Chargebacks and disputes
When a customer's bank takes the money back — and how to fight it.
A chargeback is not a refund request. It is the customer going to their bank instead of coming to you. Booked shows every case and lets you answer the bank from one screen.
What a chargeback is, in plain English
A customer sees a payment they do not recognise, or believes they did not get what they paid for, and tells their bank. The bank raises a dispute, takes the amount straight back off your Booked balance, and gives you a window to send evidence. Nobody at Booked decides the outcome — their bank does.
Two things make this different from a refund. You cannot cancel it, only concede it. And the card network charges a fee for every case raised — win, lose or accept.
Once a payment is disputed the Refund button disappears — refunding would mean paying twice. Answer the case instead, and if the customer is genuinely owed the money, use Accept it.
How you find out
Booked matches card payments to their bookings every time you open Bookings, and flags anything disputed. The row gets a chargeback badge, and the appointment's Payment section shows a banner.
Travel vaccination · Priya Sharma · Bramhall branch
The Payment section of a disputed appointment.
- 1Chargeback — disputed — the status locks to this pill. You cannot edit it by hand, and refunding is blocked until the case closes.
- 2Appeal this chargeback — jumps to Settings Payments, the only place a case can be answered. Once evidence is in it reads Chargeback — evidence submitted.
The Chargebacks & disputes card
Go to Settings Payments and scroll to Chargebacks & disputes. The card is hidden until your first case, so it appears from nowhere.
Chargebacks & disputes
The disputed amount is held back while the case is open, and returned in full if you win.
Booked Payments also passes on the card network’s dispute fee of £15.00 per case — charged win or lose, and not refunded.
| Appointment | Customer | Amount | Reason | Status | Deadline | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GB-00318 | Priya Sharma | £45.00 | Service not received | Needs response | Respond by 3 Sep2 days left | Respond |
| GB-00274 | Oliver Ball | £25.00 | Unrecognised charge | Under review | — | Submitted |
| GB-00201 | Emily Carter | £45.00 | Marked as fraudulent | Won | — |
Chargebacks & disputes on the Payments tab.
- 1The dispute fee — charged for every case opened, never refunded, and accepting does not avoid it. The figure shown is your account's real fee.
- 2What is at stake — Held back totals every case that is not Won or Closed. Dispute fees is the total across all cases, not the fee per case.
- 3Deadline — the bank's date and days left. Two days or fewer is highlighted; past it, the cell reads Overdue.
- 4Respond — only Early warning and Needs response rows have it; everything else is read-only.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Early warning | Flagged by the bank, not taken yet. You can respond. |
| Needs response | A live chargeback — money held, clock running. Respond. |
| Under review | Your evidence is with the bank. Nothing more to do. |
| Won | The full amount returns to your balance. |
| Lost | The money stays with the customer. |
| Refunded / Closed | The charge was refunded, or the warning came to nothing. |
In Transactions, a disputed payment shows Appeal where Refund sits. It only scrolls the page down to this card — you still click Respond on the row.
Challenge it, or accept it
Respond opens a dialog with two tabs. Challenge it sends evidence to the bank. Accept it concedes: the case closes at once, no evidence is sent, and the fee is still charged. It cannot be undone, so accept only when the chargeback is fair.
12 Aug 09:14 — confirmation email delivered
Respond to chargeback, on the Challenge it tab.
- 1The deadline meter — taken from the bank's dates, so a case can already say The deadline for evidence has passed when you first open it. Booked still lets you submit, but late evidence rarely wins.
- 2Challenge it / Accept it — switching tab changes the footer button to Accept chargeback.
- 3Draft with AI — writes your case from the appointment record: the narrative, customer details, service date, the IP they booked from, and the timestamped Activity log. It invents nothing.
- 4What happened — the field the bank reads. Leave it empty and you get Add an explanation before submitting to the bank.
- 5Policies at checkout — the AI draft never fills these two. Type them yourself; they are often the most persuasive part of your case.
- 6Save draft keeps everything without sending, so you can gather details and come back. Submit to bank is final — submitted evidence cannot be edited.
What makes a strong case
- Marked as fraudulent or Unrecognised charge — lead with the IP at booking, the email the confirmation reached, and their attendance.
- Service not received — the activity log does the work: booked, confirmed, reminded, attended.
- Duplicate charge — show the appointments are different dates or services. If they really are duplicates, accept and refund the spare one.
- Refund not processed — quote your refund policy word for word, with the date it was issued.
Always read the draft before sending. It counts against your monthly AI allowance, so you may see This month’s AI usage limit has been reached. You can still write the case yourself.
What happens to your money
The disputed amount leaves your balance the moment the case opens, and the fee goes with it. Win, and the amount comes back in full; the fee does not. Lose or accept, and it stays with the customer.
On a quiet week this can push you below zero. Available to pay out on the Payout schedule card becomes Balance to recover and Pay out now disappears. It looks alarming and it is not: your next takings clear the shortfall and payouts resume on their own.
Check Settings Payments the day a badge appears. Windows are short, and a case you never answer is lost by default — fee charged anyway.
Getting fewer of them
- Set a clear bank statement nameSettings Bookings Bank statement name. Most "unrecognised charge" cases are customers not spotting your trading name.
- Show your cancellation terms at checkoutTerms the customer agreed to at booking can be quoted as evidence.
- Answer the customer firstA refund you issue costs the money but no dispute fee. A chargeback costs both.
- Keep digits out of your reference prefixSettings Bookings Booking references. Payments match on the number in the reference, so a prefix with five or more digits can attach a case to the wrong booking.
- Give the right person accessAll of this needs the Booked settings permission — ordinary staff cannot see the Payments tab at all.