In this article, we discuss five common mistakes which users of payment processing services make when trying to resolve their disputes. More specifically, those mistakes are: (i) contacting staff members who are not decision-makers; (ii) contacting a subsidiary of the payment processor that is not responsible for the payment account concerned; (iii) using the wrong arguments in the complaints to the payment processors; (iv) not pushing the payment processors enough; and (v) giving up after receiving a first negative response. A brief discussion of each of those mistakes follows.
Contacting staff members who are not decision-makers
Ordinary support clerks are unlikely to resolve your dispute because they do not have the necessary management power. If you would like a swift dispute resolution, it is better if you contact the legal department of the relevant payment processor or a department for dispute escalations.
Contacting a subsidiary of the payment processor that is not responsible for the payment account concerned
A payment processor may have various subsidiaries and each of them can be responsible for accounts from certain regions. Thus, if you contact a subsidiary that is not responsible for your account, you may wait for months until you get a response stating that you contacted the wrong recipient and you should forward your correspondence to another subsidiary. It is better to save your time and contact directly the right subsidiary.
Using the wrong arguments in the complaints to the payment processors
Many complainants do not know what persuasive arguments to use in their complaints. For example, if their account is locked because of a high number of disputes, they may not know what to do as they may really have some disputes. In such a case, one may be able to argue that the term “high number” is not defined and, therefore, the rationale behind the decision to lock the funds is not transparent.
Not pushing the payment processors enough
It is too idyllic to expect that, once you contact the payment processor, they will reply quickly. In many cases, you may not get responses for weeks or months. That is why it is advisable to regularly push the payment processor.
