The dispute lifecycle

Every dispute follows the same path through DisputeDash. Understanding it helps you know what’s happening at each stage and when you need to step in.

1. A dispute is opened

When a customer disputes a charge, their bank notifies your payment processor, which sends DisputeDash a real-time notification (a webhook). DisputeDash verifies the notification is genuine, routes it to your workspace, and starts work in the background. PayPal is the exception — its disputes are pulled on a schedule rather than pushed, so they appear within a few minutes.

2. A case is created

DisputeDash reads the dispute details — amount, currency, reason, and the reply-by deadline — then looks up the underlying order from your store to attach the customer name, email, and location. A new case is created. If the same dispute is reported twice, the duplicate is ignored.

At this point DisputeDash also blocks the order from being refunded in your store and adds a note to the order so your staff can see a dispute is in progress.

3. The reason is identified

The processor’s raw reason (for example, “cancelled recurring transaction”) is matched to one of DisputeDash’s internal reason categories, which determines exactly what evidence will be gathered. Known reasons for every processor are pre-configured, so this is automatic.

If a brand-new reason code appears that DisputeDash has never seen, the case pauses at Unmapped until an admin maps it. See Reason mapping.

4. Your plan is checked

Before any work starts, DisputeDash checks your plan. On the free plan, the dispute is logged for analytics but not fought. On paid plans, the case proceeds and counts toward your monthly usage. See Usage & overages.

5. Evidence is gathered

DisputeDash looks up which evidence types apply to the dispute’s reason and gathers them in parallel — invoice, delivery tracking, payment authorization, email confirmations, your policy documents, and more. Each becomes a PDF in the case’s evidence package. The rebuttal letter is written last, so it can quote the delivery date, tracking number, and other details the other evidence uncovered.

Throughout this stage the case shows Gathering evidence. See the full evidence catalog.

6. The packet is completed

Once every evidence item has finished:

If something failed, the case moves to Needs attention so you can review it.
Otherwise it moves to Awaiting review, ready to send.

7. Review or auto-submit

What happens next depends on your submission mode:

Review mode — the case waits for you to inspect the evidence and submit it.
Auto-submit mode — DisputeDash submits automatically after a delay you choose, giving your team a window to intervene first.

8. Submitted, then decided

The evidence packet is uploaded to your processor and the case moves to Submitted. Later, the processor tells DisputeDash the outcome: the bank marks it Under review, then finally Won or Lost — or Expired if the deadline passed with no response.