They could give all different types of excuses as to why they’d like a chargeback. It could be they claim they never got the item they purchased, the charge isn’t one they recognize,  the charge isn’t one they recognize, the product wasn’t what they expected it to be, or that it was defective merchandise.

When it comes to businesses that set up subscription boxes, the most common excuse is that the customer never gave authorization for the company to bill their card.

Regardless of the reason they use to dispute the specific transaction, it creates an entire process of the dreaded chargeback with the customer. They will usually contact their bank and after that bank will contact your credit card processor.

Once the customer’s bank gets in touch with you, the disputed funds will be taken from your bank account and will not become available to you again until the dispute has been settled and the customer is able to prove that they didn’t authorize or recognize the transaction. In this particular case, the funds won’t become available to you at all and will be “charged back” to the customer.

The good news is that, as a subscription box merchant, you are given the opportunity to refute and challenge the customer and prove that the charge was indeed authorized. Once that can be proven, the funds would be released back to you. Unfortunately, the runaround of the whole process can be very tedious and problematic.