There's something magical about seeing those order notification emails appear in your inbox after every sale you make via your Flodesk Checkout. But occasionally, you may get an unhappy customer disputing those charges.

Rest assured, we're here to help you with that.

This article explains what a dispute is, why a buyer may open a dispute and the different steps for handling charge disputes, depending on whether you have a connected Stripe Standard or Express account.

A dispute, also known as a chargeback, happens when the cardholder of a Flodesk Checkout transaction—your Checkout customer in this case—reports the transaction to their card provider.

Some common reasons buyers may open a dispute include:

• They don’t recognize or remember the charge

• The purchase was made without the cardholder's authorization

• They didn’t receive the product they purchased

• They were unsatisfied with the product

• They request a refund or credit, but are unable to reach a resolution with the seller directly

• They may have registered for a paid event, coaching or consulting session that they want to cancel

• In some rare cases, buyers may simply dispute charges in order to add funds back to their card, or to try and receive your products or services for free. This is known as buyer fraud.

When a dispute is created, and your Flodesk Checkout is connected to Stripe Standard, Stripe:

1. Notifies you of the dispute through the Stripe Dashboard, email, webhooks, and the API

2. Debits the disputed amount, plus a dispute fee, from your Stripe account

3. Provides you with an explanation of the dispute and access to the cardholder’s claim to their bank

4. Walks you through the process of submitting evidence to counter the dispute

Throughout this process, Stripe facilitates your case but doesn’t have influence over the outcome, which is at the sole discretion of the cardholder’s bank.

Learn more about how disputes work here: https://docs.stripe.com/disputes/how-disputes-work

When a cardholder files a dispute against a payment, their bank alerts Stripe and Stripe notifies you through the following channels:

• Email

• Stripe Dashboard

• A charge.dispute.created event (if your integration is set up to receive events to an event destination)

• Push notification (if you’ve subscribed)

Each of the dispute notification channels provides a link to the dispute’s details page in your Dashboard, where you can learn more about the reason for the dispute and take appropriate action.

You can see a detailed list of all disputed payments on the Disputes tab of the Payments page in your Dashboard. To review or respond to a dispute, open its details page by selecting it in the list.

Once you’ve reviewed the dispute details, you need to decide whether you want to accept or challenge the dispute. If you decide to challenge the dispute, you need to submit all relevant evidence through the Stripe Dashboard.

Follow Stripe’s detailed instructions here: https://docs.stripe.com/disputes/responding

After you submit a response, the status of the dispute changes to under_review. When the issuer informs Stripe of its decision, Stripe informs you of the outcome by email, in the charge.dispute.closed event, and by updating the dispute status in the Dashboard and the Dispute API object to one of the following:

• won indicates that the bank decided in your favor and overturned the dispute. In this case, the issuing bank returns the debited chargeback amount to Stripe, and Stripe passes this amount back to you.

• lost indicates that the bank decided in the cardholder’s favor and upheld the dispute. In this case, the refund is permanent and the dispute fee isn’t returned.

Learn more about it here: https://docs.stripe.com/disputes/responding#status

When a dispute is created, and your Flodesk Checkout is connected to Stripe Express, Flodesk will notify you four times and request that you provide information about the transaction and subsequent communication with the buyer.

It’s your responsibility as the merchant to respond and provide this information in order for Flodesk to refute your dispute. If our team doesn’t receive this information from you, the dispute will be accepted automatically, a full refund will be issued to the buyer, and you’ll be charged a $15 dispute fee.

In some cases where you win a dispute, you may still be charged a $15 dispute fee. This fee is charged by the payment processor and can’t be waived.

While it may seem like the simplest solution to simply refund the buyer, do not issue a refund for disputed charges. You will not be able to refund disputed charges within your Flodesk Checkout. Issuing a refund outside of Flodesk Checkout is not recommended.

In the event that you lose the dispute, you will have issued a refund to the buyer, as well as have the funds removed from your Stripe Express balance.

If you know the cardholder personally, try reaching out to them to remind them what the charge was for. If you’re able to resolve the issue with them directly, request they call their card provider to drop the dispute.

Do not issue a refund to a cardholder until you receive notification that their dispute was canceled successfully. The dispute could be lost, and you would lose both the disputed funds plus fees and the refunded amount.

If you believe that you should win the dispute, please respond to the email survey linked in the Checkout Dispute Notification email. Check your inbox for emails from trust@flodesk.com.

Ensure that you fill out the survey completely and provide the best documentation possible so our Flodesk team can submit this evidence when countering the dispute.

Below are some recommended documents to submit when refuting a dispute, but feel free to include anything else you feel might assist in winning the dispute:

• Receipt

• Proof of product or service delivery

• Any communications with the buyer

• The Terms of Service for your Checkout (Learn more about adding a ToS to your Checkout here.)

• The Checkout Sales page

Once we receive your documentation, Flodesk will submit this information to the buyer's financial institution. When they reach a decision on the dispute, Stripe will notify you directly of their decision.

Disputes can take up to several months to resolve and are handled directly by the buyer's financial institution. Flodesk is not able to send additional details or influence the outcome of your dispute.

In the meantime, the disputed funds will be deducted from your Stripe payouts along with the $15 dispute fee.

We recommend implementing these best practices to avoid disputes:

• Make sure your Credit Card Descriptor reflects your brand, so buyers recognize you on their credit card statements. Learn more about CC Descriptors here

• Be transparent about your cancelation, refund, and return policies on your Checkout page

• Make sure your Checkout has a clear Terms of Service and consider adding a mandatory checkbox to accept your terms and conditions

• Include your contact information with the product delivery so buyers can easily reach you to resolve issues with their order

• When a buyer contacts you about a refund or cancelation, keep in mind they may escalate to disputing the charge. Document any communications to protect your business in the event of a dispute.

Buyers who’ve purchased from you via Flodesk Checkout may dispute the charge with their card issuer for a number of reasons.

If you’re able to contact the buyer and resolve the issue with them directly, you can ask them to call their financial institution and drop the dispute. However, be sure not to issue any refund or credit until the dispute is fully canceled.

Be sure to implement best practices, as detailed above, to reduce your risk of disputes.

If you have any other questions or concerns, please contact our team by writing to support@flodesk.com.