Each card network has its own process to handle disputes between cardholders and merchants. Merchants can challenge the dispute, providing evidence to the card issuer, or accept the dispute. If the merchant challenges the dispute, the card issuer makes a final decision based on the provided evidence.
Each card network has its own process for handling disputes between cardholders and merchants, but at a high level they're all similar. Learn more about how disputes work.
When a customer files a dispute, the disputed amount plus the dispute fee is immediately pulled from your Stripe balance until the card network reaches a decision. Stripe plays no part in the dispute decision itself, but does provide tools to help you challenge the dispute to give you the best chance of winning. Learn how to manage disputes in the Dashboard.
When you receive a dispute, you have to decide if you want to challenge it. Review the dispute and the dispute claim in the Dashboard to decide if you think the dispute is valid. You also need to assess if you have evidence to counter the dispute. If you choose not to challenge it, you can ignore the dispute and do nothing, or explicitly accept the dispute. If you want to win a dispute, you must challenge it and submit evidence. Taking no action is treated as accepting the dispute.
In the Dashboard, you’ll be given a timeline on when evidence should be submitted. After you decide to counter the dispute, you need to gather and submit your evidence within that timeline
There are several different types of evidence that you can present to counter the dispute. For example, a payment disputed for the reason “Product not received” can be countered with evidence of delivery by the customer signing for the goods. Read more about dispute categories and reason codes and different types of evidence that can help fight each type of dispute.
Follow our best practices on what kind of evidence to submit for different kinds of disputes and how to organize evidence. You have just one opportunity to submit evidence, so it’s important to gather everything you need before submitting, since you can’t go back and add evidence once you’ve submitted.
The evidence you provide the issuer is the only communication between you and the issuer. Based on the evidence you give, the issuer will make a single, final decision about whether the dispute is won or lost.
The best way to deal with disputes is to prevent them from occurring in the first place. Learning from past disputes can help prevent future disputes. Read about Stripe's best practices for preventing disputes.
You may receive an inquiry about a payment from a customer. An inquiry is a preliminary phase during which a card network gathers information before deciding to open a formal dispute. Follow our recommendations on how to handle inquiries to reduce the likelihood of it becoming a dispute.