Paypal disputes and how to avoid them.

Paypal disputes and how to avoid them.

A paypal dispute is never something you want to deal with, so I'll go over how you can avoid them. We've all logged into our paypal account and seen the little icon letting us know that something has gone wrong. Sometimes it's justifiable because we did not perform the work we had said we would or the product we shipped out was not to our own quality guidelines and we hoped the client wouldn't care. If you haven't seen a paypal dispute, you're one of the few people out there who has dodged it somehow.

How to avoid a paypal dispute

Avoiding a paypal dispute is a tough thing to do if you're starting out, but they will come regardless of how long you've been working online. You could be running the best company with an amazing support team but someone still wants to open a dispute because they don't think you're working it out with them.

Here are a few things to do before making a sale in order to avoid a paypal dispute as much as possible.

Always Respond - I can't express this enough, you need to respond to all of your emails or messages because if someone thinks you are just taking their money and running they will open a dispute on you. I've had this happen and it doesn't take long before they will open the dispute.
Auto Responders - Have auto responders set up so that they will send out an email whenever someone purchases from you. Even a very basic email with a receipt and a nice message saying "We've received your order and everything will begin to go into action in the next few hours. If you have any questions or concerns you can reach us by email at email@domain.com or by giving us a call at (phone number here)." By doing this they will know that you're willing to talk to them and they have multiple ways to contact you.
Dedicated Phone - You should have a dedicated phone line for your website. Even if it's a pay as you go phone and it costs your $5 a month, get one. I've actually never had a problem with this because I've always had a dedicated line for my websites. The reason for this is because people will want to see that you're professional. If they do end up calling you they don't want to hear "Hey, this is Thomas! Leave a number or don't, I couldn't care less!" Be professional and you'll have a better outcome.
Make Them Agree - I can't express this enough! On all of my forms I make them click a little box saying the have read, understand and agree to my terms of service and privacy policy. On my TOS page it says "We do not offer any refunds unless an order has not been completed on time." this will save you more than you think. I've had disputes opened up against me and my service because someone was trying to get a free service and when I posted this "You couldn't purchase from us unless you agreed to our TOS and Privacy policy, and in there it says we do not provide refunds unless we do not complete the work. Your work was completed on (date here) and your report was sent to (Their paypal email here) on (date here)." This is usually enough to get them to either close the dispute or let it stay open until the 45 day mark and then it will be awarded to you because they have not tried to resolve anything. Paypal sometimes favors the buyer even though you did everything right, but it really just depends on who reviews it.



In the end it's almost impossible to avoid a paypal dispute or claim against you, your service and your website. There will be people out there who will order from you when you're asleep and open a dispute an hour later because you haven't sent them a report, called them or emailed them. I've had people order from me and almost immediately open up a dispute with not reason at all. I would enter any information I could in the dispute boxes and they wouldn't respond for some reason, it was like they just wanted to tie up their own money for 45 days lol.

People are always out to get a free service so make sure you have everything in place to make sure the scammers can't get their money back. Their main intention is to file a dispute when you finish the work so they don't have to pay for it, it's sad. The only downside to winning a dispute is that the buyer can still file a charge back if they purchased using a debit/credit card. Paypal allows 45 days to open a dispute but a bank, at least in the US, allows you to file a charge back within 90 days. So if you win the dispute but the buyer used a credit card, they can still file a charge back and you'll almost never win when this happens. The good thing is that Paypal is more on top of their game than in the past because now they are helping defend digital transactions.


I hope this helps someone

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Thanks!

Razzy