Customer communication

Messages between you and the customer can be some of the strongest evidence in a dispute, and some of the weakest. The difference is whether the bank can read them in a couple of minutes and see who said what, and when.

This guide covers what the bank receives, what to include, how to add it in the app, and what to leave out.

When customer communication is needed

Dispute type	What a dated exchange can show	Weight
Not received	The customer confirmed delivery, or asked a question only someone holding the item would ask	Often decisive
Not as described	The customer knew what they were buying; agreed to a fix, a replacement or a partial refund	Often decisive
Canceled or refund not given	What was agreed, and when; whether the cancellation arrived before or after the cut-off	Often decisive
Did not make this purchase	That someone corresponded with you from the customer's address	Supporting only

Messages do not prove who was at the keyboard. In a "did not make this purchase" dispute the evidence that does is the order's own data: the IP address and device, the login, the delivery address, earlier undisputed orders from the same account. Add the messages; do not rely on them alone.

The strongest single message, for several dispute types, is one from the customer saying they no longer dispute the charge. If the customer has changed their mind, ask for it in writing and add it as its own message.

What the bank receives

The bank never sees your inbox, your chat tool or a link. It sees one file. Every payment provider files customer communication as a PDF or an image; none of them opens links, and none takes an email export.

So whatever you give the app becomes one page:

On the page	Where it comes from
Customer name and the address or handle they wrote from	The order, checked by you
Order number and amount	The dispute
Channel (email, chat, text, phone)	Your choice on the row
Each message, in the order it happened, labeled with who sent it and when	Your paste, one message per line
One line saying what the exchange proves	You write it

That page is filed in the slot your payment provider reserves for customer communication.

A written account counts. Providers list "a written account of a phone conversation, including dates of contact" among the accepted forms. If the conversation happened on the phone, write down what each side said and when. Include the dates.

What to include

Only the messages that matter. The bank reviews hundreds of disputes a day and spends minutes on each. Give it the two messages that prove the point, not the forty in the thread.

For each message: who sent it, the date and time, and the words. The app asks for the sender and the time on every line because a message without them proves very little.

One line saying what the exchange proves, written for someone who has never seen your store:

Customer confirmed the parcel arrived on 14 March.

Customer asked how to change the size after delivery.

How to add it in the app

Open the dispute and find the Customer communication row in the proof panel.
Choose the channel.
Paste or type each message on its own line, and set the sender and the date and time for each. For a phone call, write what each side said, with the date and time of the call.
Write the one-line summary of what the exchange proves.
If you also have a screenshot or a PDF of the exchange, add it on the same row. The app merges it with the typed page into the one file your provider allows for this evidence type.

The row's status updates as soon as the page has what it needs. Preview it: what you see is the page the bank will read.

What to leave out

Leave out	Why
Links	The bank will not open them. Put the content on the page.
The whole thread	Quoted text, signatures and pleasantries make the point harder to find. Most providers cap the whole response at a few dozen pages, and Mastercard disputes at 19, so every page of messages is a page taken from something else.
Undated screenshots	A cropped chat showing a first name and "2 days ago" is a message from someone at some time. Type the exchange with its dates, or add the date, the handle and the order beside the screenshot.
Anything that needs explaining	If the bank would need context to see why a message matters, that context belongs in the one-line summary.

You are not required to include every exchange. You are required to include nothing false.

Provider notes

Provider	The slot	Limits it applies
Stripe	`customer_communication`, file only, PDF, JPEG or PNG	Whole response 4.5 MB and 50 pages (19 for Mastercard); 12 point font or larger; illegible text is not reviewed
Shopify Payments	`customer_communication_file`, PNG, JPEG or PDF	All files together under 4 MB

Stripe also warns that email and text exchanges "don't verify identity" and asks that you "only include the relevant excerpts". The app applies each provider's limits when it builds the file.

Where this comes from: the networks' and processors' own words on customer communication.

Do The Proof drafts dispute responses for Shopify stores.

You pay when a dispute is won. Not before.