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, 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 means that the payor no longer wishes to pay for the charge for some reason (like the event was canceled, they never received the item, etc.) or does not recognize the charge and has marked it as fraudulent. The payor contacted their bank and notified them of this, and in turn, the payor's bank 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 immediately or shortly after disputing the charge.
Givebacks then sends 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 disputed order on your Financial Management > Orders page 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 the emails will include a date on which we (Givebacks) need to send documentation to Stripe about our findings in 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 for this documentation can vary, but they are typically about 10 days from the date the dispute is initiated.

3. Documentation is Submitted

The best documentation to provide 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 payer's bank and Stripe work to review the information submitted and come to a decision.
It can take several months before a decision is reached.

4. A Decision is made

If the payor's 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. Also, the order gets moved out of the refunded category on your store admin.
If the payer's bank decides that your organization lost the dispute and the payor should have their funds back, they will not be put back in your stripe account.
There is no notification of the result of a dispute, but feel free to email us at support@givebacks.com to check on the status of a dispute.
Please note: Givebacks does not control this decision, but we will do everything we can to help your organization win the dispute.

How you can help when a dispute 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 gather documentation of why the payor disputed the charge. Please help call/contact the payor, ask them why they disputed the charge, and provide documentation to us.

The most common reason for disputes is that the payor does not recognize the charge on their bank statement and assumes it is 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 an email showing us working with you and the Payor to mediate the dispute, especially showing that the dispute has been resolved.
Receipts or proof of purchase
Attendance check-in sheet
Tracking Information, Pickup/Delivery Notes or Documentation
Other forms of proof the transaction is valid