Disputes
Cardholders have the right to dispute transactions they claim were not authorized or were processed in error. Once a transaction has been disputed, the cardholder's financial institution sends a notice to Merchant Card Services requesting a copy of the disputed transaction from the merchant.
There is a very limited amount of time for Merchant Card Services to respond to such requests. Therefore, any unit that receives a disputed transaction copy request notification has two (2) business days to produce the required transaction document(s). If a unit does not respond to a request within the necessary timeframe, the transaction is "charged back" to that unit's merchant account and the funds are debited from the account used to record the original revenue. Also, the cardholder's bank assesses a non-refundable chargeback processing fee of $15.00, which is also posted to the unit's account. Chargeback fees may not be collected from a customer.
There is no grace period, and no appeal is possible if a unit merchant misses this two-day deadline. Therefore, all merchants must have adequate business processes in place to support the timely response of copy requests and other transaction inquiries.
The Dispute Resolution contact for a unit merchant is responsible for responding to copy requests and disputed transactions.