Types of Disputes:
Inquiries/Retrievals
Some card issuers may begin to investigate a payment before creating a chargeback, and request further information about the charge. Most card networks call these “retrievals”, and American Express calls them “inquiries”. These are common for American Express and Discover payments. Mastercard and Visa almost always create a chargeback immediately.
To avoid an inquiry or retrieval becoming a chargeback, you should submit any required evidence or refund the payment in full. Refunding marks the inquiry or retrieval as resolved and no dispute fee is incurred.
Many inquiries and retrievals are the result of the cardholder not recognizing the transaction, and providing basic info about your business and what was purchased is usually sufficient to close the case. However, if the cardholder refutes your evidence, or the card issuer considers it insufficient, the card issuer might escalate the inquiry or retrieval into a chargeback and reclaim the cardholder’s funds. It’s important to resolve the case while it is still in the inquiry or retrieval stage.
Regardless of which option you choose, it’s always best to reach out to your customer first to get more information about the reason for the inquiry or retrieval.
Chargeback/Disputes
If the card issuer has chosen not to create an inquiry or retrieval, or is unsatisfied with the evidence, they create a chargeback. Unlike inquiries or retrievals, during a chargeback the issuer debits your account and holds the funds while the dispute is processed. Once the chargeback is created, you have a limited amount of time (usually 7–21 days) to respond with evidence. The time given varies depending on the card network.
If you do not submit evidence by the time the deadline passes, the cardholder wins the dispute and keeps the funds.
If you submit evidence, it is sent to the cardholder’s bank, which also has a limited amount of time (usually 60–75 days) to respond, varying based on the card network. Stripe updates the dispute’s status as soon as the bank’s response is available, but that response is often not known until the deadline passes. The decision from the cardholder’s bank is the final step in the dispute process.
Pre-Arbitration
This is when a cardholder disputes a transaction for a second time. This only happens when the merchant wins the first chargeback.
We highly recommend you review each of these articles before fighting any disputes.
COVID-19 dispute response guidance
How to fight a dispute:
Please utilize Stripe’s knowledge base documentation here on how to handle disputes.
After logging into your Stripe Connect account you will want to select Disputes on the dashboard and select Needs response. Make sure there are either no filters selected or the appropriate filters selected to find the open disputes.
Click on the order that you want to dispute and click Submit evidence in the upper right hand corner.
*Note: your account will show “Submit evidence” instead of “Submit late evidence”.
Customer name
Provide the first and last name that is associated with the order.
Description
Enter your business description. Example: "Tixr provides ticketing software to our business customers and makes the software available through a website and mobile app. The software collects payment and end user information, and issues a digital or printable ticket to the End User. Additionally, Tixr provides on-site software for business customers to sell tickets at event locations on premise.”
What type of product or service is this?
“Digital product or service” should already be selected here.
Access activity log
Under this section you will want to paste in the Payment Details and Geo Location from the orders report that you can download from Studio under Records.
Payment details: Tender Type, Card Type, Last 4 of CC, Exp Date, Billing Zip, Country, Bank, Bin, Transaction ID
Geo location: IP, City, State, Postal Code, Country, Latitude, and Longitude
Supporting Evidence
Provide any communication you have had with the purchaser.
Attach the receipt. You can find the purchaser’s receipt by going to Audience > Records > hover over the printer icon > choose Print Receipt.
Lastly, you can duplicate this Dispute Information Memo where you will fill out all of the information associated with the order and submit as evidence in Stripe. All of this information can be found in the Orders report, downloaded in the Records section of Studio.