Who represents me (the seller) during the dispute process?

[TaeUtBarber]

Who fights for us when customers dispute the invoice & did not hold up on his/her end?!

[EJ_]

Hi @buildNreuse

I've moved your post over to this existing thread, as the Best Answer goes through the Dispute Process and how it works. Check it out when you get a chance. 

In regards to your post titled "How do I get my product back from a customer who has disputed the charge and kept the item?", unfortunately we don't really have any control over the fulfillment or returns of items once you've sent it to your customer. 

As a card holder, they have the right to dispute any payment on their bank/card statement, even if all goods or services have been provided. 

The good news is our Dispute Team will fight for you on your behalf and even cover you up to a certain amount if you qualify. When a dispute occurs, we'll notify you immediately via email and also through your Square Dashboard. Make sure you sign in to your Dashboard and provide all of the information that you have so our Disputes Team can fight this for you. 

You should be able to call us directly if you need, so feel free to reach out to our CS Team directly and we'll get you in contact with Disputes. 

[atozmedical]

Hi Everyone,

I have a customer who broke a piece of equipment while renting it. I have a signed rental agreement stating that if a patient damages any of our equipment they are responsible for repairs and replacement units should this happen. This is the first time this has happened and I charged him for the equipment. He then called and is threatening to do a chargeback & is threatening other legal actions since he believes we should have insurance to cover such things.

I have the following right now:

1. Rental Agreement signed assuming responsiblity.

2. Credit Authorization signed to charge the card

3. Recorded conversation admitting to breaking the equipment and him threatening a chargeback on principals alone.

Anyone with experience know if this will be enough? Pretty scary since this is the first time this has happened in our 14 year history and it's a rather expensive piece of equipment.

[katieand]

Hi @atozmedical - Sorry you're going through this experience! I've merged you on this thread with some more resources about the dispute process. You can also give our CS team a call to ask anything you might be curious about.

Best of luck to you!

[atozmedical]

Thank you. I'm just worried because they're going to chargeback out of spite instead of the chargeback's intended use. They even stated that on the recorded call. I don't want my Square account to take a hit because someone using chargebacks as a tool to bully small businesses.

[lindamotaa]

Obviously a terrible job at representing this dispute! did you even check my records! i'm getting a chargeback of over 600 dollars for a favor i did for my fathers business since the cards he received during his payments were on paper and i'd punch in the card numbers to receive funds and i'd have it and give the money since i had the reader in the first place. I'm an art vendor for crying out loud struggling why am i paying the consequence for doing a favor?! Terrible representation and this was from febuary i'm JUST finding out! i'm seriously considering discontinuing square if they are going to keep me in the negatives! Terrible!

[Tom]

Hey @lindamotaa,

I'm really sorry to hear about the trouble you and your father have been encountering with this. The seller community is a public space and I can't get into account-specifics in our online forums for privacy purposes. Our Dispute Resolutions Team should have reached out via email with more details. If you have any other questions, please follow up with them directly.

In addition, I'll be surfacing your post with them and ask someone to reach out. Apologies again for the frustration—a team member will be in touch as soon as any other information becomes available.

[Loveleightouch]

So square doesnt provide any protection for business, from false accusations from clients requesting their money back.

[EJ_]

Hi @Loveleightouch

I've moved your post over to this existing thread, which touches on some of our dispute protections we have in place to help with situations like this. 

Disputes are always a tough thing to go through for sellers, as your customers bank drives this process completely. It's important to remember that we have an entire team dedicated to fighting for you.

While I can't touch on your case specifically within the Seller Community, check out the Best Answer in this thread, which includes an awesome video that goes into more details. 

[Marla]

A person made purchases in my office in April and May and appears to have paid.

She sent me a letter 6/10 and now advised the person was not authorized to use her card.

I want to contact the police but thought I wouldd start by seeing how Square handles this since she claims she is contacting her credit cared company.

How do we handle this since services were provided and she has already paid?

Marla

[EJ_]

Hi @Marla

Sorry to hear you're going through this, but I want to let you know that we have an entire team dedicated to helping you win these types of cases. 

I've moved your post over to this existing thread, as it touches on the Dispute process and how it works with Square. 

If your customer chooses to dispute the payments they've completed with you, our Disputes team will fight on your behalf to prove that those payments were legitimate. 

Check out the Best Answer in this thread, which includes a cool video. Here are a few helpful article as well:

Payment Disputes Walkthrough

Speeding Up the Disputes Process

[Breickellashes]

i had two chargebacks and the square took the money from my account how can i fight that?

[EJ_]

Hi @Breickellashes

Sorry to hear you're going through a dispute. It can be a frustrating experience for sellers, but we're here to help!

I've moved your post over to this existing thread, so check out the Best Answer for information on how Square fights on your behalf when this happens. 

[501Americ]

As a business, we have a variety of customers like most others. 

Square offers now a General Service Agreement...

This offers even less in the lines of service agreement than in my own invoice booklet. 

It states that when signed the customer is satisfied with the service rendered and provided to them and they sign it also for the agreement of what charge they are given. I always discuss the customers needs before and find a solution. Then we fill out the paperwork and I always have it signed before the work/service is done. And always with an ID I ask for and put the information on paperwork.

In in most cases we shake hands smile and leave. And 99 percent of the time I even get a positive review from these customers. 

I now have anxiety anytime I see a CC come out of a customers pocket! 

Square drops their pants 99% of the time if the customer gets a wild hair a month later to dispute anything! Crooks rule their platform! I’ve had people admit to me even that they know if they run their card through a square reader they have a great chance of getting their money back in any situation!

why do business at all with square if they can’t protect the ppl that bring them business?

Honestly if I found a company in the near future that would take into consideration the binding paperwork already signed and then A signature signed on the Square device pad (x2 signed signature ) I would be more than ready to work with them or even pay them something more to prevent theft of services! 

Im not seeing that square is ready to stand by me and forfeit the processing fees they collect off of my back in this process of a customer dispute. And I have followed the protocol and advice strictly that  they offer to help prevent this. 99% of the time... the customer gets to take advantage and I’m out time money and material. 

SHAPE up SQUARE 

Give us a good platform! show us proof that you actually went to bat with a bank to help us and not copy paste apologies that a customers mood wins all the time! 

[EJ_]

Hey @501Americ

Thank you so much for posting, as this is great feedback that I can take back to our disputes team. 

When it comes to disputes, the customers card issuing bank drives that process. All cardholders are provided the right to dispute payments, and it's something that Square partners on with our sellers when disputes occur. 

While I can't speak to your case specifically, I can say that our Disputes team will absolutely go to bat for you and fight to keep your funds in your account with all of the information that we have and that you can provide. 

Unfortunately, the final decision is not up to Square. I know this can seem unfair (especially if a dispute was lost), but you can always reach out to the team that handled your case for more details on best practices and disputes prevention. 

Hopefully we can figure out a way to make this experience less painful for sellers, and we'll definitely use feedback like this to do so. 

[schwabber]

I need the proper square email address to send documentation related to a settled dispute with a customer. So square will release funds back to me

[AshleyK]

Hey! Thanks for reaching out, and welcome to the Seller Community. You will need to submit your disputes information via the dashboard, or write into our Customer Success team to get your questions emailed to our Disputes team.

I have merged your post with an existing thread that answers your question and has the links you need to answer your dispute on the dashboard. 

Of course, you can always email or call Customer Success if you still have more questions!

[dofoogan]

I am also incredibly frustrated with the Square Customer Disputes process. Most recently I had a customer dispute an online order that was shipped to then. I provided all the UPS tracking numbers that showed the packages were delivered to the address provided. Yet the bank still resolved in the customer's favor, yet WE THE MERCHANT have to take the hit? I don't get this!?! We are a small business--why isn't the billion-dollar financial entity taking the hit on THEIR books? Why are we penalized? We were not given any reason as to why it was resolved in the customer's favor. Did someone steal their package? Did someone place an fraudulent order? If so--how is that OUR FAULT? Why isn't UPS or Square charged for this? Ridiculous! 

Most recently I just got another notification of a customer dispute--this time from a REPEAT customer?!? ARE these people trying to get free stuff? Why bother even being in business if we are subject to this nonsense.

[Joe]

Hi there, @dofoogan - thanks for reaching out. So sorry to hear that your dispute was resolved in your customers favor.

It's important to remember here that Square does not have any authority when it comes to deciding a resolution on a dispute. That action is totally and completely up to the customers card issuing bank. More info on dispute resolution here.

[Donnie-M]

@dofoogan I wanted to add a little bit of info about the shipping of packages that I read about in an industry publication.  This falls under those porch pirate/fraud/lost in shipping issues.  I know if a big company like amazon is contacted about a package that didn't arrive they generally have to "eat" the cost.  I know they may charge it back to other sellers.  I also have gotten packages and then amazo email me and say "hey didn't get your package click here for a refund".  Errors do happen even with tracking.  There is only 1 real way to protect yourself in these situations and that is shipping insurance.  I would figure out what type of liability you want to accept and if say $250 is the amount that makes or breaks you, I would require insurance on any shipping that is over that amount.  Roll the cost into shipping etc.

Is it ideal?  No...but could you then go to back to ups or usps and get your funds that way...yes.  It could be as simple as the person did not like the item and is just being a pain.  Unfortunately, in these situations it really is the person's bank that makes the decision.

[Richmenlooks]

We just got a dispute that got resolved in the customers favor. We are livid because the customer purchased the product online over 6 weeks ago (which is waaayyy past our 7 day return policy) and disputed the transaction claiming the product was "not as described". They never reached out to us nor sent back the product if they were unsatisfied. Per our policy, we would have been happy to accept the return if it were shipped back within 7 days and helped the customer find something else. What I don't understand is if we are submitting our return policy as support to show that the customer had 7 days to contact us for a Return Authorization Form, why is Square not able to defend us???? Our return policy is available to the customer during checkout and as a tab on our home page. We now lost the money, the shipping and the product for something purchased OVER 6 weeks ago!!

Additionally, we now have an another dispute with the same issue where the customer purchased a product OVER 10 weeks ago and is now disputing the transaction. I'm afraid that it will also get resolved in the customers favor since it does not seem that square even fights for us. What is the point of having a return policy if customer can purchase whatever they want and get a full refund??? We are small boutique so any dispute is affecting our business. 

And what is really frustrating is that the decision is FINAL! We can't even appeal it to defend ourselves. 

[atozmedical]

Hi Richmenlooks,

This is just the downside of running a business online. I've had 3 disputes, all resolved in my favor, because we only deliver to our local area. We were required to provided:

Written signature on delivery ticket, customer's drivers license, IP address of the customers location, etc. The more evidence that you can provide THEIR BANK NOT SQUARE, the more likely you are to win the dispute. If you've ever used any other payment system, SQUARE is heavenly because of the ease of providing documentation for dispute. Chase Paymentech will just leave you high and dry.

Again, Square can do NOTHING about the dispute. It is up to YOU to provide overwhelming evidence to prove the customer was the one who purchased the item AND that they agreed to the TOS of your website/transaction. Your only remedy is to literally take it to small claims court.