Matchy holds the founder's payment in escrow and releases funds to the developer milestone-by-milestone. This page explains when refunds happen, how to raise a dispute, and how we decide.
1. Before work starts
- If a project is cancelled before any milestone begins, the founder receives a full refund of escrow.
- Matchy may retain a small platform fee (₹500 or 2% of escrow, whichever is lower) to cover transaction costs.
2. Milestone acceptance
Each milestone has explicit acceptance criteria written in the PRD. The founder has 72 hours after a developer submits a milestone to:
- Accept — milestone funds release to the developer.
- Request changes — clearly note what doesn't meet acceptance criteria. The developer has 72 hours to address.
- Raise a dispute — escalate to Matchy if there's a real impasse.
If the founder does not respond within 72 hours, the milestone auto-releases — we cannot hold escrow indefinitely.
3. Raising a dispute
Either party can raise a dispute by clicking "Dispute" on the project page or emailing disputes@thematchy.com with the project ID and a brief description.
- Escrow is frozen until resolution.
- Both sides submit evidence within 5 working days.
- Matchy reviews against the milestone's acceptance criteria and the project chat history.
- Resolution within 7–10 working days.
4. Possible outcomes
- Refund to founder: if work materially fails to meet acceptance criteria.
- Release to developer: if work meets criteria or the founder's objections are out-of-scope changes.
- Split: when partial work was delivered, escrow is split in proportion to completed work.
- Mediated rework: we may extend the milestone with new acceptance criteria agreed by both parties.
5. Chargebacks
Filing a payment chargeback bypasses our dispute process and breaches the Terms of Service. We will defend valid escrow releases and may close the account of a party who chargebacks in bad faith.
6. Platform commission on refunds
When a milestone is fully refunded, Matchy refunds its commission too. On partial releases, commission applies only to the portion released.
Contact
Disputes: disputes@thematchy.com
General: hello@thematchy.com