to merchant's product profile that too isn't 100% confirmation, as depends on merchant.

Delayed delivery policy of visa/mc isn't usually enforced. They will start the chargeback and once Samsung puts the evidence that cx(customer) got the delivery even if delayed, bank reversing the temp credit is guaranteed. Also depends on samsung if they even reply to chargeback, big merchant usually don't for virtual goods(poker chips, app purchase etc) But it's a physical good hence they probably will.

Visa/mc has specific reason codes as to why you initiated the chargeback, major of them are

1. fraud.
2. goods/services defective
3. goods/services didn't received
4. duplicate charge

etc etc

your case will go on goods not received right? yep. If they put chargeback in any other category, merchant will for sure put evidence to nullify your CB(chargeback) request. So if you go with 3rd option, I have already told you what can happen above. Btw if you don't care for consequences by samsung to you, then goahead with chargeback with goods not received coz let's face it, samsung missed a deadline here. So you do have a case regardless small or big. Don't over explain to hdfc, just say this is the trxn, merchant name is this, you want to initiate dispute/chargeback. That's it. If they ask for more info, say I was told I'll get the product on XY date which I didn't hence this. If they ask u any more info, tell them that's none of their fckn' concern, you are exercising your right for chargeback (as bank can't tell u if u can chargeback or not, this right is given by visa/mc and bank is just a member of visa/mc network, they don't own the network).

Once chargeback is done, and if hdfc ask u for paperwork, give invoice and delivery date screen shots etc and also samsung's policy for delivery/shipping.

Now if you receive the product, it's your call if u want to reject. If you reject, then you don't have a upper hand anymore. I would accept it. We can always see what happens in future. If samsung does something then u can always tell them to pick their junk machine , return back and tell them to foff. The whole thing is abt keeping an upper hand and chargeback process means you have an upper hand.

This whole process also can mean there is 1% chance you get to keep the machine and money both lol but don't count on it. It all depends on how serious samsung is for a 20k-40k loss of machine cost. But it also means if u get the machine and money back both, then u can negotiate with samsung, if they call u can tell u won't pay a single penny and also will keep the machine. Don't get afraid if they say they will put a legal case lol, that's scary tactics. Then if they are willing to negotiate, say you will pay 50%? or 80% (depends on u) of machine cost as coz of their delivery delay, you faces mental harassment and lost money in the process as you had to go to your hometown and you had to cancel/miss your flight(excuse) lol, they might ask for ticket to confirm haha idk. Anyways samsung will negotiate and then sell u the machine for 50-70~ % of the cost as delivery anyways will cost them.

Do all this at your own risk but remember you won't lose any money though. You don't have anythign to lose here. Upto you. If I was in ur situation, I won't initiate chargeback just for moral reasons (which again is subjective).

 

[trooper]

do link the post you are talking abt, I am on reddit but never noticed my content there.

And before I give my input, I would want to put some facts to some of your points so people know their rights and have clarity on some scenarios so I will quote some of your statements for this, so let's go.


well samsung was upfront abt this with you, hence they have an upper edge. Initiating a chargeback isn't about if a bank allows u or not, if the customer says so, then banks have to initiate chargeback but you winning the chargeback totally depends on the bank, they can't use bias, and they can't choose sides, all depends on the evidence and paperwork.

hdfc or anyone can't make it permanent. Chargeback can never be permanent. It is a temp process. You ask bank to initiate chargeback and within 90 days(nowadays 30 days) chargeback result comes, mostly 99% of the times the decision is permanent but again, it's not, as customer can start 2nd chargeback too called arbitration, where it is some kind of betting system which you can't afford and merchant can afford but they always decide not to go ahead with it as it's a gamble for them. So your question itself here is invalid.


Twist? No, they will hate you for it, no merchant likes chargeback's. You are basically abusing chargeback process against them. You may have a right to use chargeback system but is it morally right? well that's subjective to merchant and you. Forget abt what merchant will twist it into, chances are samsung might blacklist you as a customer for future purchases on their platform for any product. Chances are less of that happening as samsung is huge so they might not care BUT it doesn't mean they can't, it's all on samsung to see what action they want to take.

You can initiate chargeback anytime once the trxn has settled in your credit card outstanding. The only thing that stops a customer to chargeback is if the trxn is still in authorized form and not settled. I hope you know what is settling of a trxn, it takes 1-3 business days to settle a trxn on an average and merchant has max 5 days (depends on card brand visa/mc, both have diff timelines) to capture/settle a trxn in their POS(offline)/PG(online).

My INPUT :

Well the trxn happened 4-5 days back and case isn't abt fraud or anything major. It seems you found a better deal perhaps or something else hence u want to back out, if that's not the case, I apologize but I wouldn't advise for chargeback. Chargeback should be considered as a last option. Usually customer has nothing to lose when you initiate a chargeback other than losing access to merchant's product profile that too isn't 100% confirmation, as depends on merchant.

Delayed delivery policy of visa/mc isn't usually enforced. They will start the chargeback and once Samsung puts the evidence that cx(customer) got the delivery even if delayed, bank reversing the temp credit is guaranteed. Also depends on samsung if they even reply to chargeback, big merchant usually don't for virtual goods(poker chips, app purchase etc) But it's a physical good hence they probably will.

Visa/mc has specific reason codes as to why you initiated the chargeback, major of them are

1. fraud.
2. goods/services defective
3. goods/services didn't received
4. duplicate charge

etc etc

your case will go on goods not received right? yep. If they put chargeback in any other category, merchant will for sure put evidence to nullify your CB(chargeback) request. So if you go with 3rd option, I have already told you what can happen above. Btw if you don't care for consequences by samsung to you, then goahead with chargeback with goods not received coz let's face it, samsung missed a deadline here. So you do have a case regardless small or big. Don't over explain to hdfc, just say this is the trxn, merchant name is this, you want to initiate dispute/chargeback. That's it. If they ask for more info, say I was told I'll get the product on XY date which I didn't hence this. If they ask u any more info, tell them that's none of their fckn' concern, you are exercising your right for chargeback (as bank can't tell u if u can chargeback or not, this right is given by visa/mc and bank is just a member of visa/mc network, they don't own the network).

Once chargeback is done, and if hdfc ask u for paperwork, give invoice and delivery date screen shots etc and also samsung's policy for delivery/shipping.

Now if you receive the product, it's your call if u want to reject. If you reject, then you don't have a upper hand anymore. I would accept it. We can always see what happens in future. If samsung does something then u can always tell them to pick their junk machine , return back and tell them to foff. The whole thing is abt keeping an upper hand and chargeback process means you have an upper hand.

This whole process also can mean there is 1% chance you get to keep the machine and money both lol but don't count on it. It all depends on how serious samsung is for a 20k-40k loss of machine cost. But it also means if u get the machine and money back both, then u can negotiate with samsung, if they call u can tell u won't pay a single penny and also will keep the machine. Don't get afraid if they say they will put a legal case lol, that's scary tactics. Then if they are willing to negotiate, say you will pay 50%? or 80% (depends on u) of machine cost as coz of their delivery delay, you faces mental harassment and lost money in the process as you had to go to your hometown and you had to cancel/miss your flight(excuse) lol, they might ask for ticket to confirm haha idk. Anyways samsung will negotiate and then sell u the machine for 50-70~ % of the cost as delivery anyways will cost them.

Do all this at your own risk but remember you won't lose any money though. You don't have anythign to lose here. Upto you. If I was in ur situation, I won't initiate chargeback just for moral reasons (which again is subjective).

I like how you bring up the fact about morality, with only certain assumptions.

My case is simple. My old machine went kaput(I even have proof of handing it over to Selsmart recycling on the 17th). I had to get a new one, and I have samsung appliances across 3 homes in our family, so I went ahead with it.

As far as chargeback is concerned, no i don't have a better deal anywhere else. Rather the Samsung deal was the sweetest and I'll be taking a ~8k loss for getting a similar machine from LG or higher loss if I opt for Bosch.

The case is simple. I'm sitting without a machine here, with 3 senior citizens in the house. There's no big conspiracy going on. I took a 2 day delay too into account, but still Samsung can't assure me by when they can deliver the product. This isn't a TV or a microwave which most folks can live without, neither we are in Antarctica where you can go weeks without changing clothes.

I can't cancel it because of the fees. Ya maybe I should have foreseen this situation, but I've ordered stuff from them before and all the orders went on smoothly. And you can't blame me to expect timely delivery, in a city like Mumbai of all places in this country.

My only question is if I initiate chargeback, can samsung try recovering the 3k cancellation fees from Visa/MC if and when I reject delivery tomorrow or a week from now? The reason I ask is so that I can raise chargeback, get a machine from somewhere else, reject the delivery if Samsung ever shows up and get on with my life.

I don't have any intention of keeping the product and the money too. By any miracle if Samsung show up within a day or two, I'll inform HDFC to reverse the chargeback and close the dispute, if that's even possible.

I had posted my query here, and a fellow redditor linked your post in the comment:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCardsIndia/s/lc41cd7xks

 

[Sobirvs]

And you can't blame me to expect timely delivery, in a city like Mumbai of all places in this country.

tbh I wasn't accusing or blaming u for anything, I just stated scenarios which I thought might be related to your case. I apologize if you sound my post sounded against you or blaming you.

I agree washing machine is quite important. I myself have lived alone for more than a decade and never bought washing machine and used subscription service where they pick up clothes 4 times a month and I pay monthly fees. Since I have gotten married, I know washing machine is quite important.

You did have an option to buy it locally via samsung authorized dealer, and many a times I have seen better deals offline compared to online for consumer durable products. My dad has consumer durable biz for different brands/products for the same and I bought 9kg AI top samsung washing machine front load fully automatic in feb 2025, and I got it for about 25k I think but my dad told me offline deal for same product was almost same but as he is my dad, he said to take it free(Which ofc i won't) but i asked for a deal which gives me the best price without my dad incurring loss, so he said he could have let it go for 22k and then in few weeks my dad told me he bought alot of stock for the same and now he can let it go for 19k haha, anyways, I already bought it off amazon so I was happy with small regret, but it's fine.

My only question is if I initiate chargeback, can samsung try recovering the 3k cancellation fees from Visa/MC if and when I reject delivery tomorrow or a week from now? The reason I ask is so that I can raise chargeback, get a machine from somewhere else, reject the delivery if Samsung ever shows up and get on with my life.

sorry this scenario will get complicated. Better to initiate the chargeback and still accept the delivery of the machine to keep an upper hand otherwise samsung can get the whole amount from your bank and you'll end up with a loss and then samsung will have full rights to dictate how to give u refund or if they even will with subtracting the cancellation fee.

I don't have any intention of keeping the product and the money too. By any miracle if Samsung show up within a day or two, I'll inform HDFC to reverse the chargeback and close the dispute, if that's even possible.

Good for you that you have morals but chargeback work on practicality/paperwork not morals. Your morality will end up making a loss for you. If you are fine with that, sure initiate a chargeback and reject the delivery, your call.

Just to clear something, once you close the dispute yourself, you lose the right to initiate the same chargeback again. Bank doesn't have the right to stop you to initiate a chargeback but they do have the right to stop you to initiate a chargeback which either you have closed or you have lost acc to visa/mc policies.

 

[trooper]

tbh I wasn't accusing or blaming u for anything, I just stated scenarios which I thought might be related to your case. I apologize if you sound my post sounded against you or blaming you.

It's cool. Even I noticed later that you had already apologized in case what you said sounded like an allegation. I'm in a bit of a disturbed headspace with all this.

sorry this scenario will get complicated. Better to initiate the chargeback and still accept the delivery of the machine to keep an upper hand otherwise samsung can get the whole amount from your bank and you'll end up with a loss and then samsung will have full rights to dictate how to give u refund or if they even will with subtracting the cancellation fee

So my only safe option is to initiate a chargeback and wait it out. Because I don't want to deal with the circus of getting a new machine and dealing with one more from Samsung if at all it ever turns up. This is a ridiculous situation to be in.