I’ll weigh in here about my experience with a chargeback in hopes it will help some of you, and future people on this board not to loose hope. It only happened to me once but of course for all of us can be frustrating in various ways. 1st…knowing the person is flat out trying to cheat us using the system. Then the paperwork involved. For me it was printing out tons of emails back and forth, scanning, loading, along with the signed contract SHOWING they knew every detail of what they were being provided along with THEIR obligation to make the final payment….which they never did, yet wanted their NON refundable deposit back. A transaction I’ve done hundreds of times with NO issues but they thought they could beat me out of it at MY expense. I received the dispute email from Square and started to fill it out. Like someone else on here it was a little difficult/confusing to do. It turned out some of the docs I was loading were either the wrong type doc…I missed where they clearly had what type I could load on the form, or they were to big. Again, my fault for not noticing but it was pretty frustrating yet in my mind I was blaming Square. It’s been months so I’m a little fuzzy on the details. I seem to remember I was clicking on something that didn’t open. Then later had problems uploading some of the docs. I called and a guy walked me through it but also said even though it didn’t show they all uploaded on my end they did on his and he could see them all. I asked him to read part of them so I KNEW for sure they had everything and they did, Whew…my job was done then an all I could do was wait out the 90 days. In the end they put the money back in my account when the customers CC Co ruled in my favor. I did call a few times and found the Square reps very informative and helpful. Lets face it, there is only so much they can do to “represent” us and I truly felt they did for me what they could on their part. In the end it’s the customers CC Co that determines who’s at fault and if I remember correctly (?) I think there’s an option to dispute that decision. Everyone runs their businesses in different ways. I’m not taking sides here…you all or Square but I have no doubt some businesses don’t keep detailed records…perhaps some rely on phone conversations not emails, some might not have have a signed contract to present, only a receipt. After this happened I had a contract attorney look over mine…just in case. While it was fine for this issue he found a couple of little things I should tweak to deter future issues. A paper trail and emails verses phone calls is very important. To get even more long winded, my business is a vacation rental home. Since Expedia bought out Vrbo they have become very greedy and forced us all to sign up for online payment through them. Payments.... check vrses CC are completely out of my hands now, UG. Ive always dealt directly with my guests and incouraged checks but Vrbo wants to collect their 10% (charged to guests) and will do so by using an outsourced company to process payments. There are blogs like this there about the company siding with the guests and not the property owners…no protection etc just like some of these comments. Scary stuff for me knowing this could become an ongoing thing if those blogs are right. I sure hope not!
So…don’t loose hope
Keep detailed records for all transactions
Email’s verses phone calls when possible. Always ask for an email and if they aren’t emailing you send them one during the process (depending on the service/merchandise youre providing) and prompt them in some way to let you know how satisfied they are etc. Especially if you feel they are/were a bit hinky.
One last thing. Square not only "holds" the disputed amount but takes it back out of the account they originaly deposited to us in. While I was fine with that I would imagine some small business (depending on the amount) could be overdrafted depending on how much they float in their account. That being said I can fault Square for that. They are running a buisness too as our middle man in this situation. Somone could easily close out their account leaving them holding the bag. It's a double edged sword!
Happy holidays everyone and best of luck resolving your disputes.
