Review and respond to payment disputes submitted by your customers.

Tip: For questions related to your Squarespace subscriptions and billing, visit Billing basics.

A dispute occurs when a customer disputes a transaction through their bank. Use this guide to understand how you can manage disputes in the Payments dashboard.

A customer may file a dispute if they claim:

• It's a fraudulent charge
• They didn't receive a refund
• It's a duplicate transaction
• They didn't receive the product or service you provided
• The quality of the product or service you provided is unacceptable
• They canceled their subscription before the payment was processed
• They don't recognize the payment

How chargebacks are withdrawn

When a dispute is made, the disputed funds and an additional fee of $20.00 are immediately debited from your payout balance. This is called a chargeback. If there aren't enough funds in your payout balance, funds from the bank account connected to your Payments account will be transferred to cover the charge. The only time chargebacks aren't immediately debited is when there's an inquiry.

How do inquiries and chargebacks differ?

Some card brands such as American Express and Discover will create an inquiry, also called a request for information, as a preliminary phase before a chargeback. The inquiry process is similar to the dispute process, except no fees are deducted from your account unless you lose the inquiry process. Inquiries are managed in your Payments dashboard.

Viewing disputes

If a customer files a dispute, you'll be notified by email and a banner will appear on your Payment and Payout dashboards. You’ll get reminder emails five days and two days before the dispute deadline. The deadline to respond to a dispute varies by card brand but is typically in 20-45 days.

To view a dispute:

1. Open the Selling panel then click Finance.
2. Next to Review a recent payment dispute, click See Details.

Tip: You can also view a dispute by clicking on the transaction with the Open Dispute status.

Check a chargeback's status

You can check the status of a chargeback at any time by viewing the dispute in the Payments dashboard. You'll find one of the following statuses:

• Open dispute
• Response submitted
• Deadline missed
• Dispute won
• Dispute lost

Accept or challenge the dispute

The best way to resolve a dispute is to contact your customer to find a resolution. If that isn't possible, you can accept or challenge the dispute in the Payments dashboard. Once a dispute is opened for a transaction, a refund is no longer possible.

If you don't respond to a dispute within the deadline provided, the chargeback will be finalized and the original payment and chargeback fee can’t be returned to your Squarespace Payments account.

Note: Discover Card won’t allow you to challenge certain disputes. These are called “unchallengeable disputes” and immediately appear as “lost” with the applicable fees deducted from your account.

If you accept the dispute

If you accept the dispute, the payment status will change to dispute lost and the chargeback will be finalized.

To accept a dispute:

1. Open the Selling panel then click Finance.
2. Next to Review a recent payment dispute, click See Details. You can also view a dispute by clicking on the payment with the Open Dispute status.
3. Click Accept Dispute.

If you challenge the dispute

To challenge the dispute, you may choose to provide evidence. The evidence you can submit to challenge a dispute ranges by product type but generally includes:

• Your store's refund policy, or terms of service, and screenshot of where those are disclosed
• An explanation as to why a refund has been refused
• Fulfillment information, such as tracking numbers, customer pickup signature, etc.
• Screenshots or transcripts of customer communications
• Any other relevant evidence

To provide evidence:

1. Open the Selling panel then click Finance.
2. Next to Review a recent payment dispute, click See Details. You can also view a dispute by clicking on the payment with the Open Dispute status.
3. Click Start Dispute Response or Start New Response.
4. Enter the information you want to provide for evidence.
5. In the top-right corner, click Save as draft to save your progress or Submit to submit your evidence.

The customer’s bank will review your response and decide what happens next. You'll receive an email from Squarespace when a decision is made (usually in 60-75 days). If you win a chargeback dispute, the transaction amount is transferred back to your Squarespace Payments account. The disputing bank may or may not refund the chargeback fee.

Note: After you submit evidence to the bank, you can’t edit or add additional files. Squarespace can't advise on what evidence you should submit with your dispute.