A small merchant receives a chargeback notification. It concerns an order shipped six weeks ago that the customer says they never received.
He has the tracking, the delivery confirmation and the customer's email thanking him. He has a week to respond and no idea what to submit, in what format, or where.
He misses the deadline by two days. The money is gone, along with a fee, for a transaction he could have defended comprehensively if anybody had explained the process before it happened.
1. Explain what a chargeback actually is
Distinct from a refund, initiated by the cardholder's bank, with its own rules and timescales. Many merchants do not know the difference until one arrives.
2. State the response deadline prominently
The most important number in the whole process, and the reason most winnable disputes are lost.
3. Explain the reason codes in plain language
What each category means and what evidence answers it, since the codes themselves are opaque to anybody outside the industry.
4. List the evidence that works for each reason
Delivery confirmation, communications, terms accepted at checkout, usage records. Specific to the reason rather than a general bundle.
5. Explain how evidence must be submitted
Format, size limits and where. Merchants routinely submit the right evidence in a form that cannot be accepted.
6. Explain the fee position
What is charged, whether it is returned on a successful defence, and what happens at higher dispute rates.
7. Explain the dispute rate threshold
Because consequences escalate beyond a certain level, and a merchant needs to know where they stand well before reaching it.
8. Explain when not to contest
Some disputes are not winnable, and telling a merchant that plainly saves them effort and preserves their credibility on the ones that are.
9. Explain how to prevent the friendly fraud category
Recognisable billing descriptors, order confirmations and obvious refund routes, which prevent a large share of disputes at source.
10. Explain the refund alternative
A refund issued before a dispute is raised avoids the fee and the rate impact entirely, and merchants frequently do not realise there is still time.
11. Make support reachable when a dispute arrives
Because this is urgent and time limited, which is the ground in support escalation questions when money is involved.
12. Explain the timeline after submission
How long a decision takes and what happens next, since merchants otherwise chase repeatedly through a process that has fixed durations.
13. Connect it to the failed payment picture
Since both produce the same anxiety about money, as in failed payment and error questions from users.
14. Keep the transaction records in a submittable form
Order, delivery, communications and terms, retrievable together against a transaction reference. Merchants who assemble this after a notification arrives spend most of the response window searching rather than responding.
15. Answer the dispute questions the day the notification arrives
An assistant that explains what the reason code means, states the deadline, lists exactly what evidence answers it, explains how to submit it and routes an urgent case to a person turns a missed deadline into a defended transaction. The marketplace version sits in dispute and refund questions from marketplace buyers, and promotional queries in how to handle discount and coupon questions with a. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under fintech.