Payments

Saanjha never holds your money.

Most marketplaces sit between the buyer and the seller and release funds later. Saanjha does not. The buyer pays the seller directly, at the moment the goods change hands — which turns out to be safer for both of them than an escrow account.

How that compares Returns & refunds policy

The principles

Six consequences of not being in the middle.

The money goes buyer to seller

UPI straight to the seller’s own ID, or cash at handover. Saanjha is not in the middle of the payment and does not hold a rupee of it.

Settlement is instant

There is no settlement cycle to wait out, because there is nothing to settle. A seller has the money the moment the buyer pays.

You inspect before you pay

Pay at handover and you see what you are buying first. For fresh produce bought by weight, that matters more than any guarantee written afterwards.

Nothing is deducted from a sale

A platform that never touches the money cannot skim it. Where Saanjha charges for something, it is billed openly and separately.

Every amount is itemised

Goods, delivery and any adjustment are recorded as components rather than one lump sum, so a disagreement has something factual to start from.

Advance payment is the exception

Paying before handover is treated as the risky path, not the default. Between a new buyer and a new seller it is blocked outright.

How you can pay

Cash, UPI, or prepaid — set by how the order is delivered.

There is no single Saanjha payment method, because there is no single kind of order.

Cash at handover

The recommended option for a buyer and seller dealing with each other for the first time. Zero technology, nothing to reconcile, and you inspect before you pay.

UPI to the seller

Straight to the seller’s own UPI ID. The confirmation is recorded against the order so there is a record of what was paid, and for what.

Prepaid

Where a seller and buyer already have a working relationship, or where a delivery model requires it. External delivery partners do not collect cash.

A store’s own delivery staff can accept cash, UPI or prepaid. Shared Saanjha delivery partners take UPI to the store, or prepaid, under the initial operating model.

How delivery works

Why not escrow

Escrow solves a problem this does not have.

Holding a buyer’s money until delivery exists to bridge the gap in time between money moving and goods moving. When your neighbour hands you the bag in the lobby, there is no gap to bridge.

Paying at handover closes the gap entirely, and it is self-enforcing: the buyer has the goods in their hands and the seller has the money in their account, at the same moment.
It removes the platform’s float, the payment-aggregator fees, and the reconciliation that comes with holding other people’s money.
It is honest about what it gives up. Without escrow there is no forced refund and no deducted commission — which is why disputes, ratings and verification carry more weight here than they would on a platform that can simply reverse a transaction.

When something is wrong

Returns, refunds and disputes.

Fresh produce sold by weight goes wrong in ordinary ways — a short weight, a substitution, something that did not travel well. The process assumes that rather than treating every claim as fraud.

1
Raise it in the app against the order, with a photo where it helps.
2
The seller sees exactly what is being claimed and can respond.
3
Small, clear-cut claims are settled quickly; the rest go to a person.
4
The outcome is recorded against both sides, and can be appealed.

Who bears the cost

Set by what actually happened — a short delivery is the seller’s, a change of mind is the buyer’s. Delivery costs can be store-borne, customer-borne, shared or promotional depending on the order.

Abuse cuts both ways

Repeated unfounded claims are tracked the same way seller behaviour is. An enforcement system a motivated buyer can weaponise is its own failure mode.

Returns & refunds policy Grievance redressal

Being straight about it

What we are not saying.

Not “free forever”. Nothing is deducted from a sale today, and the model structurally cannot deduct from money it never holds. Where Saanjha charges for something in future, it will be billed openly and separately — never skimmed.
Not a payment guarantee. Because there is no escrow, Saanjha cannot force a refund out of a seller’s account. What it can do is record what happened, apply it to that seller’s standing, and act on a pattern.
Not a substitute for care. Pay at handover, check what you are given, and prefer cash the first time you deal with someone new. The product is built to make that the easy path.

Money that goes where it is meant to.

Straight from the household that owes it to the business that earned it.

For local stores Read the FAQ