Disputes are an unfortunate aspect of accepting payments online and the best way to manage them is to prevent them from happening at all. An effective dispute and fraud prevention strategy uses a number of methods that are best suited for your business while keeping any customer burden—and losses—to a minimum.
Clear and frequent contact with your customers can help prevent many of the reasons for disputes. By responding to issues and processing refunds quickly, your customers are far less likely to take the time to dispute a payment. Ensure your customer service contact information is prominent and keep customers updated.
Collect Information
Some disputes are lost because only the minimum information was provided during checkout. This makes it difficult (sometimes impossible) for Clearent or the card issuer to verify that the customer is legitimate. For instance, while a billing ZIP code is not always necessary to process a card payment, including it allows it to be verified by the card issuer. If verification fails, you may want to consider rejecting the payment as this may be an indication of fraud.
Encourage your members to enter this information on their profiles:
Full name
Current email address
CVC number
Full billing address and ZIP code
Collecting Signatures
You should include a clear description of your refund and cancellation policies in ALL documents that require a signature. You can require your members to agree to your policies in order to increase the likelihood that card issuers respect your policies in the event of a dispute.
Liability Waivers require the customer's signature before they can attend your gym. These waivers are signed for drop-ins, free trials, event attendees, and members. For this reason, include your cancellation and refund policy in your waiver and/or set up Terms & Conditions.
Membership Contracts are specific to the member and their payment schedule. Be sure to have accurate information in your membership contracts that show how and when payments are processed. It is important to include the payment amounts, with mentions of prorations if applicable to your business.