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Managing chargebacks

Despite taking all the recommended preventative steps, it is possible you may still have a chargeback filed against you. If that happens, you will be contacted and notified by our Lightspeed Payments support team, who will discuss your options with you.

Disputing a chargeback

Having a chargeback filed against you does not mean you are without recourse. We recommend contacting your customer to discuss the matter in an attempt to resolve the situation directly, rather than involving the banks and credit card network. If you're able to arrive at an agreement with your customer, have them send you an email confirming the agreement. 

Failing that, you can (and usually should) dispute the chargeback. You will be given an opportunity to provide evidence in support of the legitimacy of the transaction. If the evidence is compelling enough, you can win the dispute and have the chargeback overturned.

The kind of evidence you should provide will vary depending on the reason the chargeback was filed. Any chargeback filed against you is very likely to fall under one of the following reason codes used by the credit card networks:

  • Authorization: An authorization was required but not obtained, or an authorization request received a Decline or Pickup response and the transaction was completed anyway.
  • Consumer Dispute: Chargebacks initiated by the cardholder in regards to product, service or merchant issue (for example, shipped goods were not received).
  • Fraud: Fraudulent transactions.
  • Processing Errors: Disputes including Duplicate Charge, Incorrect Charge Amount and other similar situations.

The Lightspeed Payments support team will guide you with recommendations on what kind of evidence to supply for your given circumstances, but some common examples include:

  • Transaction details, usually found in the Transaction Status report, such as:
    • Payment Amount
    • Time
    • Authorized Amount 
    • Entry Method (e.g. Swiped)
    • Card Brand
    • Cardholder Name
    • Masked PAN
    • Customer's digital signature
  • Proof that the transaction in dispute has already been refunded.
  • Proof that your policies and terms and conditions were conveyed to the customer.

Any evidence you gather to dispute the chargeback must be submitted by the given deadline or you will automatically forfeit the dispute. You'll supply that evidence to the Lightspeed Payments support team, who will submit the evidence with the appropriate parties on your behalf.

If the chargeback is successfully overturned, the funds under dispute will be returned to you and the chargeback will not be counted against your chargeback rate.

Accepting a chargeback

While disputing a chargeback is a good idea if you have compelling evidence to submit, you may find a chargeback is filed against you that is difficult to contest, or you may decide that the amount in dispute is not worth the time and effort to fight for. If that's the case and your chargeback rate is healthy, you can opt to accept the chargeback and absorb the cost of the disputed funds. To do so, simply inform the Lightspeed Payments support agent that you do not wish to dispute the chargeback and they will communicate your decision to the relevant parties.

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