Your client filed a chargeback

You can usually contest it, but the deadline is short: payment processors commonly give merchants somewhere from one to three weeks to respond, and the notice says the exact date. Answer with evidence that the work was agreed, done and accepted, organized around the reason code on the notice.

Contractors keep asking about this one: the job is finished, the client paid by card, and weeks later the money is pulled back because the client told their card company the work wasn't done as agreed. The card company doesn't know the client or the job. It decides on the paperwork both sides send.

How it works

Under the federal Fair Credit Billing Act, a cardholder can dispute a charge for goods or services that weren't delivered as agreed, generally by writing to the card company within 60 days of the statement that showed it (Maryland Attorney General's summary). Card networks also run their own dispute rules, often with longer windows. Your processor tells you about the dispute and asks for your side.

What to send

• The signed contract and any signed change orders.
• Proof the work was done: dated photos, inspection sign-offs.
• Proof the client accepted it: a signed walkthrough or sign-off, messages saying it looked good.
• The invoice and the card authorization.
• Your attempts to fix any complaint they raised with you.

Keep it short and on point. Match each piece to what the client claimed. If they say the work wasn't done, show it done. If they say it wasn't what they agreed to, show what they agreed to.

Before the next one

A signed sign-off of each stage is the single best document in a chargeback, because it's the client saying, in their own hand, that the work was there and acceptable. Get one at every stage as well as at the end.

Writing the response

Keep the letter to one page. Start with the facts: the job address, the contract date, the price, the card payment and its date. Then answer the client's reason in two or three sentences: "The cardholder says the work wasn't done. The attached photos, dated May 3 to May 21, show the finished work, and the attached sign-off of May 22 is the cardholder accepting it." List the attachments in the order you mention them. The person reading it handles many disputes a day; make yours easy to decide.

If the client had a real complaint and you can fix it, offer that too, and say so in the letter. Sometimes the fastest end to a chargeback is the client withdrawing it once the problem is sorted.

This is general information, not legal advice. States differ on what a home improvement contract and its changes must contain. Check with your state’s contractor licensing board or an attorney.