Case study · real numbers

A $156.19 “fraudulent” dispute, won

Most dispute-defense marketing shows you percentages with no receipts. Here is one defense, start to finish, with the exact numbers. The merchant is a US home-services company on Stripe; we've left their name out because we haven't asked to use it.

What happened

A cardholder disputed a $156.19 charge as fraudulent, claiming they never made the purchase. That reason code is the hardest category for merchants: the bank starts from the cardholder's side, and a tracking number pasted into a text box rarely moves them.

The merchant had Reflex installed, so the defense started the moment Stripe reported the dispute. The system pulled the transaction's full context, assembled the evidence into the fields the bank's analyst actually reads, generated a narrative mapped to the exact reason code, and compiled everything into a submission-ready package with the strongest facts first.

The bank ruled for the merchant. The $156.19 came back. Only then did the 15% fee exist: $23.43, charged after the win, which the merchant paid the same week. If the dispute had lost, the fee would have been zero.

The honest caveat

Fraud-reason disputes without 3D Secure are stacked against merchants, and most of them lose no matter who writes the response. This one won because the records supported it. We will never promise you a win, because the cardholder's bank decides, and anyone promising one is selling hope. What we promise is the strongest complete case your records support, on time.

Fighting a dispute somewhere else, or just this once? We'll build the response for you.