Now that you have completed a sale and accepted your customer's payment, you will need to follow a set of best practices to ensure that the sale receipt is processed correctly and in a way that will reduce the probability of a customer dispute or a chargeback. Following are a few suggestions that you should implement into your credit card processing account.
- "No Chargeback" Sales Receipts. A new type of sales receipts have been seen in circulation that are being sold to merchants. They bear a printed statement that the cardholder waives the right of a chargeback. Be advised that these receipts do not protect you against chargebacks, nor do they revoke the cardholder's right to dispute a transaction.
- One Entry for Each Transaction. Make sure that transactions are entered only once and are deposited only once. You may get a chargeback for duplicate transactions if you:
- Enter the same transaction into a terminal more than once
- Deposit both the merchant copy and bank copy of a sales receipt with your merchant bank
- Deposit the same transaction with more than one merchant banks
- Voiding Incorrect or Duplicate Sales Receipts. Make sure that you void incorrect or duplicate sales receipts and that transactions are processed only once.
- Depositing Sales Receipts. Deposit sales receipts with your merchant bank as quickly as possible, preferably on the day following the transaction date; do not hold on to them.
- Timely Deposit of Credit Transactions. Deposit credit receipts with your merchant bank as quickly as possible, preferably the same day the credit transaction is generated.
- Ship Merchandise Before Depositing Transaction. For eCommerce and direct marketing transactions, generated in a non-face-to-face environment, do not deposit sales receipts with your merchant bank until you have shipped the merchandise. If customers see a charge on their credit card statement before they receive the merchandise, they may contact their Issuers to dispute the billing. Similarly, if delivery is delayed on a card-present transaction, do not deposit the sales receipt until the merchandise has been shipped. Keep in mind that today transactions are posted on cardholders' accounts and can be reviewed in almost real time.
- Requests for Cancellation of Recurring Transactions. If you receive a cancellation request for a recurring transaction, cancel the transaction immediately or as specified by the customer. Then send the customer a written note that the service, subscription, or membership has been canceled and state the effective date of the cancellation.
