Sooner or later a customer will ask for their money back, or go straight to their bank and dispute the charge. A refund costs you the sale. A chargeback costs you the sale, the goods, a dispute fee, and a mark against your account with the payment provider.
The good news is that both are largely preventable, and the way you handle them is a process you can set up once, in an afternoon.
Publish a clear refund policy before your first sale, refund quickly through the same payment method, and keep proof of every order and delivery. Most chargebacks are won or lost on the evidence you saved.
Write the policy first and show it everywhere
Customers dispute charges mostly because they are confused, not because they are dishonest. A short policy removes the confusion: how many days they have to return an item, what condition it must be in, who pays return shipping, and how long the refund takes.
Link it from the footer, the product page and the checkout, and make the checkout a place where the customer has to tick that they accept it. In the GCC, also state clearly which items are non-returnable, such as opened cosmetics or custom-made orders.
- Return window in days, counted from delivery.
- Condition required: unused, in original packaging.
- Who pays return shipping when the item is faulty and when it is not.
- Refund timing: the method used and how many working days it takes.
Refund the way the customer paid
Refund to the original card, mada or Apple Pay payment from your payment provider's dashboard whenever you can. It is the fastest route and it leaves a clean record. Avoid refunding by bank transfer for a card payment: the customer may still dispute the original charge and you would lose twice.
Tell the customer the date you issued the refund. Banks usually need several working days to show it, and most disputes start from a customer who thinks nothing happened.
Keep the evidence from day one
If a chargeback arrives you usually have a short deadline to answer, so everything must be ready to find. Save the order confirmation, the customer's email and phone, the shipping tracking number with the delivery date and signature or confirmation, and every message with the customer.
- Order, invoice and payment reference.
- Courier tracking showing delivery to the address on the order.
- Product description and policy as shown at the time of purchase.
- Chat or email history, including any refund offer you made.
Responding to a chargeback
Answer inside the deadline, calmly, with facts: what was ordered, when it was delivered, and the policy the customer accepted. Skip emotional language. If the customer is genuinely right, accept the dispute rather than fighting it. Winning a bad case is not worth the time.
Check your payment provider's current terms for dispute deadlines and fees, because they change.
Setting it up with Uttra
In the Uttra chat you can write something like: "Add a Refund and Returns page with a 14-day return window, link it in the footer and add a required checkbox at checkout to accept it." Check it in the live preview, then publish.