Handling a chargeback or dispute

A chargeback, which Stripe calls a dispute, is when a customer asks their bank to take back a card payment. Orbit Payments is provided by Stripe, so you deal with a dispute on the Transactions page under Payments. This guide covers what a dispute does to your money, how to respond, and what Orbit does and does not do for you.

Considerations

• Disputes apply to card payments taken through Orbit Payments. Bank transfer, cash on delivery and cheque have no chargeback process.
• When a dispute opens, the disputed amount plus a dispute fee come off your balance straight away. The money is held until the customer's bank decides. If you win, the disputed amount comes back. The fee for receiving the dispute does not.
• You have a limited time to respond, usually 7 to 21 days depending on the card network. Miss the deadline and you lose the dispute.
• You cannot refund a disputed payment while the dispute is open. Accepting the dispute is how the customer keeps their money.
• Orbit does not change the order, email you or show a notification when a dispute opens. The order's payment badge stays as it was, usually Paid. Check Transactions regularly.
• Too many chargebacks can get a store suspended. While a suspension is in place, the storefront is offline and the dashboard is unavailable.

Find the dispute

1. From your Orbit dashboard, go to Payments.
2. Click Transactions. The page lists every card payment your customers have made.
3. Find the payment. Match the date and the amount to the order. Disputed payments are marked in the list, and you can filter the list by status to show only those.
4. Click the payment to open its details. The dispute shows the reason the customer's bank gave, the disputed amount, and the date you must respond by.

Tip: Open the order in another tab. Go to Orders and search for the customer's email address. The order page holds most of the evidence you will need.

Decide whether to accept or challenge it

Read the reason first, then contact the customer if you can. Many disputes come from a customer who did not recognise the payment on their statement. If they agree to withdraw it, submit your evidence anyway. Only evidence closes a dispute in your favour.

• Accept dispute: use this when the claim is fair, for example the parcel never went out or the customer was charged twice. The customer keeps the money their bank gave them, and the dispute fee is not returned. There is nothing more to do.
• Counter dispute: use this when you have proof the order was genuine and delivered. You get one chance to submit evidence and cannot change it afterwards. A second fee applies for countering. Stripe returns it if you win.

Gather your evidence from Orbit

The bank wants proof that the right person placed the order and received it. Most of it is on the order page.

• Tracking: the carrier and tracking number on each fulfilment, and whether it shows as delivered. See Fulfilling an order and adding tracking.
• Timeline: when the order was placed, paid and shipped, and any notes you added at the time. See Adding notes and reading the timeline.
• Order risk: the card checks that ran at checkout, such as whether the postcode matched the card and whether 3D Secure passed. See Understanding the risk score on an order.
• Customer: the customer's previous orders, addresses and email address, from Customers.
• Policies: the refund and shipping terms you show customers. See Writing your store policies.
• Messages: any emails or chat between you and the customer about the order.

Note: The bank will not open links or watch videos. Take screenshots or save pages as PDF, and combine everything for one type of evidence into a single file. Keep all your files under 4.5 MB in total.

Submit your response

1. On the payment's details, click Counter dispute.
2. Say why you think the dispute is wrong and what kind of product the customer bought. This decides which evidence sections you see next.
3. Fill in each section and upload your files. You can attach one file per type of evidence.
4. Tick the box to confirm that your response is final, then submit it.
5. The dispute moves to under review. The bank usually takes 60 to 75 days to decide, so the whole process can take two to three months.

After the decision

• Won: the disputed amount goes back into your balance and reaches you in a later payout. The fee for receiving the dispute is not returned.
• Lost: the customer keeps the money. Nothing more moves, and there is no appeal.

Either way, the order in Orbit does not change on its own. Add a note to the order's timeline saying what happened, so anyone who opens it later knows why a paid order was disputed.

Reduce your chargebacks

• Check the Order risk card before you ship. Hold an order rated High risk until you have spoken to the customer, and cancel it if you are not satisfied. See Putting an order on hold.
• Add a tracking number to every fulfilment. A dispute for goods not received is hard to win without one.
• Refund quickly when a customer has a fair complaint. A refund has no fee. A dispute has a fee even when you win.
• Answer customer messages quickly. A customer who cannot reach you goes to their bank instead.
• Orbit will not erase a customer's personal data while they have an order younger than 180 days, so your evidence stays available for the dispute window. See Deleting customers and GDPR requests.

Related guides

• Understanding the risk score on an order
• Refunding an order
• Checking transactions and payouts
• Managing payments and payouts