Riverty's Dispute Management service empowers merchants to improve consumer experience. Proactively and adeptly resolving disputes not only fosters increased consumer satisfaction, but also cultivates higher levels of loyalty from merchants.
Prioritizing effective Dispute Management translates to tangible benefits, as it plays a pivotal role in driving merchant leadership towards better long term sales outcomes. This is achieved through an increase in both the volume and value of orders, stemming from the confidence of happier consumers who trust Riverty to provide robust support when issues with their orders arise. Riverty uses a straight forward API structure to make the integration process of seamless as possible.
Riverty has baseline requirements that merchants must meet during the shipping and fraud prevention processes. Riverty retains the right to chargeback payments if a merchant does not follow the rules layed out in Schedule 8, APPENDIX 1 of the merchant agreement. For example, a consumer may dispute an invoice if the delivery of products did not occur or if the products delivered are faulty.
The merchant has three opportunities to resolve consumer claims and defend against disputes (stages 1, 3 and 5).
All stages of the dispute flow can be managed via:
| Dispute Stages | S1 | S2 | S3 | S4 | S5 | S6 | S7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dispute Process | Dispute Notification | Request for Information | Information Supplied 1 | Decision | Information Supplied 2 | Final Decision | Canceled |
| Consumer starts a new dispute and Riverty notifies the merchant of the new issue. Riverty asks the merchant to contact the consumer and reach an agreement. consumer can close the dispute from the Riverty app. | On Day 21, if the dispute is still open, Riverty asks the merchant or consumer to provide proof. | Merchant and/ or consumer provide proof. | Riverty decides dispute resolution. If Riverty decides the dispute in favor of the merchant, Riverty will continue to collect the claim from the consumer. | If the dispute was in favor of the consumer, the merchant can appeal the decision and provide additional proof. | If Riverty again decides in favor of the consumer, the chargeback and dispute fee are posted. If Riverty decides the dispute in favor of the merchant, Riverty will continue to collect the claim from the consumer. | At any time before Final Decision the consumer may cancel the dispute |
| Dispute Stages | S1 | S2 | S3 | S4 | S5 | S6 | S7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1: Return not processed | DDLM: 20 days from the dispute notification day | DDLC: 14 days | consumer provides proof of return. Riverty checks status with merchant. | Riverty decides dispute resolution within 7 days. | Merchant can appeal within 5 days. | Riverty decides the final dispute resolution within 7 days. | n/a |
| R2: Products not received | DDLM: 20 days | DDLM: 14 days | Merchant provides proof of delivery (POD). | Riverty decides dispute resolution within 7 days. | Merchant can appeal within 5 days. | Riverty decides the final dispute resolution within 7 days. | n/a |
| R3: Faulty product | DDLM: 20 days | DDLC: 14 days | consumer provides proof of faulty products or return. Riverty checks status with merchant. | Riverty decides dispute resolution within 7 days. | Merchant can appeal within 5 days. | Riverty decides the final dispute resolution within 7 days. | n/a |
| R4: Already paid | DDLM: 20 days | DDLC: 14 days | consumer provides proof for already paid. Riverty checks status with merchant. | Riverty decides dispute resolution within 7 days. | Merchant can appeal within 5 days. | Riverty decides the final dispute resolution within 7 days. | n/a |
| R5: Incorrect invoice | DDLM: 20 days | DDLM: 14 days | Merchant provides evidence for invoice changes. | Riverty decides dispute resolution within 7 days. | Merchant can appeal within 5 days. | Riverty decides the final dispute resolution within 7 days. | n/a |
| R6 High fraud risk order, raised by Riverty | n/a | DDLM: TBD hours for order cancellation | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| R7 Unauthorized purchase, raised by Consumer | n/a | DDLM: TBD days | Merchant provides proofs | Riverty decides fraud resolution within 7 days | n/a | n/a | n/a |
A dispute ticket is created in the Riverty Dispute Center when a consumer reports a problem to Riverty. Riverty notifies the merchant of the ticket and asks the merchant to contact the consumer to find a solution within 20 days. Amicably solving the dispute directly with the consumer is likely the simplest way to resolve the dispute and preserve the consumer experience.
Riverty’s merchant dispute notification is sent via webhook from the Dispute API, but merchants can also find a list of Riverty dispute notifications in the Riverty Merchant Portal. Consumers are asked to provide all dispute related proof and any previous communication with the merchant when starting the dispute ticket in order to provide the merchant as much context as possible when resolving the situation.
Merchants can provide more details to the consumer regarding the raised issue and discuss solutions to reach to a friendly agreement in the Riverty Merchant Portal. Merchants can provide details within the portal using text replies or by attaching proof documentation files (PDF, DOCX, DOC, JPG, PNG). Consumers can close the dispute using the MyRiverty web portal or Riverty mobile app if they are happy with the resolution presented by the Merchant.
If the dispute is not closed within 20 Days, Riverty will step in to request more details in the Request for Information (RFI) stage.
| Reason Codes | Description |
|---|---|
| R1: notification_return | The consumer reported that they made a full or partial return. |
| R2: notification_products_not_received | The consumer reported that they did not receive the full order. |
| R3: notification_faulty_products | The consumer reported that they received faulty products. |
| R4: notification_already_paid | The consumer reported that they already paid directly to the merchant, instead of paying via Riverty. |
| R5: notification_incorrect_invoice | The consumer reported that the invoice is incorrect. |
| R6: notification_high_fraud_risk_order | High fraud risk orders are suspected to be fraudulent orders, where a Consumer’s personal details, for example their payment information, were likely wrongfully used. This would be manually discovered by Riverty post-authorization. The Merchant is recommended to cancel the order. |
| R7: notification_unauthorized_order | The Consumer reported that the order was placed by someone with unauthorized access to their account. |
If the dispute is not resolved within 20 days, Riverty will send a Request for Information on day 21 to either the merchant or the consumer. The recipient will have 14 days to respond to the request for infomation.
If the consumer is required to respond to the RFI and does not provide additional proof in a timely manner, the dispute is ruled in favor of the merchant. Riverty will continue the collection process.
If the merchant does not respond to the RFI in a timely manner, a chargeback may be deducted from the merchant’s next settlement. The chargeback automatically triggers the dispute fee for the merchant in the case of “R2 Products not received” and “R3 Faulty products”.
| Reason code | Description |
|---|---|
| R1 Return | The consumer reported that they made a full or partial return. |
| R2 Products_not_received | The consumer reported that they did not receive the full order. |
| R3 Faulty_products | The consumer reported that they received faulty products. |
| R4 Already_paid | The consumer reported that they already paid the Merchant directly, instead of paying via Riverty. |
| R5 Incorrect_invoice | The consumer reported that the invoice is incorrect. |
| R6 High_fraud_risk_order | High fraud risk orders are suspected to be fraudulent orders, where a Consumer’s personal details, for example their payment information, were likely wrongfully used. This would be manually discovered by Riverty post-authorization. The Merchant is recommended to cancel the order. |
| R7 Unauthorized_order | The Consumer reported that the order was placed by someone with unauthorized access to their account. |
If the merchant does not agree with the proof provided by the consumer during the Request for Information, the merchant can defend against the dispute. Template submission documents for each dispute type are provided to merchants via the Riverty Merchant Portal or via the Dispute API. The templates can also be supplemented with additional comments or proof documents. The merchant can submit up to 5 documents together with text as a reply in the ticket using multiple files types: PDF, DOCX, DOC, JPG, PNG. Max file size is 10MB.
The consumer is prompted to provide the evidence via MyRiverty web portal or Riverty mobile app.
Riverty assesses the dispute and makes a decision within 7 days based on the provided information. Next, Riverty will provide transparent communication to all parties involved to support an efficient dispute resolution process.
If the merchant appeals the decision, Riverty will review the additional documentation submitted and release a final decision within 7 days.
If dispute is decided in favor of the merchant, the merchant is notified via the Dispute API and in the Merchant Portal. Additionally, the consumer is notified about the resolution and reasons for which the dispute was decided in favor of merchant. Riverty will continue the collection of the claim against the consumer, including associated dunning fees.
If dispute is decided in favor of the consumer, the merchant is notified via the Dispute API and in Merchant Portal. Riverty sends a chargeback request to merchant for the disputed order. The settlement reports are booked, the merchant’s account is debited, and the merchant will receive a chargeback webhook. The consumer is notified that the dispute was decided in their favor and that they do not have to pay the disputed amount.
A Dispute Fee is only applied to chargebacks for disputes deemed “R2 Products not received” and “R3 Faulty products.” This dispute fee is charged according to the dispute fees listed below.
The dispute fee is charged at either the Standard Fee rate or the High Fee rate, in the currency selected for the original transaction. If the transaction was in a currency not listed in the disputes fees table, the fee is charged in merchant’s primary holding currency.
The amount of the Dispute Fee is based on two levels: a Standard Dispute Fee or a High Dispute Fee. The fee level charged is based on the ratio of the total transaction amount of all disputes deemed “R2 Products not received” and “R3 Faulty products” compared to the total amount of the merchant's sales through Riverty during the previous three calendar months.
The dispute fee level is set at the beginning of the month based on the previous month’s trailing 3 months' data. Meaning the dispute fee level charged in September is determined in August based on May, June and July’s data.
If merchant's ratio of total transaction amount of “R2 Products not received” and “R3 Faulty products” disputes versus successful transactions is 1.5% or more, and the merchant had more than 100 transactions in the previous three calendar months, the merchant is charged the High fee rate. Otherwise, the merchant is charged the Standard fee rate.
Please note, dispute fees (either Standard or High) are only charged on disputes decided as “R2 Products not received'“ and “R3 Faulty products.”
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