Not because they’re wrong, but because the system is designed to protect the cardholder first.
And most aren’t fraud. About 45% are first-party, meaning your own customers are driving the disputes.
That’s what makes it so difficult to win.
You’re not just proving a transaction happened; you’re trying to prove intent. The burden of proof is entirely on you, and even valid transactions often lack what issuers need to see: clear descriptors, proof of intent like IP or login data, and delivery tied to the cardholder.
But the real issue is upstream.
Customers dispute because they don’t recognize the charge, subscriptions are hard to manage, or calling the bank feels easier than contacting you. By the time you’re fighting a chargeback, the experience has already broken down.
The merchants who win focus earlier. They make billing recognizable, simplify cancellation, use pre-dispute alerts like Ethoca and Verifi, and structure responses around reason codes.
Chargebacks aren’t just a payments problem; they’re experience failures showing up in payments. Fix that, and you win before the dispute even starts.
Happy to connect and walk through where issues may originate and how to prevent them.