Credit Card Charbacks

Jeanne Steck July 10, 2011 at 12:22pm

This is interesting - definitely something to think about.

I recently started to use GoPayment. Since I don't have a smart phone, yet, I've been using my laptop to key in charge transactions. I show the customer the the confirmation on-line and email a receipt. I'm thinking it might be a good idea to write up a paper receipt too and them sign it.

Chris Hoyt July 9, 2011 at 7:25am

I've also had chargebacks.

My processor wants proof I did the transaction, and the only proof they will accept is an imprint of the card or a terminal copy. No handwritten numbers or anything like that. I'm charged $25, and when I show proof of the transaction, that $25 is refunded to me.

I have since told customers that when they get their statement, it will show a transaction from Vermont. Since I started that, I've had no chargebacks.

Annette Piper > Chris Hoyt July 9, 2011 at 7:32am

I too do this, Chris. On every one of my invoices is a note of what will appear on their credit card statement and point it out to them when I give them their cc receipt. Haven't had a problem since then. The times I did have a query prior to doing this i just provided a copy of the cc receipt with their signature.

Alison Thomas July 8, 2011 at 4:34pm

I've had one, sent in the copy of the receipt and all was well. One thing I did start doing after that is that I used to staple all the receipts to the credit card statement when I got it. Now I file them by show so a quick look at the date on the receipt they are asking for and a look at my show schedule leads me right to the receipt.

Linnea Lahlum July 8, 2011 at 11:04am

I’ve had a lot of them. Like Jay says, it’s because they see on their statement the name of your town, and know they haven’t been there, and fail to connect the dots that you are an artist they saw at an artfair, in THEIR town. Very rarely did anyone call me, they just did a chargeback, not realizing that it would cost me $20. It was not unusual for me to have 20 in a year. A big cluster after a major show, when people couldn’t remember me. They can only call you if your phone number appears on the charge line on their statements, which it doesn’t always do. I tried to have the processor do that too, but only some cards do it.

For me the frequency went way down when I added the word “jewelry” to what shows up on the bill, instead of just my business name. That was enough to flag the customer’s memory, I guess. I asked the processor to do that, you can’t do it yourself. (You can do it to the printout your machine produces as a header, though, which I did as well.)

In you case, you could put the word, "printmaking," or “fish prints” after your business name, with the processor. But if you don’t have many, you might not want to bother.

As long as you can produce a copy of the receipt with their signature, you’re good.

Jay McDougall July 8, 2011 at 7:53am

You will be asked to verify the transaction from your end (receipt details, signature, location of transaction, et. al). This is usually sufficient. I don't know the details of your dispute but in this business it typically involves someone seeing a charge on their account from somewhere they have never been (that is your home studio address). I've only had one incident for a very small amount. In that case I was having trouble with my swiper and charged an item twice, my bad. Since then I check all of my charges pretty closely so I catch any mistakes like that. I works much better if the customer calls you directly because any issues should be fairly easy to resolve that way. In my instance I credited the customer's account and we were all square. The problem with chargeback challenges is that the processor charges a minimum fee (usually about $15 for a chargeback inquiry), whereas the customer contacting us directly costs us nothing and is much more efficient. As long as you've handled the transaction accurately you'll have no problem and will be funded in pretty short order .

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Credit Card Charbacks

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