The email from Stripe
Stripe tells you a payment from four months ago has been disputed. The reason given is 'product not received'. You have a deadline to respond. You know the buyer logged in, because you remember her name from the community. Proving it means screenshots from your course platform, an export of her lesson history, the welcome email she received, the terms she ticked at checkout, and her community posts.
It takes an evening to collect. You are not sure what the bank wants to see, and you submit a mix of screenshots and explanations. Some weeks later, the dispute is decided, and you have no idea whether the evidence helped.
Why evidence is hard to gather
Every piece of evidence exists, but in a different tool. The checkout knows the payment and the terms. The course platform knows logins and lessons, if you can export them. The email tool knows what was sent and opened. The community knows posts and comments. None of these were set up with disputes in mind, so there is no quick way to gather them for one person.
- Login and lesson history can be hard to export for one student.
- Terms accepted at checkout are not stored with a timestamp.
- Email delivery records are in a different tool.
- Community activity is not linked to the purchase.
- The response window is short and arrives without warning.
What disputes cost
A lost dispute costs the sale, a dispute fee, and the time spent. Frequent disputes can cause problems with your payment processor. And the stress of assembling evidence against a deadline, for a student who clearly used the course, is a drain on your energy that has nothing to do with teaching.
An evidence pack built on demand
- At checkout, the terms and refund policy the buyer accepted are stored with a timestamp against the purchase.
- When a dispute event arrives from Stripe or PayPal, a service identifies the buyer and starts gathering evidence.
- From the course platform, it collects enrolment, login dates and lessons completed, through the platform's API.
- From your email tool, it collects the welcome and access emails with delivery and open records.
- From your community, it collects posts and comments by the same person.
- It assembles a clear document: purchase, terms, access delivered, usage timeline, and relevant messages, in the order a reviewer can follow.
- You review the pack, add anything you want to say, and submit it through your processor. Nothing is submitted without you.
| Evidence | Source | Included |
|---|---|---|
| Payment and terms accepted | Checkout | Timestamped |
| Access delivered | Email tool | Delivery and open records |
| Logins and lessons | Course platform | Dated timeline |
| Community activity | Circle, Discord or Slack | Posts and dates |
| Refund request, if any | Support inbox | Correspondence |
We cannot promise the outcome of any dispute; that is for the bank. We can make sure your evidence is complete, clear and on time.
Disputes handled calmly
When a dispute arrives, the pack is ready for review within minutes. You add a note and submit, well within the deadline. Over time, you see which disputes you win and lose and why, which helps you tighten checkout terms, onboarding and refund policy where they are weak.
The same records help with ordinary questions too, such as a buyer who genuinely cannot remember whether they ever logged in.
Does this sound familiar?
- Disputes arrive and you spend an evening on screenshots.
- You cannot easily export one student's lesson history.
- Checkout terms are not stored with a timestamp.
- You are not sure what evidence to include.
- Disputes claim buyers never received a course they used.