Disputes
Track each chargeback against its order, see which actions an open dispute blocks, and find where to file your evidence.
A dispute is a chargeback that a customer has raised through their bank. The Disputes queue keeps track of each one, so someone on your team responds before the deadline.
- Amount
- $96.00
- Reason
- Product not received
- Status
- Needs response
- Assignee
- MLMaria Lopez
Dispute sources
A chargeback starts outside your store. The customer contacts their bank, the bank contacts the store's payment provider, and the provider sends the chargeback to the admin by webhook.
This means the admin shows a copy of the dispute, while the dispute itself is handled at the payment provider. Most of the behavior described below follows from that.
Each dispute arrives linked to the order it was charged against and shows the dispute's status, amount and evidence deadline.
The queue is at:
Orders → DisputesOrder link
Each dispute belongs to an order.
The dispute links to the items, the totals and the customer (if the order has one), and the queue also links directly to the order page.
A chargeback is about one specific purchase, so the evidence for your response comes from the order: what the customer bought, what it cost, what you shipped, and when.
Provider control
The provider's webhooks create, update and close chargebacks. You can't raise a chargeback in the admin, and you can't edit its status.
The assignee is the only editable field.
This is intentional. The provider keeps the official record of a dispute, and the bank issues the ruling. If you could edit the status in the admin, the status in Litestore could end up different from the provider's record, and the store's reports might use the wrong one.
Ownership
Assign each dispute to someone on your team so that each person can filter the queue to show only their own disputes.
Chargebacks are often lost because nobody takes responsibility for them before the deadline. The assignee is the one editable field, since it's information the payment provider doesn't have.
Blocked actions
While a chargeback is open, Litestore blocks three actions on the order. Each block prevents the store from paying out the same money twice.
| Blocked action | Why Litestore blocks it |
|---|---|
| Refunding the order | The store would return the amount while the bank takes it too. |
| Fulfilling the order | The store would send out stock for a sale that may not stand. |
| Paying a referral reward | The store would reward a sale that may be about to disappear. |
The block is lifted when the dispute closes. Until then, the order is actually blocked, and this isn't just a warning banner.
Lost disputes
When you lose a dispute, Litestore writes it to the payment ledger and increases the order's refunded amount.
This keeps the accounting correct, since money has left the order and the order's records reflect that. The amount you lost also counts towards the limit on further refunds, so you can't lose a dispute and then refund the same amount again.
Evidence is filed with your payment provider
The admin shows the evidence deadline, and the queue can be sorted by it. The admin home's To do card counts the disputes awaiting a response. However, the admin doesn't submit evidence. The order page links to the provider's dashboard, where you file the evidence.
Deadlines
The admin home's To do card shows how many disputes are awaiting a response and links to the queue.
Chargeback deadlines are strict. If you don't respond to a dispute in time, you lose it.
The queue also sorts by evidence deadline, which is the most practical way to work through it when several disputes are open at once.
Dispute workflow
Order review
Open the order from the queue and check the items that were bought, the amount that was charged and the shipment details.
Assignment
Assign it to whoever will handle it.
Deadline
Keep track of the deadline in the disputes queue, sorted by evidence deadline.
Evidence
The order page links to the provider's dashboard for this step.
Keep in mind that the admin only shows a copy of a case the payment provider is handling, and the evidence deadline is the date you need to work towards.