Chargeback management
Disputes and chargebacks, worked as cases.
When a customer challenges a payment, through their bank or anywhere else, it becomes a case. The team works the ones you hand over, from your records and to your rules.
Where a case comes from
Where it’s raised decides who settles it.
A payment challenged through the customer’s bank is a chargeback. Challenged anywhere else, it is a dispute. Who settles it depends on where it went. The four cases here are illustrations.
A customer challenges a payment
A chargeback
Raised with their bank or card company
Decided by
Their bank
The records are in
- The sign-up page
- The subscription system
A subscription business
“I don’t recognise this.”
Answered once, with the sign-up, the reminders sent and the deliveries since.
A dispute with the payment company
Raised with the wallet or pay-later company they paid through
Decided by
The payment company
The records are in
- The returns system
- The warehouse
A fashion brand
“I sent it back.”
The return is found booked in at the warehouse. Settled with the refund your policy gives.
A dispute on a marketplace
Raised with the marketplace they bought on
Decided by
The marketplace
The records are in
- The listing
- The dispatch photos
A marketplace seller
“It isn’t what was shown.”
Answered in the marketplace’s own form, with the listing as it was that day.
A dispute with you
Raised with your business directly
Decided by
You, under your own policy
The records are in
- The contract
- The record of use
A software company
“This is more than we agreed.”
The contract, the usage and the invoice, set side by side for your decision.
What the team does
The case, not the conversation.
Whoever speaks to your customer is doing customer service, and that has a page of its own. This is the work behind it, on the case itself. Any one kind of case, or several.
- Read what is claimedThe reason given, the customer’s own words where they are passed on, and the amount.
- Check what has already happened to the paymentA refund already made, a replacement already sent, another case open on the same order. The payment is flagged, so that a refund isn’t made on top of a case.
- Find the recordsYour payment provider or the marketplace fills in what it holds. The delivery record, the customer’s messages, the cancellation and the terms they agreed to are in other systems.
- Answer it, or settle itWhere a bank, a payment company or a marketplace decides, there is a form to answer in, a date to answer by and usually one chance. Where you decide, it is settled under your policy.
- Record how it endedA bank’s decision can take months to come back. Each one is recorded against its case, with the reason.
Chargeback · A homeware retailer
Part refunded, then charged back in full
- Refunded
- The damaged chair, before the chargeback came
- The refund, found in the payment account
- The customer’s message agreeing to it, from the helpdesk
- Delivery of the rest, from the courier
Answered for the rest, with the refund set against it
Who decides
Who presses the button.
Sending an answer to a bank, accepting a dispute, making a refund, writing to the customer. Each ends with someone pressing a button in one of your systems. Whether that is the team or you is your decision, for each kind of case, and it is written down before the team starts. These are ways it could go.
- On a chargebackThe team might prepare the answer and leave sending it to you. Or you might write down which to answer and which to accept, and the team works to that.
- On a dispute a payment company or a marketplace decidesThe team might draft the reply for you to send. Or it might answer, offer or refund inside limits you’ve set.
- On a dispute raised with youThe team might set out what happened and what your policy says, and leave the decision to you. Or it might settle the ones your policy plainly covers.
- On writing to the customerIt might go to whoever speaks to your customers. Or the team might write in your name, where you’ve said so.
One more queue
Orders held for a second look.
This one comes before any payment is challenged. Where your fraud screening holds an order for a person to look at, the team can be that person.
- Checked against your warning signsThe ones you’ve written down, such as an address changed after payment. If they aren’t written down, we’ll help you write them.
- Released, cancelled or brought to youEach one as your signs say.
- What the list shows, passed backWhat the orders that were let through and later charged back had in common.
Questions, answered.
The things people ask us first.
Our payment provider already answers chargebacks automatically. What is left?
Whatever your provider doesn’t hold. It can send the card checks, the order and the customer’s details. It can’t send the customer’s messages, the courier’s record or a cancellation that sits in another system. Where the automatic answer is enough for a kind of chargeback, the team leaves those alone and works the rest.
Can you tell us how many chargebacks you’ll overturn?
No, and nobody can. A chargeback is decided by the customer’s bank. What the team does is put the whole of your side in front of the bank, once, in the form it asks for. Where the customer is right, the team says so.
Cases reach us in more than one place. How does the team keep track of them?
Every case is logged with its reason, its amount, the date it has to be answered by and, later, how it ended. Where that log lives is settled with you. It might be your helpdesk, a tracker you already keep, or one we set up with you in your own systems.
What access does the team need?
Each person needs a login of their own, which is yours to give. Many payment systems let you limit a login to the work, so that someone can answer a chargeback without being able to make a refund or see your balance. Finding the records needs only permission to look. We go through with you what each kind of case needs, in the payment account and in the systems the records are kept in.Security and data protection
Do cases wait over a weekend?
That is yours to set. The days and hours the team works are agreed with you at the start, from when your cases arrive and the dates they carry.
How do we know the team applies our rules the same way every time?
Real cases are reviewed against your policy and your rules, and what the reviews find goes into each person’s coaching. You get regular reporting on how the work is going, what we’ve found and what we’re doing about it.How we work
What do you report to us?
The cases that arrived, where each was raised and the reason given. Which were answered, which were settled and which were accepted. How each ended, once it was decided. And what they have in common, such as a product, a delivery service, a page of your site or the name on your customers’ statements.
What do you need from us to start?
Your policies on refunds and cancellations, as your customers are shown them. Which cases you would answer and which you would accept. Where any of that isn’t written down, we’ll help you write it. After that, access to the systems the work happens in.Processes and knowledge base
We run a marketplace. Does this cover disputes between our own buyers and sellers?
Yes, where one becomes a case. Both accounts are read against your published policy, and the case is settled under it. There is more on our page for marketplaces and platforms.Online marketplaces and platforms
We’re a payments company. Can you take on the chargebacks our own customers raise?
That is different work, and it is on our page for fintech and payments companies. There the team takes the customer’s account of what happened, chases what is missing and keeps them informed. Every decision is yours.Fintech and payments
Alongside it
Either side of the case.
A case has a conversation before it and a cause behind it. Those are separate pieces of work, and we can take them on too.
- Customer serviceThe conversation with the customer, before there is a case and while one is open.We run itWe run it
- Complaints handlingThe customer who is unhappy and says so, which is not the same as a payment challenged.We run itWe run it
- Orders, returns and warrantiesThe return a dispute so often turns on, from the label to the parcel booked back in.We run itWe run it
- Processes and knowledge baseWhich cases you answer, which you accept and what your policy says, written down as steps.We set it upWe set it up
- ConsultancyWhere your chargebacks start, and what would mean fewer of them.We plan it with youWe plan it with you
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