What happens when an attendee disputes a charge?

A dispute is when someone asks their bank to reverse a payment instead of asking you for a refund. You'll see it in the Disputes tab under Finances, and there's a deadline to respond.

What happens immediately

The disputed amount and a $15 dispute fee come out of your balance as soon as the dispute opens, before anyone has decided anything. That's how the card networks work: the money moves first, the argument happens after.

The fee isn't ours and we don't profit from it. It's charged by the payment processor when a chargeback is opened, and it passes through to the account the sale belongs to.

What each outcome costs you

Responding isn't free, so it's worth knowing the numbers before you choose.

Refund before a dispute is opened. You lose the ticket price and nothing else. No fee at all. This is the cheapest possible outcome, and it's why answering messages quickly pays for itself.

Accept the dispute. Ticket price plus $15. You end the process, the money is gone, and you spend no more time on it.

Contest it and lose. Ticket price plus $15, plus another $15 for contesting. The worst outcome, and it's the one people walk into by assuming that being right is enough.

Contest it and win. The ticket price comes back. Some of the fees may come back too.

On an expensive ticket, contesting is usually worth the risk. On a cheap one, the fees can cost more than the ticket itself, and accepting is the sensible call even when you're clearly in the right.

Responding

Open the dispute and choose respond. Most of the evidence is attached for you already: the receipt, the ticket details, the check-in log, and the refund policy that applied to the event.

What you add is a written statement explaining why the charge was valid, plus any files that back it up. Then submit.

What actually wins disputes

The check-in log, more than anything. Someone who scanned in and then disputed the charge is a hard case to make, and that record is on your side automatically.

After that: a refund policy that was published at the time of purchase, an event that ran as described, and any correspondence showing you tried to resolve it directly.

Write plainly and stick to what happened. Banks read a lot of these.

Watch the deadline

Deadlines are set by the card networks and they're firm. Missing one means losing by default, even with a case you'd have won. The deadline for each dispute is shown on the dispute itself.

Resolution can take months once evidence is in. That's the banks' timeline, not ours.

Reducing them in the first place

Most disputes aren't fraud. They're someone who forgot, someone who couldn't attend and didn't know how to ask, or someone who didn't recognize the charge on their statement.

What helps: an event name that matches what people expect to see, a refund policy that's readable, answering messages before they escalate, and honoring your own policy when a request is reasonable.

Getting help

Email support@gaytherings.com if a dispute looks wrong or you're unsure how to respond. We can see the order from our side, and asking costs nothing.

Updated on: 21/08/2026