How disputes work

If money has just come out of your Stripe account for a ticket you already sold, a buyer has filed a chargeback. This article explains what that is, what we do about it automatically, and the one thing we need you to do.

Short version: we build your response the same day the dispute arrives. Open your event dashboard, read it, and press send before the deadline. A dispute nobody answers is lost automatically, and that is the most common way organizers lose them.

What a chargeback is

A chargeback is a buyer asking their bank to reverse a payment, instead of asking you for a refund.

The bank takes the money back out of the account it was paid into while it investigates, then decides who keeps it. On Ticket Falcon, your sales go straight into your own Stripe account through Direct Payouts, so the money comes out of your balance and the response is yours to give.

A dispute is not an accusation of theft, and most are not fraud at all. The common ones are:

• The buyer did not recognize the charge on their statement.
• Something went wrong with the event and they asked you first, or feel they did.
• They asked for a refund and did not get one in time.
• Somebody else used their card.

The reason matters, and it changes what we do. More on that below.

What happens automatically

The moment Stripe tells us a dispute has been filed:

1. We match it to the right event and order. You see a guest, a ticket, and an event name rather than a payment ID.
2. We email you. With the amount, what the buyer told their bank, and the date your response is due.
3. We build your response. From records already on the order: whether the ticket was scanned at your door and when, when the tickets were emailed and to which address, whether this buyer has bought from you before without disputing, your refund and cancellation policies as they read on the day of the sale, and whether the card issuer confirmed the security code and billing address at the time of payment.
4. We remind you. Three days before the deadline, and again one day before.

All of that happens without you doing anything.

The one thing you have to do

Press send.

We deliberately do not submit on your behalf. You get exactly one response per dispute, it cannot be taken back or edited afterward, and it goes to the bank in your name because you are the merchant of record. That is not a decision software should make for you.

To send it:

1. Open the event dashboard for the event.
2. Go to the Disputes section. It only appears on events that have one.
3. Find the dispute and click Review.
4. Read what we assembled. Add anything we could not see: a phone call, an email thread, a conversation at the door.
5. Click to send it to the bank.

If you would rather work in Stripe, you can. It is your Stripe account. Download the response and paste it in, or handle the whole case there.

How long you have

Usually about a week. The exact deadline is set by the card network, not by us, and it appears on the dispute from the moment it arrives.

Missing the deadline loses the dispute automatically, with no review of the facts. That is the single most important thing on this page.

Will you win?

Nobody can tell you that, and be careful of anyone who says otherwise. The buyer's bank decides every dispute. Neither we nor Stripe get a vote.

What we can do is make sure you answer in time, with the records banks ask for, instead of letting the clock run out. A scan at your door is one of the strongest facts you can put in front of a bank: it says a real person used this ticket at this venue at this time.

Early fraud warnings: a head start

Sometimes you get a warning before any chargeback exists. A card issuer tells Stripe that a card was used fraudulently, days before the cardholder files anything. We show it as Flagged as fraud.

This is worth acting on, because refunding at this point prevents the chargeback entirely. No case, no deadline, and no dispute fee. There is a Refund in full button on the flagged row that does it.

If you know the guest and want to keep the sale, leave it. The warning stays on the order and your evidence is ready either way.

What happens at the door

A ticket whose payment is being disputed is handled at check-in too, and you control how.

By default, check-in stops a ticket when the buyer told their bank they never made the purchase. If that is true, the person at the door is not the cardholder. Check-in warns but admits when the complaint is about the event or a refund, because turning that guest away tends to prove the point they are making.

Your staff can always let someone in. The scanner shows what happened and offers an Admit anyway button, and checking someone in by hand from the attendee list never stops anyone. Tickets get transferred, gifted, and comped, so the person at the door is often not the buyer. Every override is recorded on the order, which is useful later: a ticket you chose to honor is a fact worth putting in front of a bank.

To change the setting: event dashboard, Attendees section, Disputed tickets at the door. Three choices:

• Stop suspected fraud (recommended, and the default).
• Stop every disputed ticket. Strongest protection. Be aware that refusing entry to a buyer disputing over service can strengthen their case.
• Warn only, never stop. Staff see a warning and admit as normal.

Only the event organizer can change this. A team manager can see it.

Refunded tickets always stop, whichever option you pick, because there is no payment behind them. That covers a fully refunded ticket, an order refunded in full, and a chargeback the bank already decided against you. A partial refund does not stop anyone.

What it costs

Dispute handling on Ticket Falcon is included and free while it is in beta.

If a bank rules against you, the card network charges a dispute fee to your Stripe account. That comes from Stripe and the card networks, not from us, and it would apply the same way if you took the payment yourself. Winning the dispute returns the money that was pulled.

How to have fewer of them

• Turn on Stripe Radar card checks. Most card fraud never gets past a rule requiring the security code and postal code to match. Blocking a bad payment costs nothing. Winning a dispute takes weeks. There is a link to set this up in the Disputes section.
• Make your event name obvious on their statement. A large share of "I don't recognize this charge" disputes are honest confusion.
• Answer refund requests quickly. A buyer who cannot reach you calls their bank instead, and that costs you the ticket price, the fee, and the goodwill.
• Write your refund policy clearly and leave it alone. We submit it as it read on the day of the sale, so a clear policy is worth having before you need it.
• Scan tickets at the door. Every scan is evidence later. This is the single cheapest thing on this list.

Common questions

Do I have to do anything for a dispute I am going to lose anyway?

If you genuinely got it wrong, a refund is usually cheaper than a fight. But you cannot tell from the reason code alone, and answering costs you a few minutes.

Can my team handle this?

A manager on your team can review a dispute, gather evidence, and save a draft. Only the event organizer can send the response, issue a refund, or change what happens at the door. Sending is irreversible and happens in your name, so it stays with you.

Where can I see all of them at once?

The Disputes section of each event dashboard shows what is open, what is still answerable, and what was won or lost. There is an Export Disputes button that downloads the whole list as a spreadsheet, which is what you want for reconciling against your Stripe payouts.

Do you store my buyers' card numbers?

No. We store the result of the card issuer's checks, meaning whether the security code and billing address matched, and never the code or the card number itself.

The buyer says they have withdrawn the dispute. Now what?

The bank still has to close it, and that can take days or weeks. Do not skip sending your response in the meantime. If the deadline passes while you wait, the dispute is lost even if the buyer changed their mind.

Still stuck?

Reply to this article or contact support with the event name and the order number. We can see the same dispute you are looking at.