How to respond to a dispute

Learn how to effectively respond to disputes.

When an account owner files a dispute against a payment, their bank alerts APRIL, and we notify you through the following channels:

• Email
• Transaction status changes to "Disputed" in your merchant dashboard
• Webhooks (if you've subscribed)

You can see a detailed list of all disputed payments on the Payments page in your merchant Dashboard if you filter by the "Disputed" status.

When you receive a dispute notification, make sure you take action to resolve it before the deadline. If you don’t respond, you automatically lose the dispute and can’t retrieve the disputed funds.

1. Review the dispute category

Each dispute category specifies different response requirements and recommendations to make it effective in addressing the root claim from the account holder, so your first step is to review our response guidelines for the category of your dispute so you can collect the best set of evidence to counter the dispute claim.

2. Understand the complaint

Regardless of the dispute category, contact your customer first so you can better understand the complaint and you can decide how best to proceed. Be sure to keep a record of all communication with your customer during this process, as it provides evidence to submit with your response.

Please note:

• If you are able to resolve the matter with the customer and they agree to withdraw the dispute, you will still need to submit appropriate evidence so that the card issuer does not automatically close the dispute in the customer's favour.
  More information is available on withdrawing a dispute here
• The refund option will not be available on a disputed transaction. The only way to refund the customer at this stage will be to accept the dispute.

3. Decide to challenge or accept the dispute

When you have a clear picture of the dispute details, decide whether to accept or challenge the dispute. Consider the following questions in your determination:

• Is the account owner’s claim valid?
  If not, do I have the evidence required to disprove the claim?
• Can I convince the account owner to withdraw their dispute if I resolve their complaint amicably, for example, by offering a store credit or a replacement item?
• Might the dispute be covered by the liability shift rule? If so, consider responding with evidence on top of the 3D Secure outcome.

If you believe the payment was indeed fraud, the appropriate action is to accept the dispute.

4. Advise us if you would like to accept the dispute 

To accept the dispute, please advise our team at [e-mail] with your decision and we will accept the dispute on your behalf.

Once we have accepted the dispute for you, the case will be automatically closed as lost. The money will be returned to the account holder's bank account based on the internal timeframes of the issuing bank.

You can find more information on accepting disputes here

5. Provide evidence for us to challenge the dispute on your behalf

Make sure to prepare your response carefully. We only have only one opportunity to submit your response. We can’t edit the response or submit additional files, so make sure you’ve assembled all your evidence before you submit.

1. Tell us about the dispute

Firstly, tell us why you believe the dispute is in error and the product type of the original purchase. This information along with the dispute category helps us to recommend the most relevant evidence to support your challenge, and provides the bank with a quick summary of your defence.

2. Assemble your evidence

• Consult the evidence recommendations for your specific dispute category.
  Ensure you include both background evidence as well as the specific evidence that relates to this transaction
• For fraudulent transactions that were successfully verified via 3DS, ensure that you include evidence of this so you can benefit from any liability shift protections
• Consider the following guidelines to make sure your supporting files are effective:

  • Organise each piece of evidence according to the evidence type it satisfies – be as succinct as possible.

  • Combine items of the same evidence type into a single file.

  • Limit your evidence file size to the combined maximum of 4.5 MB.

  • Limit your Mastercard evidence file length to the combined maximum of 19 pages.

  • Banks evaluating the dispute won’t review any external content, so don’t include:

    • Audio or video files

    • Requests to call or email for more information

    • Links to click for further information (for example, file downloads or links to tracking information)

3. Submit your evidence to us

Send your defence and supporting evidence to [e-mail] and we will put it into a format accepted by the issuing bank and submit it on your behalf for consideration. At this point, you can’t amend what you’ve submitted or provide any additional information, so make sure to include every relevant detail.

6. Monitor the dispute status

Once we have submitted your evidence to the issuing bank, the dispute state of the transaction will update to "Pending" or "Under Review". It can take up to 90 days for the issuing bank to reach a decision, and we will notify you when the case is closed.

When the issuing bank updates us on it's decision, we will notify you via email and/or webhook, and by updating the dispute state of the transaction to one of the below:

• Won- Indicates that the bank decided in your favour and overturned the dispute. In this case, the issuing bank returns the debited chargeback amount to us, and we pass this amount back to you in your next payout. The dispute fee will not be returned to you.
• Lost - Indicates that the bank decided in the account owner’s favour and upheld the dispute. In this case, the refund is permanent and the dispute fee isn’t returned.