Disputes & Chargebacks
What happens when a cardholder challenges a payment, how to respond, and how to reduce disputes in the first place.
Disputes have a hard deadline
A dispute that passes its deadline without a response is treated as lost, and the disputed amount is debited automatically. There is no grace period and no way to reopen it afterwards. Treat a new dispute as urgent work, not admin.
What a dispute is
When a cardholder tells their bank they do not recognise a charge, or that they never received what they paid for, the bank reverses the payment and opens a case. The merchant then has a limited window to respond with evidence.
Chargeback
The cardholder's bank has formally reversed the payment.
Refund dispute
A disagreement about a refund that has not escalated to a full chargeback.
Where disputes are managed
In the dashboard, under Disputes. Each case shows its transaction reference, type, status, amount, and the date the response is due — highlighted when the deadline is close.
There is currently no dispute webhook. Inkress does not deliver dispute events, so an integration cannot be notified programmatically today. Someone needs to be watching the dashboard and the notification emails. Do not build a process that assumes a webhook will arrive.
Understanding the deadline
There are two deadlines, and merchants only ever see one of them. The card network sets the real external cut-off. The deadline shown in the dashboard sits two business days inside it, leaving Inkress time to package and forward the evidence before the network's cut-off.
So the date shown is genuinely the last day to act. There is no hidden extension behind it.
Responding to a dispute
There are two options, chosen per case.
Contest
Submit documents showing the sale was legitimate and fulfilled. The right choice when the goods or services were genuinely delivered and there is proof.
Accept
Close the case in the cardholder's favour. The disputed amount is debited immediately — this is not a way to make a case quietly go away.
The evidence package
Three documents are required to contest:
Transaction report / order record
The order as it appears in your system: items, customer, totals.
Sale slip
The signed receipt or card authorisation slip for the sale.
Proof of fulfilment
Tracking, a signed delivery note, or pickup confirmation showing the cardholder received the goods. This is the document that most often decides the case.
A fourth optional slot takes anything else that helps — customer messages, invoices, your returns policy, prior correspondence — and a written rebuttal can accompany the files.
File requirements: up to 15 MB per file, in PDF, PNG, JPG, WEBP, GIF, or HEIC. Word documents and spreadsheets are rejected — export them to PDF first. Files can be replaced or removed until the case is submitted.
What happens to the money
When a case settles against the merchant — lost, or expired without a response — the disputed amount is debited from their balance automatically. There is no separate invoice and no manual step.
If the available balance does not cover it, the shortfall is carried and recovered from later settlements. Available balance never displays as negative.
Inkress packages and forwards the evidence; the cardholder's bank decides the outcome. Submitting a strong package improves the odds but does not guarantee a win.
Reducing disputes
3-D Secure already helps
Every card payment is verified with the cardholder's bank, which shifts liability for fraud claims away from the merchant. This is the single biggest lever and it is on by default.
Keep proof of fulfilment
Tracking numbers, signed delivery notes, pickup confirmations. Retain them for every order — they are what wins contested cases.
Use a recognisable descriptor
A large share of disputes are 'I don't recognise this charge'. Make sure the name on the statement matches the name the customer bought from.
Answer customers quickly
Most cardholders go to their bank because the merchant did not respond. A refund is cheaper than a chargeback.
Set clear expectations
Accurate delivery times and a visible returns policy prevent the disputes that come from surprise.
Keep records of correspondence
Messages showing the customer received and accepted the goods carry weight in a response.