Overview
When a dispute is filed by your client, you will receive a notification which includes the dispute category and other dispute details. If made available by the bank, the original client claim document will also be attached to the email.
If you decide to challenge the dispute, you will submit all evidence by replying directly to this email notification.
For a full overview of the dispute process, see our guide "How disputes work."
Review the dispute
The first step in the dispute challenge process is to review and understand why the client has chosen to dispute the payment. This can help you understand how to approach a potential dispute challenge, and in some cases, you may even determine that the dispute is valid.
Decide how to respond
Once you understand the client's concern, decide how you would like to proceed:
Challenge the dispute. If you believe the dispute is not valid, you can submit evidence to overturn it. This is the most common approach, and the rest of this guide will contain best practices on how to build your challenge.
Accept the dispute. In some cases, it may not make sense to submit a challenge. For example, you may find that the client's complaint is valid and you do not wish to fight it. Alternatively, you may find that you do not have compelling evidence and do not wish to pursue a challenge. In these cases, reply to the notification and request that the dispute be accepted.
Work with your client. If you resolve the issue amicably by providing a credit, new dates, or some other option, the client may withdraw the dispute. While this can be the fastest and easiest resolution, you must still submit evidence of the withdrawn dispute.
Challenge the dispute
If you've decided to challenge the dispute, the dispute notification email will highlight the approprate compelling evidence based on the dispute reason. When sending this information, be sure to keep it relevant, accurate, and to the point.
If you do not have all of the evidence requested in the message, that's OK! Submit what you have, and we'll work with you to compile the strongest challenge possible based on the evidence.
We will compile the evidence you provide, along with evidence we've collected from your TravelJoy account (such as invoices, receipts, and signed agreements), and submit a completed challenge on your behalf.
Below, you'll find some suggestions for preparing your evidence in a way that makes it easier for the bank to review. This gives you the greatest possible chance of a dispute being found in your favor—and having your funds returned.
Submitting client communications
Client communication can be crucial to your dispute challenge, so it is important to keep a record of these conversations. The format of your evidence will depend upon the communication channel.
For email conversations, save each message as a PDF with the date and time in the filename. If you aren't sure how to do this, you may use screenshots instead, but you'll want to be sure that each screenshot shows the To, From, and Date/Time fields for each message.
For text messages and social media, collect screenshots. These should show the client's name as well as the date/time stamps for each message.
For phone conversations, submit a PDF of your written account of each relevant phone conversation, including the date and time of contact, as well as the client's phone number.
Submitting documents
Dispute evidence is often transmitted through several legacy systems and most card issuers are still utilizing paper faxing. Before sending your response, ensure that any text or images are clear and large enough to show up clearly in a black and white fax transmission.
While you can zoom in on your electronic documents, the card issuer will not be able to do so. Any evidence that is too small to transmit clearly won’t be considered by the card issuer, so it’s better to have large, full-page images than try to fit too many on one page.
When submitting documents or images as evidence, use the following recommendations to make sure they can remain legible:
- Use a 12-point font or larger
- Ensure that documents are U.S. Letter or A4 size, in portrait orientation
- Avoid using color highlighting, as the bank may receive files in black and white
- Use bold text, callouts, or arrows to draw attention to pertinent information
Submitting images
When uploading images, use a standard file format, such as JPG. Crop the image to the area of interest. Annotate the image with arrows and text boxes to highlight the most relevant parts of the image.
Any illegible text or data that is submitted with a response will be considered incomplete by the card issuer and not reviewed, so be sure to include high-quality images.
What you should not submit
Refrain from submitting the following as evidence:
- Requests to call or email you
- Links to click for further information
- Audio or video files
Card issuers will not review this information, so it’s important to submit all available evidence directly through email as documents or screenshots.
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