Chargebacks and payment disputes are more than just a hassle—they are a significant financial drain on towing operations, consuming revenue and countless hours of administrative time. Successfully combating them requires a proactive strategy, not just a reactive defense. In one of our previous webinars, our CEO, Robin Gregg, laid out a clear, strategic blueprint for towing businesses, detailing the core reasons for their vulnerability and, more importantly, providing actionable steps for both preventing and successfully fighting disputes.
Click here to watch the full webinar!
As an industry leader in payments, RoadSync understands the challenge: towing services are highly susceptible to chargeback issues, which can lead to lost revenue, fees of up to $50 per incident, and even put a business’s card acceptance ability at risk.
Here is the RoadSync blueprint for building a winning chargeback strategy:
1. Strategic Foundation: Understanding the Threat
Winning the war on chargebacks begins with understanding the enemy. Based on our analysis of the towing sector, disputes generally fall into three categories:
- Dissatisfaction (The Primary Concern): This is the largest category, where a customer claims the service was incomplete or below expectations.
- Your defense: You have a strong chance to win these using comprehensive service records and photos as irrefutable evidence.
- Fraud (The High-Risk Area): These involve payments made with stolen cards or unauthorized use.
- Your defense: These are the most difficult to win, making robust security protocols to prove the cardholder’s legitimacy absolutely crucial.
- Errors (The Easiest Fix): These are simple, administrative issues like an un-processed refund or a data entry error.
- Your defense: You have the highest success rate (approx. 80%) against these because correct invoicing is easily proven.
2. The First Defense: Prevention Strategies
The most cost-effective defense is prevention. This requires integrating technology and best-practice policies directly into your operational workflow.
- Mandate Secure Payment Mechanisms: Always use the most secure methods available, especially for remote, Card-Not-Present (CNP) transactions.
- RoadSync Tools: Utilize sophisticated fraud prevention tools like 3DS (3D Secure), AVS (Address Verification System), and CVV verification to confirm the cardholder’s legitimacy.
- In-Person Security: Prioritize card swipers with a chip for heightened security.
- Ensure Impeccable Documentation: Transparency and a full paper trail are your best defense. Utilize detailed work orders that customers must sign off on and secure explicit sign-off on all refund and cancellation policies up front.
- Eliminate Administrative Confusion: Prevent simple disputes caused by unclear billing. Ensure the merchant name on the cardholder statement exactly matches the business name on your invoices to avoid confusion that triggers a chargeback.
3. The Counterattack: Winning the Response
When a chargeback inevitably occurs, a structured, informed response is the difference between winning and losing.
- Rule #1: Always Respond: The single biggest reason merchants lose disputes is a simple failure to respond (23:23-23:27). Always respond to high-dollar chargebacks—some documentation is always better than none (23:57-24:25).
- Organize Your Defense: Pay close attention to the short, strict deadlines (often 7 to 20 days). Provide an organized set of documents with a clear, chronological timeline to tell your side of the story (24:37-25:10).
- Tailor Evidence to the Code: Match your documentation directly to the specific chargeback reason code.
- For Dissatisfaction, provide service details, pictures, customer communications, and signed release forms (25:37-25:47).
- For Fraud, detail all steps taken to verify the cardholder, such as AVS/CVV checks and ID checks (25:48-26:11).
- Leverage Your Partner: RoadSync actively manages the chargeback process on behalf of its customers, helping to compile the necessary evidence and providing the right business process to fight the dispute (18:24-18:38, 30:01-30:03).
The RoadSync Advantage
The challenge of chargebacks is costly and time-consuming, but with a strategic blueprint, it becomes a manageable operational process. Beyond providing the necessary secure payment tools, RoadSync helps businesses in the towing industry not only secure payments—including major card brands and unique fleet cards—but ensures you have a dedicated, expert partner to work with on all dispute and chargeback issues (29:09-29:24, 30:03-30:07).
Ready to protect your revenue?
Request a DEMO today to see how RoadSync can help you prevent and win more chargebacks!