Inquiry handling

A PayPal inquiry is the stage before a chargeback. The buyer has raised a problem, but PayPal hasn’t turned it into a formal claim yet.

This is the cheapest point in the entire dispute lifecycle, and it’s worth understanding why:

• An inquiry resolved here never becomes a chargeback.
• No dispute fee is charged.
• It never counts toward your chargeback ratio — the number that eventually affects your processing rates.

Inquiry handling is PayPal-only. Other processors don’t expose a pre-dispute stage to act on.

Admin only

Configuring inquiry handling requires the Admin role. Find it under Settings → Disputes → Inquiries.

Why inquiries need their own settings

Everywhere else in DisputeDash, the answer to a dispute is “gather evidence and submit it.” PayPal does not accept evidence at the inquiry stage. The option simply isn’t available until the inquiry becomes a claim.

So inquiries need a different set of responses, which is what this page configures.

The actions

You pick a default action, and optionally a different action above an amount threshold — so small inquiries and large ones can be handled differently.

Message the buyer

Posts a message into the PayPal dispute thread, built from the case’s own order and tracking facts (or your own custom text, if you prefer). No money moves. Often enough on its own — a buyer who sees delivery confirmation frequently drops the complaint.

Offer full refund / Offer partial refund

Sending an offer does not refund anything. It posts a proposal to the buyer: “we’ll refund you X to settle this.”

• If the buyer accepts, PayPal issues the refund itself and closes the dispute in the same step. There’s no gap where you refund and then hope they withdraw.
• If the buyer declines or ignores it, you pay nothing. The inquiry stays open and follows its normal path.

The case sits at Submitted while you wait for their answer.

Partial works identically, at a percentage of the disputed amount that you set. It’s the split-the-difference play — a buyer unhappy with one item in a three-item order will often take 40% and drop it.

Note

If the partial percentage isn’t set, DisputeDash will not guess an amount. Those cases go to Manual review instead.

Accept

Concede in full, immediately. No buyer decision, no waiting — the money goes back and the dispute closes. The case is marked Skipped, and flagged internally so nothing refunds it a second time.

Accept and “Offer full refund” cost the buyer the same amount, so the difference is certainty:

	Cost if it works	Risk
Offer full refund	The refund	Buyer ignores it — still open, may escalate anyway
Accept	The refund	None; it’s closed the moment it’s sent

Use Offer when there’s a real chance they don’t take it. Use Accept when you’ve decided the case is lost and you want it gone at the lowest price.

That price difference is the point. Conceding at the inquiry stage costs you only the refund. Letting the same case escalate and then lose costs you the refund plus the dispute fee plus a hit to your chargeback ratio.

Escalate to claim

This one deliberately makes things worse before they get better.

Because PayPal won’t accept evidence at the inquiry stage, escalating is the only way to submit any. Doing so converts a fee-free, ratio-free inquiry into a real chargeback: you pay the dispute fee and it counts against your ratio the moment you escalate. In exchange, you can actually fight. DisputeDash hands the case straight into the normal evidence pipeline afterwards.

The economics decide it. On a small dispute the fee eats most of the win even when you’re right. On a large one with signed delivery confirmation, escalating and winning is clearly worth it — which is exactly what the amount threshold is for.

Manual review

Take no automated action. Evidence is still gathered, and the case waits for a person under Needs attention, where you can send a message, make an offer, accept or escalate by hand.

Off — no inquiry handling

Inquiries are treated like any other dispute: evidence is gathered and submission is attempted.

Caution

Because PayPal rejects evidence at the inquiry stage, that attempt always fails, and the case will show Submission failed in red. That’s expected with this setting, not a fault — but it does mean every inquiry produces a failed submission in your case history.

If you want no automated action without the noise, choose Manual review instead.

Set it up

1. Go to Settings → Disputes → Inquiries.
2. Choose a default action.
3. Optionally set an amount threshold and a different action for inquiries at or above it.
4. For a partial refund, set the percentage.
5. Save.

Safety rails

• Before attempting anything, DisputeDash checks PayPal is actually offering that action on that specific dispute. If it isn’t, the case goes to Manual review rather than failing.
• If PayPal rejects the call, the case goes to Manual review too. Nothing is dropped silently.
• If an inquiry can’t be valued (no amount available) and you’ve set a threshold, DisputeDash won’t guess which side of it the case falls on — it goes to Manual review.

Measuring it

The Inquiry handling panel at the bottom of the dashboard tracks how many inquiries were handled, how many were contained (resolved without ever escalating), and the estimated fees that avoided.

One caveat it states on the card: escalations include inquiries that escalated before you turned handling on, discovered afterwards when DisputeDash synced with PayPal. Until those age out of your selected date range, the containment rate reads lower than your actual performance.

Good to know

• An inquiry that escalates is re-typed to a Chargeback, so it correctly leaves the inquiry counts.
• Inquiries are also included in your overall dispute totals — the inquiry panel is an additional view, not a separate bucket.
• See Connect PayPal for getting disputes into DisputeDash in the first place.