Money that never passed through us cannot be sent back by us. On the direct-UPI rail, you make the transfer — this screen keeps the paper trail around it.
Step one — ask the buyer where to send it
On a refund that cannot go through the gateway, press Send the buyer a refund link. That mints a link to a page asking for their UPI id.
The link is shown exactly once
It is not stored anywhere you can read it back. Copy it before you leave the screen. If you lose it, Send another link mints a fresh one — but that also clears any address the buyer has already given, so you would be starting the whole exchange again.
Nothing emails this link for you yet. Sending it — WhatsApp, email, however you already talk to this buyer — is your job.
Step two — the buyer answers
They open the link and enter their own UPI id. That is deliberate and not negotiable:
Never type a UPI id on a buyer's behalf
An address the payer never confirmed is precisely the dispute this paper trail exists to settle. The buyer is the only one who can record where their money should go.
The link is submit-once — a leaked link cannot overwrite an address already given — and expires after 14 days. If they typo it, This UPI id is wrong — send a new link issues a fresh one and kills the old.
Step three — pay it, then record it
You will see their UPI id with a copy button. Make the transfer from your own banking app, then press Record the transfer I made and enter a reference.
Recording is bookkeeping, not payment
Nothing on this panel moves money at any point. The buttons record what you asked, what they answered, and what you did — so that in three months there is an answer to "when did they tell us this, and when was it paid".
The reference does not have to be a UPI UTR. Offline refunds are often paid by IMPS or NEFT, whose references look nothing like twelve digits, and a rule strict enough to reject those would just push you into inventing a number to get past the form.
Why the refund row stays "Failed"
Because the gateway refund genuinely did fail — there was no gateway payment to reverse. The row is a permanent record that this one was settled outside Razorpay, and the panel says so in place of a retry button. Once you have recorded the payout, the trail is complete even though the status never turns green.