How do you talk to someone about a bogus dispute?

[805bodyart]

A fellow vendor at a festival begged me to charge him for my service after I accepted a trade then disputed the charge.  How do I talk to someone at Square about this?

[TheRealChipA]

Hi @805bodyart.  First, I’m very sorry to hear this.  People can be terrible, sometimes!  🤬. A couple of things about the dispute process.  The customer disputed this with their card-issuing bank, who passed it on to Visa/Mastercard/etc, who passed it on to Square.  The only thing that Square can do in this situation is get any documentation you might have to back up your claim, which you need to provide as instructed when they notify you of the dispute.  Hopefully, you have a text thread, or email, if you don’t have anything in writing.

Even with some backup like that, card issuing companies rarely rule against their customers unless they have good reason to.  In the absence of written proof of some kind, it’s your word against their customer, and their customer almost always wins in this case.  Sad, but true.  All Square does here is be the middleman and present your proof/documentation.  They have no role in the final decision other than to inform you of it.

Having said all of that, which you didn’t ask for, you can contact Square Support here.  But don’t be surprised if they just tell you what I said above.  Hopefully, you have some written proof and this won’t be a lesson learned the hard way — don’t trust anyone and if you do something “different,” get yourself some proof of an agreement between you and the other party.

[805bodyart]

Chip, thank you for your thorough response. It looks as though you have an ice cream shop. I offer face painting and henna tattoos at parties and events. The dispute was for $5, which is half of my lowest price. I’m wondering kind of text, email or agreement are you referring to other than the receipt showing that the card was presented? I can’t imagine you implement this to sell ice cream…

Andi

[TheRealChipA]

@805bodyart You’re welcome.  That’s why we are here.  To answer your questions, I don’t, and my answer to you assumed that you had been scammed out of a significant amount of money, since I didn’t know what your business was at the time.

Since I assumed (wrongly) that maybe they had bought something from you in exchange for you buying something from them, and then they reneged, I thought that maybe you had texted each other about the exchange purchases.  Obviously, I was wrong in my assumption.

In this case, challenging a dispute for $5 is probably not worth your time or effort, I’m afraid.  You and I are in a business that requires a certain level of trust.  If transactions are disputed, we are pretty much stuck with the decision of the card-issuing companies.  I’ve lost a few which were, thankfully, under $100 (online gift card sales — ugh).  When a customer disputes small transactions like mine ($10 check averages), of course I have no backup.  It’s part of the cost of doing business, I’m afraid.

These days, I include in the cost of goods calculations for my items 1% more to help me cover the occasional dispute.  There’s not much more that I can do.  Thankfully, I can count on one hand the number of dispute refunds I’ve been forced to make.  Hopefully, you’ll be the same.

[JK_Fiber_Art]

Hey there @805bodyart,

Have to agree with @TheRealChipA concerning the $5 - it's not worth the effort - as a long time business owner, you have to pick and choose your issues.  One has to consider what the end results will be ... you may possibly win a $5 issue but, in reality, what is the cost to you in the end.  It's possible to spend "Hundreds" to recoup quite a bit less.  It's just one of those business risks we all take - there are many more super great customers and/or buyers out there than there are others out there who simply want to take advantage of an honest seller.  Just some thoughts from some personal experiences ....

jk