Refunds, Chargebacks and Winning Evidence
A refund you initiate is controlled and predictable. A chargeback is your customer’s bank reversing the transaction — with tight deadlines, reason codes and binary outcomes. UK SMEs win more disputes when they treat evidence as a daily habit, not a fire drill.
Next step: Align terminals and reporting with your acquirer portal. Contact us if dispute rates jumped after a promotion.
Reason codes in plain English
“Fraud”, “services not provided”, “duplicate processing” and “credit not processed” each need different documents. Read the code before you write prose — acquirer portals map required fields. For “not as described”, itemised receipts, photos and signed delivery notes beat long emails.
Timelines and partial refunds
Respond before the countdown hits zero — weekends included in some portals. If you already refunded, upload proof of refund with ARN/reference. Partial refunds should mirror what the customer accepted in writing; ambiguity loses cases.
Friendly fraud and staff training
Collect AVS/CVV where channel allows, capture CCTV timestamps for high-value collections, and email “order ready” with clear pickup windows. For hospitality, link tabs to table IDs — our hospitality guide covers operational patterns.
Integrated EPOS advantage
Line-level data flowing from integrated EPOS speeds evidence packs. If you run separate online MIDs, consolidate procedures — split acquiring doubles the inbox.
Related guides
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