When you receive a dispute notification, take action to resolve it before the deadline. Failing to respond to a dispute results in irretrievable refund to the account holder and a dispute fee charged to your account.

Decide to accept or challenge the dispute

When you have a clear picture of the dispute details, decide whether you will accept or challenge the dispute. Consider the following questions in your determination:

●Is the account owner’s claim valid?

●If not, do I have the evidence required to disprove the claim?

●Can I convince the account owner to withdraw their dispute if I resolve their complaint amicably, for example, by offering a store credit or a replacement item?

When you’ve decided how to respond, select the corresponding button on the Dispute details page in your Dashboard:

●Accept dispute submits a response to the issuing bank affirming that you agree to refund the customer for the disputed payment and pay the dispute fee.

●Counter dispute opens a form that guides you through the submission process, prompts you for evidence that is relevant to the dispute type and your response type, and allows you to easily upload supporting files.

Accepting disputes

You can accept a dispute, effectively agreeing with the cardholder that the dispute was valid for the reason given. Accepting a dispute isn’t considered an admission of wrongdoing and is sometimes the most appropriate response. The customer has already received their refund through the dispute process—if you agree with the refund, it’s best to accept the dispute. This is the action you should take if you don’t intend to respond and submit evidence. Although accepting disputes doesn’t negatively affect your business any further, it’s not a viable alternative to an effective refund or returns policy. Dispute activity is calculated based upon the disputes received, not won or lost, so dispute prevention is critical.

Tips:Disputes incur a dispute fee that still applies if you accept the dispute.

Misunderstandings

For disputes that are the result of a misunderstanding, your customer can tell their card issuer that they no longer dispute the transaction. It’s still important that you submit evidence to show that the payment was valid, however, and to make sure that the card issuer knows you’re not accepting the dispute.

In cases where you agree that the customer should keep the disputed funds, accept the dispute rather than ask the cardholder to withdraw the dispute for a regular refund. Remember, the card networks don’t consider how many disputes you win or lose, only how many you receive—a withdrawn dispute still counts as a dispute.

Challenge disputes

Keep your evidence relevant to the dispute reason and to the point

Card issuers review thousands of dispute responses every day. Writing a long explanation to them isn’t going to make your responses more convincing. Similarly, providing evidence about your clearly stated return policy isn’t relevant for a dispute claiming that the customer never received the product. Instead, describe clearly and concisely why the claim is unreasonable and how your evidence proves that, using a neutral and professional tone. For example:

Jenny Rosen purchased [product] from our company on [date] using a Visa credit card. We shipped the product on [date] to the address provided by the customer, and it was delivered on [date], as shown in the tracking file provided, so the claim that the product was not received is not true.

You can investigate the dispute while collecting evidence. For example, you can take a look at Google Maps and Street View to see where your delivery took place, or check social media like Facebook or LinkedIn to help establish the customer as the legitimate cardholder.

Many businesses also include email correspondence or texts with their customer, but be aware that these exchanges don’t verify identity. If you’re going to include them, make sure to include only the relevant information (for example, if you’re going to include a long email thread, redact any text that only quotes previous emails).

Your evidence should be factual, professional, and concise. While providing little evidence is a problem, overwhelming the card issuer with unnecessary information can have the same effect.

1.Include proof of customer authorization

Fraudulent disputes account for over half of all disputes. It’s important to prove the legitimate cardholder was aware of and authorized the transaction in such cases. Any data that shows proof of this is a standard part of a compelling response, such as:

●AVS (Address Verification System) matches

●CVC (Card Verification Code) confirmations

●Signed receipts or contracts

●IP address that matches the cardholder’s verified billing address

If you have any other evidence of authorization (for example, 3DS authentication) include it too.

2.Include proof of service or delivery

In addition to fraudulent disputes, claims from cardholders that products or services weren’t delivered, were defective or unsatisfactory, or not as described are also potential dispute reasons. Assuming the product was not faulty, was as described, was shipped and delivered prior to the dispute date, and so on, you’ll want to provide proof of service or delivery.

For a merchandise purchase, provide proof of shipment and delivery that includes the full delivery address, not just the city and postal code verification.

If your customer provides a “Ship to” name that differs from their own (for example, a gift purchase), be prepared to provide documentation explaining why they’re different. While it’s common practice to purchase and ship to an address that doesn’t match the verified billing address for the card, this is an additional dispute risk.

If your business provides digital goods, include evidence such as an IP address or system log proving the customer downloaded the content or used your software or service.

3.Include a copy of your terms of service and refund policy

When it comes to disputes, fine print matters. When it comes to returns or refunds, it’s critical to provide proof that your customer agreed to and understood your terms of service at checkout, or didn’t follow your policies. A clean screenshot of how you present your terms of service or other policies during checkout is an important addition to your evidence—it’s not enough to include a text copy of these only.

4.Combine files of the same evidence type

You must specify an evidence type for each file you upload, and you can only submit one piece of evidence per type. For example, if you have several items representing communication with your customer (email messages, text screenshots, phone transcripts, and so on), combine them into a single file, because you can only identify one file as Customer communication.

5.Formatting documents and images to upload

Include large, clear images for review. Whether you upload files through the dashboard, both have limitations on the acceptable file types and the combined file size.

●Only PDF, JPEG, or PNG file types are accepted

●The combined file size can’t be more than 4.5MB

●The combined page count must be less than 50 pages

●You can compress your files with tools such as Smallpdf

When submitting documents or images as evidence, use the following recommendations to make sure they can remain legible:

●Use a 12 point font or larger

●Make sure that documents are US Letter or A4 size, in portrait orientation (you can still add screenshots to your documents in landscape orientation)

●Use bold text, callouts, or arrows to draw attention to pertinent information

●Avoid using color highlighting

When uploading screenshots:

●Crop the screenshot to the area of interest and circle any key components (for example, delivery confirmation or signature)

●Use the text fields in the dispute evidence form to describe what the image contains and how it supports your response

The card issuer will consider a response incomplete and won’t review it if it contains any illegible text or data.

Submit evidence through the Dashboard

Consider the following guidelines to make sure your supporting files are effective:

●Consult the evidence recommendations for your specific dispute category.

●Organize each piece of evidence according to the evidence type it satisfies - be as succinct as possible.

●Combine items of the same evidence type into a single file.

●Check that your evidence files don’t exceed the combined size limit of 4.5 MB.

●Banks evaluating the dispute won’t review any external content, so don’t include:

▪Audio or video files

▪Requests to call or email for more information

▪Links to click for further information (for example, file downloads or links to tracking information)

Include as much as you can before you submit your response. These sections can include:

●Shipping details

●Refund policy details

●Customer details

●Product details

The more information your integration collects and passes to Uqpay when your customer makes a payment, the better your ability to prevent disputes and fraud from occurring, and challenge them effectively when they do.

Once you click to submit, Uqpay automatically puts the evidence you provide into a format accepted by the issuing bank and submits it for consideration. At this point, you can’t amend what you’ve submitted or provide any additional information, so make sure you have included every relevant detail.

Discrediting evidence

Providing evidence of one of the following has a high likelihood of proving a dispute invalid and overturning the chargeback:

EVIDENCE	EVIDENCE CATEGORY
Any documentation of the account owner withdrawing the dispute.	Customer communication
Proof that you already compensated the customer before they initiated the dispute (either within Uqpay or using some other method).	Customer communication

Check the dispute status

After you submit a response, the status of the dispute changes to under_review. When the issuer informs Uqpay of its decision, we inform you of the outcome by email, and by updating the dispute status in the Dashboard object to one of the following:

●won indicates that the bank decided in your favor and overturned the dispute. In this case, the issuing bank returns the debited chargeback amount to Uqpay, and Uqpay passes this amount back to you. The dispute fee is not returned.

●lost indicates that the bank decided in the account owner’s favor and upheld the dispute. In this case, the refund is permanent and the dispute fee is not returned.

Disputes on partially refunded payments

While uncommon, a customer can dispute a payment for the full amount even if they’ve already received a partial refund (for example, a refund of a smaller amount that has been agreed upon). We understand this can be frustrating as it leaves you responsible for the partial refund you’ve already processed and the full amount disputed, though card issuers are very willing to rectify this situation.

Even if you plan to accept the unrefunded portion of the dispute, it’s important for you to provide evidence of the partial refund in your response. This should include the amount and date of the refund, and even a screenshot of the refund information from your Dashboard (this is known as a “credit issued” response).

In most cases, the card issuer cancels the original dispute and then creates a separate one for the corrected amount. On Uqpay, we use the existing dispute to track the overall outcome. If the dispute is fully resolved in your favor, you receive the entire amount back. If it’s not, you only receive the partially refunded amount. In this case, the dispute’s status is set to lost, and in the Dashboard, the dispute is marked as “closed”.