Refund online payments

This document describes how to issue refunds and how the refund for Alipay Online Payment works.

Scope

The information in this document applies to Alipay Online Payment products and AlipayHK online payment products, which includes the following ones:

• Cross-border Website Payment
• Cross-border WAP Payment
• Cross-border In-APP Payment
• AlipayHK - PC2Mobile
• AlipayHK - WAP
• AlipayHK - SDK

Overview

The following table describes the key information of online payment refunds.

Table 1. Key information for online payment refund

How to issue a refund

You can issue a refund by using the refund API for online payments (forex_refund) or by using Global Merchant Portal. Only transactions that are successfully paid can be refunded and the refund must be requested within the valid refund period. 

• API can be used to request either a synchronous refund or an asynchronous refund. 
• Global Merchant Portal can only issue asynchronous refund.

Synchronous refund

Use the refund interface forex_refund to issue a synchronous refund. In the request, the value of is_sync must be Y.  For more information about the API, see forex_refund.

After receiving the request, Alipay processes the refund and then returns the refund result to the merchant by using a synchronous response.

• If errors exist in the request, the refund fails.
• If the request is successfully accepted, Alipay process the refund, and

• If the merchant funds are sufficient for the refund, the refund succeeds.
• If the merchant funds are insufficient for the refund, the refund fails. Merchant can retry the refund by sending a new request.

Sample request

https://intlmapi.alipay.com/gateway.do?service=forex_refund&partner=2088021017666931&_input_charset=UTF-8&sign_type=MD5&notify_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.test.com&currency=USD&product_code=NEW_OVERSEAS_SELLER&out_return_no=Sync_Refund_Test001-1&out_trade_no=Sync_Refund_Test001&return_amount=0.5&gmt_return=20200212%2016%3A14%3A00&reason=%E4%B9%B0%E5%AE%B6%E4%B8%BB%E5%8A%A8%E8%A6%81%E6%B1%82%E9%80%80%E6%AC%BE&is_sync=Y&sign=89c8d32bc205f023677438e24d7da6ba

Sample response

The refund succeeds:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="GBK"?>
<alipay>
    <is_success>T</is_success>    
</alipay>

The refund fails:

<alipay>
<is_success>F</is_success>
<error>RETURN_AMOUNT_EXCEED</error>
<sign>d4af978a4f8c7f9cf7003ee3ee4244ed</sign>
<sign_type>MD5</sign_type>
</alipay>

Asynchronous refund

You can issue an asynchronous refund refund by using either the refund API or by using Global Merchant Portal.

API

Use the refund interface forex_refund to issue an asynchronous refund. In the request, is_sync can be empty, or the value of is_sync must be N. For more information about the API, see forex_refund.

After the request is sent, Alipay processes the refund and then notifies the merchant of the refund result according to following scenarios:

• If the errors exist in the request, the refund fails. Alipay returns the result by using a synchronous response.
• If the request is successfully accepted, Alipay first returns the request result to the merchant by using a synchronous response, and

• If the merchant funds are sufficient for the refund, Alipay processes the refund and sends the refund result to the merchant by using an asynchronous notification.
• If the merchant funds are insufficient for the refund, Alipay retries the refund every 6 hours, for 180 days.

• If the funds become sufficient, Alipay processes the refund and sends the refund result to the merchant by using an asynchronous notification.
• If the merchant funds are still insufficient after the 180 days, the refund fails. No notification is sent in this case.

Sample request

https://intlmapi.alipay.com/gateway.do?service=forex_refund&partner=2088021017666931&_input_charset=UTF-8&sign_type=MD5&notify_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.test.com&currency=USD&product_code=NEW_OVERSEAS_SELLER&out_return_no=Sync_Refund_Test001-2&out_trade_no=Sync_Refund_Test001&return_amount=0.01&gmt_return=20200212%2016%3A14%3A00&reason=%E4%B9%B0%E5%AE%B6%E4%B8%BB%E5%8A%A8%E8%A6%81%E6%B1%82%E9%80%80%E6%AC%BE&sign=96104d3492137faed791e83570b23870

Sample response

The refund request is accepted by Alipay and a synchronous response is returned:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="GBK"?>
<alipay>
    <is_success>T</is_success>    
</alipay>

The refund fails, and a synchronous response is returned:

<alipay>
<is_success>F</is_success>
<error>RETURN_AMOUNT_EXCEED</error>
<sign>d4af978a4f8c7f9cf7003ee3ee4244ed</sign>
<sign_type>MD5</sign_type>
</alipay>

The refund succeeds, and an asynchronous notification is sent:

https://www.mikascoffee.com/notify
notify_type=refund_status_sync
return_amount=0.01
notify_time=2019-09-04 18:07:27
out_trade_no=out_trade_no_20190826_204553
refund_status=REFUND_SUCCESS
sign=$$$
out_return_no=out_return_no_20190904_142349
currency=USD
sign_type=MD5
notify_id=201xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx9467

Global Merchant Portal

You can issue an asynchronous refund by using Alipay Global Merchant Portal. See the following steps for details:

1. Log into Alipay Global Site with your merchant account.

2. Go to Business Center -- My Transaction.

3. Find the specific transaction and click Refund. You can search the transaction with the transaction ID, or filter transactions by using the transaction time.

4. Enter the refund information and your payment password to issue the refund.

5. Click 确定 (Confirm) to confirm the refund.

You can then wait for the refund to be processed by Alipay. To obtain the refund result, you must find the specific transaction in Global Merchant Portal, or use the reconciliation service.