Watch: How to respond to a chargeback dispute in SalesThumb (0:47)
Disputes are inevitable. Even great shops get them. Most are resolvable — but only if you act quickly, document like a lawyer, and resist the urge to argue with the customer over text.
This article walks through the actual dispute queue in SalesThumb and how to work a dispute in it.
Where disputes show up
Chargebacks land automatically in /app/disputes as a queue — a KPI strip (open count, submitted count, win rate) up top, and a filterable table below sorted by how urgent each one is. You'll typically also get a heads-up from your payment processor separately, since it's the processor/card network that sets your actual response deadline.
Open a dispute and you'll see:
- The disputed amount
- The reason code from the network (a short code like
fraudulent,product_not_received,credit_not_processed, orduplicate— shown as-is, not translated into a friendly phrase) - Any customer-supplied reason text, for refund requests a customer files themselves
- The evidence-due date
Read the reason code carefully — it tells you what you need to prove. A fraud claim needs identity/on-premises evidence; "product not received" needs completion proof; a credit/quality complaint needs photos plus your communication trail.
Who can see disputes
The queue shows chargeback amounts and customer names, so it's limited to owners, admins, managers, front desk and service writers. Technicians don't get the Disputes tab, and if they open the page or its link they see a "You don't have access to Disputes" message instead of the queue. Within that group, only owners, admins and managers can change a dispute's status, assign it, or save its evidence selections; front desk and service writers can open a dispute, read it, add notes and run the AI suggestion, but those three actions are refused for them.
Building the evidence pack
On the dispute page, the Evidence pack card lists everything SalesThumb can pull together, each as a toggle you switch on or off:
- Invoice + line items
- Approved quote w/ signature
- Tint compliance waivers
- Service appointment + timestamps
- Before / after photos
- SMS + email correspondence
- Warranty registration
- Signed QC inspection
- Internal audit log
Rather than toggling all nine by hand, click "AI · Suggest evidence pack" — it looks at the reason code plus what's actually on file for this customer/job and recommends which sections to include and a short cover note. You can edit anything it fills in, add your own cover-page notes, then click "Save selections".
When you're ready, click "Download evidence pack PDF" — it assembles your selected sections into a single chargeback PDF. The evidence pack PDF and the AI · Suggest evidence pack button both require the Pro plan; on other plans they show an upgrade prompt.
This /app/disputes queue is where you build your case — it's SalesThumb's own internal mirror, for notes, assignment, and evidence-pack prep. It's not where you actually respond to the card network. For that, go to Reports → Chargebacks: open the same disputed charge there and you can accept the loss or submit your evidence — including the PDF you just built — directly through an embedded response widget, without leaving SalesThumb or emailing anything to your processor. See Responding to a chargeback from the Chargebacks report for that flow.
Don't argue with the customer
Resist the urge to text the customer and try to resolve it directly. Three reasons:
- Anything you say can be screenshotted and attached to their side of the dispute.
- Pressure tactics can backfire — card networks take customer protection seriously, and a "you should drop the dispute" message looks bad.
- Once a chargeback is filed, you can't pull it back by texting the customer.
If the customer is genuinely open to a refund as a peace gesture on a smaller ticket, you can file/approve a refund request from the same disputes area (it's tracked as its own dispute kind — "refund request" — separate from a bank-initiated chargeback).
Moving the dispute through its stages
Once you've sent your evidence to the processor, update the record: the Lifecycle panel on the dispute page shows the next valid stage(s) as buttons (e.g. "Move to Submitted"). The stages are Needs response → Gathering → Ready to submit → Submitted → Won / Lost (or Accepted / Withdrawn if it resolves another way). This is a manual status update on your end — SalesThumb doesn't get an automatic signal back from the network on how a dispute is progressing until you record it or a webhook updates it.
While you wait on a decision, don't keep messaging the customer about it, and don't post about it publicly. Move on.
Reducing future disputes
The strongest lever you have is turning on the right QC gates under Settings → Quality Control, on the QC Gates tab, so the evidence exists before a dispute ever happens:
- Require at least one pre-install photo — cheap insurance against "you scratched my paint" claims.
- Require at least one after-install photo — a clean before/after pair is one of the strongest pieces of evidence you can submit.
- Require a signed post-install inspection — a customer signature on the QC sheet is hard to argue with.
- Require a deposit on the quote — filters out no-shows and reduces "I never agreed to this" disputes.
- Require warranty registration (invoice gate) — a registered warranty is on file before the invoice goes out.
New shops start with a customer email on the quote, at least one after-install photo, and the appointment marked Completed already required by default; pre-install photos, a signed post-install inspection, a deposit on the quote, and warranty registration are off by default — turn those on to match your risk profile.