When a customer calls their bank, you can pay $19 to Verifi, refund within 72 hours and avoid the chargeback. Verifi's Rapid Dispute Resolution and Cardholder Dispute Resolution Network are alert services that let you refund before a chargeback is filed. Case by case, the fee often looks right.
Paying $19 to refund assumes fighting costs more than the amount in dispute. That holds when your replies win rarely, which happens when order-time records were never saved. Three records matter most. One is the AVS result (the billing-address check). Another is a record of the buyer's device and the buyer's internet location. The third is the customer's login activity after delivery. Without them, even an honest case is hard to defend.
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The alert fee is paid again on every dispute. A merchant who captures order records defends most disputes in an hour of expert time and pays no fee. Alerts still suit small-dollar disputes.