Cancelled Merchandise/Services, Condition 13.7

Your card processor has notified you that a cardholder is disputing a transaction that you processed.

The cardholder's bank received a notice from the cardholder stating that they returned merchandise or cancelled services, but the credit has not appeared on the cardholder's Visa statement.

The most common causes for this dispute are that you:

Did not issue a credit for the cancelled services or merchandise that was returned.
Did not issue a credit because you do not accept returns, however you did not properly disclose your return policy.
Did not process a cancellation for a timeshare within 14 days of the contract or receipt date.
Did not process a properly cancelled a guaranteed reservation.

You never received, or accepted, the returned merchandise.

Provide evidence you refused the return of the merchandise.

Your policies were properly disclosed.

Provide documentation to support that your limited return or cancellation policy was properly disclosed and agreed to at the time of sale.

The cardholder did not cancel according to your disclosed policy.

Provide documentation to support that your limited return or cancellation policy was properly disclosed and how the cardholder did not cancel according to the disclosed policy.

Cardholder continued to use services.

Provide evidence to support.

The cardholder's complaint is valid.

Accept the dispute.

You have already processed a credit for the transaction.

Provide documentation of the credit; include the amount and the date it was processed.

The cardholder no longer disputes the transaction.

Provide a letter or email from the cardholder that states they no longer dispute the transaction.

How to avoid this dispute in the future

Before asking the cardholder to sign a receipt, be sure your establishment's return/cancellation policy is clearly disclosed near the customer signature line on transaction receipts or other documentation that can be tied to the transaction If the disclosure is on the back of the receipt, the cardholder must sign the front and initial the back by the disclosure statement.
If your business has a limited return policy or does not allow returns at all, the words "no returns" or similar words must be on all copies of the transaction receipts and supplied to the cardholder for agreement before the transaction is completed with a signature or pin.
For Internet transactions, the website must communicate its refund policy to the cardholder and require the cardholder to select either a "click to accept" or other acknowledgement button or check box or location for electronic signature to acknowledge the policy. The terms and conditions of the purchase must be displayed on the same screen view as the checkout screen used to present the total purchase amount or within the sequence of website pages¹ the cardholder accesses during the checkout process, or on the checkout screen near the submit or click to accept button.

¹In the Europe Region, this may be a link to another website only if the link forms part of the “click to accept” acknowledgement and refers to the cancellation policy.

For more information, please see Dispute Management Guidelines for Visa Merchants.

Acquirer's approach or timelines may be different and you should adhere with your current Acquirer's process. Not all disputes apply to every country/region, please check with your acquirer for further information.