What are Chargebacks and How do they impact my organization?
Organizations and administrators deal with chargebacks every season, costing valuable time and money. In this feature blog we will take a deep dive into the process around chargebacks, why they occur, and how it impacts your organization.
*Our Chargebacks FAQs can offer additional details around how we support chargebacks
What is a Chargeback, When & Why do they occur?
Chargebacks are a forced transaction reversal initiated by a cardholder’s bank. In other words, a user’s bank disputes a payment made to your organization in an attempt to reverse and refund it. Chargebacks are meant as a consumer protection mechanism against dishonest merchants to protect from fraudulent transactions but are often over-utilized by consumers.
One common situation is when a user is on a payment plan and forgets to expect to be charged on future, recurring payment due dates. While these situations are unexpected, they are often easily remedied by our support team after clarifying the charge with the user or bank.
In rare cases, users will trigger a chargeback request on a known payment in an attempt to receive a refund after being denied by the organization. These situations can be more harmful to your organization as the user attempts to circumvent refund policies or guidelines, costing the bank, Sports Connect, and your league valuable time and resources.
How do Chargebacks impact my organization?
Regardless of the outcome of the case, chargeback requests cost money, and is a burden to merchants large and small.
When a request is triggered by a user, the bank invests resources in reversing the charge and, as your merchant, charges Sports Connect a fee for this work. This $35 fee is passed to your league to cover this charge as well as the administrative work associated with disputing the chargeback.
If a chargeback dispute is successful, in addition to this $35 fee, the amount of the original charge is returned to the user and your organization has unexpectedly lost valuable registration funds.
What can we do to reduce the impact of chargeback requests?
The best way to minimize the impact of chargebacks is to prevent them by educating and communicating with your members regarding payments.
Refund Policies
Create and communicate Refund Policies during registration and on your website. This can establish a process for families to request refunds in a manner that you can monitor and control, and will set proper expectations with users regarding refunds. Clear policies can also help support your case for chargeback cases to settle in your favor.
Clear Communication
Take advantage of the automated messages set up throughout Sports Connect, including Registration Confirmation Emails and Payment Confirmation Emails. If you find yourself dealing with an influx of chargebacks, send a Bulk Email to educate users on what your policies are and how they should work with you to settle any disputes.
Order Management Features that offer Financial Flexibility
Take advantage of the various order management tools within Sports Connect to offer flexible solutions to users. Features like Credits, flexible payment plans, and refund options will prove various avenues for financial disputes or requests to be handled. At the end of the day, you would prefer to deal with these scenarios in house before a user contacts their bank for workarounds.
What do I need to do in these situations as an Administrator?
Sports Connect has a team of experienced professionals who will automatically dispute chargeback requests on your behalf. No immediate action is required on your part, however if you believe the chargeback to be invalid, we suggest directly contacting the user, as they are the only ones who can initiate and cancel the chargeback.
Once a dispute has been filed it can take up to 60 days from the submission date for the credit card company to respond and rule on the disputed charge. During that time, the order will show as refunded until we hear back with a decision. If we are successful in disputing the case then your order will update automatically to reflect that order is complete.
For more detailed information around how we support you and the chargebacks process, please review our Chargebacks FAQs. If you have any additional questions in regards to chargebacks instances, contact our Support Team anytime, we are here to help!
