Most days, a merchant wakes up with a plan in mind to increase sales and the hope of better footfall. A beautiful day, sunshine, positive energy and a smile are just what a merchant needs to kickstart their day but often things are ruined by the spectre of chargebacks. Customers may, for a variety of reason, file a complaint/chargeback because of which, whether it’s merchant’s fault or not, the merchant's bottomline is affected.

But before reacting to a chargeback, take a deep breath and think, ‘Is it really your fault, is there really a problem at your end or is it is deliberate action taken by any fraudster who is trying to grab an opportunity to make some money?’

How to deal with a dispute?

Chargeback is a very tricky situation and it is important to understand the real cause of chargeback and plan a response accordingly. A chargeback can be a genuine as well as fraudulent activity. It is the merchant’s responsibility to find out the real cause of chargeback and make the decision to dispute it or not. There are times when the fault is at the merchant’s end but many  times it is the customer who is, intentionally or unintentionally, in the wrong. Especially during holiday season, the chargeback ratio is quite high, so a merchant should adopt some tricks to defend himself from falling into such situation along with the use of chargeback alert services and prevention tools.

Let’s discuss a few things that every merchant can do in order to deal with credit card disputes.

Response

At the time of receiving the chargeback, the first thing that merchant should do to resolve dispute immediately is to go through sales record and look for a clue in the transaction for the cause of dispute. This means checking purchases, authenticity, customer purchase history etc. Collect as much as data  as you can regarding the transaction being disputed and send the copy of the record to the issuer to present your case in the dispute.

To increase the chance of winning and resolving the issue favourably if you are being subject to trickery, provide the copy of every proof you have. Proof documentation may include:

• IP address for Card-not-present sale

• Transaction history of customer’s purchasing pattern

• E-mail (for mail orders)

• Sales receipt signed by the customer

• Delivery receipt

When you are hit with the chargeback, it is a better idea to inquire and ask the issuer whether the issue/matter was discussed with merchant’s team. If it is not, there are chances that it is the case of chargeback fraud and the matter will be resolved way faster than what you expected. Few questions that the merchant should ask the issuer are:

• If the customer is genuine and is not happy with the product or has an issue, he can talk to the sales team or any other merchant’s employee to get it resolved.

• If return policy is clearly stated, then question why the customer went to file a chargeback.

• If the merchant has provided customer care number or e-mail id to contact for queries, why the customer did not opt for it.

• Documentation and protocol

• Not all the chargeback filed are charged straight away. The Issuer enquires about the complaint and there are cases where an issuer spots  the fraudster and rejects the complaint. As issuer follows a protocol to carry out this process, it is advisable for the merchant to follow the same if the issuer contacts you regarding chargebacks.

• Be prepared with documentation as proof for fighting chargeback because by providing data a lot of time is saved and the issue is resolved without bearing many fees.  
  
  

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