When a chargeback or dispute appears in your dashboard, your first job is to figure out what kind it is. Some disputes are already resolved on your behalf and require no action. Others require you to accept the chargeback or contest it through representment before the representment deadline. This page walks through how to read each dispute and decide what to do.
Every dispute row in your dashboard at /transactions/disputes shows three signals you need to read before doing anything else:
The Status badge tells you what stage the dispute is in — Pending, Received, Defended, Won, Lost, Reversed, Undefended, Represented, or Accepted.
The Dispute Type badge tells you what kind of dispute it is — True Chargeback, Rescued (RDR), Rescued (Ethoca), Rescued, Reversed, NOF, or Auto-Defended.
The Defendable column shows one of: Yes (with a countdown like "12 days left"), No, or Expired.
These three signals together tell you whether the dispute needs your attention. The rule is:
If Dispute Type is True Chargeback AND Defendable shows days remaining → this is an actionable dispute. Continue to Step 1.
If Dispute Type is Rescued (any variant), NOF, Auto-Defended, or Reversed → the dispute has been resolved automatically. No action is needed.
If Defendable shows Expired → the defense window has closed. You can no longer contest this dispute.
If Status shows Pending → the card network has not yet sent the dispute status. Wait a few hours and refresh. If Pending persists more than 24 hours, contact your account manager.
If the Defend Dispute button is visible, the dispute is not actually rescued — it proceeded as a regular chargeback. RDR and Ethoca only intercept disputes that match an active rule on your account, and not every Visa or Mastercard dispute will match. When a dispute is eligible for interception but no rule matches it, the dispute moves forward as a True Chargeback and you can defend it through the normal flow.
To confirm whether a dispute was rescued, look at the Dispute Type badge, not the card brand:
Rescued (RDR) or Rescued (Ethoca) → the alert was intercepted, a refund was issued automatically, and no merchant action is needed
True Chargeback → the dispute was not intercepted (no matching rule, or rule did not fire in time) and is defendable through the normal Defend Dispute flow
If you expected a dispute to be intercepted and it wasn't, review your RDR rules at /transactions/disputes/interception to confirm the rule scope and conditions match the dispute you're seeing.
When you receive a chargeback notification, review:
The disputed amount and original transaction date
The chargeback reason code — this tells you why the dispute was filed and what evidence is most relevant
The defense deadline — shown as a countdown in the Defendable column, and as a "Defense Period Ends" date on the dispute detail page
You have clear evidence the transaction was legitimate (proof of delivery, signed receipt, communication records)
The disputed amount is significant enough to justify the effort
The reason code is one you can rebut with documentation
You cannot locate evidence
The dispute is for a small amount and the cost of contesting outweighs the potential recovery
The customer's claim appears valid
To contest, work from the dispute detail page (click the dispute row or select View Details):
Click Defend Dispute in the page header. If you don't see this button, the dispute is not contestable — see "How to read a dispute" above for why.
A panel opens on the right side. The system loads available defense reasons from the card network.
Select a defense reason from the radio list.
Upload your supporting documents. Each defense reason has its own set of required and optional document types. Accepted file formats: JPG, JPEG, TIFF, TIF, PDF. Maximum file size: 10 MB per file. PDFs over 2 MB are automatically compressed before upload.
Click Submit Defense once you have at least one document uploaded and a defense reason selected. (The button stays disabled until both conditions are met.)
You'll see a confirmation toast: "Dispute defense submitted successfully." The Status badge updates to Defended.
For guidance on what evidence to provide for each dispute type, see the Submitting Evidence page.
To formally accept a chargeback (rather than letting the window close passively):
Open the dispute detail page.
Click Accept Dispute in the page header.
A confirmation dialog will appear: "Are you sure you want to accept this dispute? This action cannot be undone and you will not defend against it."
Click Continue to confirm.
The dispute's Status badge updates to Accepted and a record is created in the dispute history. This is irreversible.
If you take no action before the deadline, the dispute is recorded as Undefended rather than Accepted — same financial outcome but different status. Using the Accept Dispute button is the cleaner record.
After submitting representment, the card network reviews your evidence and issues a decision:
Won: The disputed funds are returned to your balance account
Lost: The chargeback stands
Second chargeback: The issuer rejected your representment — you may escalate to arbitration
If something goes wrong when you click Submit Defense, you'll see a red error notification with the specific reason. Common errors:
"[filename] is over 10MB after processing" — the file is too large even after PDF compression. Use a smaller file or split the PDF into multiple uploads.
"The defense period has expired" — the deadline passed before submission completed. You cannot resubmit; this dispute is now Undefended.
"The dispute is not in the right state to be defended" — the dispute has moved past the defense stage (often because it was already accepted, defended, or finalized). Refresh the page to see the current status.
For upload errors (network failure, S3 timeout), retry the upload. If it persists, contact your account manager.
