Canceling (disputing) a transaction

What happens and does not when a buyer clicks the Dispute button in a paid transaction. The article explains how an order is disputed.

Updated over a week ago

Buyers can mark a paid transaction as disputed after the transaction request has been approved and before it is marked as “completed”. The Dispute feature is a way for buyers to clearly communicate to providers that they are not happy with how the transaction is handled. To resolve a dispute, involvement from admins is required.

Flow and steps of a dispute in a Sharetribe Go marketplace

When a buyer starts a dispute, the flow goes as follow:

  1. The seller and all admins are notified by email

  2. The admins should discuss with both parties to decide what to do next

  3. The admins should decide to provide a refund (see instructions below) or to dismiss the dispute and continue with the regular flow

  4. The buyer and seller will be notified by email of the decision

  5. The buyer and seller will be able to review each other

A few important notes:

  • It is up to the marketplace administrators to take action and resolve the dispute case. In most cases, discussing with both users will help solve the situation.

  • Disputing a transaction doesn’t automatically refund the payment. That remains a manual action from the administrators. See below for instructions on how to issue a refund.

  • If no refund is needed, press "Dismiss and payout." This will mark the transaction completed and payout the money to the provider in Stripe.

  • When a transaction is disputed, the status of the transaction changes to "Disputed".

  • Both users can review each other after a dispute has been resolved.

  • It’s a good idea to cover this type of situation in your “terms of use”, to have clear guidelines for these types of situations.

How to refund a transaction after a dispute

As part of your review of the dispute case, you may decide that a refund makes sense.

You will need to issue the refund in the payment gateway used for the transaction. Then, press "Mark as refunded" to notify the buyer and seller that a refund was issued/

If Stripe was used, only the marketplace administrators can refund the transaction, and if PayPal was used, only the seller can refund the transaction. 

You can find instructions and more details on how to refund an online payment in the articles below:

Can transactions be automatically refunded?

No, a transaction cannot be automatically refunded when a dispute is made. A refund must always be manually handled.  

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