Thread: Customer Chargeback

Hi all,

I am new hear and looking for a bit of advice.

I have a customer processing a chargeback against me for a used car they bought, the car turned out to have a lot of serious faults that i didnt know about and were only discovered after the customer had payed the balance on their visa debit card and it was delivered to them.

They found the faults 2 days later when the car was checked by a main dealer, they asked to return the car and i refused as i felt the main dealer was being picky, they have since had the car inspected by and engineer and have a report to say that these faults are long standing so were there when they bought the car, i really didnt know but did refuse to accept the car back.

The customer is charging back £3000, the repair bill comes to around £4000, my processor has refused the chargeback as the car wasnt returned so the customers bank have now sent it to visa for a decision, does anyone think i will lose this case and if so will i have to take the car back and refund the rest of the money.

The reason code for the chargeback is item not as described.

There is always a risk of not prevailing a visa dispute. I have seen some things win that should have lost and vice versa. From what you describe, this is a contract dispute, not a credit card dispute so long as you have all your details and facts in order, you should be fine.

Originally Posted by chargebacks

There is always a risk of not prevailing a visa dispute. I have seen some things win that should have lost and vice versa. From what you describe, this is a contract dispute, not a credit card dispute so long as you have all your details and facts in order, you should be fine.

Aren't all consumer transactions ultimately contract disputes? In any event, it is mentioned that the purchaser paid with a Visa debit card. I'm not sure how things work in the UK, but in the States debit cards do not usually have the same robust chargeback protections afforded to credit cards. In the US, an item not as described dispute can entail several different criteria. How did you describe the automobile? Do the problems the buyer has raised prevent the car from its intended use? Do they prevent the automobile from being operated safely? I have had experience with a relatively large number of chargebacks and it is generally difficult for a merchant to prevail if the cardholder ultimately opts for Visa arbitration. Without going through the relevant chargeback manuals to see exactly what the Visa process is (Visa, MasterCard and especially American Express have slightly different processes), I think your main worry now is if the cardholder's bank makes a second chargeback. Upon 2nd chargeback your bank either rolls over and plays dead or they inform you that you must pay $600 in arbitration fees before they force the matter to Visa arbitration. If you lose arbitration you eat, of course, the original charge amount plus the arbitration fees plus your bank's fees. Depending on the answers to the original questions I stated, you might want to try and work things out with the buyer.

Really bad case for you Hope it will end up better

I really liked this information.