3 Tips to Overcome Tricky Credit Card Disputes

Everyday merchant wakes up with a plan in mind to increase sales and hope for better footfall of customers. A beautiful day, sunshine, positive energy. Smile on the face is what a merchant needs to kick-start his day but things get depressing. When a merchant is hit with chargebacks. Whatever be the reason. If a customer feels cheated and files a complaint/chargeback the merchant is dragged into an unpleasant experience of chargeback.
But before reacting to chargebacks, it is important to know if it really was your fault, was there a problem at your end or is it is a deliberate act of a fraudster who is trying to grab an opportunity to make some money?

How to respond to dispute?

Chargeback is a very tricky situation and it is important to understand the real cause of a chargeback and plan the response accordingly. Chargeback can be a genuine as well as a fraudulent act. It is merchant’s responsibility to find out the real cause of a chargeback and make the decision whether to dispute it. There are situations, when fault is at merchant’s end but most of the time it is customer who is, intentionally or unintentionally, at the wrong end. Especially during holiday season, chargeback ratio is quite high, so merchant should adopt some tricks to defend himself from falling into such situations by making effective use of chargeback alert services and prevention tools.

Let’s discuss few things that every merchant needs to understand in order to deal with the credit card disputes.

1. Respond

At the time when the merchant receives a chargeback. The first thing that a merchant should do to resolve the dispute immediately is to go through the sales record and look for the information in the transaction. Such as for the cause of dispute, check purchases, authenticity, customer purchase history etc. Collect as much data as you can and send the copy of the record to the issuer to prove that the dispute is a trick.
To increase the chances of winning and resolving this fraudulent trick. Provide the copy of every proof you have. Proof documents 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

2. Inquire

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

• If the customer is genuine and is not happy with the product, why hasn’t he talked to the sales team and resolved it?
• If the return policy is clearly stated, then question the customer as to why he wants to file a chargeback?
• If the merchant has provided a customer care number or e-mail id to contact for queries, then why the customer did not opt for it?

3. Documentation and Protocol

Not all the chargebacks filed are straight away charged. Issuer enquires about the complaint and there are cases where the issuer has spotted the fraudster and rejected the complaint. As issuer follows a protocol to carry out this process, it is advisable to the merchant to follow the same if the issuer contacts you regarding chargebacks.
Be prepared with the documentation as proof for fighting chargeback because by providing viable data the issue is resolved without bearing a lot of fees and it also saves plenty of time.