Disputes and chargebacks

A dispute is a customer telling their bank they should not have been charged. The bank — not Stripe and not GIG — decides the outcome. Open Finance → Disputes to see every chargeback and inquiry Stripe has opened against your payments.

What the Disputes screen shows

Each row shows the reason the customer gave, the amount, its current state, the date you need to respond by, and whether it's linked to one of your invoices. Above the table, Open disputes and Amount at risk total every dispute that hasn't been settled — not just the ones on the visible page.

A dispute moves through these states:

• Needs response — the only state where you can act. You owe evidence, or you can accept it.
• Under review — evidence has been submitted and the bank is deciding.
• Won — you keep the money.
• Lost — the customer keeps the money.
• Accepted — you conceded it in GIG. Stripe later reports this as Lost once it finalizes.
• Closed — an inquiry that ended without turning into a chargeback. It's no longer at risk.

An unrecognized state is treated as still open — GIG would rather over-count what's at risk than tell you a live dispute is safely closed when it isn't.

Responding to a dispute

You respond with evidence — what was sold, when it was delivered, what the customer agreed to. That happens on Stripe's own dashboard, not in GIG: GIG mirrors a dispute's state and amount, but does not have a way to submit evidence itself. There is a deadline, and it varies by the dispute's reason and by the card network involved — Stripe states each dispute's own deadline when you open it there. Missing it loses the dispute automatically.

Accepting a dispute

If you agree the charge should be refunded rather than contested, choose Accept on a dispute that needs a response. GIG asks you to confirm — accepting immediately refunds the customer the disputed amount through Stripe, and it cannot be undone. Use this when you know you'd lose the dispute anyway; it settles things faster than waiting out a contest you won't win.

Keeping disputes in sync

Sync from Stripe pulls disputes directly from your connected Stripe account and matches each to the invoice it belongs to when it can. Use it if a dispute you can see in Stripe hasn't shown up here yet.

What isn't answered here yet

How a dispute affects the roster or attendee record it's linked to isn't covered by this page.