Call (844) NO-DISPUTESResponse Template for "EMV Fallback Transaction"
Chargeback Response
Chargeback Response - EMV Fallback Transaction
Case Reference Number: Case Reference Number
Transaction Date: Transaction Date
Transaction Amount: Transaction Amount
Cardholder Name: Cardholder Name
Dear Chargeback Team,
We are responding to the chargeback dispute for the above-referenced transaction. This was a legitimate Transaction Type processed at our establishment.
Transaction Details:
- The transaction was processed using Processing Method
- Authorization code received: Authorization Code
- Terminal ID: Terminal ID
- Fallback Reason necessitated the fallback procedure
Fallback Compliance:
We followed all required EMV fallback procedures:
- Made Number of Chip Attempts attempts to process the chip before fallback
- Customer Verification
- Terminal displayed appropriate error message: Error Message Displayed
Supporting Evidence Attached:
- Transaction receipt showing fallback authorization
- Receipt Type
- Terminal transaction log showing chip read attempts
Additional Evidence Description (Optional)
Customer Interaction:
The cardholder was Customer Presence during the transaction. Additional Customer Details (Optional)
Goods/Services Delivered:
Delivery Status Delivery Details (Optional)
We respectfully request that this chargeback be reversed as we have demonstrated that we followed all required EMV fallback procedures and obtained proper authorization for this legitimate transaction.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Your Name
Your Title
Company Name
Contact Phone Number (Optional)
Contact Email Address (Optional)
EMV fallback transactions are one of the payment processing problems that shouldn’t happen. But unfortunately, they do. Sometimes your chip reader just stops working the right way, or maybe a customer’s chip won’t read no matter how many times they insert their card. It could even be your terminal that decides to have a technical problem right in the middle of a transaction. When any of these situations happen, you do what you’re supposed to do – you process the payment in an alternative way. Everything seems fine until months later when that exact same transaction shows up as a chargeback. The issuer now says that you should have just declined the sale completely instead of processing it at all. Even though you followed all the fallback procedures your processor told you to follow, you’re stuck trying to defend what was clearly a valid transaction.
The consequences for EMV fallback disputes can be serious, and that’s what makes them especially worrying for merchants. Card networks have put in place very strict liability policies around these situations. You’ll automatically lose the dispute unless you can prove that you tried the chip transaction for the needed number of times and that you followed the exact fallback protocols that they list. The immediate revenue loss is bad enough. But it gets worse from there. A few fallback chargebacks will trigger compliance reviews that nobody wants to handle, and you might face fines. Your processor could choose to flag your entire account as high-risk which means they’ll probably increase your reserves or might even close your account altogether. The positive news is that merchants who take the time to write down their fallback procedures in the right way have much better success rates with these disputes compared to those merchants who just submit basic replies without all the needed information.
A template designed specifically for EMV fallback disputes has the real compliance benefits that you wouldn’t have otherwise. First off, it makes sure you’re writing down just how many chip attempts each card brand needs. Templates also help you to keep consistent records that show your entire staff knows and follows the right procedures whenever a fallback situation happens. The most helpful part is how templates help you put together and present all that technical evidence – the terminal logs, error codes and authorization data need to be formatted in a very specific way that the issuer reviewers are expecting to see.
This specific template was built for handling all the special documentation needs that EMV fallback scenarios have. It includes dedicated fields for terminal error messages and specific chip malfunction information that you’d never need for standard fraud disputes. The template walks you through the process of showing both technical compliance and customer verification, and these two elements are very important for putting together a successful fallback dispute defense. Without both pieces of evidence presented correctly, your odds of winning drop by a lot.