Refund and Cancellation Policy

The short version

A donation to the temple is a voluntary offering, not a purchase. Once it is made we begin applying it to the seva you chose — feeding people, caring for the cows, building the temple — so donations are generally final and not refundable.

We do make exceptions, because payments go wrong. If you have been charged twice, charged the wrong amount, charged for a donation that never reached us, or charged without your authorisation, write to us and we will put it right.

When we will refund a donation

We will refund in full, without argument, in these situations:

Duplicate payment

The same donation went through more than once — you pressed pay twice, or the page retried. We refund the extra payments.

Wrong amount

An amount materially different from the one you intended was taken — for example a decimal point or an extra zero. We refund the difference, or the whole amount if you prefer to start again.

Money debited but donation not recorded

Your bank shows the debit but the donation does not appear against your name. Usually the bank reverses this by itself within a few working days. If it does not, tell us and we will trace it with the payment provider.

Unauthorised transaction

A donation was made using your card, account or UPI ID without your permission. Please report it to your bank as well — they can act faster than we can.

Our error

We charged you when we should not have, or a fault on our side caused the payment.

Beyond those, if you have simply changed your mind, write to us within7 days of the donation and we will consider the request. We will look at whether the money has already been spent on the seva and we will tell you honestly either way. We would rather you asked than felt uneasy about a donation.

What we usually cannot refund

• A donation where the seva has already been performed — the meals cooked and served, the fodder bought, the material laid.
• A donation made towards a festival or an event that has taken place.
• A donation for which you have already been issued a Form 10BE certificate and claimed a deduction, unless you are able to reverse that claim.
• Any part of a donation that a third party has retained — for instance a payment gateway fee that is not returned to us on a reversal. We will tell you if this applies and how much it is.

None of this is meant to be rigid. If your circumstances have genuinely changed, please talk to us.

Stopping a recurring seva

Some sevas — Nitya Seva and Ekadashi Seva among them — can be offered as a standing monthly contribution. You may stop one at any time, and you do not need to give a reason.

• Write to the temple office, or cancel the mandate in the donation system at seva.gnw.myiskcon.org where you set it up.
• Please allow a few working days before the next due date. If a payment has already been presented to your bank we may not be able to stop that one, but we will not take another.
• Contributions already made towards past months are not refunded — that seva has been performed.

You can also cancel a mandate directly with your bank or through your UPI app. If you do that, please let us know too, so our records match yours.

How to ask for a refund

Write to the temple office — by email to [to be confirmed by the temple], or by phone on 9555109773, 8800968857. There is no form to fill in.

Please ask us before raising a chargeback with your bank. A chargeback freezes the amount and takes far longer to resolve than a direct refund, and the temple is charged a fee for it. We will almost always resolve a genuine problem faster.

How long it takes

• We acknowledge your request within 2 working days.
• We decide within 7 working days, once we have traced the payment. If we need something more from you or from the payment provider, we will say so rather than leave you waiting.
• Approved refunds are sent back to the same account, card or UPI ID the donation came from — we cannot send a refund anywhere else. It typically reaches you within 5 to 10 working days after we release it, depending on your bank.

We will tell you when the refund has been released and give you the reference for it. If we decline a request, we will explain why.

What a refund does to your tax receipt

If we refund a donation for which a receipt has been issued, that receipt no longer stands and the donation cannot be claimed as a deduction under section 80G.

If we have already reported the donation to the Income Tax Department in Form 10BD, we will correct the report. Where a Form 10BE certificate has already been issued to you, please do not use it, and tell your tax adviser that the donation was refunded.

If you are not satisfied

If your refund request has not been dealt with properly, escalate it to our Grievance Officer, whose details are on the Contact page. Please include what you originally asked for and when.

This policy sits alongside our Terms and Conditions and ourDonation and Pricing Policy.