Chargeback Management
Cardholders typically have 120 days from the date of the original transaction to open a chargeback. Merchants must ensure that they can provide adequate evidence to demonstrate that a chargeback dispute opened by a cardholder on a purchase transaction is invalid. The evidence submitted by the Merchant must directly address the chargeback’s Exception Code. Merchant evidence is reviewed by the Issuer, who determines the outcome of the case.
Merchants should refer to TabaPay’s daily Chargebacks Report to view new chargeback cases and get status updates on existing disputes. The daily Chargebacks Report will show all cases opened in the past 150 days. The daily Exceptions Report identifies all funds movement related to chargebacks on that day.
When an issuer opens a chargeback dispute the cardholder’s payment is immediately reversed and the merchant’s account is debited.
The reason for a dispute can be found by referring to the exception code relayed in TabaPay’s daily Chargebacks Report. Exception codes are network-specific and assigned by issuers.
Merchants can dispute chargebacks by uploading relevant evidence (based on the exception code) via a file request link provided by TabaPay. This evidence is submitted to the card networks in a process known as representment. If a merchant takes no action and does not dispute a chargeback, the case will close 30 days after the exception date and there will be no further movement of funds.
Representment
Merchants can dispute a chargeback by following the steps outlined below:
- Create evidence to challenge the dispute: Evidence submitted during the representment process should directly address the exception code (Chargebacks Report, column 7) and the description (Chargebacks Report, column 8).
Evidence Document Requirements
The card networks will reject a merchant’s evidence and the dispute will not be represented if the following conditions are not met:
- A single PDF file
- File size cannot exceed 10 MB
- Documents must not exceed 18 pages in length
File Name Requirements
The evidence document uploaded must be named with the chargeback’s Exception ID. (Example: ExceptionID.pdf)
- The Exception ID is a reference number generated by TabaPay and will identify each chargeback case throughout its lifecycle. It can be found in the merchant’s daily Chargebacks Report, column 5.
- Do not include any additional characters or spaces before or after the Exception ID in the document name. Documents that do not follow this naming convention will not be logged as received and the chargeback will not be represented.
- Submission deadline: Chargeback evidence must be uploaded by the merchant to TabaPay within 10 calendar days of the exception date (Chargebacks Report, column 9).
- Upload chargeback documentation: Documentation to dispute chargebacks is only accepted via the file request link for chargeback evidence assigned to the merchant by TabaPay. If you have not received this link, please send a request to [email protected] and include “chargebacks” in the subject line.
- Confirm that the document was properly uploaded: When evidence is uploaded successfully to TabaPay, the next day’s Chargebacks Report will show a corresponding change in Action Status (Chargebacks Report, column 10) from “Open – Merchant Debited” to “Documentation Received.”
- Monitor the status of chargeback disputes
- Status change updates can be found under Action Status (Chargeback Report, column 10).
- For most chargeback exception codes, the merchant receives a provisional credit at the time of representment. The issuer has 30 to 45 days (depending on the network) to review the merchant’s evidence. The issuer can either accept the evidence, in which case the provisional credit becomes permanent, or deny it, and the provisional credit will be reversed.
- In Visa Fraud (exception code 10) and Authorization (exception code 11) cases merchants are not granted a provisional credit at the time of representment. Funds will not move while a case is open unless the merchant wins the case.
Updated 10 days ago