Refunding a disputed charge

Once a formal dispute has been issued by a customer’s bank or credit card company, the disputed charge can no longer be refunded through your FareHarbor Dashboard and will need to be refunded through FareHarbor’s payment processing system instead.

You can tell when a dispute is a formal dispute by the “Disputed” status on your credit card disputes report.

To accept a formal dispute, please fill out the form in the dispute notification email indicating that you’d like to refund the customer. A member of the FareHarbor Team will initiate the refund and notify you when the dispute has been closed.

In some cases, you may be able to refund the customer directly from their booking in FareHarbor. If this is an option, we will let you know in the “Next Steps” section of your dispute notification email, and you can proceed to refund the customer by following the steps below.

To refund a disputed charge in FareHarbor:

1. Find and open the customer’s booking.
2. Under Booking actions, select Refund.
3. If there is more than one payment on the booking, make sure you select the payment that has been marked as Disputed.

4. Choose whether to issue a full or partial refund.

   

   Not sure whether to issue a full or partial refund? Check the disputed amount in the notification email sent from FareHarbor. If the disputed amount matches the amount of the payment on the booking, issue a full refund. If it’s less, issue a partial refund for only the disputed amount.

5. Optional: Check the Send refunded email box to send a notification to the customer. This email will automatically include a summary of the refund and the related booking.

   

6. The Refund button will display the amount to be refunded. Confirm the amount is correct, then click the button to initiate the refund.

7. A popup will appear asking you to confirm. Click OK.

When will the customer receive their refund?

Once a refund is initiated, the money is transferred to the customer’s bank, who then determines when the credit will be applied back to the customer’s card. The amount of time it takes for your customer to see the refund on their card depends on their bank, as well as how the refund was issued.

Learn more about this process.

What if I want to fight a dispute?

FareHarbor will gladly work with you to fight any disputes you feel are unjustified. If you receive a dispute notification and don’t think the customer should get a refund, fill out the form in the dispute notification email.

Learn more on our Dispute FAQs page.

How much time do I have to submit my evidence packet?

Every evidence packet has a due date, which will be included when we first notify you of a dispute. Evidence must be submitted by this date if you would like to add additional information to the evidence packet. You can find the due date when you navigate to your credit card disputes report as well.

What happens if I initiate a refund and shortly afterwards my customer disputes it?

If your customer disputes a charge after you’ve initiated a refund, our disputes will receive a notice of this. When this happens, we do not collect the disputed amount just yet from you. We first monitor if the refund will be successful or not. This allows us to make sure funds are never double collected from you.

There are a few possible outcomes to be aware of:

• If the refund is successful, the dispute will automatically be closed.
• If the bank debit is successful but the refund is cancelled, the debited funds will automatically be paid back to you in your next payout. We will proceed to collect the funds for the dispute as well as accept the dispute on your behalf, which will refund your customer.
• If the bank debit fails, we will proceed to collect the funds for the dispute, and we’ll also accept the dispute on your behalf which will refund your customer.