In September 2023, Clement Aina deposited $480 into his Vella Finance account. His immediate younger sibling was about to leave for Canada, and Aina needed to keep money aside for him to survive the first few days in the foreign country.

To Aina, who is an information technology specialist, it was easier and safer to use fintech solutions for this purpose. He told FIJ that he decided to deposit the naira equivalent of $480 to preserve the value of his money for his brother’s journey. He concluded at the time that Vella Finance was the best option for this.

He had been using the service before then and he was familiar with the transaction process. However, the transaction would fail, triggering Aina’s distrust for Vella Finance and also stoking his scepticism for financial solutions’ services in general.

While speaking to FIJ, Aina narrated how he originally dismissed the deposit problem as a payment lag and how this lag contributed to why his sibling could not leave the country as scheduled.

READ ALSO: How Piecemeal Refund of N14.5m Donation Siphoned by His Friend Ruined Graduate’s Intended Surgery

“At the time, saving from naira to dollar on Flutterwave was very cheap. My brother wanted to travel and I wanted to keep money away for him. We needed to save the money in dollars for him and ease up the payments he might need to make at any point in time. Also, he was going to need money whenever he arrived in Canada,” said Aina.

“Just so you know, this was part of why he missed the trip to Canada at the time. He is in Russia now. I used my card to deposit the naira equivalent at the time. The typical instruction was that you’d get a refund if, five days after a deposit, your money didn’t reflect.”

“After five days, I messaged them, and they told me they would work on it. Three transactions were processed into my account that day. One was from me and the other two were for different people. None reflected. When I told them about this, they refunded the money to the originating account.

“All the money from my end, however, was not refunded. At a point, they told Kuda that they needed to process the chargeback. I thought they were at fault, so I kept disturbing them. But Kuda provided a transaction ID, sent me the details of the processed transaction and told me they could not charge back for a settled transaction, and I sent these details to Vella.”

Aina told FIJ that Vella withdrew correspondence as soon as he provided them with feedback from Kuda Bank. He thinks that the decision to ignore him was both irresponsible and dishonest. He added that his brother, Albert Aina, also has more than $600 stuck with Vella from the same period.

“You see, my problem with Vella at the time was that they were not straightforward. An open and honest admission that they must have made a mistake would have made this better,” he said.

“The most annoying part was when they stopped attending to my complaints after I provided them with proof from Kuda Bank. I no longer got feedback from any of the channels – the WhatsApp line I used to chat with, the Twitter page – nothing at all. The customer care line even kept ignoring my calls.

“On the day I made my payment, my brother also tried to deposit money. We thought to keep this money in batches. In his case, the money was more than $600. On his dashboard, the money is still processing, having never been delivered since September. Because he is out of the country, he has not initiated a chargeback, unlike me.”

READ ALSO:2 Nigerian Cousins Refuse to Refund £3,000 to UK Student After Failing to Get Him CoS

Aina told FIJ that he had been monitoring Vella Finance since he stopped getting feedback from them. Vella’s refusal to provide feedback has made him consider many possibilities. For instance, Aina thinks Carbon’s acquisition of Vella in February sealed his chances of ever getting a refund for good.

“I am now forced to think I won’t get my money back. Carbon, the fintech, acquired Vella in February. I don’t know how this works, but I think it may mean that I cannot approach them for my money again. You know, new staff, new management and all that.”

FIJ contacted Vella Finance on March 7. Vella’s response suggested that Aina’s money had been refunded through Flutterwave, their payment processing partner.

“Our investigation has revealed that the customer’s payment was indeed received by our payment processing partner, Flutterwave, on the specified date. However, there was a delay in crediting us with the transaction amount due to internal processing issues on their end,” said Vella.

“During this period, the customer initiated a chargeback request on October 30, 2023, which Flutterwave honoured by making a reversal to the originating account on October 31, 2023.

“As a result of the chargeback process, the transaction’s status in question became LOST, as it was effectively nullified, and the funds were returned to the customer’s account. This means that from our perspective at Vella Finance, the transaction became void, and we did not receive or retain the funds.”

READ ALSO: For Flights Cancelled in November, United Nigeria Airlines Has Not Refunded Bayelsa Pastor

When FIJ made Vella’s response available to Aina, he vehemently denied the reversal and insisted that Vella was dishonest in their response. Upon this reporter’s recommendation, Aina wrote Flutterwave to get an explanation for the lost money. Flutterwave, however, told him that the merchant (Vella) did receive the money.

On March 11, FIJ sent an email to Flutterwave and Vella to get a resolution on Aina’s refund. FIutterwave promised to provide feedback within 72 hours. However, FIJ had not got a response about the refund at press time. Vella, on the other hand, promised to communicate with Flutterwave and provide feedback to FIJ.