Stripe disputes and what this means for you.

Note: If you are reading this article because you are about to, or recently disputed a charge from Givebacks (formerly MemberHub), please understand that your PTA, nonprofit, or other organization is the actual vendor where you made a purchase and they are just using Givebacks as their payments platform.

As part of credit card processing, a customer or payor has the ability to dispute a charge that appears on their statement.

What is a Dispute?

If a payor does not recognize a charge on their statement or wants their funds back for any reason, they can call their card issuer and "dispute" the charge. This simply means that the payor no longer wishes to pay for the charge for some reason (like the event canceled, they never received the item, etc) or does not recognize the charge and has marked it as fraudulent. The Payor has contacted their bank and notified them of this and in turn, the payor's bank had opened a dispute and requested the funds back. Typically the payor will see the funds returned quickly once a charge is disputed.

What to expect:

1. A Dispute is Initiated:

• When a payor has disputed a charge, Givebacks receives a notification.
• The Payor receives their entire purchase amount back from their bank, either immediately or shortly after disputing the charge.
• We then send out a series of emails to the holder of your organization's Stripe account or another admin and the Payor. These emails notify both parties of the dispute, and urge the payor to let us know why they disputed the charge so that we (Givebacks) can help you and the payor mediate the issue.
• The funds for a dispute are removed from the organization's Stripe account once a dispute is initiated. You will notice that the order on your store admin > orders page that is disputed appears in your refunded tab and that your payout is smaller than expected. 

2. Mediation takes place

• Once you or the Payee respond to Givebacks' Emails, the emails will stop being sent.
• It's important to note that there will be a date in the emails in which we (Givebacks) needs to send documentation to Stripe about our findings trying to mediate the dispute. Just because we aren't sending you any emails, does not mean there isn't work to do on the dispute.
• The due dates of this documentation can vary, but are typically about 10 days from the date the dispute is initiated.

3. Documentation is Submitted

• The best thing to provide as documentation is email communication (discussed more below) but this documentation may also include a copy of the purchase receipt, any tracking information or notes about the item being received, or other proof from the organization that the purchase was valid.
• The Payers Bank and Stripe work to review the information submitted and come to a decision. 
• This can be several months before a decision is reached.

4. A Decision is made

• If the payors bank decides that your organization won the dispute, the payor will see the funds removed from their account again. You will also see the funds come back into your Stripe account, and they will be in your next payout after the decision is made as well the order gets moved out of the refunded tab on your store admin.
• If the payer's bank decides that your organization lost the dispute, and the payor should have their funds back, the funds will not be put back in your stripe account. 
• There is not a notification of the result of a dispute, but feel free to email us at support@memberhub.com to check on the status of a dispute.
• Please note: Givebacks does not control this decision but will do everything we can to help your PTA win the dispute.

How you can help when a dispute with your organization occurs:

When a dispute is filed, it's important that we hear from the payor about their side of this. The best thing you can do is help to gather this documentation of why the payor disputed the charge. Please help call/contact the payor and ask them about why they disputed the charge and provide documentation to us.

The most common reason for disputes is not recognizing the charge on their bank statement and assuming its fraud. If you contact the payor and this is the answer they provide, the best documentation we can submit is a written note/email from the payor saying that they have contacted their bank back and asked them to cancel the dispute because they now recognize the charge. 

Other types of documentation:

• Customer Communication - We can submit email communication of us working with you and the Payor to mediate the dispute. Especially showing that the dispute has been resolved. 
• Receipts or proof of purchase
• Tracking Information, Pickup/Delivery Notes or Documentation
• Other forms of proof the transaction is valid

Questions? We are happy to help - email us at support@memberhub.com or respond to your dispute email notification.