Review and respond to payment disputes submitted by your customers.

A dispute occurs when a customer contacts their bank and disputes a transaction from your business. Learn how to view open chargebacks, submit evidence to challenge a claim, or accept a customer dispute.

Why would a customer dispute a transaction?

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 provide is unacceptable
• They canceled their subscription before the payment was processed
• They don't recognize the payment

How are chargebacks withdrawn?

When a payment is disputed, the disputed funds and an additional fee are immediately debited from your account balance. This is called a chargeback. If there aren't enough funds in your payout balance, we pull funds from your connected bank account 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, like 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. You can manage inquiries in the Finance panel.

Review open payment disputes in the Finance panel

If a customer files a dispute, you'll get an 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 20-45 days.

To view a dispute:

1. Open the Finance panel.
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 the status of a chargeback

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.

• When a dispute is opened for a transaction, you can’t refund it, regardless of whether you win the dispute.
• If you don't respond to a dispute within the deadline, the chargeback will be finalized and the original payment and chargeback fee can’t be returned to your Squarespace Payments account.
• 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 changes to "dispute lost", and the chargeback will be finalized.

To accept a dispute:

1. Open the Finance panel.
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 can provide evidence. The evidence you can submit ranges by product type but generally includes:

• Your store's refund policy, or terms of service, and a 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 Finance panel and click Orders.
2. Click 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. Ensure the total size of all uploaded files combined is 4.5 MB or smaller. If your files are too large, an error message appears.
5. In the top-right corner, click Save as draft to save your progress or Submit to submit your evidence.

What happens after I submit evidence?

• The customer’s bank will review your response and decide what happens next. 
• You'll get 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.

When a bank rules on the dispute, that ruling is final for all parties. You can’t appeal a finalized dispute. This is an industry standard and not unique to Squarespace Payments or our processing services partner, Stripe. Neither Squarespace, nor Stripe, decide dispute outcomes.

Troubleshoot submission errors

If you see an error message when submitting evidence, the combined size of your uploaded files is likely larger than 4.5 MB.

To reduce file size, you can re-download your document as a PDF:

1. Open the document in your web browser.
2. Choose the print option.
3. Select Print to PDF or Save as PDF to save the file.
4. Try uploading the file again using the evidence submission form.

How dispute fees impact your Squarespace Payments account balance

When a customer disputes a charge, a fee is immediately debited from your Squarespace Payments account balance. If you win the dispute, the fee is refunded. Some card brands wait until the inquiry is finished before charging a fee. In these cases, the fee is only debited if you lose the dispute.

 Dispute fees vary depending on your country: