Chargebacks, Retrievals, and Pre-Arbs

Unfortunately, chargebacks, retrievals, and pre-arbitrations are a standard part of doing business – even if you follow our suggested precautions to prevent them. Don’t worry, though – we’re here to help.

Notifications

When one of your cardholders initiates a dispute, you’ll receive an email from disputes@braintreepayments.com with instructions on how to proceed.

By default, your first admin user created in the gateway will receive dispute notifications, but this can be adjusted in the Control Panel. To edit your notifications:

1. Log into the Control Panel
2. Click on the gear icon in the top right corner
3. Click Processing from the drop-down menu
4. Scroll to the Notifications section
5. Next to Dispute Notifications, click the Options link

You can adjust the frequency of the notifications and designate who receives them. When designating recipients, you have two options: adding a User Recipient, or using the Email Address field.

Any merchant accounts that do not currently have a recipient designated will be listed here as well. While not all merchant accounts will generate dispute notifications, we recommend that you assign notification recipients to as many merchant accounts as possible.

In addition to email notifications, you can set up webhooks to notify you if a chargeback, retrieval, or pre-arb’s status is updated to Open, Won, or Lost. For more information on setting up webhooks, see our webhooks guide.

Managing in the Control Panel

We're currently rolling out some changes to our user interface for managing chargebacks, retrievals, and pre-arbs in the Control Panel.

If you recently received a notice that the Disputes section of your Control Panel has been updated, follow these steps to manage your disputes:

1. Log into the Control Panel
2. Click on Disputes in the navigation bar
3. Click the filter button in the upper left corner of the disputes list page to search for disputes within the provided set of parameters
4. To view more information or take action on a dispute, click that dispute's row in the results list or the expand button on the far right side of the row. From this menu, select from the following options:
   • Submit Evidence: Go to the evidence submission page, where you can upload and submit evidence
   • Accept: Accept the dispute
   • View Transaction: Go to the transaction against which this dispute was raised
   • View Customer: View more information about the customer who raised this dispute
   • View Dispute: View further details about this dispute, including its event history

Otherwise, follow these steps:

1. Log into the Control Panel
2. Click on Disputes in the navigation bar
3. Search for a dispute within the provided set of parameters
4. To submit evidence against a dispute, click the Dispute button
5. To accept the dispute, click the Accept button

Every chargeback, retrieval, or pre-arb has a reply-by date listed in the Control Panel. At 12am on this date you will lose the opportunity to submit evidence and the case will expire. The time zone for your account was established during the application process; to see your current time zone settings, click on the gear icon in the top right corner, click Business from the drop-down menu, and scroll to the Time Zone section.

If you let the case expire, an Accept response will be sent on your behalf and you will no longer be able to dispute the chargeback. This is to mitigate any non-response fees assessed by the card brands, and will not affect your reporting (e.g. cases you allow to expire will still have the Expiredstatus).

Each chargeback, retrieval, or pre-arb will have a dispute reason, which helps you determine what action you should take. We provide specific recommendations in the Control Panel based on the reason code, but there are some general guidelines to keep in mind for each type of dispute.

Chargebacks

When a cardholder disputes a transaction with their bank, this is called a chargeback.

We will notify you of the chargeback, and the cardholder’s bank will then give you the opportunity to submit evidence against the cardholder’s claim and evaluate any documentation you provide. The original transaction amount will automatically be debited from your account within 7 days of the dispute being reported and held by the bank until the dispute is resolved.

If the bank rules in your favor, the transaction amount will be credited back to your account, and you will not be charged a fee. If you lose or accept the chargeback, the disputed amount will be returned to the cardholder, and you will be charged a chargeback fee.

Chargeback fees

The standard chargeback fee amount can be found on your pricing agreement, and is only charged if you lose or accept a chargeback.

Accepting a chargeback

When you accept a chargeback, the funds will be issued to the cardholder and you will be charged a chargeback fee. Accepting a chargeback indicates that you don’t wish to take any further action, but it doesn’t necessarily imply that you agree with the cardholder’s claim.

Merchants typically accept chargebacks if the transaction amount is minor enough that it doesn’t justify the work of submitting evidence, or if the transaction is known to be fraudulent.

Disputing a chargeback

If you would like to contest a chargeback, you can dispute it. The evidence you provide to help identify the validity of the transaction will be passed on to the bank for review. In the case that you win, the transaction amount will be returned to you and you will not be charged a chargeback fee.

Any pertinent information regarding the history of the original transaction – including card verification performed by Braintree – will be automatically included in your claim if you dispute the chargeback in the Control Panel. If you have additional evidence, you can choose to include information in the text box and/or upload relevant attachments by clicking the Attach Image button.

Submitting evidence

Every chargeback is different, so the evidence you provide will vary depending on the reason for the chargeback and the documents you have available. See our public support article for advice on what evidence to submit.

Dispute timelines

Every chargeback has a reply-by date listed in the Control Panel. You have until 12am on this date to provide documentation identifying the validity of the transaction.

After your evidence has been submitted, the issuing bank for the cardholder will have up to 45 days to continue the dispute. Funds lost or won from disputes will be reflected in your monthly statement.

Retrievals

A retrieval is a request for information about an unidentifiable charge. Unlike chargebacks and pre-arbs, funds are not removed from your bank account, and you will not be charged a fee to process the retrieval.

To lower the risk of a retrieval turning into a chargeback, we recommend that you dispute the retrieval and provide information that will help the cardholder identify the transaction. You have 11 days to respond to a retrieval before it is considered forfeited.

If the cardholder initiated the inquiry due to suspected fraud, it’s usually best to issue a refund. Retrievals filed with a fraud-related dispute reason often become chargebacks despite any evidence submitted, so refunding the cardholder may help you avoid a chargeback fee.

Re-opens

When a chargeback is re-opened it means the bank is providing you with an additional opportunity to supply information to support your claim. If you have supplied all relevant evidence available to you in relation to the transaction in question, we recommend drafting a synopsis of the events surrounding this purchase to lend clarity to the evidence previously provided. If you would like recommendations on additional evidence that would be considered compelling please see our blog post: Visa Claims Resolution: Reason Codes and Compelling Evidence.

If you have already provided evidence and do not have additional evidence to add, you can leave the re-opened case open until it expires. We will have already supplied the initial evidence to our partner bank and will continue to represent your case with that original evidence. If the re-opened case expires, it means the bank will make a final decision based on the evidence so far.

Pre-arbs

A pre-arbitration, or pre-arb, occurs when a chargeback is filed, the merchant wins, and the cardholder disputes the charge for a second time.

Unlike other institutions, NAB treats disputes as one continuous dispute, so if the cardholder continues to dispute the charge, you may see additional chargebacks instead of an escalation into a pre-arbitration.

Statuses

• Open: The chargeback, retrieval, or pre-arb has been issued and we are awaiting your response
• Accepted: You have opted out of providing evidence for the chargeback or pre-arb
• Auto Accepted: The dispute has been automatically accepted for the best merchant experience
• Disputed: You have submitted evidence against the claim and are waiting for the decision from the bank
• Won: The bank has ruled in your favor and you will not be charged a chargeback fee
• Lost: The bank has not ruled in your favor - you will be charged a chargeback fee and the disputed funds will be returned to the customer
• Expired: The reply-by date to submit evidence has passed and you have forfeited your right to dispute the case

Dispute Report

Users with the Create, Run, and Download Reports role permission can access the Dispute Report in the Control Panel. To access the report:

1. Log into the Control Panel
2. Click on Reports in the navigation bar
3. Scroll to the Transactions section
4. Next to Dispute Report, click the Run Report button

This report lists every dispute within a given date range, along with important details such as the status of the dispute or the payment method type used for the disputed transaction. All disputes with the status of Open or Won will also include a value in the Disbursement Date column, indicating when disputed funds were credited or debited from your bank account. Use the Dispute Report when running a chargeback analysis or alongside your statement for reconciliation purposes.