Industry FAQ
Why Would a Customer do a Bank Charge Back After They Got Their Goods?
We often ask ourselves that same question! And honestly, the reasons are many. Some legit, some less so…and some include an element of fraud. As a merchant, it’s important to understand the differences among them, so you can find a solution that best fits your unique business needs.
Legitimate Chargebacks
Sometimes customers are unhappy with what they received because it wasn’t what they expected to receive, it was broken, or did not work as promised. Usually, those represent legitimate chargebacks, and a customer is within their rights in filing a claim with their bank or credit card company. In many of these cases, simply contacting the merchant would have allowed a resolution without filing a claim with a credit card company or bank. These are the types of chargebacks where alerts are most effective, allowing you to reach out to dissatisfied clients and resolve the complaint without an intermediary.
The Grey Area
Often, charge backs are filed when a sees a charge they don’t recognize, a duplicate charge for a single purchase, or a charge for a different amount than they were quoted. The purchase may indeed have been made, but there is some confusion about what it’s for or how much it should have cost. In these cases, customers may not know to whom they need to reach out, or how to address their concerns without involving their bank or credit card company.
Chargeback alerts can help head off these claims, too. But there are other simple ways to avoid most of these claims[LS1] before they happen.
Fraudulent Chargebacks
This is the category that concerns merchants most of all -- the growing volume of fraudulent chargebacks. These are the cases where a customer did receive the items or services as promised, and still chose to file a claim to cancel their payment and receive a refund. Perhaps they downloaded a game, played it, and now want their money back so they can buy a new one. Or maybe they regretted a purchase, and rather than deal with the consequences, they chose to file a chargeback claim. Others use the chargeback process to fraudulently claim that they never received items (or used services) – a purposeful deception.
Solutions to Stop Chargebacks
There are ways to significant reduce all three categories of charge backs, and to recover some of the funds lost to already filed claims. Check out our FAQs on How Can I Prevent Chargebacks Starting Toda[LS2] y, How to Stop Chargeback Fraud, and Why is Chargeback Representment so Important[LS3] to learn more.