A dispute is when a cardholder asks their bank to reverse a charge on their card/account. The card issuer or bank then creates a formal dispute which immediately reverses the payment. The payment amount is deducted from your account balance, along with a separate dispute fee levied by the card network.
We advise handling the dispute as soon as possible, which you can do easily within Spectora.
🔴 Note: Spectora is not involved in the determination of a dispute, but we automatically compile the following information as evidence on your behalf for you to submit:
Type of services rendered
Inspection date and time
A link to the report
Access log that shows when the buyer viewed the report and their IP address
Emails sent to your client
Client's name, email address, and billing address
Handling a Dispute
1. On the inspection details page, click Handle Dispute:
2. On the next page, you'll find more information about the dispute. Before you move forward with next steps, you can reach out to your client first to discuss the dispute.
3. If you disagree with the dispute, submit additional evidence that the charge was valid using the form below. That can include screenshots of texts or emails outside of Spectora with the client or agent.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you issue a refund in place of the dispute? My client is going to pay a different way.
Unfortunately, we aren't able to cancel the dispute and issue a refund instead. The client will need to cancel the dispute with their bank. Alternatively, you can submit evidence for the dispute and wait for it to be decided.
How do I handle a dispute if the client cancels the card and wants to use a different card to pay instead?
The client will need to cancel the dispute with their bank. If they are able to cancel the dispute, you can refund the payment to the original card, then they will be able to pay with a different card instead.
My client disputed the charge because they didn't recognize it in their bank statement. How do I fix this?
You can set up your statement descriptor in your Stripe account! This allows you to customize how the charges show to clients, which can help them recognize the charge. Click here to see how.
Why did you decide in the client's favor for the dispute? I submitted evidence!
Unfortunately, Spectora doesn't have any hand in disputes- we simply act as the messenger when a dispute is initiated by the client and give you a platform to submit your evidence. The evidence then gets sent right to Stripe and the client's bank. Anyone can initiate a dispute for any reason through their bank. We have no way to prevent that, though we have found that most disputes are accidents, and updating your payment description so it's recognizable to the client usually helps prevent these!
The best step to handling the disputes is to reach out to the client or agent first to confirm if this was an accident, so you can work out alternative payment and sometimes the client can ask the bank to cancel the dispute!
Is it possible to submit additional evidence on my dispute after I've already submitted evidence?
No, unfortunately, additional evidence cannot be entered once you have already submitted evidence.
With disputes, evidence can only be submitted 1 time, before the dispute's deadline expires. Once evidence is submitted, Stripe immediately passes on all the evidence to the card issuer/bank. After that, no further evidence can be submitted, edited, or changed for that dispute.
It's vital that you gather all your evidence before the deadline and submit it all together as once the submission is done no new evidence can be sent.
I received a notification that I lost a dispute but I wasn't even notified of the dispute in the first place! Why is that?
If the lost dispute message was sent via the chat bubble, the original dispute message would most likely have been sent the same way. To ensure that notifications of disputes are not lost in your chat bubble messages, you can change your notification style to email under Settings > Payments.
If you have any questions or feedback, write into our chat bubble or email support@spectora.com!
