The history of PayPal disputes has evolved over the years, but the premise remains the same as it revolves around both buyer and seller protection.

As we explained in this article, PayPal disputes are designed as a consumer protection mechanism. They give the buyer and seller a chance to communicate directly and work out any misunderstanding on a transaction or even if a wrong item is being delivered.

Fundamentally, a customer wants the seller to resolve an issue with their order by initiating a dispute. The dispute process time limit is 180 days from the day they made the payment.

And when it has to do with the Incorrect Amount PayPal dispute, buyers have many options for redress. They can request a refund, return the item, or ask the seller to re-ship an item as the case may be. And you have 20 calendar days from the date your customer opened the incorrect amount dispute to address the issue. After which, the customer can either escalate the case to a claim or drop the case.

It's that straightforward.

The challenge is that online shoplifters are continually devising new techniques to defraud vendors with disputes and chargebacks. Such persons don't care about settling a dispute or chargeback requests. Their mission is to steal from you. And since PayPal recently reviewed their dispute mediation policy, every incorrect amount PayPal dispute filed against you can be damaging if you don't mitigate chargeback claims adequately.

This article will share valuable, exclusive insights to help you deal with the threats accordingly.

Causes of Incorrect Amount PayPal Dispute and How to Mitigate them

To note, customers file an incorrect amount PayPal dispute when the charge on their PayPal account is not the same as they agreed to or have on their receipt. In simple terms, it is an online transaction dispute. Industry analysis clearly shows that there are scarce instances where merchants would think of deliberately altering the original transaction. And those rare circumstances are when a customer wants to add a tip after delivery.

That said, with regards to a legitimate incorrect amount PayPal dispute resulting from a merchant's error, below are the fundamental causes that you should note:

• The seller keyed in the transaction fund incorrectly or misread the handwritten amount.
• The seller transposed numbers at some point in the sales transaction process.
• The seller made an addition or transposition error when calculating the total transaction amount.
• The seller altered the transaction amount after the transaction was complete.

If any of the above scenarios hold for you, then you surely need to work on your order fulfillment processes to address such challenges.

Apply the best practices below to mitigate "incorrect amount" PayPal disputes and incidental or chargebacks claims before they happen.

1. Do your due diligence and always double-check numbers and totals before requesting authorization for a transaction to ensure that their is no billing error. Pay close attention to the details when entering handwritten data.
2. Bring your outgoing transaction management staff up to speed with order fulfillment best practices to avoid unnecessary human errors.
3. If you must alter a completed transaction, ensure that you received the cardholder's express consent.
4. Reduce human error by using an EMV chip reader at checkout points which should be a common industry practice. This will strengthen the whole payment method.

Of course, some cases of incorrect amount PayPal dispute can result from the customer not understanding the vendor's pricing information. And to mitigate chargeback process, you should endeavor that you have well-written and easy-to-understand customer onboarding tools or powerful merchant tools that specify your subscription charges and how/when they are applied. These will be compelling evidence that strengthen your case in challenge disputes as they have answered all common questions. 

Equally important, you can reduce the occurrence of such PayPal disputes on online shopping by having a clear order summary. The order summary duly acknowledged by the customer in line with your 'terms of service' agreement gives you a piece of vital evidence to contend any illegitimate incorrect amount customer dispute and save chargeback fee.

Yet, you should bear in mind that no matter how diligently you applied the best practices and followed the rules of digital commerce, there are bound to be people who attempt to beat the system with abusive practices. That brings us to the next point.

How to Respond When a Customer Escalates Incorrect Amount Dispute to a Claim

An excellent PayPal dispute mitigation strategy must incorporate standard dispute prevention strategies for selling digital products, as highlighted above. However, there are instances when these measures might not be sufficient to deal with an 'incorrect amount' PayPal dispute, resulting in a claim. If the transaction amount is incorrect, it makes sense to accept the claim.

But if you have strong evidence that counters a cardholder's claim, then you must challenge the claim.

Below are helpful tips you can incorporate:

1. If the transaction amount is correct, you should include a copy of the transaction receipt in your evidence submission to PayPal in the dispute resolution process.
2. In the case that you've issued a reversal, or provided a credit for the transaction, add evidence of the credit or partial refund. Include the amount and the date of processing it.
3. If you reached a consensus with the cardholder and agreed not to dispute the transaction, include a signed letter or statement from the cardholder or payment facilitator stating they no longer dispute the transaction. 
4. Be sure to respond to the notice of claim within ten days of the chargeback timeframe. To do this, log in to PayPal, go to the resolutions center, and provide all the order transaction documentation.
5. If the buyer wins the claim, you can appeal the decision. To do this, go to the Resolution Center in the merchant account, scroll through the drop-down menu to 'closed cases,' and click 'appeal.' Keep in mind that PayPal's decision reversals occur in a few circumstances. 

Get the upper hand with PayPal dispute and chargeback automation

Despite the meteoric rise in fraudulent chargeback recently, you can avoid any incorrect amount PayPal dispute with tools that are rooted in artificial intelligence and machine learning. And Chargeflow has created an industry-first AI and Machine Leaarning-based dispute and chargeback automation service as your go-to resource for mitigating digital payment risks. We give you access to military-grade payment security protocols and a crucial dispute mitigation tool.

Apart from helping you quickly understand your customer's purchasing patterns to mitigate fraudulent cases, you will get unbelievably-comprehensive data on each order cycle. Chargeflow can help you get just-in-time notification of anything that triggers a transaction on your account and respond to those issues accordingly.

That's right. Our service manages the entire process from fraud scoring to dispute and chargeback mitigation without you lifting a finger. Instead of spending valuable resources on the vicious dispute mediation cycle, you can sign up to Chargeflow with our 2-step integration process and watch the magic play out to your advantage each time. Get started with our free service offering right away~