Chargeback Evidence Guide

Chargeback & Dispute FAQ covers the process — how cases arrive, how to submit, deadlines and statuses. This page is about what to put in the submission. Field-level meanings are in Chargeback field reference.

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How does Waffo decide what evidence to recommend for my case?

Every case carries an Evidence Requirements list, generated from the case’s dispute reason and marking each item as mandatory or recommended. A submission missing a mandatory item is blocked before it is sent, so read the list before you start collecting. Underneath that list is a single idea worth understanding, because it lets you assemble a strong submission even when the list is thin: whatever the reason code, a defence is only ever answering three questions.

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What are the three questions a defence has to answer?

The dispute reason decides which of the three carries the weight; the product type decides what form the evidence takes. The industry you are in changes neither — it only changes the vocabulary of the same documents.

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Which question does each dispute reason turn on?

Ten reasons cover essentially all cases. Use this to know where to spend your effort; use the case’s own Evidence Requirements to know exactly what to attach. The two patterns to notice: a fraud or authorisation claim is answered with authenticity, and a cancellation or subscription claim is answered with your policy. Sending delivery proof against a “subscription cancelled but still charged” claim answers a question nobody asked.

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What changes when I sell digital goods or services rather than physical goods?

The dimension stays the same; the document changes. This is where most weak submissions come from — a digital business sending nothing under dimension B because it has no shipping paperwork. “Delivered” for a digital or service purchase means the buyer’s own account consumed it. A record showing that the entitlement was granted is weaker than one showing it was used. Where you can show usage, lead with usage.

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The reason code is unknown or unhelpful. What do I send?

Send the fallback combination:

1. Proof of delivery or access (dimension B)
2. The invoice or receipt for the transaction
3. Your communication record with the buyer (dimension C)

Together these answer “it happened, it was delivered, and here is how we handled it” without committing to a defence of a specific claim. Before submitting, try to find out what the actual claim is — the case file on the issuing side, or a direct conversation with the buyer, usually reveals it — and then add the material for that claim. A targeted submission beats a broad one.

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Are there file format or size limits I should know about?

The upload API itself accepts JPG, JPEG, PNG and PDF up to 10 MB per file — see Chargeback & Dispute FAQ. Beyond that, some payment methods enforce stricter file type or file size rules than the API does, so a file Waffo accepts can still be refused further along. Where a case has such a restriction, it is stated in that case’s Evidence Requirements. If you are producing evidence programmatically, generating PDFs rather than large images is the safer default.

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The case came back as MORE_EVIDENCE_REQUIRED. Do I re-upload everything?

No — and re-uploading everything can lose you material. When more evidence is asked for, the case returns to an evidence-required state and you submit again, but the submission is a field-level replace: a field you send replaces whatever was in it before, and a field you omit is left untouched. So the correct move is to send only the field carrying the new material. If you resend a field with a shorter list of file references than before, the earlier references in that field are gone. Keep your own record of what you attached in each field on each round; the case shows you the current state, not the history of what each field held. MORE_EVIDENCE_REQUIRED is also a signal about content, not just quantity. It usually means one of the three questions was left unanswered rather than that more of the same is wanted — re-read the case’s Evidence Requirements and check which dimension is thin before adding anything.

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What can I actually submit in a second cycle?

A defence note, and nothing else. Second-cycle (Pre-Arbitration) cases do not accept evidence files at all — the submission is the decision to defend, optionally with a note. Most card scheme rules also refuse material at this stage that was not presented in the first cycle, so there is generally nothing new to add even where a channel would take it. The practical consequence is that the first cycle is your one real opportunity. Material you hold back, or do not have ready in time, cannot be introduced later. Assemble the full submission the first time round rather than sending a minimum and planning to supplement it. Mechanics for both cycles are in Chargeback & Dispute FAQ.

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I passed 3DS and the buyer still claimed fraud. Why did a second cycle appear when I never responded?

Under some card scheme flows, a chargeback raised as fraud on a transaction that was 3DS-authenticated is defended on your behalf — the defence is submitted without waiting for a response from you, because the authentication record itself is the answer to the claim. That defence can succeed, and a successful defence is exactly what allows the issuing side to escalate the case to a second cycle (Pre-Arbitration). The consequence catches merchants out:

• You never chose to defend, so you were not expecting a second cycle at all.
• A second cycle books another chargeback fee against you — see Chargeback field reference for the settlement lines.
• If you have set a blanket strategy of never defending, that strategy did not prevent this, because the first-cycle defence was not yours to decline.

What to do about it: watch for the AUTO_SUBMITS_EVIDENCE timeline event, which is how a submission made on your behalf shows up on the case, and treat any case whose Life Cycle is SECOND_CYCLE as needing a decision even if you never touched the first cycle. If the fee exposure from this pattern matters to your business, raise it with Waffo rather than assuming your default strategy covers it.

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Will I be warned before an evidence deadline passes?

Do not build your process on being warned. Every case carries its own expiryDateTime, and that value is authoritative. Two things you can rely on:

• Both dispute lists offer an expiring soon filter, returning open cases whose deadline falls in the next 3 days.
• A deadline event appears on the case timeline (NOTIFY_OVERDUE), so a case that was flagged shows it in its own history.

Poll the lists, or track expiryDateTime per case from the API, and act on your own schedule. The deadline consequence differs sharply by case type — an expired chargeback is a loss, an expired customer dispute is still workable — which is set out in Chargeback field reference.

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My customer dispute went to CLOSED and I did not close it. Did I lose?

No — CLOSED on a customer dispute is not a verdict. It is the end of that record, and a customer dispute never books money against you by itself. Three things move a customer dispute to CLOSED: The third is the one that surprises people: once a chargeback exists on the same payment, the customer dispute record stops being the place the decision happens, and it is closed out when the chargeback finishes. Look at the chargeback for the result — and remember that a CLOSED customer dispute can reopen if the buyer complains again.

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How do I stop the Chargeback Alert service?

Not from the Portal — it is not a self-service switch. Alert coverage is held as part of your merchant configuration, and it is enabled and disabled per alert service type, so you can stop one and keep another. To stop it, contact Waffo and say which service type you want deactivated. Waffo sets that entry to inactive; it stops applying from that point. Fees already incurred on alerts already delivered still clear — billing follows delivery, which is covered in Chargeback & Dispute FAQ. Worth deciding deliberately rather than reflexively: stopping alerts removes the chance to refund before a chargeback is raised, so the cases that alerts were absorbing arrive as chargebacks instead, with the chargeback fee and the amount attached. Compare against what the alerts were costing you before switching them off.