Pay by Card: Disputes & Chargebacks – Rvvup

Introduction to Disputes

If you accept card payments online, it’s important to be familiar with the disputes process. Disputes and chargebacks are a standard part of payment processing and Rvvup is here to support you before, during, and after a disputed charge from a customer.

ℹ️ What is a chargeback?

A card chargeback occurs when a customer disputes a charge on their card and asks the card issuer to reverse the transaction. This can happen for various reasons, such as fraud, a billing error, or a product or service not meeting the customer's expectations. When a chargeback is initiated, the merchant is notified and given an opportunity to respond to the dispute.

🔄 Lifecycle of a dispute

Cardholder initiates the dispute with their issuing bank
- Funds are retrieved immediately from the merchant and chargeback fee is assessed
Rvvup notifies merchant via email to the Rvvup account owner
Merchant can:
a. Accept the chargeback
b. Submit evidence to attempt to overturn chargeback
Cardholder’s bank then:
1. If accepted or evidence doesn’t overturn, the customer’s bank concludes the dispute in the customer’s favour. The original charge & chargeback fee are not returned to merchant.
2. If evidence provided succeeds in overturning the dispute, the original charge amount is returned to merchant (chargeback fee is still levied).
Both the merchant and customer have the option to appeal the issuing bank’s decision, if additional evidence is available.

📧 Chargeback notifications

If one of your customers opens a dispute, Rvvup will send a notification to the Rvvup account owner’s email address. The email will come from disputes@rvvup.com and include information about the original payment and the reason your customer is disputing the charge.

📆 Responding to chargebacks

When a customer initiates a chargeback, you’ll have 8 calendar days to respond to the dispute.

Option 1: Accept the chargeback

If you choose to accept the chargeback, you are not required to do anything. The funds and chargeback fee will be retrieved from your balance and the dispute will be closed at expiration.

Option 2: Challenge the chargeback

If you have strong evidence and choose to challenge the chargeback, you can respond to the dispute before the deadline by following these steps:

Collect evidence in a single file to submit:

File Type: A single PDF of all related documents (do not encrypt/password protect the file)

File Name: Use the disputed payment’s ARN number that is included in the Chargeback Notification email
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🧠 ARN: The Acquirer Reference Number is a unique number that both the issuing 
and acquiring bank can use to identify a given card scheme transaction.
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Language: The text must be in English (translating the original document if needed)

PDF Length: 18 page maximum

File Size: 20 MB maximum
Reply to the Chargeback Notification email within 8 calendar days of your receipt with your request to challenge the dispute and include the single PDF as an attachment.
Rvvup will confirm receipt of your challenge and deliver the evidence to the cardholder’s card issuing bank for consideration.

🗂️ Guidelines for submitting evidence

Full card numbers: Never provide the complete card details of a customer in a chargeback case.

Note: As part of the chargeback response, it is permissible to provide certain types of evidence such as the personal identification of the customers.

Visa
Visa only allows you to provide the customer’s identification documents for specific chargeback codes and when the cardholder has visited the merchant’s location for the service or goods (for example, a hotel reservation). If the customer’s ID is provided when it is not allowed or full card details are shared, the merchant will receive a technical violation, which carries a £200 fine.

Mastercard

While Mastercard does have technical violation fees (£80), they do not have rules against providing a customer’s ID as evidence.

💬 Common Chargeback Reasons & Responses

If you receive a chargeback notification email, we’ll include some basic information about the original payment, as well as the reason your customer cited for initiating the dispute.

This list includes some common reasons for chargebacks and suggested guidance if you choose to challenge the dispute.

Reason: Service not provided / not received

Code: 13.1
Description: This chargeback type is used when a customer asserts that goods were not received, or that the order itself was canceled as the result of not receiving the goods or services by expected delivery date.
Guidance: You’ll want to include the following information if you have it:
- If physical goods were delivered as agreed, include any evidence of the delivery.
- If the order was for digital downloads, provide evidence that the digital goods were downloaded/ received by the customer.
- Any correspondence with the customer which shows that the customer received the item.
- Evidence that the agreed delivery date not yet passed, and that the delivery date was visible to the customer.
- Any other relevant information you may have.

Reason: Fraudulent Transaction - Card not present

Codes: 4837, 10.4
Description: The customer claims that there was no authorisation given for the transaction.
Guidance: These chargebacks are created by customers who do not recognise, remember, or agree to the transaction made on their account and are declared to be fraudulent by the customer. The most effective way to deal with these kinds of chargebacks is to ensure that 3DS is performed on the transaction to prove that the customer authenticated the transaction, however there is additional evidence you can include such as:
- Include the 3DS data attached to the transaction (such as the Cardholder Authentication Verification Value, and accompanying status values found in the Order details in the Rvvup Dashboard)
- If a refund was issued, include the refund along with its ARN number visible.
- If a partial refund was issued, be sure to include the reason for a partial refund
- Provide Logs, Profile details, e-mail correspondence, and anything that might prove that the customer participated in the creating the transaction
Note: For Visa - If KYC (Know Your Customer) documents are used in your response, you may be liable for technical violation fees if the case goes to arbitration and Visa make a ruling (see the Evidence Conditions).

Reason: Not as described / defective merchandise

Codes: 13.5, 4853
Description: A customer might issue this type of chargeback if the goods or services do not match how they were advertised/promised. For example, physical goods could have arrived damaged, or defective. Additionally, the customer would claim that they either returned the goods, canceled the service, or attempted to resolve the dispute with you.
Guidance: If you have not been contacted by the customer indicate clearly that you have not received the item back from the customer. Be sure to include any contact you had with the customer where you advised them to return the item. If you have not been contacted by the customer, include this information. Also, be sure to include a copy of the page on your website, where the business mailing address and “how to return” information is available to your customers – Should the customer subsequently return the item, you may receive a second Chargeback.
If you have been contacted by the customer and you advised them to return the merchandise and you have not received it back – you may have a chargeback representment right. To represent this chargeback, indicate clearly that you have not received the item back from the customer. Be sure to include any contact you had with the customer where you advised them to return the item. If you have not been contacted by the customer, include this information. Also, be sure to include a copy of the page on your website, where the business mailing address and “how to return” information is available to your customers

Reason: Cardholder does not recognise the transaction

Codes: 75, 4863
Description: This is an older chargeback reason code where the cardholder reviewed the transaction on their statement and don’t remember making the payment.
Guidance: Provide any documentation or information that would assist the cardholder in recognising the transaction.
- Transaction receipt
- Shipping invoice / delivery receipts
- Description of merchandise / service purchased

🧾 Notes on refunds & chargebacks

Chargebacks are typically reversed to the Merchant only in the case that a refund was issued before the dispute, but the customer proceeds to file a chargeback.

It is very important that once a chargeback is received, a refund should not be issued, as this will lead to the funds being debited and returned to your customer twice.

🧮 Chargeback Fees

When your customer initiates a dispute, a non-returnable chargeback fee of £15 is assessed by the card network and automatically debited from your account.

If the initial dispute is not settled and a further challenge is requested, a second round of arbitration could levy fees from Visa or Mastercard in the £500-1250 range. Our team will work closely with you if this situation arises to understand these potential fees before continuing with an open dispute.

Need additional help?

Have more questions? Please reach out at any time to disputes@rvvup.com