(1888PressRelease)
October 21, 2008 - Boston, MA – UniBul Merchant Services announced today the launch of its new Chargeback Manual. The Chargeback Manual was developed to help US-based merchants process transactions in a way that will minimize customer disputes and chargebacks. Its main goal is to educate merchants on the basics of charged-back transactions, why they occur, how they are processed, what the merchant’s responsibility is and what remedial and preventive procedures can be implemented.
The beginning chapters of the Manual offer a detailed review of the chargeback process and an analysis of the impact charged-back transactions have on the bottom line. A special attention has been given to chargebacks resulting from customer disputes. The authors point out that such chargebacks may indicate customer dissatisfaction and that the identifying and addressing of their underlying causes will help avoid the potential for lost sales in the future.
In the “Chargeback Cycle” chapter the Manual presents a step-by-step guide to the chargeback process. There are several participants but the main interaction in the chargeback process is between the card issuer and the merchant bank. The Manual explains when and how the merchant becomes involved in the process and what its responsibilities, as well as its financial and administrative liability for chargebacks are.
The “Chargeback Remedial Best Practices” chapter offers advice on the concrete steps merchants should take in the event of a chargeback. The authors advise that merchants should act swiftly and provide their merchant banks with additional information about the transaction at issue or about the actions they have taken related to it. Most chargebacks are resolved without the merchant losing the sale, providing it follows the suggested best practices.
A special emphasis has been given to the avoidance of improper transaction processing procedures that are the cause of most chargebacks. The authors offer a list of best practices to be incorporated into merchants’ card acceptance and transaction processing procedures. Adequate training of the sales staff and attention to detail are mentioned as simple procedures that can help make a difference and reduce chargeback levels. A whole chapter has been devoted to the development of a set of procedures to ensure that unnecessary chargebacks are avoided.
Among the more important chapters of the Manual is the one entitled “Processing Transaction Receipts.” The mishandling of sales receipts has been identified as one of the main causes of chargebacks and the authors advise that the merchants should establish a process for handling sales receipts to ensure their proper processing, in order to minimize customer disputes and chargebacks.
More than a half of the Manual’s volume is comprised of detailed descriptions of the various chargeback Reason Codes - the underlying business reasons for the chargebacks. Each Reason Code is defined and an explanation is given to the conditions or circumstances that have caused the card issuer to issue a chargeback. The most common causes are given for each Reason Code - what may have been done or not done that ultimately resulted in a transaction being charged back. The Merchant Actions sections outline specific steps that merchants can take to help their merchant banks remedy the chargeback, prevent future recurrence, and address customer service issues.
UniBul Merchant Services has developed its new Chargeback Manual as a comprehensive point of reference for both its customers and every other merchant in need of chargeback expertise. It is available on the company’s website at www.unibulmerchantservices.com/chargeback-manual.
UniBul Merchant Services is a Boston, MA-based Independent Sales Organization (ISO), registered with Visa and MasterCard as a provider of payment processing services for US businesses.
###
