What is a chargeback?
A chargeback occurs when a transaction is reversed after the cardholder reports an issue with the charge to their payment provider. This recourse if provided by financial institutions as a form of consumer protection against unauthorized charges and other types of fraud.
Generally, the cardholder will file a dispute with their issuing bank, and the bank will then debit the disputed funds from the merchant's account while investigating the issue.
The merchant is then responsible for providing evidence to disprove the fraudulent activity that has been reported in the dispute. If the card issuer deems it appropriate to overturn the chargeback based on the provided documentation, the disputed amount is returned to the merchant. At that point, if the cardholder maintains the transaction was a result of fraud, they can initiate a second chargeback, which is also referred to as a pre-arbitration.
What does this mean to you?
If MoreCommerce receives a chargeback related to a payment for one of your orders, our Trust & Safety team will review the details of the dispute and determine how best to proceed.
If the chargeback is a result of an issue with the order:
- MoreCommerce's Trust & Safety team will send you an email containing the details of the chargeback. Depending on the situation, we will either fight the chargeback on your behalf or will ask you to submit information in order to fight the dispute.
- If we require additional information from you to fight the chargeback, you will have 48 hours to respond. Otherwise, we will accept the chargeback and it will no longer be possible to file a rebuttal.
- You will be assessed a $20 chargeback processing fee as described in the Recoupment section of our Merchant Agreement. This fee is used to cover the similar fee we are charged by the various payment providers with respect to receiving these disputes.
- The disputed amount will be deducted from your account.
- If a rebuttal is filed, MoreCommerce's Trust & Safety team will send you another email once the payment provider reaches a decision, regardless of the outcome. If you win the dispute, the disputed amount will be credited back to your account at this time.
If the chargeback is a result of unauthorized usage:
- MoreCommerce will absorb all costs associated with the dispute. If this is the case, we'll handle the matter internally and you won't even need to know about it!
Best Practices for Chargebacks:
- Always make sure to ship your orders on time! Not only will this allow you to avoid the penalties described in our Merchant Quality of Service Agreements, consistently meeting your customers' ship time expectations will help minimize chargebacks.
- Provide images and descriptions that accurately describe your items. Of course, this will help ensure your customers are not caught by surprise when they receive their items, and that they are generally satisfied with their purchases.
- Input legitimate tracking numbers when marking your orders as shipped and hand off your packages to the shipping carrier as soon as possible after generating your shipping labels. Many customers may get uneasy if they do not see movement shortly after being provided with a tracking number.
- Respond to any order related questions you may receive from our Customer Love team as quickly as possible. If we are unable to reach you for help assisting a mutual customer and cannot provide the best possible solution as a result, the likelihood the customer will resort to filing a chargeback will only increase.