Reference pagesDispute statuses
Reference
Dispute statuses
The statuses a dispute moves through, and what each one means.
Open disputes
Where a dispute stands with the cardholder's bank.
A cardholder has disputed a charge, and their bank is waiting for your side of it. This is the one status where a clock is running: every dispute has a response deadline, shown on its page.
What to do: Open the dispute, review the evidence and the draft response, edit anything you want to change, and submit before the deadline. If you don’t want to fight this one, choose Don’t contest on the dispute page instead.
The cardholder’s bank has raised a question about this charge before turning it into a formal dispute. It is an early inquiry, not a chargeback yet.
What to do: Treat it like a dispute: review and respond from its page. Answering while it is still an inquiry can settle the question before it becomes a chargeback.
You responded while this was still an inquiry, and the bank is considering it. It has not become a chargeback.
What to do: Nothing. The inquiry will either close or become a formal dispute, and the status here will change either way.
You chose not to contest. The dispute stays open until the deadline passes, then your processor closes it and it moves to Closed as Not contested, unless your payment provider sends an automatic response for you before the deadline.
What to do: Nothing, unless you change your mind. You can still respond any time before the deadline. After it, the dispute closes as Not contested, unless your payment provider sends an automatic response for you first.
Your response could not be delivered to your payment provider. Nothing was lost. Your draft and evidence are saved, and the dispute page shows what went wrong.
What to do: Try submitting again from the dispute page. If it keeps failing, email hello@dotheproof.com. The deadline does not pause for delivery problems.
Submitted
What happens after you approve a response, until the bank decides.
You clicked submit and your response is on its way to your payment provider. This usually takes moments.
What to do: Nothing. The page updates when delivery is confirmed.
Your response was delivered to your payment provider and is with the cardholder’s bank. The dispute now shows under Submitted proofs.
What to do: Wait for the decision. There is nothing more to send.
Your response has been submitted and the cardholder’s bank is deciding. A dispute can only be answered once, so there is nothing more to send.
What to do: Wait. The dashboard updates when the bank’s decision arrives, and the dispute moves to Closed with its outcome.
Closed disputes
How a dispute ends.
The cardholder’s bank decided the dispute in your favor, and the disputed amount is returned to you.
The cardholder’s bank decided in the cardholder’s favor, and the disputed amount goes back to them. The bank’s decision on a dispute is final.
A closed dispute cannot be reopened or answered again.
The deadline to submit evidence passed without a response. The dispute closed in the cardholder’s favor by default.
For the next one, the Open disputes page shows every deadline. Responding before the deadline is the only way to get the money back.
The dispute closed after the charge was refunded.
Your payment provider stopped this dispute before it became a chargeback. There is nothing for you to do.
The inquiry ended without becoming a chargeback. Nothing is owed and nothing is pending.
You chose not to respond to this dispute. It closed in the cardholder’s favor.
Not contesting is sometimes the right call.
How you get here:
Stripe: choose Don’t contest on the dispute page. We file nothing. If your payment provider's automatic dispute responses are turned on, it may still send a response before the deadline; to be sure nothing is sent, accept the dispute in your provider's dashboard. Otherwise the dispute closes as lost when the deadline passes, and it shows here as Not contested.
Shopify Payments: the dispute page does not offer Don’t contest, because Shopify sends whatever is saved in your admin when the deadline arrives, so leaving it alone is not the same as not contesting. To not contest, accept the dispute in Shopify admin; it then shows here as Not contested.
Do The Proof drafts dispute responses for Shopify stores.
You pay when a dispute is won. Not before.