Client Initiated a Chargeback (Dispute)

If your client initiates a chargeback, which means that they are disputing the services received from you, you will need to take action to prove that a charge is valid, or risk having the payment deducted from your transfers received. 

As a provider, you need to have the permission for being notified of all failed payments enabled, AND need to have this enabled in your personal notification settings to ensure that you receive an email regarding client initiated chargebacks.

The most common reasons for a charge back include:

• The cardholder doesn't recognize this charge and reported it as fraudulent (Payments processed via Healthie show your business name and/or the Package name).
• The cardholder believes that services were not actually received.
• The cardholder cancelled services and this is therefore an unauthorized charge. 

My client has initiated a chargeback. Now what? 

If your client initiates a chargeback for a payment processed via Healthie, you will receive an e-mail notification with next steps that you will need to take. 

When a charge is disputed, you have three options:

1. Accept the chargeback: If you accept the chargeback, please e-mail hello@gethealthie.com letting us know, so that we can let your bank know. 
   1. The charge amount, plus the chargeback fee of $15 per transaction, will be withdrawn from your bank account by our payment processor.
2. Contact your client to withdraw the chargeback: If you believe this is confusion on your client's part, we'll recommend you reach out to your client to have them call their bank to withdraw the chargeback, and email hello@gethealthie.com with written evidence that it is withdrawn. From there, you send that to us, and we submit it to our payment processor. 
   1. Once a dispute has been initiated, it is best to have your client call and cancel the dispute on their end, as opposed to having you run an additional, new charge. The reason for this is that the client's card may have flagged your business already. 
3. Submit evidence of services: If you would like to provide evidence of services, e-mail hello@gethealthie.com with:
   1. The client's e-mail address or their client ID
   2. A consolidated PDF of evidence you would like to share with the client's bank (e.g., a signed agreement or evidence of service provided). Recommended documents for submitting compelling evidence are listed below.
      1. There is a limited amount of time (usually 7–21 days) to respond with evidence. The time given varies depending on the card network. If you don't submit evidence by the time the deadline passes, the cardholder wins the dispute and keeps the funds.
   3. Once you do this, Healthie will submit this on your behalf to the client's bank. During this process, you will see that the funds, minus the chargeback fee of $15 per transaction, is withdrawn from your bank by our payment processor. When the process is resolved, if the client's bank resolves the dispute in your favor, you will receive the funds back in your account. 

Evidence to dispute the chargeback:

If you choose to dispute the chargeback you will need to submit evidence to Healthie. This can be done by replying to the chargeback notification directly. We recommend providing the following:

• Receipts 
• Last Active Date (found on the client's Overview page)
• Signed Financial Policy 
• Service Description
• Client Communication 
• Service Documentation 
• Shipping Information (if physical product)

Stripe only allows one document for each of their categories. If you would like to submit multiple things for the same document type, please combine them into one document. These documents must be under 5MB. Additionally, evidence usually needs to be under 20 pages (this can vary depending on the client’s banking institution).

They allow documentation that fit in the following categories:

• Customer Communication
• Customer Signature
• Duplicate Charge Documentation 
• Receipt
• Refund and Cancellation Policy
• Service Documentation
• Shipping Documentation 
• Credit Voucher 
• Government Order
• Terms Disclosure 
• Other

Chargeback resolutions

There are a few resolutions possible once a chargeback has been initiated:

• Dispute won: If you have submitted evidence and you win a dispute (the bank has ruled in your favor) you will receive a deposit with the amount of dispute
• Dispute lost: If you have submitted evidence and you do not win a dispute (the bank has not ruled in your favor) money will not be returned to your account
• Dispute partially won: Sometimes the bank returns only part of the disputed amount to you. This may be because 1) they believe the cardholder is entitled to part of the amount, 2) they are accounting for a previous refund you made on the payment, or 3) if the credit card is in a different currency than the charge, exchange rates may have fluctuated during the review period. If this is the case, you will receive the partial payment deposited into your account, and you will see this transaction as expected as a deposit in your bank account.

Dispute Decision - Notification

Please note, to be able to receive notifications on the dispute decision, you will need to ensure that you have the following permission enabled in your provider profile settings:

If this setting isn't enabled, you will not receive the notification. An account owner or admin has the authority to enable this.

The following article walks through accessing member permissions:

• Deep Dive: Team Member Permissions

Stripe's Policy on Dispute Fees

When a chargeback is initiated by a patient, Stripe will automatically charge a $15 dispute fee. This adjustment is made to cover the costs incurred by Stripe in managing disputes. As Healthie integrates with Stripe as our payment processor, any Stripe fees are incurred by Healthie customers.

Regardless of a dispute outcome (won or lost) the $15 dispute fee will not be returned. This pricing policy change went into effect September 15, 2023 (please refer to Stripe documentation here).