Managing Order Disputes

When a ticket buyer files a dispute (also called a chargeback) through their bank or card issuer, the order page in your admin will show the dispute status, response deadline, and options to accept or challenge the dispute. Any questions about why the dispute happened, or what the buyer is contesting, should be asked of the buyer.

As soon as an order is disputed, the money from that order is returned to the buyer's card, and our system adjusts your payment balance to account for that refund and the dispute fee. All dispute fees are returned if the dispute is withdrawn or successfully challenged.

Start with the buyer!

Most disputes fall into one of three situations, and how you respond in the system depends on which one you're facing.

1. The buyer is confused

If the buyer doesn't recognize the charge, or used the dispute option with haste, a short message confirming what the charge was for usually resolves the dispute. If the buyers agrees that the charge is valid, ask the buyer to do both of these things as soon as it is convenient:

Contact their bank to formally withdraw the dispute. This is the step that helps the most to get your money back.
Send you written confirmation that they wish to withdraw their dispute (an email or text message reply is acceptable). You can then provide their written confirmation if you need to challenge the dispute. This is technically only required if the buyer does not properly withdraw the dispute in time and you need to challenge the dispute manually.

2. The buyer wanted a refund and you're willing to give one

Sometimes a buyer files a dispute because they couldn't find another way to reach you. Once a dispute is filed, you cannot issue a refund through the system until the dispute is removed by the payment processor, which can take several weeks or months after a challenge is submitted.

In this case, the most effective solution is to Accept the dispute. This means you will pay a $15 dispute fee, but the buyer gets their money back quickly and the matter can be closed.

3. The buyer wanted a refund but you upheld a legitimate no-refund policy

You can challenge the dispute, but only do so if you have:

A copy of any communication you had with the buyer, and
Proof that a no-refund policy was communicated to the buyer before purchase.

Without both, challenging is risky. If you lose, you pay a challenge fee in addition to the dispute fee.

Finding and viewing disputed orders

You can see all of your disputed orders right in your admin:

Go to Orders in the left menu.
Open the Status filter at the top of the order list.
Check Disputed, Dispute accepted, and Dispute lost.

The list will now show only your dispute-related orders.

Open a disputed order to see an Order disputed banner at the top. Click the More Information button on that banner. A side panel will open with the key details:

Amount — how much the buyer is disputing.
Reason — the reason the card network reported. This is not the buyer's own words, so you'll still need to contact the buyer to learn what actually happened.
Dispute response due — the deadline to accept or challenge.

The same panel has the Challenge Dispute and Accept Dispute buttons. You can review the details and respond in one place.

The status updates on its own as the dispute moves forward. You don't need to contact us for updates.

While an order is disputed, the Refund, Release, and Exchange buttons are turned off. They use the same funds the dispute is fighting over. They come back once the dispute is resolved.

Two fees may show up on a disputed order:

Original dispute fee ($15) — applied when the dispute is filed.
Challenge fee (up to $25) — applied only if you challenge the dispute. You get this fee back, along with the dispute fee, if you win.

Respond before the deadline — with time to spare

Every dispute has a response deadline set by the card network. You can see this date in the More Information panel on the order. If no response is submitted before the deadline, the dispute is treated as accepted by default.

Important: Do not wait until the last day to submit a challenge. When you submit a challenge through the order page, the evidence and notes you provide are sent to our support team, who then manually review and forward your response to the payment processor. We need at least a few business days before the deadline to handle this. Submitting on the deadline itself may mean we cannot get your response in on time.

Accept or Challenge

When an order is disputed, an admin user will see options on the order page to Accept or Challenge the dispute.

Accept Dispute

Selecting Accept closes the dispute from your side and confirms that the reversed amounts will not be returned to your balance.

Challenge Dispute

Selecting Challenge opens a form where you submit your case. Important things to consider:

Challenge fee acknowledgment — an additional fee applies when a challenge is submitted. You must explicitly accept this fee to proceed. It is refunded if the challenge is successful.
Notes and evidence for the support team — a text area where you describe your evidence, provide context, and share any details that support your case. If you've received written confirmation from the buyer that they want to withdraw the dispute, include that here.

When you submit the challenge, our support team is notified and works directly with the payment processor to submit your response on your behalf.

After you submit

Once you've accepted or challenged a dispute:

The Accept Dispute and Challenge Dispute buttons are turned off.
The order status updates to reflect your choice.
The order page will continue to update as the dispute progresses, eventually showing whether it was accepted, won, or lost.

A note on providing contact information to buyers

Most disputes can be prevented by being responsive to customer inquiries. Buyers who can get a response from sellers don't usually go to their bank with dispute issue. Many sellers hesitate to publish contact info because they don't want unrelated messages, but the trade-off is more disputes from situations that could have been easily handled with minimal effort. Keeping your contact information current in your event description and organization settings is the single best way to reduce disputes over time.

A clear credit card statement descriptor also helps. Set it to something buyers will associate with your event. See editing the statement descriptor for an event for guidance.