Disputes

Overview

A dispute occurs when a customer challenges a payment made through your site — for example, when they contact their bank to contest a charge. Disputes originate only on the payment processor’s side, and Pelcro listens to the payment processor webhooks to reflect their final status.

Pelcro itself does not initiate or manage disputes. Instead, it flags the charge as disputed when notified by the payment processor and temporarily restricts any actions on that charge until the dispute is resolved.

Note: Disputes are currently supported for Stripe payments only. For questions or assistance, please contact [email protected].

What Is a Dispute

A dispute represents a formal claim by a customer against a payment they made — often referred to as a chargeback. When a dispute is created in Stripe, the payment is temporarily placed under review by the card issuer.

“I paid for something, but now I’m challenging that payment.”

Where Disputes Are Managed

Disputes are handled on the payment processor’s side, where the investigation, evidence submission, and resolution take place. Pelcro automatically listens for dispute events from supported processors and updates your platform to keep records accurate.

Within Pelcro, disputed charges are clearly flagged as disputed and locked to prevent conflicting actions (such as refunds or adjustments) while the processor reviews the case. This ensures your accounting data and customer records remain consistent throughout the dispute process.

The Payments export also reflects these cases by marking the charge under the disputed column as true.

How Pelcro Handles Disputes

Pelcro listens to Stripe’s dispute webhook events and updates records accordingly. We do not mirror the ongoing dispute lifecycle, but take action when key Stripe events occur.

Stripe Event	Action in Pelcro	Description
`charge.dispute.created`	Mark charge as disputed	The charge is locked — no refunds or manual actions can be taken while the dispute is open.
`charge.dispute.closed`	Sync final outcome	Once the dispute is closed, Pelcro checks the `status` field and updates records if the dispute was lost (refund created) or won (no change).

Lifecycle of a Dispute

Here’s how Stripe disputes flow through Pelcro:

Customer initiates a dispute via their bank or card issuer.
Stripe sends charge.dispute.created to Pelcro.
- Pelcro flags the charge as disputed = true.
- The charge becomes read-only — no refunds or actions can be performed in Pelcro.
- The charge remains in Paid status.
Stripe investigates and sends charge.dispute.closed once the dispute is resolved.
Based on the outcome:
- Dispute won (merchant): No changes. The payment remains Paid, since funds were retained.
- Dispute lost (customer): Pelcro creates a refund object to record the reversal and keep accounting in sync.

Example Timeline

Stage	Stripe Event	Pelcro Action	Status
Dispute created	`charge.dispute.created`	Mark charge as disputed; freeze actions	⚠️ Disputed
Investigation	–	Charge locked in Pelcro — charge remains Paid	⚙️ In Review
Dispute won	`charge.dispute.closed` (status = won)	No change — charge remains Paid	✅ Won
Dispute lost	`charge.dispute.closed` (status = lost)	Create Refund record	❌ Lost

Phase	Duration	Description
Dispute filed	Day 0	Funds withdrawn, Stripe notifies you
Submit evidence	7–21 days	Provide supporting documentation
Bank review	30–75 days	Issuer reviews and decides
Final decision	~Day 60–90	Funds returned or permanently lost

Impact on Accounting & Reports

Scenario	Accounting Behavior	Exports & Visibility
Dispute Opened	No ledger movement. Charge remains visible as paid.	The Payments export marks the charge under the `disputed` column as `true`.
Dispute Won (merchant)	No changes; funds remain recorded as received.	No refund record created.
Dispute Lost (customer)	Pelcro creates a refund object to match Stripe’s refund and maintain ledger accuracy.	Accounting exports reflect the refund created.

Pelcro’s ledger system (Online Cash, AR, and Customer Balance) treats lost disputes as normal refund transactions to ensure accurate accounting.

Subscription & Customer Impact

Pelcro does not automatically pause or cancel subscriptions when a dispute occurs.
Customer records remain active, but the disputed payment is tagged as “Disputed” in the UI.

Note: Stripe may charge dispute-related fees.

If you win a dispute, Stripe will refund the customer dispute fee. However, any other Stripe processing or review fees will still apply and won’t be refunded. Pelcro does not sync these Stripe fees, so they will not appear in your ledgers or exports.

Next Steps

Need help or have questions about a dispute? Contact our support team at [email protected] — we’re here to assist.