1. Who this applies to

This process applies to any payment taken by Red Swift Systems Ltd (company no. 14891467, England & Wales) through our own billing system, rather than through an app store's billing. That includes purchases and subscriptions made:

  • inside our Android apps distributed on Google Play using an alternative billing system (a payment flow operated by Red Swift Systems or our payment processor rather than Google Play's billing system);
  • through our websites, web apps and customer portals;
  • by invoice, direct debit or card-on-file for a Red Swift Systems product or service.

An unauthorised transaction is a charge made using your payment details, or against your account, that you did not make, did not permit, and did not benefit from — for example after a stolen card, a compromised login, or a purchase made by someone else without your consent. Charges you did agree to but later regret, or subscriptions you forgot to cancel, are not unauthorised; those are handled under our refund and cancellation terms, and we're still happy to help with them via the same contact below.

2. How to raise a dispute

Contact us as soon as you notice a charge you don't recognise. The quickest route is email:

Disputes & unauthorised transactions

This mailbox is monitored on business days (Monday to Friday, excluding UK public holidays). You do not need to have an account with us to raise a dispute — if your card was charged, you can contact us.

You can also write to us at our registered office (see Contact). Disputes raised by any channel are handled under the same process and timelines.

There is no fee for raising a dispute, and raising a dispute will never on its own affect your access to a product you have legitimately paid for.

3. What to include

To let us find the transaction and act quickly, please include as much of the following as you can:

  1. The date and amount of the charge, and the currency if it isn't GBP.
  2. How the charge appears on your card or bank statement (the merchant descriptor).
  3. The last four digits of the card charged. Please never send us a full card number, CVV or PIN.
  4. The email address or account name associated with the app or service, if you have one.
  5. Any receipt, order number or confirmation email you received.
  6. A short description of why you believe the charge was unauthorised — for example, "I've never used this app", "my card was reported stolen on this date", or "someone else had access to my device".

If you don't have all of this, contact us anyway. We can usually locate a transaction from the date, amount and last four digits alone.

4. What happens next

We treat every unauthorised-transaction dispute as a priority. Our commitments:

Within 2 business days
We acknowledge your dispute, give you a reference number, and tell you if we need anything else from you. Where the charge is a recurring subscription, we pause future billing on the affected account while we investigate.
Within 10 business days
We complete our investigation and tell you the outcome in writing. This involves reviewing the transaction records, the account and device the purchase was made from, our payment processor's fraud signals, and any information you've provided.
Within 5 business days of a decision to refund
We issue the refund to the original payment method. Depending on your bank or card issuer it may take a further 3–10 business days to appear on your statement.
If we need longer
In rare, complex cases (for example where a third party's records are required) we may need up to 30 business days. If so, we'll tell you before the 10-day point, explain why, and give you a new date.

All timelines are counted from the business day after we receive your dispute. We'll keep you updated by email at the address you contacted us from, unless you ask us to use another.

5. Possible outcomes

  • Dispute upheld. We refund the unauthorised charge in full to the original payment method, cancel any associated subscription, and — where an account was compromised — help you secure or close it.
  • Dispute partially upheld. Where only some of the charges in a series were unauthorised, we refund those and explain which were not and why.
  • Dispute not upheld. If our investigation shows the transaction was authorised (for example, made from your verified device and account and the product was used), we'll explain our reasoning and the evidence we relied on. You can ask us to review the decision by replying to the outcome email with any new information, and a different member of the team will look at it again. This doesn't affect your right to go to your card issuer, bank or any of the bodies listed in section 8.

We do not charge any fee, and we do not withhold refunds because a subscription has been partly used, where the underlying transaction was genuinely unauthorised.

6. Protecting your account

While we investigate, we recommend you also:

  • contact your bank or card issuer if you believe your card details have been stolen — they may need to cancel and reissue the card;
  • change the password on your Red Swift Systems account and on the email address linked to it, and enable two-factor authentication where available;
  • check your device for other apps or accounts you don't recognise.

If we find evidence that an account has been compromised, we may temporarily suspend it to prevent further unauthorised charges. We'll tell you if we do this and how to regain access.

7. Purchases through Google Play

Our Android apps on Google Play may offer you a choice between Google Play's billing system and Red Swift Systems' own billing system at the point of purchase.

  • If you paid using Red Swift Systems' billing (the charge appears on your statement from Red Swift Systems or our payment processor, and your receipt came from us), this dispute process applies. Google does not hold your payment details for these purchases and cannot refund them; please contact us directly.
  • If you paid using Google Play's billing (the charge appears as GOOGLE*Red Swift or similar, and your receipt came from Google), the purchase is governed by Google Play's terms and refund process, which you can start at support.google.com/googleplay. We'll still help you work out which route applies if you're not sure.

Google is not a party to purchases made through our billing system and is not responsible for resolving disputes about them.

8. Your other rights

Nothing on this page limits your legal rights. In particular:

  • You may dispute an unauthorised card payment directly with your bank or card issuer (a "chargeback") at any time, whether or not you have contacted us first. Under the UK Payment Services Regulations 2017 your payment provider must generally refund an unauthorised payment by the end of the next business day unless it has reasonable grounds to suspect fraud on your part.
  • If you are in the UK and unhappy with how we have handled your dispute, you may refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service where it falls within their remit, or seek advice from Citizens Advice.
  • If you are in the EU, you may also use the European Commission's Online Dispute Resolution platform or your national consumer authority.
  • Your statutory rights as a consumer under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and equivalent local law are unaffected.

9. Contact

Email: disputes@redswift.systems
Post: Disputes, Red Swift Systems Ltd, registered in England & Wales, company no. 14891467.
General enquiries: via our contact form.

This page is published at https://redswift.systems/disputes. We may update it from time to time; the effective date above will change when we do. Personal information you send us in connection with a dispute is handled under our Privacy Policy and is used only to investigate and resolve the dispute and to meet our legal obligations.

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