Shaping The Future of DTC in 2024

A Roundtable Discussion with eCommerce Visionaries

March 27
Webinar
12:00 PM EST or 9:00 AM PST
RSVP FOR FREE >
Fasten your seatbelts,
you won’t want to miss this event!
00
days
:
00
hours
:
00
min
:
00
sec
Tom-Chris Emewulu
Chargeflow's Digital Evangelist
Table of contents

The subscription business model, a.k.a set-it-and-forget-it economy, is booming right now, but they are also bedevilled by “canceled recurring billing” PayPal disputes.

Why do customers file canceled recurring billing disputes?

Speaking from the premise of legitimate cases, canceled recurring billing PayPal disputes happen when a customer cancels an ongoing periodic payment for a product or service, but the merchant bills them for the subscription.

Another cause of canceled recurring billing disputes is the good old human error of forgetfulness. Subscribers often forget to cancel until the due date is passed, and launch a PayPal dispute when the vendor billed them for the subscription.

And businesses with more extended subscription periods often get the harder blow at the beginning of new billing cycles. The reason is apparent; many people don’t remember they signed up for those packages. The moment they see the bill on their account, they’ll hit the merchant back with a PayPal dispute.

Even so, some fraudulent individuals use the canceled recurring billing reason code as an excuse to get freebies. 

Although subscription-based businesses look like the coolest thing in the industry nowadays and everyone is migrating to the “set it and forget it” block, these businesses receive 3-10 times more PayPal disputes and chargebacks than other e-commerce verticals. If you don’t know how to win the canceled recurring billing PayPal dispute, then you are giving up ungodly amounts of money.

Do simple things, and Win all Canceled Recurring Billing PayPal Disputes

You can take the dispute mitigation actions below to prevent any illegitimate canceled recurring billing PayPal disputes before they happen. And ensure you have enough compelling evidence for your representment when fraudulent cases arise.

Defeat PayPal disputes with Chargeflow

Canceled Recurring Billing PayPal Dispute Mitigation step 1: Have a clear pricing matrix and make bill cancellation easy

When people don’t understand how your pricing works, it can be difficult for them to accommodate such charges. Ideally, you should ensure that your sales receipts clearly show the recurring billing timeframe and frequency.

Equally vital, you should make sure you have a well-written and easy-to-understand customer onboarding policy that specifies your subscription and cancelation terms.

Think about it this way, is it more stressful for your customers to launch a PayPal dispute or chargeback than to change their minds on how they use your services? If your pricing strategies and cancellation policies are complicated, people will find it more convenient to file a canceled recurring billing PayPal dispute.

Here's another pro-tip: People make decisions to either escape pain or get pleasure. If your product or service offers the value it promises, the well-meaning customers will likely return for more. 

And when things change, make it easy for them to opt-out or get further assistance from your team.

Research shows that 86% of customers only contacted the merchant after filing a chargeback or never contacted the vendor at all. With excellent customer service, you can get your customers to discuss their concerns or frustrations with you before taking the next step.

Again, if you are offering a trial service, also consider making the customer aware of how it works. For starters, be specific about the duration of the trial and when the service is about to expire, notify the customer before upgrading them to premium subscribers.

And if you require their credit card details during the trial, it’ll be helpful to notify them they will be moved to a premium plan when the trial service ends. 

Canceled Recurring Billing PayPal Dispute Mitigation step 2: Provide a clear order summary to customers before they complete a purchase

Per definition, “an order summary is a comprehensive, historical snapshot of an order that pulls together all order details into a single, consolidated view.”

An order summary helps you manage the entire order lifecycle and provide superior customer service to your prospects.

Ensure you provide a descriptive order summary that outlines the terms of the subscription to the customer before they complete a transaction. As a best practice, your order summary should include the followings:

  • A reminder that the marketing involves a recurring billing
  • An explanation of whether the regular transaction amount fixed or variable
  • The specific dollar amount that you will charge for each recurring transaction
  • The precise dollar amount you will charge on the initial transaction
  • The transaction date
  • Your communication medium of choice 

With this order summary duly acknowledged by the customer in line with your “terms of service” agreement, you can be sure that when any illegitimate canceled recurring billing dispute or chargeback arises, you have a vital tool in your arsenal to fight it and win.

Chargeflow - A chargeback and dispute resolution solution

Canceled Recurring Billing PayPal Dispute Mitigation step 3: Notify the customer before each recurring billing and safeguard against frauds

Experienced e-commerce entrepreneurs will tell you that as a standard practice, you should periodically notify cardholders of impending recurring billing at least ten days before the bill to ensure they are not taken by surprise.

And if the amount to be billed exceeds the initial subscription charge, you must include that information in your notification email as well.

That might seem trivial at first blush. But it’s a smart way to help protect against canceled recurring billing PayPal disputes.

Equally important, we advise that you should be mindful that not all canceled recurring billing PayPal disputes are from real customers. It's wise to anticipate the incidents of fraud and deploy tools that can protect your business against such vulnerabilities, as we discussed in this article.

How to respond to Canceled Recurring Billing PayPal Disputes?

When you get a canceled recurring billing PayPal dispute, you must respond on time. If you find that the dispute is legitimate, you can resolve such a transaction dispute by issuing a full or partial refund to the buyer.

To issue a full or partial refund:

  1. Go to Activity.
  2. Click the payment you want to refund.
  3. Click Refund this payment.
  4. Under 'Refund amount,' enter the amount you wish to refund and then click Continue.
  5. Review your information to make sure you entered the correct refund amount, and then click Issue Refund.

If you send a full refund for the canceled recurring billing dispute, PayPal will close the case. You can also offer a partial refund to resolve your dispute. If the buyer agrees to your request, PayPal will close your dispute. And if you provide a partial refund for less than the amount that the buyer requests, the buyer will have the option to accept or deny your offer.

In the case of fraudulent or illegitimate canceled recurring billing cases, you can fight the dispute by submitting the above-listed mitigation documents as compelling evidence to support your claim. In addition to those compelling evidence, you can also include other supporting documents such as computer logs and timestamps to show that the customer interacted with and accessed the product or accessed the service after the period they claimed they canceled.

Go above and beyond manual labor with automated chargeback and dispute management

PayPal Dispute automation increases your dispute win rate and helps you channel your human and material assets where the business needs them the most.

And Chargeflow has designed the world's first, fully managed dispute and chargeback automation service, explicitly crafted for e-commerce merchants.

Our software creates customized templates based on your store's needs, generates the world's most comprehensive dispute responses, and submits them on your behalf.

As Digital Technology entrepreneurs, we built Chargeflow to help you recover more money, save more time, and maximize your customer experience. Use the power of AI and ML to power your all-round business success. Start here.

FAQs:

Average Dispute Amount
Average Dispute Amount
$
30
# Disputes Per Month
# Disputes Per Month
#
50
Time Spent Per Dispute
Time Spent Per Dispute
M
20
calculation
You could recover
$500,000 and save
1,000 hours every month with Chargeflow!
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Want to learn how Chargeflow can recover more money for you? Sign up and get a free dispute analysis

Related Articles

What's Chargeflow?

Try it for free

Full Dispute Automation

No more manual work, Chargeflow fully-automates your dispute process from A to Z.

Simple Integrations

We use official and secure API's from our approved partners. We also made it extremely easy to connect.

Success-Based

You get charged only when we help settle a dispute in your favor.

ChargeResponse®

ChargeResponse® uses smart algorithms to generate the most comprehensive evidence response, with industry-leading recovery rates.

ChargeScore®

ChargeScore® uses proprietary algorithms to determine the chance of recovering each dispute.

Actionable Analytics

In-depth disputes statistics at your fingertips.

Built for eCommerce

Made by DTC Entrepreneurs, for DTC Entrepreneurs.

Security

OAuth 2.0, 128 Bit SSL, secure data encryption, official, secure API's. We have them all, and more.

Get Started with Chargeflow

Chargeflow helps you focus on your business without the burden of disputes, chargebacks and fraud holding you back.

With a fully-featured, automated dispute management solution that offers flexible workflows and unique features such as ChargeScore®, ChargeResponse®, along with our ROI guarantee and actionable analytics, all of your dispute needs are met in one simple platform.