Speeding Up the Disputes Process
Dispute Reversals (Expediting the Process)
If you have been in touch with your customer and are able to come to an agreement outside of the dispute process, make sure to follow the instructions below as they relate to you.
A. Instructions for Customers to Cancel the Dispute and Return the Funds to You
At any time during the dispute process, request that your customer contact their bank to cancel the dispute. Once your customer cancels the dispute, the issuer will send them a confirmation letter or email. Request that letter from your customer and email it to us as a PDF or JPG attachment from the Disputes Dashboard. If the letter confirms that the case has been closed, we will release the payment hold on your account, if there is one. For more information on Dispute Cancellation, please refer to the Dispute Cancellation FAQs.
If you have already sent us your information for the card issuer and are unsure if a resolution has been reached, you can check on the status of your case in the Disputes Dashboard.
B. Instructions for Returning the Funds to the Customer
If you are within the 7 day response timeline, please select ‘No’ in your information request form. Otherwise, contact us to see if we are still within the timeframe to accept the dispute. If you do not respond by the requested date, we will review the information we have on file and may challenge or accept the dispute.
Once you’ve responded “No” in the Information Request Form, please advise your customer to check with their bank as to when the funds will be returned to their account.
If you’ve come to an agreement with your customer and are still unsure what to do, send us an email. We’ll let you know what steps to take.
Holds on Disputed Funds
When the payment card issuer notifies us of your dispute, they also debit Square Europe’s account. We let you know of the dispute right away and also place an immediate hold on the disputed funds by withholding funds from your Square balance or Square Europe will debit your linked bank account.
Although the disputed amount will be held for the duration of the dispute process, Square Europe will release the funds back to you as soon as we receive notice that the dispute has been resolved in your favour. If the case is resolved in your customer’s favour, the held funds will be returned to your customer.
If we are unable to successfully hold the disputed amount from your Square balance or if Square Europe is unable to debit your bank account, your balance will then reflect the negative disputed amount. Any future payments you take will go towards the outstanding balance.
If the case is resolved in your favour, Square Europe will release the deferred amount back to your Square balance. Your Square balance will be adjusted to reflect the resolution, and Square Europe will credit any payments that were withheld to your linked bank account.
If the case is resolved in your customer’s favour, our Recovery team will get in touch with you to help collect the funds in a manner that works for both you and Square.
Per our Seller Agreement, we are not liable for any overdraft fees you may incur from debits to your bank account. To prevent any unwanted fees, please be sure to keep sufficient funds in your linked bank account to cover your largest transaction.