Understanding how payment disputes work is essential to maintain the health and stability of your business.

This guide explains what chargebacks are, how they are handled within Cartpanda, and how you can collaborate during the dispute process.

What is a Payment Dispute?

A payment dispute, also known as a chargeback, occurs when a cardholder contacts their issuing bank to question or reverse a transaction made with their credit card.

This may happen for different reasons, such as:

• The customer does not recognize the purchase
• The customer believes the product was not delivered
• The customer claims the product is not as described
• The customer wants to cancel the transaction through their bank

When a dispute is opened, the issuing bank temporarily reverses the payment while the case is reviewed.

Cartpanda as Merchant of Record

Cartpanda operates as the Merchant of Record (MoR) for purchases made through the platform.

This means that Cartpanda is the legal seller of the transaction, and therefore:

• Cartpanda is the entity that receives and manages the chargeback with the payment networks
• The chargeback process is handled by Cartpanda,.

How Credit Card Chargebacks Work

1. Dispute Initiation

The customer contacts their issuing bank to dispute the transaction.

The issuing bank notifies the card network (Visa, Mastercard, etc.), which then communicates the dispute through the acquiring and payment infrastructure.

Cartpanda receives this notification and records the dispute in the order timeline.

2. Balance Adjustment

When a chargeback is opened, the chargeback amount is removed from the account balance.

How to View Chargebacks on Cartpanda

If an order has an active chargeback, you can locate it in the platform: Orders → All Orders → Filter: Chargeback

You can also review the order timeline, where dispute events and status updates are recorded.

Chargebacks vs Refunds

It is important to understand the difference between refunds and chargebacks.

Refund

A refund happens within the platform, usually through customer support.

Examples:

• Customer cancels the order
• Customer returns the product
• Customer receives a goodwill refund

Chargeback

A chargeback occurs when the customer contacts their bank instead of support to reverse the transaction.

This means the process is handled outside the platform through the banking system.

Transparency in Dispute Reporting

Some international platforms convert disputes into refunds before they become official chargebacks.

Cartpanda follows a transparent reporting model, meaning:

• Refunds remain categorized as refunds
• Bank disputes are categorized as chargebacks

This allows merchants to clearly understand their performance and risk metrics.

For a complete picture of customer returns, merchants should analyze: Refund Rate + Chargeback Rate

Updated on: 06/04/2026