I believe that it is worth noting. There is a fairly new issue that may be affecting merchants across the board. All merchants should be aware...

Financial institutions are now offering a new service or "perk" to new and existing customers which allows their customers to cancel orders or reverse transactions through a single click or tap. This may show to the customer on their phone, tablet, or pc as a "dispute this transaction" option, or "did you make this purchase". Customers can click or tap this notification on their bank app, long after the initial purchase. While this is a very nice option to have as a bank customer, this reflects very poorly on merchants both ecommerce and brick & mortar. If someone no longer wants or needs a product (most often between the time they order the product and the time they receive the product), they now have the ability to cancel the order without ever contacting the merchant.

I have been experiencing an increasing amount of these "mysterious" disputes lately, and it has caused my dispute rate to rise. I believe, and hope, that payment processors will take this new cancellation ability into account when figuring their merchant dispute rates. This just means that merchants need to be extra speedy with deliveries and provide constant communication with customers, now more than ever. If you are receiving an increase in disputes, or a mysteriously rising dispute rate, this may be a reason why.

Over the years, it has become clear to me that some card issuing banks make it very easy to file a dispute, while others ask questions, such as "have you tried to resolved this with the merchant?".
Some of these banks, if there is some "middle of the night" strange charges, will just dispute all transactions from that day (or even before), on behalf of the customer.
We have gotten caught up in these with regular customers, where we received a dispute, we call them up, and that's what they tell us.

In the end, some of these card issuing banks are evil, while others operate in a more fair manner.
There is no protection for merchants and you will almost always lose a dispute, regardless if you have proof the transaction was legit, and was delivered.
It's all stacked in favor of the consumer. While these protections are needed, it's a bit lopsided with merchants having practically no voice in the matter.

Sorry to hear this is happening to you.

David

So true! We have had customers create a dispute by "accident" because they didn't recognize our name on their credit card statement or something. When we tell them to contact their bank to let them know it was a mistake, and it will still go through as a chargeback! It's crazy. Some of them have been honest and called us with a different form of payment (because after a chargeback, you can't rebill the same credit card - it will be declined) and then there are those that you just never hear from again and they think they just got over on you or something. Not sure how they sleep at night.

Kelley

My main business is trophies/awards
A youth sports park placed a few orders over about a year and then, out of the blue, one of their orders ($800.00) was disputed.
We know they received the awards, but the dispute claimed the order was never received.
The guy that placed the order, after we contacted him, was initially working on answers, but then became evasive.

I started calling the park and spoke to a manger, and he said he would work on it.
Then he became evasive.

Well, it turns out this park is operated by the city.
This is a decent size city in South Florida.
I did some internet sleuthing and found the city web page with a list of all officials (phone numbers and email addresses), including the Mayor and folks who oversee the parks.
I emailed the mayor, and about a dozen other city officials, with a polite threat that they were about to be hauled into small claims court in Jacksonville, FL.
I received a phone call within an hour. Low and behold, within 24 hours, the city ponied up the funds.

It turns out there was some infighting between some of the parents and one of them put up the funds for the trophies, and out of spite, they disputed the charge.

I guess the moral of the story is sometimes answers lie in places we may not always suspect.
I get about 1-2 of these charge-backs a year - Most are improper according to the terms on card issuers, but people lie to them, and we (merchants) become victims.
I just got one about a week ago from an affiliate of the WYCA.
You can guess where I will be calling soon.

Happy Selling.
David

I think there are similarities to the attitude of the insurance companies in the UK who realised that it cost a bit more to fight a false claim for injury than to just pay up. So this became known and it became a scam to drive slowly in front of another car and slam on the brakes, then get out a holding usually the neck and making a claim for whiplash. This continued until a whole bus load made claims for whiplash in this way.

Vince

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