The Chargeback Evidence Checklist: What to Gather Before You Respond

A dispute wins or loses on the evidence submitted, not on how strongly you feel the customer is wrong. Before you respond to any chargeback, gather the following — most issuers give you a narrow window, so it helps to know what you’re looking for in advance rather than scrambling once a case lands.

Transaction and order records

• Order confirmation with itemized pricing, date, and time
• Billing and shipping address as entered at checkout
• Payment authorization details (approval code, AVS/CVV match results)
• Customer account history with your business, if any

Proof of delivery or service fulfillment

• Shipping carrier tracking showing delivery to the billing or shipping address on file
• Signature confirmation where available
• For digital goods or services: access logs, download records, or login timestamps showing the customer used what they were billed for
• For travel and hospitality: itinerary, confirmation, and check-in or usage records

Customer communication

• Any support tickets, emails, or chat logs with the customer
• Refund or cancellation requests and how they were handled
• Evidence the customer acknowledged your refund, return, or cancellation policy at checkout

Policy documentation

• The refund, return, and cancellation policy as it appeared on your site at the time of purchase
• Terms of service or subscription terms the customer agreed to
• Billing descriptor as it appears on the customer’s statement, since descriptor confusion is a common driver of “unrecognized transaction” disputes

Prior transaction history, where relevant

For repeat or returning customers, undisputed prior transactions sharing data points with the disputed one (same device, IP address, shipping address, or account) can support a case that the current transaction was authorized. This kind of historical-pattern evidence has become more central to how card networks evaluate first-party fraud claims, so it’s worth keeping this data organized rather than trying to reconstruct it after a dispute arrives.

None of this guarantees a win — reason codes, processor rules, and the specifics of each case still matter. But merchants who keep this evidence organized as they go, rather than assembling it after the fact, consistently submit stronger, faster responses. If you’d like a second set of eyes on your current evidence process, request a free chargeback assessment and we’ll tell you honestly where the gaps are.

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