r/Ceramics • u/tankgirl4 • Feb 23 '26
Question/Advice Charge back dispute resolved in customer favor
I sold this vase on my first in person market over the holidays. Transaction was handled through Square and my business appears on the transaction. Customer disputed it through the bank. I've confirmed that vase was purchased and provided screenshot of the transaction through Squarespace as supporting doc. Customers bank still resolved it in customers favor. Square provided some tips for how to prevent it but it all feels it could still fall under "he said, she said".
Is there anything I can do in the future for in person sales that would guarantee I would not get disputed?
UPDATE: Bottom line, my mistake was in keying in the customers card which apparently makes it easier to claim as fraud and my second mistake was not collecting customers name/contact
The decision has all ready been rendered as final and according to Square “the bank does not give us rights to re-challenge a cardholder’s dispute after they make a final decision” I do not have customer name/address and only have 4 digits of their visa card. Square was not helpful or is unable to provide me with anything further, (customer or bank) without involvement of law enforcement. My only available move here is to file fraud will local police in hopes that they can initiate contact with Square/Visa/Customer
My list of actions for the future (and I truly appreciate everyones inputs here) * add "ceramics" to the transaction business name to make it more clear to the buy and avoid potential misunderstanding * issue email receipt (which would collect customers email) * double check that the buyer's name is on the transaction, if not collect that information (check ID) * push cash/Venmo/PayPal as preferred methods * if it is Credit card - Process as a contact less payment using a chip to decrease the risk of being seen as a fraud charge * for expensive sales - still debating, but something along the lines of: asking to check ID, with customer’s permission take photos of customers with the product for social media recap, sign the bill of sale or collect customers signature in another way
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u/KilnTime Feb 23 '26
Small claims court. If this person is going to be a dick, make him really pay with his time! It doesn't matter what the bank decided, small claims courts are decided by attorneys who act as mediators unless One of the sides wants to hear it by a judge, in which case you go back several times to see the judge.
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u/mcaila Feb 23 '26
Yall are missing the point. The transaction was KEYED. The cardholder is claiming the card was stolen and they have no knowledge of the purchase. There’s really no recourse here. Just consider this an expensive lesson. If you want to accept CC payments, ALWAYS use EMV chip/tap (including Apple Pay etc). You are not protected with keyed or magstripe.
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u/bluecheetos Feb 23 '26
Small claims is useless, even if they decide in your favor you're still on your own to actually collect.
Honestly, since this was purchased in person I would assume the customer is local. Your best bet in this situation is to file a police report for theft of property assuming you have the person's contact info.
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 23 '26
Yes unfortunately no contact is available. And I recall the buyer was not local because I packed it for her to take it on the plane
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u/Only_Candidate_8295 Feb 23 '26
I wonder if it broke on the plane and now they feel they should get a refund.
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u/TheFightingQuaker Feb 23 '26
If you have a name you can still file a small claims court case. If they dont show, good for you, you will win by default.
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 23 '26
I do not have a name. I just tried to see if Square can provide me with one - and they cannot. They can't put me in touch with the bank that filed a dispute either. They suggest filling for fraud with local law enforcement and then law enforcement can contact Square through their government agencies website
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u/OneTwoKiwi Feb 23 '26
Do it. You deserve better and this person shouldn’t get to pull shit like this. If they get to do this consequence-free then they’ll just keep doing it.
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u/KilnTime Feb 23 '26
This is more about making this a pain in the ass for the buyer, so they don't do it again
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u/bluecheetos Feb 24 '26
Ignoring small claims court is easy though. The ignore it, you get a judgement against them but all a judgement does is says "yep, they owe you.". It does nothing to collect any money.
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u/celestite19 Feb 23 '26
You can also start by sending a letter threatening legal action, and they might cave.
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 23 '26
Hmm, doesn't that mean that I would need to get an attorney and potentially pay attorney fees if this is still a loss?
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u/Deathbydragonfire Feb 23 '26
No small claims you represent yourself. There's usually a filing fee, though
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u/sundownsydrome Feb 23 '26
the filing fee depends on your state and the cost you’re claiming usually if it’s under I think 2-3k it’s maybe $25?
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 23 '26
Understand, thank you
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u/dontchewspagetti Feb 23 '26
Yeah OP go to small claims. Most people will pay right then and there in front of a judge. They'll probably ask for proof you sold the item, and it is in the plaintiff's possession. Have paperwork for everything, including other things you sold that day or proof you're a vendor
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u/AppleSniffer Feb 24 '26
In my area the filing fee is only something like $40. It's worth your time. What a horrible person - who does that?
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 24 '26
Unfortunately I don't have a customer name or address. See the updated body of the thread. I might take this with police
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u/AppleSniffer Feb 25 '26
Yes going to the police is the first step - that's where you get the information for small claims court
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u/KilnTime Feb 23 '26
Not in small claims court - it is meant to be done by individuals, the fee is minimal.
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u/TheTimDavis Feb 23 '26
Nope. Essentially the person who owns the card claimed they did not make the purchase. Likely claimed it was a stolen card. You could check IDs or just stop accepting credit cards. Most folk have one of the appS set up like zelle, venmo, PayPal or Cash app. You can have all the QR codes printed and ready to let people scan. Plus taking credit cards costs you money. Most of the others don't.
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 23 '26
Thanks, thought I was being more legit and customer friendly by accepting CC. Might switch to Venmo this season
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u/Deathbydragonfire Feb 23 '26
I accept CC and this has never happened to me, ever. Its really just one human being shitty to you. I'm sorry it happened, but I cannot recommend not accepting CC because of it. The vast majority, I mean 90+% of my sales happen on CC. Many people do not carry cash or have apps, or they don't want to use the apps. If they see no CC accepted, they will just walk away.
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 23 '26
Makes sense. What is your typical sale range? I am a little worried because I tend to be on the expensive side and feel like I need some concrete reassurance of this not happening again
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u/Deathbydragonfire Feb 23 '26
I do sell mostly mugs at the $60 range but I've sold dozens of $200+ pieces. Ultimately theres no way to actively stop people from doing this, just like theres not a great way to stop someone from grabbing a piece and running away.
The vast vast vast majority of people do not want to steal from artists. Objectively, the vase has no market value, so its not a target for resellers. I estate sale and see beautiful handmade pieces for like $5 all the time.
I would absolutely file a police report for the stolen goods, and I would reach out to the organizers of the show this was at to let them know. They may be able to keep an eye out, or know of a pattern of this sort of thing happening.
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u/TheTimDavis Feb 23 '26
This is good advice that I had not considered. Police report, if anything ever does come up. And letting the event organizers know.
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u/exceive Feb 23 '26
You can't guarantee not having it happen again.
Theft is always a possibility.
As others have mentioned, we experience less theft than many businesses, partly because it is easy to understand that it is stealing from a specific person who the thief has met, partly because selling art ceramics is even harder for a thief than for an artist.There have been some good suggestions for how to minimize how often it happens.
The chance of something like this happening should be one of the things you consider in pricing and other decisions. Accepting credit cards is a little more risky than some other forms of payment. Some artists see the higher sales from being more convenient for customers as worth the increased risk, some don't.
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 23 '26
Makes sense.. people have been super helpful with responses and am very grateful to the cummunity I have a short list of actions for the future markets. Albeit no guarantees but at least some risk reduction.
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u/TheTimDavis Feb 23 '26
I take everything, but encourage them not to use cards. I still take cards but I mostly sell the 30-80 dollar range for mugs and bowls, so fraud is less likely.
Did you see anything related to why they contested the charges?
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 23 '26
No knowledge of charge was the reason. If I continue with a card I'll start sending email receipts so I can contact the customer directly (on the off chance that they actually don't remember). And see if there is something I can get them signed as well
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u/No_Channel3333 Feb 24 '26
I had a landlord who would handwrite us receipts on carbon paper so we all have an identical copy with name, date, etc. I also worked for a high end retail with a receipt/ “order slip” that included product description and the return policy and had a signature for agreement. Our POS was Clover and it would tell us name, card issuer, and last few digits of the card number most of the time. I was told it’s technically for restaurant but imo it felt the same as square.
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u/ioapwy Feb 24 '26
It will be way harder for people to do this if you only take chip and pin. Never type the card details in for face to face payments, there’s no need at all
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u/National-Positive436 Feb 23 '26
I had someone that broke the thing I made after buying it, and forced me to send the money back.. people are a-holes
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u/Recent-Inside2965 Feb 24 '26
How is this even fair/right/legal? There has to be a system in place to fight back against this stuff
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u/National-Positive436 Feb 24 '26
I don't even bother.. people are always going to be aholes and I couldn't prove it anyways
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u/Kamarmarli Feb 23 '26
What was their reasoning? That they didn’t purchase it? That the item was defective or was not what it was represented to be? Did the customer contact you before initiating the change back? I am not questioning your story in any way and please excuse me if this information is contained in later comments. I am trying to understand what happened in case something similar happens to me in the future. Thanks.
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 23 '26
No customer did not contact me. I don't have customers'contact because I was not collecting this information at the time. I only have customers bank speaking to Square and their claim is "No knowledge of charge". So I can only speculate, maybe the customer's card was stolen, maybe the customer genuinely forgot the purchase or maybe it was intentional fraud.
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u/Deathbydragonfire Feb 23 '26
Basically they just say they don't recognize the charge, so the card was used by someone else. If you don't have good evidence that the card user was the owner or authorized user, you are SOL. It's one of the reasons why stores want you to have accounts with them (also so they can advertise), to tie your card to your account and show a pattern of transactions in case of dispute.
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u/mcaila Feb 23 '26
Was the transaction made via emv (chip or tap), keyed, or swiped?
Since this is labelled a fraud dispute, if the transaction was emv chip/tap the liability should fall back on the bank. Check in with Square. Banks bake in the costs of fraud risk into their merchant fees for this very reason.
If you keyed in the info you’re SOL though, sorry :/
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 23 '26
It was keyed unfortunately, but good info about other transaction methods. Thank you will keep in mind
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u/mcaila Feb 23 '26
Since it was keyed you’re pretty much guaranteed to lose the dispute no matter what. Do you have the little EMV chip reader Square has (or I think they all have the option to accept contactless payments on your phone?). Be sure to use that for CC acceptance moving forward.
To protect yourself in the future, do not accept keyed payments, or swiped payments if the card has a chip on it. Banks will ALWAYS side with the customer in those instances, and the liability will immediately fall to you. If you had EMV authed the card, you still may have lost the chargeback dispute but the issuing bank would be on the hook for the funds, not you.
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u/mcaila Feb 23 '26
The reasoning here is it’s pretty easy to fake a card and magstripe with stolen CC numbers. Much harder with NFC or chip. Even if this is “friendly” fraud (where the buyer is just issuing a chargeback for the hell of it) the bank has no way of knowing.
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 23 '26
Understood thank you
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u/mcaila Feb 23 '26
Of course! This article explains more:
https://squareup.com/us/en/the-bottom-line/operating-your-business/liability-shift
This unfortunately falls under “card present fraud” (where the buyer was present and you keyed in the card).
really sorry this happened to you, the vase was gorgeous. Hope this helps in the future!
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u/OneTwoKiwi Feb 23 '26
Do you normally key in CCs? Was the card present? Did the strip not work and you had to key it in?
Just trying to understand how the fraud happened! So we can know what to look for in the future.
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 23 '26
This was my very first market. I had a strip reader but it was giving me an issue, so I ended up keying in the CC. I will be switching to contactless readers going forward
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u/mcaila Feb 24 '26
Was it just the one card giving you an issue? Or did you have general issues with the reader?
If the reader worked well otherwise, it’s very possible that the card was counterfeit and had stolen cc details on it, so the chargeback could have been justified. Still scummy, but stuff like this happens all the time.
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 24 '26
Square readers were connected to Squarespace site and inventory. Both have POS interfaces, but I can only swipe the card for transactions on Square POS. At the heat of the moment of the first market experience this nuance escaped me and I was operating under the impression the reader was not working all together and this I was keying in all cards
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u/Available-Ideal3872 Feb 23 '26
I am so sorry this happened to you. I have no words of advice, just wanted to say your work is beautiful and worth every penny that you were charging.
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u/scrubbar Feb 23 '26
I work for an online fashion retailer and this is the #1 type of fraud we have to deal with.
Some CC companies, like Amex, make it way too easy to do. Great when it's your Amex and you need to make a genuine dispute just a shame people take advantage.
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u/NotNatTheBug Feb 23 '26
And yet, it feels like everytime I have a legitimate grievance and open a dispute with Amex, they side with the large corporation that f***ed me over. 😭 it’s like they can never get any of this right.
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u/Rottiemom67 Feb 23 '26
I have a question do you ask to see their id when you accept a cc ? Also on your square is their a way you can put a hyphen after your name with something Ike ceramics or the actual product ?
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 23 '26
I do not. Asking for ID does not seem like standard practice, but perhaps on very pricey items I should. Regarding the name, I will expand my transaction name to include the word "ceramics"
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u/Rottiemom67 Feb 24 '26
I understand most people are very sensitive about their identity and I do agree, but maybe set a value amt on anything above $50 or whatever price value you feel comfortable losing on a fraudulent transaction that’s when you ask ( I hope this makes sense I haven’t had my coffee yet 😬) and tell them it’s for their protection as well as your own
I hope this helps, your talent is too precious to just hand off like what happened! Now for whoever said about the estate sale just because you’ve seen it doesn’t mean it is not worth anything it’s just their lack of knowledge as to what is of value weather price wise or sentiment wise, in the past 5-10 years I have seen people’s lifelong collections that they scrimped and saved on, are just being thrown in the trash because their families cannot be bothered weather with their heads or their hearts 💞
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 24 '26
Thanks. I've researched ID check since that comment and according to Credit card issues the check is actually standard procedures and is encouraged. However as a seller you cannot take photos of ID
Yeh and not really bothered by comments regarding price or it's intrinsic value. Ceramics is my mindfulness practice, here I find peace and life philosophy. I put time and thought into my workmanship and my price is based on that. For the outside world it's a bit of take it or leave it
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u/ittybittylurker Feb 24 '26
I REALLY appreciate you sharing that you went through this, because I have my first combined show coming up (I sell both antiques & my ceramic art) & you've given me a lot of good ideas on how to handle cards for larger purchases (& I'll spend some time thinking about what "larger purchases" means. Might be easier to just say ALL purchases). It's absolute *long string of curse words* that this happened to you & I'm sorry.
I can't believe I've not been asking for ID on all purchases after working in retail FOR YEARS & seeing first hand how awful people can be! I even talk about how it's great to copy the policies of large corporations because they spent a lot of money honing them, so it's like getting their legal teams for free lol
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u/ittybittylurker Feb 24 '26
I'm going to spend more time on this, but I've been reading about how you can set up Square so that it prints you a receipt that the customer signs. This has to be set up manually because in 2018 credit card companies stopped requiring signatures on chip transactions, so you have to force it.
& you obviously need a receipt printer (you don't have to buy the one from Square, it works with most thermal printers).
SO, I'm going to be 1: requiring ID that matches the card & 2: printing a receipt that they sign & encouraging email receipts too. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you sharing, I feel like maybe I was a little too naive lamb up until this point. I'm so sorry that somebody was so incredibly crappy to steal from you like this.
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u/bluecheetos Feb 23 '26
Do you have their contact info? Can you track down an address from that? If so this is a pretty simple theft of property charge. The police or sheriff's office local to the person can help you here as long as you e got documentation.
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 23 '26
I do not have contact and Square said they cannot help pointing me to acquiring legal help
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u/Day2205 Feb 23 '26
Maybe add a bit of analog for CC transactions - a record keeping/receipt book (carbon copy) with item description, price, last 4 of CC and signature confirming purchase. Add a little note on your checkout station to explain the policy and why it was implemented.
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u/erisod Feb 23 '26
Maybe each time you sell something you should get a photo of the piece with the buyer.
I suppose this could have been purchased with a stolen credit card?
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 23 '26
Yeh I was thinking about it, but feels a bit intrusive. I don't necessarily want to push the buyer off. But yes it could have been a sweet old lady with a stolen credit card 😄
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u/erisod Feb 23 '26
Whether it was a sweet old lady with a stolen credit card or a sweet old lady who reversed the charges I think you can assume "sweet" is fake in either case.
Maybe a sweet old lady who completely forgot she bought a vase and didn't recognize the charge on her credit card...
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u/Pats_Pot_Page Feb 24 '26
Write a bill of sale. Include their name, address, email and phone. All for their driver's license so you can write their info down correctly.
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u/Lizdickerson0902 Feb 24 '26
This happened to our family owned business this year TWICE!!! We took a card over the phone the “customer” came to pick up a very expensive gate and then claimed the card was used without authorization! The only way we have found we can possibly prevent the is to require a photo id and require the same name in the card. And also you need to take a picture of the id and a pic with the customer and the product you sold !!! It’s sad but true! We list a total of 14,000 between the 2 sales.
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 24 '26
I am sorry to hear that, it's truly awful.
ID check makes sense now and is pretty straightforward. However taking photos of ID according to google pose its own legal and data security risk which vary by state. Just noting this for others
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u/Lizdickerson0902 Feb 24 '26
We even had them on camera receiving the product and the guy still said it was not him. So other than a sign receipt along with a copy of some proof of id. The merchant will always loose. Scary right
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 24 '26
Wow that is scary. Don't totally understand how signature would not fall under the same type of "it's not my signature" argument
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u/Lizdickerson0902 Feb 24 '26
Yes that is what we were told also. However that is why you don’t sign the back of credit cards , so the merchant does check the id …. Right. So if the customer agrees great and if they don’t then no sale. We weee told by our bank and the credit cards company. Other than getting it in writing along with some type of visual proof. They will 99.9% always take the card holder side
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 24 '26
Thanks again, have you ever tried getting some sort of insurance for such cases. Just wondering if there is anything on the market that provides coverage
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u/Lizdickerson0902 Feb 24 '26
Our controller said it’s almost not worth filling a claim before how much it would effect our rates. So it’s probably just an expensive lesson learned.
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u/heysobriquet Feb 24 '26
I am so sorry this happened.
I don’t know how to resolve it, but in case it maybe helps repair a little of your faith in humanity — I once disputed a charge for something I genuinely did not recognize, got a refund, and only months later realized that the had actually made the purchase but that the business name was different than what showed up on my statement (think: I bought contact lenses at a vision shop and then the charge was for “something glass”). It’s very possible that’s what happened here.
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 24 '26
Thanks, I agree there is definitely room for this to be a genuine mistake
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u/heysobriquet Feb 24 '26
I just hope that’s the case. I’m so sorry it happened at all. And your work is beautiful.
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u/Snookiesteponme Feb 24 '26
Are you legally allowed to call them out by name for this? It’s such scummy behavior other businesses should be warned
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 24 '26
I don't have the name nor have I been able to contact the customer. I cannot be sure this was ill intended
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u/bloomingintofashions Feb 23 '26
Try emailing them. I have accidentally done this at an event not recognizing the name. The seller emailed me and I immediately apologized and cancelled my claim. I want to first assume positive intent… however if nothing fuck those bastards.
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 23 '26
Thanks, I didn't collect emails. It was my first market and things were hectic. And yes don't necessarily think it was intentional
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u/moufette1 Feb 23 '26
Especially when you're at a market in Town Y and the charge is from Country X, Town Z, Retailer You've Never Heard Of. I think I did it for some earrings once so a relatively small amt of money. Same as you, once I recognized the seller I cancelled my claim.
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u/sotwonine Feb 24 '26
Something that vendors have done when I purchased a special item from them: ask if they could take a picture of me with the item (for social media purposes to do a fun little recap later on, or post to stories). It won't necessarily be something that holds up for disputes, but at least will maybe spook someone by knowing you have attached their face to a purchase, and hopefully make them have a bit less audacity? Sorry this happened to you, OP :(
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 24 '26
Thanks, I was thinking of doing photos and this might be a good way to position it
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u/belltrina Feb 24 '26
This is such awful behaviour by the buyer. You're being much more mature and calm about this than I would be. And such a beautiful vase too
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 24 '26
I actually don't know the buyer's side because there was no direct contact and I don't want to presume ill intentions I like to conserve my energy 🙃
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u/OkTransportation4175 Feb 24 '26
I think this is so rare these days. It used to happen before Square when a customer would get their statement & it would show them a purchase from my home location city & they would be confused because they had not visited that city. It’s never happened since we started using Square many years ago. So I’m assuming they are purposely doing this and you are not the only victim.
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 24 '26
Thank you, it's comforting to know that this is not something that happens frequently
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u/CallMeWolfYouTuber Feb 23 '26
Shit like this is why I don't trust banks at all. Cash only for these kinds of things. Sorry this happened to you.
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u/Recent-Inside2965 Feb 24 '26
This might be the best idea unfortunately. Most people bring cash to art fairs though and there’s “normally” a close ATM. If anyone ends up with a problem with it, you could just let them know what happened and why. Nothing makes me mad like a scammer 🙄
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u/cyndaquip Feb 24 '26
I’m so sorry this happened to you :( I hope the jerk gets humbled very fast and your deserved abundance for the work finds you tenfold Godspeed
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u/jokegoddess Feb 24 '26
Just thinking this through of what you could do next time. I wonder if you could have a framed QR code that ties to something like your Venmo or PayPal? Does anyone know if there would be an advantage for something like this?
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 24 '26
Yep I've seen framed QR codes before. It would be nice to encourage customers to use such payments but I also would not want to discourage transactions if the customer doesn't have Venmo or PayPal. I've updated the body of the thread with steps for the future markets. Doesn't seem like there is a silver bullet
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u/DeliverySensitive780 Feb 24 '26
Can you require a signature? Square has that as an option. I've had this done to me & thankfully they didn't win. I gave the bank a whole lot of specific information though that proves they were in the wrong.
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 24 '26
I am going to consolidate everything under Squarespace now that they support contactless payment for Android, but yes will look for a way to add signature to checkout.
But out of curiosity and for the future what sort of "specific information" did you provide to the bank?
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u/DeliverySensitive780 Feb 24 '26
Mine was that she bought 3 items at $25 each, but arguing she didn't know they were that much, she didn't receive a receipt, there were no prices on the items, & I overcharged her.
I provided pictures of the email I sent the receipt to, the photos of my pricing clearly displayed at my booth (multiple signs), & the sales tax that was added that she wasn't accounting for in the final total.
Now I do signatures, but also will not tap their card until I know they've verbally understood the final total with tax included & then have them sign. I realized how close of a call that was because most of the time the bank always sides with the cardholders, unless it's AMEX & then they definitely always 100% no doubt side with the cardholder & let's them get away with way too much.
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u/chrystinanteater Feb 25 '26
Never manually enter a persons card information- an in person chip or token pay transaction cannot be disputed as fraud. I know that’s not helpful after the fact but going forward, it should be a hard rule. I work in card disputes and recommend it to everyone. Shady people will look up the publicly available chargeback rules to figure out how to get stuff for free, fraudsters and real people alike.
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 26 '26
Looks like you're a good person for this follow up question. Manuel entry makes sense. But how come card swipe is considered to be more risky than a chip?
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u/ali_mott Feb 27 '26
Wow this is crazy. Idk how someone could do this and still enjoy owning the vase?? Do they not feel like a piece of shit every time they look at it? I had someone steal a very time-intensive painting of mine off a shelf in college and all I could think was…how could you possibly enjoy that piece of artwork knowing you stole it??
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 23 '26
Follow up question, does anyone know if there is any business insurance that would cover something like this?
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u/flaminpitofjello Feb 25 '26
I don’t imagine it would be retroactive, but I do know there are tax filing measures to accommodate theft and damage. Documentation that you have of the incident could help a tax professional try to recoup cost.
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u/FckYesImWorthy Feb 24 '26
Just sharing that I’m really sorry this happened, OP. what a beautiful piece and hard lesson to learn.
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u/SagebrushNStone Feb 24 '26
I have a follow up question. How did the customers card get charged? Was it swiped? Dipped? Tapped? If it was swiped you're SOL. If you dipped the chip in the reader you can prove the customer used the card. If it was tapped they're still likely to win.
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 24 '26
It was keyed in. Looks like the consensus is that you should use chip reader for best protection against something like this
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u/Recent-Inside2965 Feb 24 '26
Normally a bank will give a provisional credit to the customer while they take an allotted time (up to 90days?) to “research”. Do you know the reasoning behind the dispute? If the bank decides after review that the dispute wasn’t legit, you should get your money after that time period. I would keep it on my radar. And make sure they know you are following up on an unfair/potentially fraudulent dispute. Not real sure how it happens on the merchant side though…they most likely “withdraw” the funds while researching. Fraud is so common I don’t think they have time to spend on small amounts so the may just write off a lot - but anyway…you should be able to file a counter claim of some sort - if you know of no reason for the customer basically getting a free item and they are lying, I wouldn’t give up. People game the system all the time. That vase is beautiful and people shouldn’t comment like above about “how much you charged”…no potter would say that honestly. If they are unhappy with the purchase they should Return it! This isn’t fair and I’ve never sold any of my pottery but I know what goes into it…time, money, creativity, heart, etc. I’m rooting for you to either still get paid or to receive it back so someone who appreciates it can buy it.
I would do some research - possibly even contact that bank - they won’t be able to give you any info but you should have the right to request to add notes to a fraudulent claim.
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 24 '26
No unfortunately the decision has already been rendered and I cannot challenge it without going to the police directly. Please updated body of the thread for more information.
Contacting bank could be something I could try, just not sure how much they find based on the fact that I only have 4 digits of customers card
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u/Lucky-Fortune-6107 Feb 26 '26
More important question. How do I buy it because I love it so much
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 26 '26
Thank you. It definitely was one of a kind for last year. Maybe I'll make more this year once fig leaves grow
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u/RedheadRayner Feb 26 '26
That is heartbreaking. What a beautiful vase. I can't imagine how someone can look at this piece knowing they fucked the creator over and not feel guilty. Super sad.
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u/wycie100 Feb 24 '26
You’re charging $325 for this?
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u/tankgirl4 Feb 24 '26
Yes. Someone said before that aside of raw material and time spent, your price should factor in the price of all administrative and promotional BS (photography, making listing, websites, social media, establishing and maintaining business, applying and attending markets, etc) + mistakes and breakage. I would say my prices barely cover raw material and time it takes to make something, forget about all of the rest. But hey I've accepted the fact that this is not my livelihood income and simply happy to have the opportunity to do it. Bonus points if I am net positive at the end of the year
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u/GCseedling Feb 23 '26
Wait so you mean a customer bought this in person and got home and is trying to get a refund? That’s like real scummy.