A chargeback is not a refund. It is a forced reversal initiated at the customer bank, and it comes with a reason code that tells you which rulebook you are being judged against. Answering the wrong argument, however well written, loses.
The four families
Every code belongs to one of four groups, and the evidence that wins is different in each.
| Family | The claim | What wins |
|---|---|---|
| Fraud | I did not authorise this | Proof the cardholder was involved: AVS and CVV match, 3DS authentication, device and IP history, prior undisputed orders from the same account |
| Authorisation | The transaction was not approved properly | The approval code, and proof you settled the amount and the card that were authorised |
| Processing error | Wrong amount, duplicate, wrong currency, late presentment | The receipt, the settlement record, and the timeline |
| Consumer dispute | Not received, not as described, cancelled subscription still billed | Delivery evidence, the product description at the time of sale, your terms, and the cancellation record |
Read the code before you write anything
Visa 10.4 and Mastercard 4837 both mean card absent fraud. Visa 13.1 and Mastercard 4855 mean goods not received. Visa 13.3 and Mastercard 4853 mean not as described. Visa 13.2 means recurring billing after cancellation. Those five cover most of what a store sees.
The distinction that matters most is fraud against consumer dispute. On a fraud claim, tracking numbers are almost irrelevant, because nobody denies the parcel arrived, they deny buying it. On a not received claim, tracking is the whole case.
What a winning representment contains
- A one page cover summary, written in plain sentences, that says what the customer bought, when, how it was authenticated and why the claim fails.
- The transaction record: date, amount, authorisation code, last four digits, AVS and CVV results.
- Proof of the customer relationship: account creation date, login history, previous orders on the same card, the email thread.
- Proof of delivery or access: signed courier record for physical goods, download and login timestamps for digital.
- The terms in force at purchase, with the refund and cancellation policy the customer accepted, and evidence of that acceptance.
- Any communication showing the customer used the product without complaint.
Send it as one clearly ordered PDF. The reviewer has minutes, not hours.
The economics nobody explains
Each chargeback costs a fee, usually fifteen to forty, whether you win or lose. Fighting takes staff time. Below a certain order value, fighting is not worth it in money alone, but the ratio is worth defending: exceeding the card brand monitoring thresholds, broadly one percent of transactions, puts you into a programme with monthly fines and remediation deadlines.
The practical policy: fight everything above your break even value, fight fraud claims where you hold strong authentication evidence regardless of value, and refund quickly on genuine service failures before they become disputes.
Prevention beats representment
- Put a recognisable name on the statement descriptor. A large share of fraud claims are honest confusion about an unfamiliar name.
- Use 3D Secure on the orders that fit your risk profile. Where liability shifts, most fraud claims cannot be raised against you at all.
- Send a dispatch email with tracking and a support address that a human answers.
- Make cancellation easy and obvious for subscriptions. A cancel button costs less than a 13.2.
- Keep AVS, CVV, 3DS results and IP with every order for at least two years, because you cannot invent them later.
The fraud rules page covers the screening side of that list.