Electronic Merchant Services

09/03/2026

Hi, I’m Julie. I’ve worked in payment processing since 2009, and I hear this one constantly. 🤍

“My customers would never do that.”
They do. Not because they’re out to get you. Because calling the bank is the only option they know about.

Nobody teaches a shopper how a refund works. So when something goes wrong, they call the number on the back of the card, because that’s the number they’ve got.

They think they’re solving a problem. They have no idea they just cost you the sale, a fee, and a mark against your account.

I see business owners on here all the time saying “people just don’t understand.”
You’re right. They don’t. And you can be the one who tells them.

Put your return policy where they’ll actually see it. Make sure your name on their statement is recognizable. Answer the phone. Most disputes die right there.

💬 Owners, what’s the strangest chargeback you’ve ever gotten? I want to hear it.

09/02/2026

Hi, I’m Julie. I’ve worked in payment processing since 2009, and someone asked me this in my comments. 🤍

She didn’t get the service she paid for. She called her card issuer to dispute it. They told her no.

Here’s why.

Issuers ask one question before they’ll open a dispute like that: did you contact the business first?

If the answer is no, they usually stop right there. Disputing a charge isn’t step one. It’s what’s left when the business won’t make it right.

In her case the business did respond. They offered an alternate product instead of a refund, and she still wasn’t happy with it.

That’s disappointing, and I understand it. But it isn’t the same as a business refusing to deal with you, and the issuer treats those very differently.

The part nobody says out loud: sometimes you buy something, it isn’t what you wanted, and the return policy is what decides how that ends.

I told my own son this last week. I read the return policy before I buy, because I want to know how hard it will be to get my money back if this goes sideways.

That’s on us as customers. Ask first. Read first. Then escalate if you have to.

💬 Have you ever had a dispute denied? What did they tell you?

09/02/2026

Hi, I’m Julie. I’ve worked in payment processing since 2009, and this is the easiest chargeback fix nobody talks about. 🤍

About half of business owners don’t know what their descriptor says.

That’s the line that shows up on your customer’s statement after every single sale. If they can’t tell it’s you, they call the bank instead of calling you. That’s a dispute, and it costs you a fee whether you win it or not.

Two ways to find out what yours says:
Ask your processor. They can tell you today.
Or run a test transaction for a penny and look at your own statement. That’s exactly what your customer sees.

It should show your business name and a phone number they can actually reach you at.

One more thing I see constantly. Owners put their personal cell on the merchant account at signup, because nobody tells them the number goes on the statement. Then every customer call lands on their phone. If that’s you, your processor can change it.

💬 Business owners, do you know what your descriptor says? Guess first, then go check.

09/02/2026

Comment your 2. I’ll wait ☕
Here’s the plot twist though: A, B, and C aren’t actually a pick 2 situation.

No surprise shutdowns, a real human you can call, and fast access to your money is just the baseline

Or it should be

If your processor makes you choose, that’s a setup problem

And D? Anyone who promises you’ll NEVER have another chargeback is lying to you

Chargebacks happen to great businesses. The real question is whether someone helps you fight them or freezes your account and disappears

💬 So: which 2 did you pick and which one is your current processor failing at?

09/01/2026

Most chargebacks are not fraud.
After years of reviewing these with business owners, it comes down to three things almost every time. The customer did not recognize the name on their statement. The customer did not know the return policy. Or the customer could not figure out how to reach the business.
That third one has gotten worse as businesses moved to contact forms and took their phone numbers off the site. A customer who wants a return and cannot get an answer has one other number they know will pick up, and it is on the back of their card.
The bank reverses the charge, pulls the money out of your account, and adds a fee. You find out afterward.
None of these are obvious mistakes. They are invisible until a dispute shows up, and all three are fixable in an afternoon.

A chargeback is a card payment your customer's bank reverses without asking you. Here is what happens to your money, and what you can do about it.

08/31/2026

Most of the people hitting the dispute button think they are asking for a refund.

The bank app makes it one tap, it sits right next to the transaction, and nothing in it says this will cost the business money and count against them.

That is not your customer being dishonest. That is a design choice someone else made. Two things actually help.

Make your refund easier to find than their bank’s dispute button. And answer the phone, because the people who reach you do not file.

08/31/2026

There is a line on your customer’s bank statement that you have probably never looked at.

It is your billing descriptor. If it shows your LLC name instead of the name on your door, your customer sees a charge from a company they have never heard of.

So they call their bank. That is a chargeback, and you did nothing wrong except trust that the setup was right.

Nobody walks a new merchant through this. It takes two minutes to check, and it prevents disputes you would otherwise fight one at a time. Go look at yours today.

08/31/2026

The chargeback timeline is the part nobody warns you about.
Visa cardholders generally have 120 days to dispute, and for things delivered later it can stretch to 540.
So a good sale from the spring can come back in the summer, with a fee attached, and nobody asks you first.

💬 What a chargeback actually is and what to do when one lands, on the blog. Link in bio.

08/28/2026

Mail costs money. Scams are free.

That is the whole trick to spotting IRS fraud. I got three letters from the IRS for one thing this week. Three.

When the IRS wants something from you, it comes in the mail, usually more than once.

Scammers cannot afford to do that, so they use what costs nothing: a text or a phone call that sounds urgent.

So if your phone says the IRS is texting you, or a caller says you owe money right now, that is your answer. The real IRS starts with a letter.

08/28/2026

A chargeback is not a refund you give yourself.

If you got what you paid for and you knew the refund terms going in, disputing that charge with your bank is a false claim. You are telling the bank the merchant did something wrong when they did not. That is fraud, not a loophole.

Not liking something is a review. Not getting what you paid for is a dispute. Those are two different things, and the business on the other end pays the difference.

Stitched from Don Martin on TikTok.