Representment

Not every chargeback is a loss. Some are just unanswered.

A dispute nobody replies to is a dispute you concede. We pull the evidence, write the rebuttal against the specific reason code and file it inside the deadline, on the cases where the numbers say filing is worth it.

  • Evidence pulled from your gateway and cart, not requested from you
  • A reason code by reason code read on what is actually winnable
  • Pre-arbitration included, not billed as a second engagement
See what goes in an evidence pack

Have your disputes reviewed

Send us your open cases and the ones you lost last month. We will come back with what was winnable, what was not, and what the difference was worth.

We reply within one business day.

Filed through
Visa Mastercard Verifi, a Visa solution Ethoca by Mastercard
20–30days

Typical window to answer before the case is conceded

Varies by network and acquirer.
0

Rounds covered: representment, then pre-arbitration

0

Cases filed without your sign-off on the recommendation

48hrs

From a case reaching us to the pack being ready to file

The decision

Accept it,
or answer it

Refunding is faster and sometimes it is right. The problem is doing it by default, on cases you would have won, because nobody had time to look at them.

An empty desk where a dispute went unanswered

Let it stand

The quiet option, and the expensive one

  • The sale and the goods are both gone
  • The chargeback fee lands on top, whatever the amount was
  • It counts towards your ratio either way
  • The cardholder learns it works and often comes back
  • You never find out which reason code is really costing you
Analysts working through dispute cases together

Answer it properly

Worth doing where the evidence exists

  • The funds come back in full when the evidence holds
  • A reversal takes the case back out of your ratio
  • Repeat abusers meet a case that does not fold
  • Every outcome tells you what to fix upstream
  • Pre-arbitration is already covered if the issuer pushes back

Neither answer is right for every case. The point of reviewing them one at a time is that the split is rarely where merchants assume it is.

The pack

What actually goes
in front of the issuer

An analyst at the bank spends minutes on your case. The pack has to answer the reason code on the first screen, not bury the answer nine pages in.

Authorisation resultsAVS and CVV match, plus the 3-D Secure or SCA outcome where the transaction carried one.
Delivery recordCarrier, tracking, delivery confirmation and the signature where the order value called for one.
Device and IP trailThe IP, device and account used at checkout, matched against earlier orders that were never disputed.
Descriptor proofWhat appeared on the statement set against what the customer saw at checkout, which settles most "I do not recognise this" claims.
Terms accepted at checkoutThe exact wording of your terms, refund policy and any recurring billing disclosure, with the timestamp it was agreed.
The conversationEmails, chat transcripts and support tickets, including the ones where the customer confirmed receipt or asked about something else entirely.
Account historyPrior undisputed orders on the same card, address or login. A three year customer disputing once reads very differently.
Usage records, for digital goodsLogins, download or streaming logs and the IP at the time of use, because there is no tracking number to point at.

Visa Compelling Evidence 3.0

For Visa 10.4 fraud claims there is a separate route. If you can show two earlier undisputed transactions from the same cardholder, at least 120 days old, sharing two identifiers such as device ID, IP address, delivery address or account login, Visa will treat the dispute as non-fraud before it ever becomes a chargeback. We check every 10.4 against this first, because winning it here is cleaner than winning it later.

An illustration of the case view. Sample data, not a real merchant.

Reason codes

Which ones are
worth fighting

Some codes win most of the time on two documents. Others almost never do, and filing anyway only spends your money more slowly.

Code What the cardholder said What usually carries it Worth filing
Visa 10.4 I did not make this purchase Matching AVS and CVV, the authentication result, device and IP tied to earlier orders, or a CE3.0 history Often
Visa 13.1 It never arrived Tracking through to delivery confirmation, with the signature where the value required one Often
Visa 13.2 I cancelled the subscription Your cancellation record, plus logins or usage after the date they claim they cancelled Often
Visa 13.3 It was not what was described The product page as it stood on the order date, the spec, and your returns policy Sometimes
Visa 13.6 I was promised a refund and never got it The refund ledger and the policy as displayed at checkout, with the message trail Sometimes
MC 4837 No cardholder authorisation The same evidence as Visa 10.4, weighted towards the authentication data Often
MC 4853 Cardholder dispute, various sub-reasons Depends which sub-reason was used, but the order and delivery record carry most of them Sometimes
MC 4834 Charged twice, or for the wrong amount Settlement and authorisation records, though these are usually a genuine error at our end or yours Rarely

Odds here are the general pattern, not a promise. What actually decides a case is whether the specific evidence exists for that specific order, which is what the review tells you.

The clock

Thirty days,
and most of it is not yours

The network deadline starts when the notice posts to your acquirer, not when somebody opens the email. Here is where the time actually goes.

  1. Day 0

    The notice posts

    Your acquirer receives the chargeback and the clock starts. We are watching the same feed, so the case is in the queue before anyone on your side has read it.

  2. Day 0 to 1

    The case is pulled together

    Order, authorisation result, delivery record, message history and prior orders from the same customer come out of your gateway and cart automatically. Nobody sends us a spreadsheet.

  3. Day 1 to 2

    You make the call

    You get the reason code, the evidence we hold, an honest read on the odds and a recommendation. Fight or refund stays your decision, and nothing is filed without it.

  4. Day 2 to 3

    It is filed

    A rebuttal letter written against that specific reason code, not a template, with the pack assembled in the format the issuer requires and submitted through your acquirer.

  5. Day 30 to 45

    The issuer rules

    The funds come back or they do not. Either way you get the reason in writing, and it feeds the next case and the reporting behind it.

  6. If needed

    Pre-arbitration

    Where the issuer pushes back and the amount justifies a second round, we take it. Same engagement, no new fee, and we tell you plainly when the amount does not justify it.

The maths

When filing pays,
and when it does not

Win rate on its own tells you very little. What matters is the win rate on the cases you chose to file, against what filing them cost.

Disputes in the month 400
Average order value $86
Held enough evidence to be worth filing 244 of 400
Won at the issuer 166 of 244
Recovered that month $14,276

The 156 we did not file

More than a third of the month was refunded instead. No delivery confirmation, no message trail, or an amount too small to justify the handling. Filing those anyway would have added cost and roughly nothing to the recovered figure.

An illustration built from ordinary figures, not a client result. Put your own numbers in and the split moves.

Run it on your numbers
Dispute paperwork and a calculator spread across a desk
The honest part

Cases we will tell you not to fight

A provider paid on volume files everything. We would rather tell you where the answer is a refund, because that is where most of the wasted money sits.

  • The evidence does not exist If delivery was never confirmed and the customer never wrote in, there is nothing to put in front of the issuer. Filing on hope costs time and wins nothing.
  • The amount does not carry the handling Below a certain order value a refund is simply cheaper than a case. We work out where that line sits for your average order rather than applying a default.
  • The charge was genuinely wrong Duplicates, wrong amounts and cancellations you missed are not worth defending. Refund quickly, fix the cause, and keep the ratio clean.
  • Your ratio matters more this month If you are close to a monitoring programme, winning slowly is worse than refunding now. Sometimes the right advice is to stop fighting for a month and bring the number down.
See how prevention alerts fit in
Client feedback

Merchants who let
us take the cases

The best part? Real results. We’ve seen a 40% increase in chargeback win rates since implementing their analytical tools.
M Michael BennettE-commerce Director at NovaTech
Their chargeback reports helped us cut losses significantly. We now act faster, win more disputes, and stay ahead of fraud trends effortlessly.
T Thomas SmithCEO of LTD Company
The insights are incredibly detailed yet easy to understand. We’ve improved internal processes and reduced chargeback ratios below the industry average.
J James CarterCOO of Digital Cart Inc.
FAQ

Representment, answered plainly

If the question is about a specific case or a specific reason code, send it over. An analyst answers, not a chatbot.

Ask us instead

When a cardholder disputes a transaction, the money is taken back from you first and the question is asked afterwards. Representment is the answer: you re-present the transaction to the issuing bank with evidence that it was legitimate. If the issuer agrees, the funds come back and the chargeback is reversed.

Read access to your gateway and cart, and to wherever your customer messages live. Almost everything an issuer wants is already in those systems. What we do ask for directly is the unusual case: a photograph of the packed order, a note from the driver, a screenshot of a policy that has since changed.

The pack is ready inside 48 hours of a case reaching us and filed as soon as you approve it. After that it sits with the issuing bank, which usually takes 30 to 45 days to rule. If it goes to pre-arbitration, add several weeks more. Most of the calendar is the bank's, which is exactly why the first three days matter.

The chargeback stands and you get the issuer's reason in writing. Where the issuer has ignored evidence that clearly answers the code, and the amount is worth it, the case goes to pre-arbitration. Where it has not, we tell you so and the case closes. The reason still gets recorded, because a pattern of losses on one code usually points at something upstream that can be fixed.

No, and you should be wary of anyone who says they do. On a typical month a sizeable share of disputes have no evidence behind them, sit below the value that justifies handling, or are a genuine error on the merchant's side. Filing those adds cost and almost nothing to the recovered total.

Per case filed, with pre-arbitration included rather than charged again. That matters: a provider paid per filing has a reason to file everything, and a provider who charges separately for the second round has a reason to stop after the first. You get the rate in writing, with the break-even against your average order value, before anything is filed.

Almost certainly. Filing goes through your existing acquirer, so nothing about your payment setup changes and there is no migration. Where a direct integration does not exist we connect through the acquirer's portal instead, which is slower to set up but identical once it is running.

It is a Visa rule for fraud claims under reason code 10.4. If the same cardholder has two earlier transactions with you that were never disputed, at least 120 days old, sharing two identifiers such as device ID, IP address, delivery address or account login, Visa reclassifies the dispute as non-fraud before it becomes a chargeback. It applies to anyone with returning customers, which is why we check it on every 10.4 rather than only on request.

By default, yes. Nothing is filed on your behalf without a sign-off. Merchants running high volumes usually move to approving by rule instead: file anything over a set value where the evidence score clears a threshold, refund the rest, and review the exceptions weekly. Both work, and you can start with one and move to the other.
Get Started

Send us the cases you lost last month

We will go through them one at a time and tell you which were winnable, what evidence would have carried them, and which ones you were right to let go. No charge for the review, and no obligation after it.

Get My Case Review support@charge-guard.com

We reply within one business day. No spam, ever.