I’ll try and keep it short.

I am a Canadian seller who has sold an item to a buyer in the USA. The customer has complaints about the function of the product. His complaints are not valid, they are technically nonsensical. Furthermore I have a no returns policy for cross-border sales clearly displayed on my site. The downside to me simply honoring his request for refund would the lost (2x)shipping cost + potential that I will have to pay duties when the item reenters the country.

If I deny the request for return/refund, I run the risk of him initiating a chargeback. I understand that he can claim a chargeback based on the item being unacceptable.

  1. If he is successful in his hypothetical chargeback, he would keep the product and also receive the money?

  2. Is there any chance of the card issuer siding with me since I can easily prove the item was received, or is the alleged defect sufficient for his chargeback to be successful?

Thanks for taking the time to read and for any insight.

  • cacawachi@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Chances are the customer want to keep the item and money, ask them to send you back the item, and then inspect it, if what they are saying is true, send them a new product and refund the shipping price and hope to god you don’t receive a bad review, if they refuse to send it back you can use it as evidence for when they chargeback and hope to god it will be accepted.

    Ps both options you are going to get impacted, do a cost vs value analysis in order to pick a more relevant option, and make sure your return policy is well written.

    Ps 2 this is just how I see or would manage things, others might give you a better idea so good luck

  • LizzieFreeman@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I have dealt with alot of these cases over 20 years in business.

    The bank will side with him on the basis its a defective product. Here’s what you can do.

    Option A: Ask him to return the product in order to issue a full refund to him. If you receive a dispute from the bank, you will respond telling them you have asked the customer to return the product. They generally accept this and the customer must show proof that you have received it. In some cases I have had the bank reverse the dispute because the customer refused to send the product back.

    Option B: Refund the customer, let them keep the product and be done with it.

    I used to opt for Option A at the beginning of my business career just because it use to annoy me that the business is always the one who pays the price for everything. I quickly learnt though that some things need to just be written off as a bad debt. It would cost me less to just refund them and have the case closed and my energy wouldn’t be wasted on these sorts of issues. In addition to this, having chargebacks and disputes raises flags against you and if they become too many, the bank can cut off your credit card facility.

    ​

    Good Luck :)

  • AngiefromAccounting@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    He would receive the money, your merchant services provider would take the money out of the settlement or the account that it was deposited to. He wouldn’t need to return the item, just call his CC company to get a chargeback.

    There is an okay chance that you win the contest if he isn’t claiming fraud, if he is there is little chance that the issuer will give the money back in my experience.

    I once won a chargeback from my payment processor just for MasterCard to take the money back. My processor then told me it would be a $100 USD fee to escalate the contest to MasterCard. I ended up resolving it with the customer who paid as soon as I called. Turns out their card was compromised and my transaction was in the window of it.

    Alternatively to contesting a chargeback, you can send the account to collections since it effectively becomes an unpaid receivable. This is a nuclear option and you should try to resolve the situation before sending it off. Additionally, I would check if your collection company does cross-border collections since companies are structured differently between Canada and the US.

  • SafetyMan35@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    To answer your questions:

    1. Yep. He gets the money and the product.

    2. unless you physically had the card and used chip and PIN, you will likely lose.